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

Time line for the trilogy

A third of the way through with book three, and thanksgiving is just around the corner.  That leaves me with just 7 months to finish book three in order to achieve my goal of a book a year.

Today I would like to show a bit of the timeline for our story, this should answer some of the questions people have about the books or events leading to particular events in the books.

2,000bce-500bce    Humans and fantasy creatures are living in harmony

500bce-100bce       Humans start to look at the fantasy creatures as demons

100bce-100ce         Fantasy creatures go into hiding to avoid being attacked (lost ones leave their kin)

100ce-1900ce         Fantasy creatures remain hidden from humans

1940ce                    Testing of a new weapon kills first dragon in over 2,000 years

1942ce                    ElraNoch is destroyed by a fiery bomb poisoning the remains of the city

1943ce                    Thousands of Elves, Dwarves and Trolls are killed as the humans wage war with each other

1974ce                    Hundreds of unicorns are slain as jungles are set on fire

2000ce                    Elves and Dwarves hold council to decide how to stop the killing of innocent creatures

2012ce                    Dragons and trolls join the council meeting for survival

2013ce                    War between magic and technology begins

2520ce                    ElraDrest is destroyed by poisonous gas

2823ce                    ElraSae is destroyed using long range weapons

3453ce                    ElraFre and it's forests are killed off by the humans

3674ce                    Large groups of humans start to side with the Elves

4713ce                    ElraMont is finally destroyed by technology

4713ce                    After their victory the forces of technology drink too much and are slaughtered by Trolls

5123ce-01me          Technology is officially destroyed

1430me                   ElraNoch returns to the world of man

1442me                   The great spell destroys all life in Elranoch and The Heart of The Forest is stolen

4213me                   The Heart is returned to its resting place and the Elvin goddess restored


This is a basic timeline of how things happened leading up to book two, of The Draken Trilogy.  As I work on book three, I will continue to flush it out some more.

Dragonkin what are they?

Having studied dragons for many years, I finally met my first dragonkin today.  He himself does not know what he is, but one of these days he will discover the truth.  When I talked to my Dragon friend and asked about the crossbreeding of dragons with other races, he laughed and answered that it was possible but rare.

You see it takes a very powerful human spell to change the shape of a dragon, and even then the dragon must be unaware of its being cast, or willing to make the change.  Once the spell has been cast the dragon must maintain control of his emotions, or run the risk of breaking said spell.  This happens most rapidly when they are changed against their will, usually the caster dies shortly after this as the dragon tears him to pieces.  The other side of the coin are the dragons that willingly make the change, they sometimes go years without anyone knowing they are a dragon, even forgetting it themselves.

Once a dragons shape has been changed into that of another creature though, it has the ability to breed with others of that creature type, usually humans for some reason.  The dragonkin I met today was interesting, he never met his father, and his mother died at birth, leaving me to believe that it was his mothers death that caused his father to return to dragon form.  Sadly this young man has a spell on him that hides his nature, but I can see that spell is weakening and soon he will break free of it and discover what a great gift he has.

You see, dragonkin have an unnatural strength, making them much stronger than they appear.  They are a touch taller than normal members of their non-dragon race, and tend towards the lean side, often appearing weak due to how thin they are.  They have very fine scales that cover most of their body, rarely over on the neck or face.  The scales themselves are just like dragon scales, being highly resistant to fire and very good armor.  The teeth are a bit sharper than a humans, and their finger nails are more like claws.

Most of the time when a dragonkin is born, the dragon parent will take it to the elves to be raised, as the long lived people swore long ago that they would protect any dragonkin they came across.  If the humans discover a dragonkin they normally will kill the child, if they can, and then proceed to kill its parents.  The end result of this is the dragon breaking the spell holding it in its altered shape, and an entire village or city being destroyed.

Upon investigating the matter a bit more, I was surprised to find out that there are a few human kingdoms being run by dragonkin these days.  One would think that after being hunted by humans for most of their lives, they would be tyrannical rulers, but for some reason they are very loving rulers instead. Currently I know of two kingdoms that have dragonkin kings/queens, both of them adored by their subjects for the most part.

If the one I met today is any indication of his kind these crossbreed children of the dragons have a very forgiving nature, but a very strong sense of justice.

I also asked why a dragon would change willingly into a human, and got an interesting response.

"Love, pure and simple.  Whether it be of a human or a village, invariably it boils down to love."

