Phoenix

The longest thing I've ever written, though badly. Includes some thoughts and excerpts.

I remember the day in eighth grade that my friend and I were sitting in our smart-kid science class when she leaned over and told me about a dream she had the night before. She remembered every second of this world where friends from her life had been put into a warn-torn medieval world. She knew that I liked to write and asked me if I could help her write a book out of this. So we went to her house and sat down and started to write.

Since then, the original story had been considerably changed, but the basis was still there. The google document that we wrote this on stretched to 65 pages before I lost interest and realized that I'd completely destroyed the original idea. I don't want it to be lost, though, I spent many a brain cell writing this book. I'll share a bit from this novel.

Thoughts and Ideas

Stirling - wakes up without memories, is actually the queen of the lost city. Necklace - whispers to her, contains her Krest soul

Mike - Stirling's childhood friend, is actually a hologram of her Krest, which disappears at the end.

Lievi is the evil demon that takes over the kingdom. He was Krestless and stole power from the Krest King. became a twisted abomination, like a plague, and infected a bunch of others.

Tybalt and Ryia are two mercenaries, Ryia was in love with Lievi before he killed her daughter, Tybalt was an alcoholic

The Lost City was a floating city in the middle of a strange hollow mountain range. Only Krests could get to it. Krests were feathered dragon things that were bonded to the people in the Lost City. The royal family was called the Phoenix, since that was their symbol and the ruler would hold a magical shield and sword that would change color depending on their holder.

Excerpt 1 - The Dream

For a small, hopeful, impossible moment, I dared to believe that the danger had passed.

Well, that was before the wall behind me was engulfed in a plume of deadly red flame.

Quickly, before the smoke covered the rest of the hallway in its poisonous cloud, I took in one deep breath to attempt to calm my out-of-control heartbeat. My feet pounded endlessly on the ground, my calves burned like the building surrounding me. Perspiration poured down my face in torrents, but I knew better than to wipe it away. It evaporated before my hand was halfway across my face.

Instead, I kept my sight forward and my legs moving. I needed to get back to him. He would be waiting for my return.

Burning boards and foundations, cobble and stone cascaded down around me as the hallway sagged beneath the hurricane of fire.

If I kept going like this, perhaps I could outrun the flames before I ran out of energy. That one thought stemmed my will to continue and never break pace or slow down. But I was quick to learn that things never last. Not at all.

An instant later, a deep rumble began, shaking the floor and causing me to stumble and a jolt of electric fear shot through me. The rumble grew into thunder, shaking the room. Then into a moaning that pounded into my ears. And then a roaring that sunk deep into my mind.

The roaring came, not just from up or down, right or left, forward or backwards, but everywhere, as if from another world, a fury resonating through the dimensions of space.

Soon, the building began to collapse completely. The ceiling began to fall, the floor to open into a sea of death, the walls fall to sheer power. Wildly, my pace began to speed until I was pushing the limits of my own endurance. I would have screamed if there was any breath in my throat.

And then the fire reached me.

A column of flame broke straight down from the ceiling in front of me, right into the floor and beyond. I skidded to a halt and turned to run away, but hesitated.

Because there was a face in the fire. A cruel, twisted face with malicious eyes that seemed to radiate death itself. Three horns stuck out from the top of his head and his sharp teeth were like a demon’s. If I had the time, I would have covered my face and looked away.

When I realized that there was no place to run, he laughed a laugh that tore into my ears as nails scratch a blackboard. I covered my ears with my hands, but I was unable to close my eyes as the man's gaze bore into them.

And then, he rushed forward. His mouth opened as if to swallow me whole and, finally, I closed my eyes as the roaring and flames engulfed me.

I screamed as piercing heat passed through my body and I jolted awake.

Excerpt 2 - Fighting the Swamp Creature

The ground shook as the creature’s whole weight came down with unrelenting force and dust flew in every direction as its long, clawed legs disturbed the earth’s long slumber.

As the fog finally cleared away, I looked towards the figure again, his hand was stroking the long snout of the most hideous creature I’d ever laid my eyes on.

