Thursday, January 3, 2013

My beautiful world of Fiction

"The Storyteller’s Creed I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge, That myth is more potent than history, That dreams are more powerful than facts, That hope always triumphs over experience, That laughter is the only cure for grief, And I believe that love is stronger than death. —Robert Fulghum"

I've been a story teller for a very very very long time. From the first whooper of a lie I tried to tell my parents ( "No! I didn't eat the brownie! It was the...ants! Yes! That's it! We must have had black ants break in and eat the brownie and carry it off! Why does my breath smell like chocolate? It does not!") to the poems I wrote (about 300+ from 1994-1996) to the songs I've written, to the stories I created online and the characters I've created on stage - above almost any other label I have in life, being a story teller is one of them. In fact, one could argue this blog is part of that. After all, it's part of My Story.

Now that that fact is out there, I thought I'd share this snippet with you. See, I had no idea what to write to My Sailor yesterday, so I sent him a story I've been flushing out. Now, I've been batting this around in my mind for a while now. I'm not sure where it's going. All I know is it felt amazing by the time I was done. I could have written all night! Maybe it was inspired, but I realized how amazing it feels to breathe life into characters on a page. I'm not the "plan out your entire storyline ahead of time" type author. I'm the "create amazing characters and let THEM show you their story".


So here's a little bite of one of the tales of Sihaya that I've been working on. (My Sailor already is well aquainted with the back story of the characters, so I didn't go into unnecessary detail, but I'll probably flesh them out more for readers so you can see them the way I do later.) Maybe, just maybe, if I keep chipping away at this and letting them show me their stories... maybe they'll take me into the world of publishing. What do you think?

(One more disclaimer - I would have made this tale a bit more gruesome, but I was sending it over monitored email and words like "rape" would probably have triggered an alert!)



Sihaya knelt by the stream wringing water out of her long raven hair. 
The glacier river water was icy cold on her fingers. It was a far cry 
 from the steaming swamp they last found themselves in. Her lover lay 
sleeping my the remnants of the previous nights' fire. She'd awaken him 
soon enough, but for now, she enjoyed the rare sight of his rythmic 
breathing and peaceful body. A soft smile touched her lips as she rose 
and braided her hair over one shoulder. Her fingers were so practiced 
at the movements that she didn't think twice about throwing the heavy 
finished braid over her shoulder, not until the chill of the icy water 
between her wings cause a sharp gasp of surprise.

That was all it took to wake him up, her Lazarus. Sitting bolt upright, 
his hand already gripped the dagger beside him, his emerald eyes alert 
and ready to take on any threat. They both knew that he didn't need a 
dagger to render his prey immobile. His speed and teeth made him a 
formidable force indeed.

Frozen in place momentarily by his surprise, the winged woman blinked 
at him curiously through crystal eyes and spoke softly, "We've a long 
way to go before we discover The Order." Relaxing a little, she 
continued back towards the dying fire to warm her nearly frost bitten 
hands. "I don't expect we'll see people for some time." Her hunting 
leathers creaked as she crouched to warm her hands on the embers.

"Aye, but if they're growing everyday," his speech was interuppted by a 
brief yawn and his hand on his dagger relaxed, "what's to say they 
haven't begun hunting?"

Her crystal gaze turned to the fire and the softness of her graceful 
features turned a shade of deadly elegance he'd seen more often than 
not these days. With the smallest bit of reluctance, she nodded as she 
warmed her palms on the embers. "You're right." she answered in quiet 
certainty.

"Immortality..." his voice turned quiet as well, "An intoxicating 
proposition for man." He turned toward the embers, though his kindred 
skin didn't need warming.

It was a lesson both the Balance Keeper and the Kindred knew all too 
well. She glanced up, meeting his gaze steady - the unspoken burden 
they both shared also allowed them to enjoy their love beyond mortal 
life spans. "It's not immortality they truly seek though. It's your 
curse. Eternal youth."

His eyes narrowed for a moment. He knew the Keeper had no great love of 
the blood drinkers - the Kindred - such as he was. But he couldn't 
argue the point. Their love had crossed that boundary. And - for all 
purposes she was right. "All of the life line, but none of the mess," 
he joked back, lightening the mood.

She smiled a little, both of them relaxing.

Lazarus continued, "No. They've been after your specific form of 
forever for far too long. It's time we put an end to this, Sihaya." He 
reached out and tenderly took one of her hands over their small 
firepit. His voice and sharp features softened ever so slightly as he 
kissed the back of her hands and squeezed them. "No more running." The 
words were nearly whispered breath over her hands.

