During Nanowrimo, I’ve been working on the third book in my adventures in Eridu series. Here’s a chapter I’ve written this past week and a video update on my writing progress at the end!
If you haven’t seen the first book in the series, The Land in the Woods, you should check it out on Amazon! It’s a children’s fantasy adventure story for ages 8-12.
It’s free on Kindle unlimited and will be free as an ebook for 5 days right before I release the second book, The Forgotten Scroll, on December 15th!
Chapter 5: Friend or Foe?
As it turned out, the stream was outside near another entrance to the building. Around the stream, green grass was visible on its banks. It appeared the snow could not exist where the stream’s water touched.
After the children drank their fill at the stream, they were eager to head back to the snow beast. They had never seen one before, and his whole existence was a mystery to them.
Aaron handed them each a small container to take water back with them in, which he said he had found from scrounging around in the building.
They headed back to the snow beast and arrived there quickly. To their surprise, it had regained consciousness. It struggled against the bindings and groaned pitifully, but could not break free.
When it saw the children and Aaron approaching, it gasped, “Please, you have to let me go!”
“It can talk!” Janine gasped.
“I’ve never met one that talks,” Aaron said. “Beware, this may be a trick of the sorcerer. He is said to be able to conjure great illusions.”
“He seems sad to me,” Bobby said. He went towards the beast and held out his water dish. “Want a drink?” he asked.
“Where did you get that water?” the beast asked.
“From the river behind the building,” Maurie said. Something about the beast made her want to trust it.
“Then, yes,” the beast said. Bobby poured a few drops into the beast’s mouth and it shivered and then gave a satisfied sigh.
“That is the only water I drink from,” the beast said. “It comes from Prince’s mountain. My brothers eat the snow, but it has made them wild and wicked.”
“Would they try to eat us?” Maurie asked.
“Yes,” the beast confessed. “But I would not, I promise you.”
“Why were you trying to get us?” Bobby asked.
“You attacked me. I was only trying to get away from the sorcerer.”
“The sorcerer?” Aaron asked, sounding alarmed. “Is he here?”
“Yes and no,” the beast replied. “His illusions are here, but I think he lives at the edge of the ruins. He tricks my brothers into doing his bidding, and would do the same to me if I didn’t run from him.”
Maurie glanced up at the portrait on the wall. She hoped that the sorcerer wasn’t somehow watching them through it, or wasn’t tricking them into something bad without them knowing it.
“Do you know much about the sorcerer?” Maurie asked the beast.
“I know he is suspected of being in league with the Amarok, and that is enough for me,” the beast said with a shiver. “Now, will you untie me? These ropes are cutting into my paws.”
Maurie looked at the ropes and saw that they did look tight and were leaving red marks on him as he struggled.
“Then don’t struggle,” Aaron said. Maurie glanced at him suspiciously. He seemed to have no sympathy for the creature and she hoped he wasn’t still intending for them to eat it for dinner.
“Are you a good snow beast?” Bobby asked, gently patting the top of the beast’s head. He let out a sort of purr that gave the impression that he enjoyed it.
“A good beast?!” scoffed Aaron. “I don’t believe it for one minute. I’ve never seen one.”
“Maybe because you are too quick to kill us before you find out!” snarled the beast. “You have killed many of my brothers, some of them still good like myself.”
The children looked at Aaron in shock. Maurie wondered how he would react to such an accusation.
“I have to eat,” Aaron explained. “And so do the snow beasts. It’s kill or be killed.”
“Not all of us would kill you,” the beast argued, struggling against its bindings.
“I wouldn’t want to wait and find that out the hard way,” Aaron said.
“Maybe we should untie him and let him free,” Maurie suggested. “After all, he didn’t try to hurt us. I believe him.”
“Better safe than sorry,” Aaron disagreed. “We must keep him tied up as long as we’re here. Especially as he found a way inside. He might alert the others to come in.”
“Nothing wicked can enter here,” the snow beast said with a sigh.
“But if this is enchanted by the sorcerer,” Janine wondered, “then why would he only want good things to enter?”
“It’s not enchanted by the sorcerer. The sorcerer tried to take it over when he cursed the land, but he could not undo Prince’s magic, which runs through the stream and in tunnels underneath this building,” the beast explained. “The legend is well-known among the snow beasts.”
“But you said,” Maurie said, turning to Aaron. She paused, confused. Aaron had told them a very different story, and she didn’t know who to believe. Both Aaron and the snow beast seemed to be able to drink Prince’s water, so she was inclined to trust them both.
“I can only guess at what happened here,” Aaron admitted. “I haven’t found hard proof of my theories, but I have learned not to trust the snow beasts. Don’t put too much stalk in what he says.”
The beast gave an exasperated groan and then sighed. “If you would be so kind as to untie me at least when you leave,” he said.
Maurie pitied the beast and thought Aaron was being unfair. Although the beast looked fierce, she recalled that even Prince could transform into fearsome creatures.
They ate the rest of their treats from Mrs. Goodwin and drank some of the water from their vessels.
“Since the snow stopped, we should leave,” Janine said.
Aaron shook his head. “If you want to leave the cursed ruins, you have to do it at dawn. It’s a long journey across them, and by the time you get out it will be night. It’s still too dangerous to travel at night, especially in this part of the land.”
“Well, what are we going to do today, then?” Maurie asked.
“I suggest gathering what supplies you can find from this place,” Aaron remarked. “There’s not much but its better than nothing.”
The children set off to explore the building while Aaron watched the beast. Maurie hoped Aaron wouldn’t decide to slaughter it and have it for dinner while they were away. “Prince,” she said softly. “Protect our new friends.”
The other rooms in the dilapidated building were not better than the one they had been in. Some had small trinkets that told them someone had lived there, long ago. There were some pots and a few dolls, toys, and decorations.
Janine found some more rope on other sets of curtains and tied some of it around her waist, securing the rest by making a loop at her side. Maurie giggled. “You look like an explorer,” she said.
Janine smiled. “Well, I guess we are explorers.”
“Yayy!” said Bobby. “Hey guys, what about this?” he held up a small silver knife he had found.
“That’s a bread knife,” Janine said knowledgeably.
“Well, maybe we will need it for bread,” Bobby said. Then he squinted his eyes mischievously. “Or to fight our enemies,” he said with a slight growl in his voice.
Maurie found some pretty peach colored cloth with velvet roses on it, but wasn’t sure it would be useful. She lifted it up to examine it, and discovered it was a shawl. She saw a small satchel made from the same cloth underneath it. “Perfect!” She secured the satchel over her shoulder.
Aaron was right: there wasn’t much to find. After they had gathered some things, they went back to the main room. There, they passed the day playing I Spy and listening to Aaron’s stories about how he had survived in the ruins.
“Why don’t you leave with us tomorrow?” Bobby asked.
Aaron shook his head. “I can’t. You see, the reason I came here in the first place is the reason I can’t leave. My wife and child were taken by the creatures of darkness, and I found out they were enlisted as servants in the sorcerer’s fortress. I won’t leave here until I’ve found them.”
“When we find Prince, we can ask him to help you,” Maurie assured Aaron.
“Thank you,” Aaron said. “You are very kind.”
“Why don’t you just find the fortress and break in?” Bobby wondered.
“It is guarded by illusions,” Aaron said. “The closer you get to it, the harder it is to find.”
The children went to bed that night feeling sorry for both Aaron and the beast. It seemed terrible to be trapped by the curse, but the sorcerer sounded too powerful for them to take on on their own.
Somehow, they would find Prince and break the curse, Maurie promised herself.
Classic Reads 