It’s shell was a poisonous orange and red, perfectly smooth, like the body of a giant ant. Each of its six bug-like, yet thick and powerful, arms and claws were dark green, the same color as the space barely visible underneath the individual plates on its body. As my eyes moved along its flank, I expected to see a flat face with, perhaps, a large pincer for a  mouth, but it had a complete snout and nose, not unlike that of a boar without its tusks. Its tail was long and gradually got smaller to the pointed tip.

The robed figure was softly singing the same song that the trees had moaned not long ago. The beast stared, calmly, at him with its tree eyes, before swinging its head away and turning towards us. Its jet black gaze raked all of us, before stopping on Tybalt. It gave a tremendous screech and hurdled straight for him.

Tybalt may have been a huge man, but he was nothing compared to this monster. He gave a cry and rolled to the side. Neither he, nor Ryia, paused for a second. They both readied their weapons, Ryia pulling out the long scythe that was her defense.

Following their lead, I grabbed the body of the phoenix at my side and the grasp of the shield at my back. I had no idea how to use them, but instinct told me to hold the shield in front of me and pull the sword out so I may attack as well.

The animal checked itself as it ran past our gathering, kicking up more dirt as its claws dug into the ground. It turned around and, without hesitation, flew at us again.

The two warriors were a little more prepared this time and, as it came by, they leaped out of the way and gave a tremendous slash with sword and scythe. There was a terrible sound as steel attempted to cut through a strange metal stronger than it could handle. The beast barely even gave a shudder at the weapons.

It, apparently, had also a plan on how to attack us more effectively. Instead of running past us and coming back for another go, it stopped itself right in our midst and reared up, roaring, with its powerful claws ready to bloody us.

I gripped my shield tighter, my sword pointed away from my body, showing the sharp blade in an attempt of intimidation. It held to no effect, as the beast didn’t stop its continuous movements. It lifted on claw in the air and brought it down with all of its force. The heavy arm smashed into my shield with the weight of twenty men. I instantly buckled beneath its sheer power and the shield went clattering from my arm.

The moment I realized what had happened, I attempted to roll away and get to a safer position, however, the moment I moved, my whole arm began to scream with pain. I gritted my teeth as movement became impossible and panic began to set in. If I stayed here, I’d surely be killed. The monster was already readying another attack. If I moved, I would be forced only to move back.

My eyes, now reduced barely to slits, managed to open wide enough to see the thick, black arm of the beast flying back to finish me off. I closed my eyes again. No need to see this hideous creature again before I saw nothing at all.

Instead, however, of the monstrous claws ripping down my body and the sound of flesh tearing apart and my screams echoing through the swamp, a heavy boot just barely kicked the side of my good arm and a loud shout and the roaring of the monster, now distressed and furious.

I opened my eyes again. Ryia and Tybalt were in front of me, both of them hold their weapons in front of them, their blades stained with a red liquid so dark it seemed black.

I also noticed that the huge arm and claw, that had been seconds away from tearing me apart, were absent and, in their place, was nothing more than a short stump and the dark red liquid.

I looked just to my left and saw the disattached arm a few feet away.

I wanted to be sick.

Ryia gave another shout, and swung again, just missing the creature by a few inches. He hissed at her, but was distracted this time by Tybalt coming in with the same assault. His head waved to and fro, its pig snout wet with liquid anger.

I felt a hot breath against my arm and then it was lifted. I yelped and attempted to tear it away, but the hands around it were firmly in place. There was a roaring fire in my arm, never ceasing. Tears began to stream from my eyes as the pain got worse as something tight began to wrap around my arm.

When it had gone all the way across my elbow, the hands went away and were now easing themselves under my back and softly pushing my into a sitting position.

The pain was beginning to subside into a dull throbbing. I opened my eyes and looked at the owner of the hands.

As I expected, it was Mike. His eyes no longer had any fear in them. There was too much worry clouding his bright green eyes. “Stirling? Are you ok?”

I nodded, soundlessly. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do anything with my left arm for a while, though. “Where’s the robed man?” I asked.

“Gone,” Mike answered, shaking his head. “He left not too long after that monster came at us. He just faded into nothing.”