Sihaya nodded once more, her wings rustling softly at her back as they 
flicked off the last of the cold water droplets left by her hair. "I 
know. They should have tried for an Angel's or Kindred's immortality 
though."

One of his blood-thirsty, dangerous smiles flickered across his face. 
Lazarus answered, "That, my love, would have been far too easy to 
attain."

Sihaya retrieved her hands from his grasp and sat on the ground as 
Lazarus rose to stretch. He wasn't full Kindred, and for that, she was 
grateful. The Bond of their marriage had kept him from joining their 
ranks entirely. Centuries ago, when he thought Sihaya lost, he joined 
the ranks of the blood-drinkers seeking more power. Sihaya didn't blame 
him. She had made her own poor decisions as well out of that grief, 
including marrying a dragon and ruling as his queen over a human 
kingdom. But when life saw fit for them to rediscover each other, their 
souls knew the true strength of their bond, beyond time, distance, and 
poor decisions. In a way, it worked.

Things have a way of happening for a reason. Being around a Kindred 
allowed the Balance Keeper to leave more light in her wake than 
darkness. After all, one could not exist without the other. Sihaya and 
Lazarus both knew they would rather not exist without one another. They 
had tasted that life, and it left their hearts broken, stomachs soured, 
and inspiration fleeting.

In a way, they had saved each other from their shadows. In Sihaya's 
case, that was about to literal.

The Order of the Immortal Hand had been hunting down Untamed Balance 
Keepers all of Sihaya's life. At first, it was only a mild effort to 
try to understand how the Balance Keepers could hold the magic over the 
elements that they do, without corruption. That study turned into a 
thirst to own and control that power for themselves. For nearly a 
thousand years, Mages ruled the Order with an silken glove - coercing 
the most wounded, twisted, and hungry of souls into their ranks with 
promises of eternal life and immortality. What had started out as a 
science became an obsession. Obsession became religion and religion 
gave birth to the cult of The Order.  The mass amounts of followers saw 
Sihaya for what she was, rather than the winged, elvish woman she hid 
beneath. Once discovered, she was hunted relentlessly. Now, Lazarus had 
decided it was time the hunters became the hunted.

Now, they were heading to the desert, to destroy the cult of The Order. 
Walking right into the lion's den may be the only way to defeat those 
that wanted nothing more than to drain the Balance Keeper's life force 
and pervert nature with it's magic. When the Mages realized that the 
Balance Keepers can not be Tamed, they began taking more drastic means, 
capturing them, bleeding them, and finding any other means possible to 
control them. In the hands of The Order, Sihaya knew she'd live out her 
days in her true form, that of a large white winged unicorn, and 
strapped to a barbaric device where her blood could be drained slowly - 
just enough to experiment with in their quest for Immortality and to 
harness the powers of an Untamed Balance Keeper. The last of the 
Untamed Balance Keepers as far as the rest of the world knew. Sihaya 
would just as well like it to stay that way.

With Lazarus at her side, she knew they had a small chance at taking on 
the vast tunnel systems of The Order and ending their 'experimentation' 
for good - or at the very least, slowing them down and giving them 
something to consider before they continued in their hunt. They'd 
journeyed through forest, swamp, and mountain and soon would be heading 
into the lowlands.

"A few more days..." she breathed, her gaze locked on his for 
reinforcement and encouragement. He nodded once.

"Once we reach the desert." Lazarus nodded.

To be continued...

4 comments:

  1. And if anyone says "Twilight", I'll have you know this is NOTHING like it. Much bloodier and no one glitters. ;) (But if it sells like Twilight, I'll be a happy camper!)

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  2. I love it J.! I'm working on my 17th book... all on Amazon and most on Barnes and Noble. You'll need an editor (I'm really bad at it for me but much better for others.) Keep it up! Great concept. I'll send you a pdf of one of mine since I fancy myself a storyteller as well. Hope you're well and thriving. Love and kisses. MWAH!

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  3. You have my interest and have made me want to know more...yep, that's good storytelling :).

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  4. It's VERY rough. I'm pretty fair hand at editing, but I do have 2 people in mind! This draft was written at midnight or later, after a full work day. Felt great to get inspired again though! Once I get it all out, reworking and fleshing it out and editing becomes much easier. It also looks like blogger trimmed off the edges just a bit. That's what I get for copy and pasting! ;) Formatting is a while different world!

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