I guess that is why they always return to dragon form when their spouse dies.

I must thank Roult for taking the time to answer my questions, if anyone reading this should have any question,  please feel free to ask them.

Signed,

     Valarious the Historian

Trolls and Dwarves

"Believe it or not my friend Trolls are not your enemy.  Yes they can be very violent, but nowadays they are not quite as violent.

What happened to them you ask?  Well let's see if I can explain it.  Back when the Dwarves and Elves went to war against man, we signed a truce agreement with the Trolls so they would fight alongside us.  As many of our forefathers said, we finally had a use for such violent creatures.  The war lasted quite a long time, and during that time the big, thick skinned beasts learned to listen to the orders us Dwarves gave them.

After the war, we figured they would go back to fighting us, but instead they turned to our leaders and asked for guidance.  Needless to say our leaders didn't take long to say yes and started teaching them.  Granted, they are not very intelligent, but they know how to follow orders and can adapt very quickly if a situation turns bad.  The Trolls also have shown to be the most loyal allies my people have ever had, they so much as see an enemy come near one of our farms and they rush forward to protect it.

Pardon me, but I must get out to the field in order to assist in bringing in the harvest."

THE TROLLS SIDE:

"Dwarves?  Ah, you mean friends.  They nice, tell us where go, feed us, and make good drink.  Always take good care us, but not good fighters.  You want fight?  Me show you how fight."

Well, as you can tell after talking to a Dwarf, and quite a few Trolls, the relationship is working out nicely between the two races.  I will admit, I didn't quote the troll perfectly, as he was very difficult to understand.

Hopefully the next time I visit I will be able to get into the Dwarven city a opposed to doing my research outside in the rain.  I am really quite curious as to the activities in one of their cities, but being as secretive as they are I will just have to be patient.

Signed,

Gregory the Grey

A little history on the Elves of The Draken Trilogy

Little known to most people, the Elves are actually of five different races.  While they all share the similar characteristics, such as being tall and having a very slim build, rarely does one weigh in at over 120 pounds.  At the same time, they have some distinct differences.

The elves of the forest a very agile and usually have a slightly greenish cast to their hair and eyes.  Their magic is generally focused on growth and healing, as they constantly try and repair the damage done to our world in the past.  They are healers first and foremost, but very dangerous enemies if you upset them, being that they can poison entire armies with just a few berries.  Although, seeing their eyes flash like bright emeralds when you upset them is almost worth the trouble.

The elves of the sea are excellent swimmers and in general have a blue tint to their hair and vibrant blue eyes (looking into the eyes of their princess, was like looking into the ocean depths). The sea elves have the ability to see magic, whether it is an illusion, or a spell cast on a person or item.  They also have the ability to manipulate spells that are cast in their direction, woe to those who think a simple fireball will hurt one of them.  Interestingly enough they don't appear to have any offensive magic, but if they are in the water you can be sure there is some sort of underwater monster there to protect them.

The elves of the mountains are the heaviest of the elves and the best warriors amongst the Elvin people.  In general they have brownish blonde hair and brown eyes, and almost always are wearing armor (which is quite fetching on some of the young women).  These elves have an amazing power over weapons and armor, they can make it do almost anything they wish it to, from being the lightest weight chain armor in the world, it can be altered to withstand the breath of the most fearsome dragon.  Swords made by these elves are amazingly sharp and their shields can stop almost any weapon.  The draw back is that the magic only works when an elf is using the equipment, unless it is specifically made for another race.  Just a warning to young men out there, just because you may face a woman on the field doesn't mean you are going to win.

The elves of the desert are the most volatile of all the elves, with their red hair and bloodshot eyes, you just know they are crazy.  The flicker of a candle flame reflected in those eyes is all you see when they cast a spell your way.  Their magic is focused in flame, and can be very destructive.  Granted it can also be used for quite a bit of good as well, they made a great roast using magic to cook it after all.  I must warn you though, these elves are extremely temperamental, so please try not to upset them or you may find yourself looking for a bank of snow in the middle of a desert.

The last of the Elvin races are very different than the others, they are called the Lost Ones, as they have lost their path to their goddess.  These elves have nearly black hair and cold dead eyes.  Their magic is that of the soul and when they turned their back on their goddess it turned into death magic.  Granted some of them are in the process of returning to their goddess and are once again using their magic for the greater good.  These elves have a power over souls, guiding the souls from the dead to the realm of their goddess, or in the case of those that still do not see her, trapping the souls in the skeletal remains as a servant for all eternity.  I regret I did not get too close to these elves as they are more aggressive than any of the others and i did not want to become a slave.

