Why the animals in the Draken Trilogy are so intelligent.

"I am sure many of you are curious as to why the animals appear to be so intelligent these days."  The children watched as the apparition paced back and forth on the wall in front of them.  "Let me start by explaining how we saved the animals from certain annihilation."

The ghostly figure flickered out of view, as a jungle scene appeared on the concrete wall, "Man years ago," the voice came from among the trees, "we hunted the animals mercilessly.  Many of them were killed off in the wild and the few that remained were kept in privately held collections."  The scene showed the jungle wrapped in a wall of concrete and a glass dome crafted over the top of it.

"Not all of the collectors focused on just keeping their 'pets' alive," the voice continued as the scene changed to the inside of a laboratory.  "Many of them started to experiment on the animals, as they tried to create the perfect soldier."

The children watched as creatures were born in tanks and grown to man size, before they died horribly when removed from their birth chambers.

"These experiments had some unforeseen side effects," the voice continued once more.  "One of these was a race of soldiers who had a sort of empathy with the animals whose DNA they shared."  The children were mesmerized as the soldiers freed the animals and took over the private collections.

"These soldiers then used the same process that had created them, to introduce human DNA into the animals.  Since they revered the animals too much to alter them physically, they instead worked on their intelligence."  The ghostly man appeared back on the wall again, "Suffice it to say, some of the animals got smarter, and others did not.  The soldiers died off, and the animals have lived in their own areas with no interaction with the outside world."  The scene shifted to a picture of a huge concrete wall with a glass dome across the top of it.  In the middle of the scene, they could see a man pull down a metal door and lock it, he then pulled two security screen together and locked them in the middle.  "Any questions?" the apparition asked as it turned from the gate to look at the children.

"A little girl in the front row raised her hand, when there came sudden explosion and a wall of white hot fire entered the room.  I couldn't help myself, I cast a fire shield spell over the little ones and held back the flames until I passed out."

"When I awoke, I found myself surrounded by the children and a grey skinned man who wrapped my burnt arms in cold wet linens.  I knew I would die soon of my wounds, so I wrote this with the only ink I had, the ash from my own charred flesh."

Signed,

Sir Lenton Night of the Light

This scroll was delivered to the Elvin city of ElraNoch by a grey skinned man who said nothing, but handed us the scroll and left.

Introduction to Payne

Just a quick opening from the book I am currently working on, please note this takes place after the technology wars, (great war) and yet still a few centuries before Lyam's adventures.

Payne sat quietly in the front of the leather booth and worked diligently on the repair of a soldier’s boots, while he reflected on his life.  There wasn’t all that much to it really, he had awoken in the back of a wagon and could not remember how he had gotten there, and with a cloth bandage tied around his head and one arm.  He sat up and had spotted an old woman with thin white hair who guided the horse drawn wagon.  Another bump in the road caused him to lie back down abruptly.  That was but two years ago, and since then he has worked for the old couple which had helped nursed him back to health.

He finished up the repair of the sole on the soldiers boots, and picked up a rawhide training shield.  He started to cut away the torn hide from its wooden frame.  Upon a closer look at the shield, he noticed several places where the leather had been sown together repeatedly.  “Must have hired a cheap repairman in the past,” he thought to himself.  It didn’t take him long to measure and cut a new piece of thick hide and then stretch it over the round frame.  A few minutes longer, and he had replaced the rawhide lace that held the leather to the frame.  “Good as new.” He said to himself.

He looked at the large pile of items to be repaired stacked next to him and sighed, “If they were all this easy to fix I could be done in a week.”  

A commotion down the street caused him to look up; a couple of men argued with each other and threatened to be a problem for the guards.  Payne shrugged and went back to his work; this sort of thing happened at least a couple of times a day, down near the ale tent.  

Head bowed to his work, he was once again distracted when a soft and aristocratic voice said, “Young man, do you by any chance have any riding boots for sale?”

Payne glanced up from his work, and found that he stared into eyes the color of emeralds.  The woman’s skin was the color of cream and her lips bright red.  “Yes ma’am,” he answered from his suddenly very dry throat.

“Well, bring them forth, idiot.”  A grey haired lady who stood behind the young woman exclaimed.  “My lady does not have all day to wait around while you stare at her.”

Payne jumped to his feet, entered the booth, and returned rapidly with two pairs of riding boots.  He held up a plain black pair of boots and said, “Although not elegant, these boots are very well made and will last a long time.”  He then lifted the other pair of boots, red with yellow lace around the top.  “These boots are courtlier, but will not last nearly as long.”

“What makes you think they will fit my lady?” The older woman asked.

