Hi all!
I finished Camp NaNoWriMo this week and manged to write 64K through July for my horror novel, Mute. Needless to say, I’m very drained right now. So, I thought I’d share an excerpt from the Elemental Dragons Short Story Collection! I have a few new readers who may not be aware of this eNovella, filled with four short stories from the Elemental Dragons universe (with illustrations!).
Free to those who subscribe to my mailing list: Download free here
This is an excerpt from the first story, Circles, which includes a familiar face!
Circles always fill her dreams.
A black dragon stands on top of a lone, jagged cliff overlooking a sea of pine trees. The crisp breeze makes the leaves whistle as it shakes the trunks, blowing many away into the night. The sky is dark, but comforting with twinkling stars scattered like blobs of paint on a canvas. A small gasp escapes the dragon’s lips at the sight of the moon, the biggest she’s ever seen it. The silver orb hangs just above the skyline, large enough to see individual craters on the rocky surface. The dragon silently wonders if it’s close enough to touch, but quickly shakes that thought from her mind.
She cries out in joy as a group of fireflies dance towards her, their orange glow causing her black scales to shimmer. The tiny creatures move in tight circles, weaving around her limbs and gently bouncing off her scales with their delicate wings. With a wide smile, the dragon purses her lips and blows a circle into the air, the cold air reacting with her hot breath. The fireflies zoom through it before heading towards the trees, taking their dance elsewhere.
The black dragon takes a step towards the cliff edge, in awe of the long drop that leads towards the swaying trees. Glancing behind her, she grins at the sight of her long, bat-like wings; strong enough to carry her through even the worst wind currents, she knew they’d have no problem with the steep drop.
A loud roar catches her off guard and she instinctively jumps back, baring her sharp teeth. A familiar red dragon with blue feet drops in front of her, an amused twinkle in his blue eyes. Relaxing at the sight of her friend, the black dragon scolds him for scaring her with a growl, but he just rolls his eyes in return. Before she can say anything more, her friend cracks his wings and steps backwards off the cliff; the strong flap of his wings keeping him suspended in the air. Motioning for her to follow with his long tail, he does a quick flip in front of her, his tail tip briefly touching his snout before soaring towards the trees. His red and blue scales stick out like a sore thumb against the blue and purple hues of the sky, so the dragon was confident that she wouldn’t lose sight of him.
Wriggling her rump in anticipation, the black dragon dives off the cliff, free-falling for a few seconds before a wind current catches her wings and steadies her in the air. A happy roar escapes her lungs, ringing out into the silent night. She drops down to the trees, skimming her feet against the leaves and making them fly in all directions. Briefly she glances back at the trail, watching as the torn leaves disappear into the night.
A loud roar from above tears her out of her thoughts, and her friend motions for her to come up higher. With a careful flap of her wings she zooms towards him, too fast. The two of them collide in mid-air, their scales clinking at the impact, but neither dragon loses any of their shining scales as they are thrown back a few feet from each other. Both of them recover quickly though, and approach each other more carefully this time. With an apologetic grunt, she leaps over him and takes the lead as they explore the unfamiliar area.
As they fly further from the cliff, the stars slowly start to go out in the night sky; the tall, dark trees start to look a lot more menacing without the twinkling lights in the background. The breeze picks up as well, turning into a strong wind which the two dragons have to drop lower to avoid. Eventually they come across a large bare area with some sort of fence in the middle. Her friend drops down to have a closer look, intrigued by the foreign structure. Though her gut tells her to go back, she follows her friend. On closer inspection it’s some sort of small paddock, with a large barbed wire fence flanking it on all sides. The middle of the paddock is filled with chains, shining ominously in the moonlight.
Uncomfortable, she growls her disapproval to her friend next to her, but he’s vanished. Panicked, she looks around wildly, trying to pinpoint where the colourful dragon could have gone. An ear-splitting groan from beneath her makes her jump, barely giving her enough time to register what is happening before one of the chains flies past her head. With a terrified screech, she launches further up into the sky, horrified as the chain follows her up. Desperately, she tries to flies away from the evil chain, but is unable to. Her wings feel like they’ve turned into jelly, leaving the black dragon suspended in the sky, completely immobile. The chain snakes its way towards her, coiling around her legs and making its way up to her neck. With an angry snarl she breathes a funnel of ice at it, but it just bounces off harmlessly.
As the chain snakes towards her face, locking around her muzzle, the dragon squeezes her eyes shut, hoping that when she opens them again she’ll be back on the cliff, and she and her friend will never have to come here.
That’s it for this week! If you want to read the rest and the other stories in the eNovella, you can download using this link: Free Book!