Now you know a bit more about the elves than you did before you read my memoirs, but let me take a moment here to apologize to any of the elves I may have offended while researching their races for this report, as I am not sure if this report in and of itself will offend them.  Thankfully I am recovering nicely from all of the injuries inflicted upon me in my duels with various elves and I must thank them for teaching me the consequences for my transgressions of their honor.  I hope the mountain elves will be kind enough to allow me to return to their home and the young woman I fell in love with.

Sincerely,

*the signature is illegible and has a few drops of blood at the end leaving us historians to believe the original writer was killed when he finished this report*

The great cats and their place in the story

"What's that son?  You just saw a cat the size of a horse?

I can't tell you how many time I have heard people unfamiliar with the mountains make those statements.  Let me start by explaining about the the forest cats, we can build up to the larger cousins the hill cats and mountain cats as we go along.

Forest cats area beautiful race of cats, sleek of fur and shiny black.  They are a bit slimmer than your hunting dog, but almost of a size.  The amazing part is that they weigh a good bit more than your hunting dog, and in some cases twice as much.  They come up about mid thigh on the average man when on all fours and are a holy terror when defending themselves.  The cats are fairly intelligent or so I have heard, but thankfully have never witnessed.  One of the most beautiful sights described to me by a hunter was of the sleek black cat darting between the tree trunks in the forest.

Now the hill cats are about twice the size of their forest cousins, and have grey fur.  These cats are very agile, and appear to have a very high pain tolerance.  One of the hunters once said that it took three men to take one of these large cats down, and even then only on man survived.  They are amazingly quick and strong.  Their primary source of food in the hills are the wild sheep, although I have heard that on occasion one will wander into a small village or a farmstead and take a child or two.

The mountain cats, now that is an interesting cat.  They are the size of a horse, and can eat an entire horse at one sitting.  I have noticed that amongst the mountain cats, there is no consistent fur color, it varies from cat to cat. Interesting part is that in the southern mountains there is a tribe of people that have actually trained the cats like we train our horses, and as such they ride them from place to place.

Out of all three cats, the mountain cats are the least aggressive for some reason, while the forest cats are the most aggressive. If I didn't know any better I would say that their size determines how likely they are to attack you, at the same time I would walk up to a mountain cat and try to put it."

Author Unknown, found on a scrap of cloth in a cave in the northern foothills.
Items found with note: Bones, apparently human
                                  A Broken Spear
                                  A bent sword
                                  What appears to have once been the hide of a hill cat
I do believe he was the third hunter to face the hill cat and apparently he did not survive.
   Sir Malaross Head Lore Seeker

A bit about dragons

So, you want to know about dragons huh?  Well, where do we begin?  They're big, vicious and very cunning, at least that is what the ignorant will tell you.

The truth is, dragons are great people.  Once you have befriended one, you have a very good friend who will make certain you are safe to the best of his ability.  

The tales are true about their size though, even hatchlings are big, standing almost six feet at the shoulder.  They start out a bright flame red in color when they are first born, and the scales get darker with age, until they appear black.  Once the scales have reached their darkest color, they start to develop white around the edges.  Eventually they will turn all white if the dragon lives long enough.  To date I have only heard of one dragon that has lived that long, and nobody knows where he has disappeared to.

Dragonfire, one of the most dangerous weapons in the world, it is actually a form of liquid.  To this day we are not sure exactly what produces it, but we do know that the dragon can choose how hot it is when he breathes it. We also know that it can melt metal and stone when the dragon desires it.  The dragons teeth and claws are amazing, able to slice through steel and stone with great ease, they make for very valuable weapons, although most dragon hunters fail to survive long enough to acquire one.  Most people don't know that young dragons will lose their teeth when they are around 150 years old, and it is these teeth that are most often given to close friends of the dragons.  The scales too are prized amongst man, for they offer some protection from fire and can turn most blades aside, if properly made into a suit of armor.  Man has discovered though that the scales of older dragons do not work as well as the scales from young dragons.  (this may have something to do with the size and thickness of the scales though)  Dragon scales can be dyed, but it does take a special type of dye to change it's color.

How does a dragon fly?  