“If I may see one of her feet, I will be able to adjust them to fit.”  Payne replied, he was tired of the old woman’s attitude.

The old woman drew a shoe from inside her hand bag and threw it at him, “That is one of her shoes, surely with that you can be sure the boots you show us will fit...”

The shoe hit Payne directly in the stomach and fell to the ground.  He calmly picked it up, and compared it to the pairs of boots and said, “Either pair will fit your lady, it is simply a matter of her deciding which pair she would prefer.”

“We will take both pairs.” The older woman replied.

Payne bowed slightly and said, “That will be half silver for the red boots and three coppers for the black boots.”  He reached behind him and pulled a canvas bag from his belt.  He put the boots in the bag, and handed it to the young lady.  “May your boots last longer than you expect.”

The young lady handed him a single gold coin and replied, “Thank you young man, I am certain they will live up to my expectations.”

Before he could get her change, she turned and started to walk away with the older woman.  

“Well old Kadem will be happy,” he said as he looked at the coin.  He heard hoof beats rapidly approach, and looked up in surprise, as horses were never allowed in the market area while it was open.  About a hundred yards down the road, two horses charged towards the young lady, the men on their backs had their swords drawn and raised overhead.

Without a moment of thought, Payne grabbed the shield he had just repaired and hurled it at one of the horses.  He then leapt forward, grabbed the back of the young ladies dress and jerked her backwards into the leather booth.  At the same time he pushed the older woman forward across the road and into a jeweler’s booth.  As he turned towards them, both horses were directly in front of him which led him to believe that he was about to die.

Strangely the horses veered ever so slightly too both sides and rushed past just inches away from him.  He turned and watched as the riders brought their horses back around towards him.  “Just my luck,” he said to himself, “two armed men and I have nothing to defend myself with.

One rider charged straight at him, while the other turned towards the leather booth.  On an instinct, Payne rolled towards the leather booth as well, and grabbed one of the support ropes.  A quick slice with his leather knife and the rope cut free, a push against the support beam and the front of the booth dropped down in one corner.  “You’ll be safer inside ma’am.” He said as the horsemen wheeled away and around again.

Another quick slash and the other support rope was cut loose.  Payne slammed his body into the support beam for that corner and rolled to the ground outside as the front of the booth crashed down behind him, and closed the booth.  He knew he would be trampled by the horses on this pass, but at least the beautiful young lady would be safe.

The battle continues a dragons perspective

"The dragons did not actually get involved with the war until after the third battle, it is the first time I have ever seen the elves so impatient."  The ancient dragon turned his scaly head towards the sky as if remembering something from a long time ago.  This was the first time anyone other than a dragon had gotten close enough to speak to the ancient one, he was so old his scales were the color of the clouds and his head was larger than some houses.

"Our first involvement in the war," the dragon continued, "we dragons decided to strike at a location were we knew the humans had a lot of technology, they called it a military base.  We started our strike at them by arranging for the dwarves and trolls to tunnel under their perimeter fences."

Grinning with pride the huge beast continued, "I was younger and a good bit more foolish back then.  I let a single young dragon go in to set off the signal for the attack.  It worked perfectly, he was a fast flyer and was in the midst of their base before they even knew he was there.  I single bought of dragons breath and one of their weapons, called a jet, exploded.  That was the signal for the rest of us to attack."

"The trolls burst out of their tunnels, as we dragons flew down from above, the enemy didn't know what hit them at first as we came at them from opposite sides.  After a few minutes though they managed to get organized and started firing their weapons at us.  The trolls and dwarves soon had to retreat from the field, until I called for the second wave.  The charge of the demon steeds was something to truly see, a thousand black beasts with glowing yellow eyes came charging at the enemies fence and leaping over it.  I almost felt sorry for the humans as those horse like allies started ripping through their ranks."

"While our ground based allied kept the humans distracted us dragons focused our attacks on the large weapons they had on the base.  The jets were destroyed on our initial strike, good thing too, as they were the only weapon that could have fought against us in the sky.  The things they called tanks were another matter all together, their large cannon could turn and blow a hole through a dragon and at the same time they were covered in so much metal we could not blow them up like we had the jets."  He shook his head slightly in memory, "I tried to grab one and pick it up, only to discover it was too heavy to lift, I did learn about on of their weaknesses though.  Like a turtle if it was flipped onto its top, it could not move or attack, I quickly had the largest of the dragons focused on flipping tanks, while the smallest started to take out the buildings."

"The battle lasted about an hour before the humans reinforcements arrived and we had to retreat, but the damage had been done.  Dragons breath is not easily extinguished and we knew by the time the fires were out, all of the equipment at this base would be destroyed.  Several of us fought the jets that had arrived, as the others retreated," he looked at his side and winced, "it's were I picked up this scar."