I looked over at the continuing battle. The beast was farther away now, having been drawn away, most likely on purpose. The fight, I could see, was now going ill for Tybalt and Ryia. Their movements were strained, their foreheads beaded with sweat, their eyes littered with distress.

“We have to help them,” I pushed against the ground with my good arm and attempted to get up, but Mike held me to the ground.

“You want to go against that thing with your arm in a sling like that? I won’t let you.”

He glared at him and looked back at the losing battle. If we didn’t help them, they would die. If they died, the beast would come after us and we would die. We stood more of a chance now. I struggled again to get up, but Mike was too strong. I swore under my breath and continued my feeble resistance.

I think the thing that I hate most about this story are the names that I gave my characters. I'm pretty sure that for Tybalt and Ryia I went on one of those medieval name generators while Stirling was both because of her necklace and because I was a pretty big fan of Lindsey Stirling at the time. Mike's name...I don't know what prompted me to name him Mike. Literally the worst name I could have given this character.

Excerpt 3 - Crossing the River

We were up early the next day, at both mine and Ryia’s request. The sun was just peeking over the horizon by the time we mounted our horses.

The day was new and fresh. There were no dreams of tortured images or, really, anything. The night had passed in silence. And that pleased me greatly.

It was not nearly as far as the day before. We arrived at the riverside after only a couple of hours of hard ride. The real problem was crossing the river itself. The water flowed rapidly and it was not shallow at all. The only mercy was that there were scattered rocks breaking the flow in places and allowing us a method to cross the water.

Mike appeared at my side as I observed the river. “Still feeling up to it?”

I looked at him, slightly offended. “We’re not riding all the way around. There’s no other way to reach Valeston in time.”

Mike nodded. “Yeah, okay. Just, please be careful.”

I took a deep breath. “Of course.”

Tybalt kneeled down at the water and placed his hand in it. He quickly took it out before announcing, “Cold. Freezin’. Must come from the north.” He turned to us. “We have t’ be careful t’ be in the water for only a short ‘mount of time.”

Ryia stepped up next to him. “I’ll go first.”

Tybalt shook his head. “I can’t let ya.”

“Well that’s too bad because I made a promise.”

“Fine,” he huffed, “just don’t get yerself killed.”

Ryia nodded and secured her scythe tightly on her back. She nodded at all of us. Her eyes stayed on me for just a second before they were trained on the river once again. “See you all on the other side.”

She took a deep breath and dived straight into the torrent of water. A few seconds later, her head bobbed to the surface farther out in the water. She was holding one of the rocks and was getting ready to push off to another. Just as she moved, however, a sharp whistle shot past her and a small splash appeared where she was just a second ago.

I flinched and immediately scanned the area. There was suddenly a loud shout and a group of men appeared from behind us, waving axes and maces in the air. “Rogues!” Tybalt shouted. “Hurry! In the water!” Without hesitation, he plunged into the water. Mike and I glanced at each other and, in a second, we both agreed that we’d rather take the water then twenty men. Simultaneously, we dived.

Tybalt was right, the water was freezing. The second I was engulfed, I was already half-frozen. I was stuck there, just for a second, completely frozen. Instinct kicked in and I was swimming as hard as I could to the first rock. I made it there is a matter of seconds. An arrow whizzed past my head, but it missed by inches. Mike was already two rocks ahead of me. Intent on catching up to him I sped my pace, pushing off, rock to rock, the instant that I touched them.

The arrows continued to fly, but none touched me nor my companions. Mike was not too far ahead of me now, but I felt weakness climbing back into my limbs and it now was a struggle just to hang on to the rocks.

I had to keep moving, though. If I didn’t, I would freeze. But I couldn’t move. My arms and legs were screaming in protest. I tried to call out to Mike, but he was steadily gaining distance away from me. I continued to cry out, but he couldn’t hear me beyond the roar of the river. For a second, I thought I caught a glimpse of red, but it didn’t matter anymore.

The cold of the river was starting to overtake me. I didn’t want to move anymore. I no longer even had the ability to move. I just stayed there, holding the rock like a lifeline, my teeth chattering against the cold.