Oh, that's an easy one, they have a form of magic that allows their body weight to diminish when their wings are spread.  This magic is tied into their nature, which is magical to begin with.  Some dragons fly in the manner of large birds, while others appear to swim through the skies.  You should see the water dragons when they are in the air, they resemble overgrown snakes with wispy wings.  

Dragons are like humans in a lot of ways, they are highly intelligent, have individual personalities, and you never know if they will side with you or against you, although a dragon is not likely to stab you in the back like a human would.

What you may not know is that the numbers of dragons dropped dramatically many years ago, and now we only have around a hundred of these great creatures left in this world.  For some reason they appear to be gathering in the mountains outside of our kingdom, there have been over a dozen different dragons spotted over the mountains.  A few months ago a hunter reported seeing a group of them flying together, I wonder just what is going on.

I hope this answers your questions about the dragons, if not feel free to ask me for more.

Sincerely,

Valarious

DEMON STEEDS

Well, I started this out from the phone, but it didn't work too well, so now I am going to post it from the desktop.

Today we discuss the horse???? Midnight.

Midnight is not quite a normal horse, some call him a demon steed, others call him a dark unicorn, but all fear his kind.  The reason behind this is that he is a carnivore, now that in and of itself is no big deal, but add in his ability to read the surface thoughts of people and you have a devastating combination.

The question is why would such a powerful creature associate with a simple human?  Simple, Lyam saved him from an old trap.

Were did the demon steeds come from?  Simple enough, they came from unicorn stock originally.  When a unicorn was captured by a man that sought to turn it into a beast for war, the creature went insane.  As the creature became violent, it's fur darkened and grew rougher, it's horn melted back into it's forehead and the teeth became jagged.

A servant to this evil man saw what was happening and tried to warn his master, only to be slain for his impertinence.  The now former unicorn saw this and kicked out at the walls of his cage, his now sharper hooves digging into the wood and snapping the rope holding it all together.

As the walls fell apart the beast charged the man and attacked, getting his first taste for blood.  Soon he killed off all of the men that were in the area and drove the regular horses ahead of him into the nearby forests.

That was how we came to have demon steeds in the world.

You can find out more about these unique animals in the Draken Trilogy.

Who is Rose

Well, I wonder how many of you are wondering about the character Rose in the book.  So let me start by saying, I have always been a cat lover and ever since the Night Howlers Creature Crucible came out for Dungeons and Dragons, I was instantly addicted to the were-cats.

Rose is interesting, as she is a very intelligent young lady, who was born with Lycanthropy.  One of the changes I made to lycanthopes (changeling or shape changers as they are called in the trilogy), is that they must feed their animal form as well as their human form.  I also made them so they can change shape whenever they want to as opposed to being required to change shape on the night's of the full moon.  I did of course maintain that their first change usually occurs with the full moon.

Unlike historical were-creatures, Rose also maintains her mind when she changes shape, and thus is able to learn and make sound decisions while she is in animal form.

Rose was raised on a small farm outside of a village in the mountains.  Her family grew crops and traded them for meat from the farmers and herders.  When she first changed into her cat form, a lonely Forest cat (similar to a panther), kidnapped her and brought her out of the mountains.  Rose lived with the forest cat for several months, never getting enough to eat in order to change back and not sure she would be able to survive a journey home by herself.

When she meets Lyam, she is very grateful for his freeing her from her misguided kidnapper.

The rest of her story you will have to read as she journey's with Lyam in book one.

Who is Lyam Draken

Today we will talk about who Lyam Draken is.  For those of you who have read the first book, this will come as no surprise, but for those of you that have never read the book, this will give you an idea of how this character thinks.

Lyam is an orphan, found in the forest when he is just a baby.  Raised by a former tracker in service to the King, he is taught from an early age to act just like everyone else.  As a child he never understood why it was that he was constantly told to conform to society, or why it was that he was never allowed to show emotions.

In his teen years, Lyam starts to notice the difference between himself and the people of his village.  He is not nearly as muscular as the other boys his age, but he is also a little taller than they are.  When he and all the other boys his age join the local militia, as required by his village, he discovers that his speed is hampered by wearing the heavy armor most of the village men prefer to wear, and instead chooses to wear the leather armor the local hunters wear.

Lyam spends his two years in the village militia, learning how to use his agility as an advantage when sparring with the rest of the militia members.  When the local army comes through, one of the scouts that travels with the unit of soldiers sees him, and impressed with his abilities invites him to join them.