Along his side was a nasty looking scar with a piece of twisted metal still visible in the old wound.  "Why not remove the metal from your side?"  I asked.

"Because we killed everyone who knew how to prevent it from exploding."  He laughed deeply at the irony of it.  "When I took out one of the jets in the sky, one of his bombs pierced my side and it has stayed there ever since."

I found myself amazed by the courage this dragon had, to be carrying around something that could destroy him at a moments notice and yet he had continued to destroy the very people who could have removed it from him.  Bowing respectfully to this creature who had lived for over five millennium, I turned and walked back to my camp, it will be weeks before I can file my report with the library.

Excerpt from a rotten old scroll found in a cavern high in the mountains, author unknown.

Magic VS Technology

Well young one, it is time for us to educate you on how the war between magic and technology got started.  Many centuries ago, man kind started developing on its own, and split apart from the magical world, some of the things they developed were absolutely amazing.  Such as the vehicles they created that could fly through the air and carry hundreds of people inside them, or the strange devices they had that allowed them to talk to each other from around the world as if they were standing next to each other.

Others creations were not quite so good, one of the items they discovered was how to use chemicals to cause explosions.  Ordinarily no big deal, after all this is very similar to what the fire elves do with magic, but the humans couldn't stop there.  Once they realized what they could do with their new powder, they expanded upon it.  They built larger and larger weapons, until they could no longer control the damage their own weapons caused.

When they started to kill off the magical creatures that were still living, although in hiding, nearby their own cities, well something had to be done.  So we elves got together with the dwarves, dragons and goblins, somehow word got out to the trolls, ogres and giants about the meeting and they decided to attend.  After much discussion, and a few calming spells placed upon the more violent members of the meeting, we decided that it wasn't mankind that needed to be destroyed, but the technology.

Here is an excerpt from one who was there for the start of the war:

The first battle was an unplanned affair to say the least.  Several of us elves and a few unicorns were attending a rally being held by a group of humans who wanted to protect the forests near where they lived.  We figured it would be a good place to get a few human allies and thus be able to better pick our targets to have the least loss of life on both sides of the war.  Something happened across the field from where our group was talking to some humans, and suddenly there was pushing and shouting.  A friend of mine Aleksa climbed a nearby tree, when suddenly there was a loud boom and smoke started pouring out of the crowd.  Hot tempered as she was Aleksa responded to this attack on such a peaceful group and called forth a fireball.  The look on her face when the she landed on the ground was classical, she had forgotten to hold onto the tree when she used both hands to gesture while casting.  Needless to say her fireball went off, but it went high over the crowds and struck a building farther along.

As you can imagine, the humans panicked, both the demonstrators and the police thought they were under attack, and in a way I can't say I blame them for thinking such.  The police drew their guns and started shooting into the crowd, and the crowd started to attack the police.  Aleksa decided at that moment this was going to be the first strike by the Elvin army, and leaped astride a unicorn, and charged towards the police.  Rapidly the unicorn was soaked in blood, as it horn pierced the heart of any person that got in its path.  Aleksa rode tall as she cast one fireball after another into the police lines, trying to drive them back.  It was not long before the police shot and killed her, inciting the rest of us to join the fight.

I mourn for the hundreds of people that were trampled under my unicorns feet, and the dozens more who fell to the stroke of my sword, and yet we were able to get to a building where they taught each other how to use technology.  As myself and two other elves, Arrol and Iris fought to keep the crowds back from the doors, Devin and Derrick (twin brothers) entered the building and started the destruction of it from the inside.  We watched from outside as the windows blew outward raining glass and metal down on the people below, seconds before the twins staggered out of the door using each other for support.

Pulling the two onto our unicorns backs, we raced towards the trees of a nearby park as dozens more fell to horn and sword.

From the diary of Elena Warrior turned Historian of the Mountain Elves

Lycanthropes (Shape Changers)

Well now, you say you're here to learn about the shape changers.  The library has some information on them, not quite as much information as we would like, but with Lord Draken and his wife being shape changers we are hoping to change that.

Most of us have heard stories of the werewolves, but very few have ever heard of the other forms of shape changers.  There are three major types of shape changers we know of, the canines, the cats, and believe it or not the birds.

Let's start with what they all have in common.  First, they all have an aversion to silver, exterior contact does not affect them, but if it gets in their blood stream, it slows down their healing process.  Second, they tend to have a distinct odor that other animals can smell.  Third, they tend to avoid normal people and stay strictly within their own cities.

