April 7, 2013 – YA Chit Chat

Hi all, welcome to the A-Z challenge. I thought I had this little ditty planned to go live yesterday, but when I checked my blog this morning, it was still sitting in time out in my ‘edit’ box. It’s all good, though. This way I can post and do my Sunday Snippet Blog hop all at one time!

The A-Z challenge letter for yesterday was the letter “F”. Since I’m focusing on my novel, The Eye of Kedge, let’s take a little trip to the magical and dangerous world of Fallhollow. I think I’ll let Sir Trogsdill Domnall tell you about it. (BTW, this scene is currently in edit mode. Feedback and comments would be very helpful).

Trog leaned against a tree and peeled the skin from an apple. “Einar seized the kingdom and made Berg Castle his lair. That’s when he started growing his army of shadowmorths.”

“Why didn’t the mages do something to stop him?” David asked, popping a handful of berries in his mouth.

“They tried, but everything they did failed. Jared got involved and sent his daughters and an apprentice magician by the name of Seyekrad to Fallhollow. Together, they confined the beast below Lake Sturtle.”

David sputtered his food.

“That’s stupid.” Charlotte tossed David the boda bag. “Why not just kill him?”

“His scales ward off white magic.” Trog cut a slice of apple and ate it. “All they could do was imprison him.”

Charlotte stood and tacked up her hair. “Well, they didn’t do a great job did they.”

“How long ago did all this happen?” David asked, his brain trying to envision a dragon beneath Lake Sturtle.

“Oh, about a hundred years ago, give or take a few years.” Trog wiped the blade and sheathed it. “Of course Einar, being the self-centered miscreant he is, decided to go after Hirth, but he was beaten by a fifteen-year old lad and an arrow tipped in heem.”

“Heem?” Charlotte threw her satchel over her shoulder.

“The saliva from an estreal, a rare bird found in the jungles of the floating isles of Ansilar. Dragon hunters use it to kill their prey. Sadly, it didn’t kill the beast but it did incapacitate him, until about eighteen years ago.”

“I take it he attacked Hirth again?” David said.

“Tried,” Trog said. He pulled on his boots and gathered his bag. “This time the mages were able to spin a powerful sleeping spell around him, which held until two days ago.”

David’s stomach fell into a hollow emptiness under the weight of Trog’s words. He knew all too well what happened two days ago. Now if he could only figure out how to fix it. Thing was, he didn’t have a clue.

***

Don’t forget to hop around to the other bloggers who are participating in the A-Z challenge. You can find the list here.