Spending a few years with the scouts, Lyam learns more about the daily life of the army, and works hard to impress the officers in order to be promoted to tracker.  Once invited to become a tracker, he is sent off to training with veteran trackers, none of them knowing that he had some early training from his foster father.

The training which Lyam endured to become a tracker was rigorous, out of the dozen young men that started it, only three made it to the final test.  Having watched nine young men die during training, Lyam soon found himself unconcerned about survival, but instead was more concerned about proving he was better than all those who had looked down on him for being different.

The final test turned out to be the easiest test Lyam had ever taken, simply get from one side of a small forest to the other side alive.  He was quite surprised to find out that one of the men from his class had died in the forest already.  Entering the forest, he followed the tracks of the last person to enter, until they suddenly stopped looking around he could find no sign of what may have killed his fellow student.  Continuing on, he soon found other signs of where others had died.  Just before reaching the far side of the forest, he felt a cold sensation along his spine, but when he looked around, he could not find a reason for it.

In the end it was just Lyam and one other that successfully graduated the tracker training, and he found himself assigned to the Royal Trackers, the elite troops of the kingdom.


And thus ends the history of how Lyam became a tracker, this information is summarized in book one, but I figured I would expand on it a bit more here, for those that are interested.

The Heart of The Forest

Well folks here is a snippet from the second book of the Draken trilogy.  This book is called The Heart of The Forest, and it too can be found on Amazon.com, and Barnes and Nobles website.

The tunnel stretching out before them appeared to be level, with solid wood coffins resting in the walls on either side.  Each coffin had three inches of space between it and the top of the alcove in which it sat.  Each alcove was also perfectly lined up with the one below it, stacked four high, from floor to ceiling.

It was amazing how thick the roots were, twisting around and between each other to form the perfect size alcove for each coffin.  Looking at the floor they could see the roots of the trees make almost perfect turns to create a woven floor to the catacombs that was almost perfectly smooth.

Lyam and Rose looked at the top row and wondered how they had lifted such solid looking coffins to a height up over their heads.

After about an hour of walking in the dark corridor, the magic of their helms allowing them to see clearly, they came to a door on the left side of the passage.  Shrugging, Lyam cautiously reached out a hand and opened the door.  Inside was a room filled with coffins. A suit of armor and a shield lay on the top of coffin, looking as if a flattened warrior slept upon it.

“This must be the bodies of the men that invaded the forest.”  Lyam said to Rose.

Nodding her head in agreement, she stepped backwards out of the room and said, “I wonder how they got them in here, since Shinae said no spirit could pass through the outer doors.”

Not having an answer, Lyam shrugged as he let the door close on its own.  Taking out a scroll, he made a note on it, before they continued.

They soon found many more rooms filled with the coffins of the forests enemies.  Always these rooms were on the left side of the passage.

After what felt like several hours of walking, they stopped and rested for a bit.

“I believe we are still on the top level.” Rose said.

“As do I.”  Lyam answered, “I am making this map based on the number of steps we have gone, but am not sure how accurate it is.”

“At least we will be able to find our way back out.”  She replied.

“Very true.”  He said, as they stood up and continued down the corridor.

They came upon another room shortly thereafter, this one containing a circular stairway heading down.  Looking at the ebony finish of the wooden steps, Lyam wondered how far down they went.  He thought it strange that the air was not stale and there was no dust on the stairs.

Glancing at each other, Lyam marked the stairs on his map, and they started down them cautiously.

The stairs descended about twenty feet, before ending at a heavy wooden door without ornamentation.  Turning the wooden knob, they found the door to be unlocked. 

The door opened easily, as if the hinges had recently been oiled.  They found themselves looking into a circular room with a half dozen other doors.

As soon as they stepped into the room, the door behind them slammed shut.  Lyam and Rose both spun around at the noise, drawing their swords with practiced ease.

Checking the door, Lyam sheathed both of his swords, as he said, “It’s not locked, just closed.”

Rose started to sheath her swords, when a movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention.

Turning, Lyam caught the movement as well, and drew his swords once again as he stepped away from the door.  As he moved, he separated himself slightly from Rose in order to have plenty of room to fight if necessary.

Whatever it was stopped moving for a second before continuing towards them. About ten feet away from them, it started to slowly take shape.  After about a minute, a shape resembled a man in green and silver hunting leathers began to form.  Although, he was still mostly transparent.

“What is your purpose here?”  The ghostly figure asked.