Now the canines, they are most diverse being that they change into various canine forms, wolves, coyotes, and dogs being the primary forms.  The wolves tend to be slightly larger than normal and have an intelligent gleam in their eye. The coyotes are a bit smaller than their wolf brethren and have a yellow colored fur, some believe them to be the children of the wolves.  In reality, they are adults, we have no idea why they are a different breed of canine when they change.  The dog shape changers are most interesting though as they change into all manner of dogs, some look very similar to their wolf cousins, and others resemble a cross between a horse and a wolf.  All of them tend to hunt in packs.

You want to know about the birds?  There is not much to say, we know they can change into large birds, but no one living has seen one to report exactly what their nature is.  It is a popular belief that this breed of shape changers may have died out at some point in time.

The cat shape changers, now that is something we have quite a bit of knowledge on.  You see Lady Rose is of this persuasion, and has been gracious enough to give us a bit of history on her people.  They were originally the priests and priestesses of those that worshiped the huntress, or lady of cats.  According to the legends, they were rewarded with the ability to change into a forest cat after proving their loyalty to the goddess.  According to Rose though they split from the rest of their people who were using cats as servants and became their own people.  When they reach the age of maturity, they change into a forest cat, and remain in that form until such time as they have grown to match their human body weight.  Once they have reached this size, they must choose a mate and go through a special ceremony in which they will either die or be forever bonded to their mate.

How is the ability spread?  Why would you ask that question?

Ah, you want to become a shape changer I see, well the only way to become one is to be bitten by a shape changer, and even that is not guaranteed to work.  If you are bitten, there is a chance you will change shape and become one of them, but there is a greater chance you will die.

I hope this clears up all of your questions regarding the shape changers.

As recorded by:
Alphos the Archivist two days before he was found torn apart by what appeared to have been a pack of wolves

Draken Trilogy update

Well, normally I don't just post updates, but I figured I should.  I am currently writing book three of the trilogy, yeah that's correct, we're bringing it to a conclusion.  About half way done with the third book, but wanted to share something Piers Anthony wrote after reading book one:

I read Lyam's Awakening, by Jeramiah Wade (available at Amazon.com). This is a self published fantasy novel. I find no indication where it might be ordered. It is not well written or motivated, but it does have a good story. Lyam is an officer assigned by the King to investigate the mysterious deaths of a party of men in the haunted forest. Soon his own party is similarly decimated. Lyam continues, and the adventure forms around him. Someone is evidently watching him. He does incidental good works along the way, helping people, treating them courteously. They are surprised, as the King's soldiers normally simply take what they want, whether food or women. More than one young woman gets interested in him, but he is not seeking such interaction. He discovers a horse caught by a trap; he frees the animal, who then joins him as his steed, Midnight. Midnight is no ordinary horse; he's a carnivore, and partially telepathic. He becomes a loyal assistant. Later Lyam is attacked by a forest cat, kills her, and cares for her seemingly orphaned cub, whom he names Rose. It turns out that the cub is a were-cat, and when she changes to woman form she becomes the one he wants to marry. There is a surprise about Lyam's own nature as he gradually awakens to it. So I can recommend this novel to those who are not picky about style or taut plotting; there is a fair story there


Please note this is from Piers Anthony's newsletter for Dismember 2010, which can be found at www.hipiers.com 

Dragons and their homes

"What pray tell are you doing in a dragons home?  You know you really shouldn't be here, they get very cranky when disturbed while in their nest.

I see, you just wanted to have a look around and see what a dragon keeps in its cave.  Well, since you are here I suppose I had best show you around, at least to the public areas.  Wouldn't want you to know where the best treasure is hidden after all.

Follow me, and I will show you the main audience hall, where the dragon greets his guests and does battle against those who would steal from him.  As you can see, he has some very large doors to prevent people from entering uninvited, and yes before you ask, he did see you coming from a long way off.

Come inside and take a quick look around.  How much treasure is in this room?  Oh, not all that much, around fifty tons of gold and jewels, some silver and a bit of copper.  Oh, not to mention the cast iron table.

Why does a dragon have a table?  Oh, quite simple really, it is where he prepares and serves meals to his humanoid guests.

This is as far as I can take you into the dragons cave, just for security reasons.  I can tell you though if you walk a good distance across the cavern here, you will come to a tunnel that leads down farther.  This tunnel leads to the larder, where he keeps a herd of wild sheep, and to the egg chamber and his children's rooms.  It also leads to an underground lake where he gathers fresh water when he needs it.

Oh look, you are lucky indeed our host has decided to grace us with an appearance.  Would you like to join him for a quick meal?  Wait, where did you go?

Oh he fled the cave you say?  Too bad, you make an excellent roast."

Valarious Dragon Friend