“We have come here to learn from the histories of The People.” Lyam answered back.

The figure nodded its head slowly and pointed towards a door across the room from them.  “I shall let you pass,” it said, “but, cannot show you the way beyond this room.  Neither, may I allow you to remove any of the histories from their resting place.”

“Are there others like you here? Rose asked.

“I do not know.” It replied, “The doors were designed to prevent spirits from passing through them.  This is to prevent unrestful dead from escaping the catacombs.”

Lyam and Rose bowed to the spirit in respect, as Lyam said, “We thank you for your assistance.”

The two of them walked quickly to the door the spirit had pointed to.  On the door they noticed an intricate carving of an open book, with a tree growing from its pages.  Taking one last look at the spirit, Lyam opened the door and led the way through.

I hope you enjoy reading these little pieces as much as I enjoyed writing the books.

Writing Lyam's Awakening

Time for a little background about Lyam's Awakening....

I started writing the book shortly after a stint of unemployment, it's strange I would start writing after finding a job.  It was something to do on my lunch break every day, so I started writing in a notebook.  Soon it was three college ruled notebooks of handwritten story, and when I was done it was 3.5 hand written notebooks.  

When I realized I was writing a book length tale, I bought a laptop (not a very expensive one) and transcribed the story over to the laptop.  Funny thing is it continued to grow, tripling in word count as I entered it into the laptop.  After about nine months the story was complete, so I printed it out and edited it, and then went back and expanded it even further as I was making editorial changes. 

After about a year and several revisions later, it was done, and I had the story of Lyam Draken, or so I thought.  While I was waiting for the proof copy from the publisher I got to thinking about it and decided it wasn't done, so picking up pen and paper again I started writing.  It was kind of strange to be working on a second book, while waiting for the first one to be in stores, but I still had a story to be told.

Well now both book one and two are available, and I am starting on book three in the series, even I have to wonder where Lyam will travel and who he will meet with.

another snippet Lyam's Awakening

Here is a bit more from book one of the Draken trilogy.  Book 2, "The Heart of The Forest" is now available through Amazon.com.

The next couple of days passed quickly.  They ate whatever Lyam caught in his snares, often having plenty left over to eat on the trail, the following day.  Towards the middle of the third day, there appeared to be a break in the forest ahead of them.  “Strange,” Lyam said, “we are at least another couple of days from the hills.”  Looking at Rose for a second, he shrugged and started forward; when suddenly she growled and leapt ahead of him.

            Running to keep up, Lyam pulled his bow from his back, a notched an arrow to the string.  Coming into the clearing he saw a Hill Cat, without thinking Lyam drew back and fired over Roses racing form, grazing the Hill Cats’ flank.

            Rose raced straight towards the bigger cat, and suddenly leapt sideways dodging a swipe from a large grey paw; quickly Lyam drew and released another arrow, this one striking the cat in the chest.  The beast didn’t even notice the arrow, but instead focused its attention on Rose.

            Shaking his head, he drew and fired a third arrow, this time hitting it directly behind the shoulder, and once again it ignored the attack.  In amazement, Lyam drew his short sword, and charged the cat from behind and to one side of it, as it circled Rose.

            This time the cat took notice of him, as his sword dug into its side, and spun around quickly for something that big.  The cat swung a paw at him, catching him squarely in the chest, and knocking him backwards a good five feet.

            Struggling to stand, Lyam saw the beast start to pounce towards him, only to have Rose throw herself onto its back and grab hold with her claws.  As the beast bore down on him, he drew his second sword, and thrust it upward into the cats face as hard as he could.  He immediately found his face was just inches from the cats snapping jaws for several seconds, before it stopped moving and fell over onto its side, his blade buried to the hilt in its neck.

            When he finally dragged himself out from under it, he decided it was a shared kill; as he could see where Roses teeth had dug into the back of the cats’ neck directly opposite from where his sword had entered.  If it hadn’t had such tough skin, he might have accidentally killed Rose while trying to kill it.

            Slowly he got to his feet, and retrieved the gear that he had discarded during the fight, and then proceeded over to a nearby stream to wash up.  Upon the painful removal of his leather armor, he found it had five cuts completely across the front, which matched the five deep cuts across his chest.  After cleaning and binding the wounds, he put his armor back on and proceeded to follow the stream in a north easterly direction, Rose padding along next to him, occasionally looking up at him as if she were worried.

            Unknown to him, Rose was worried, she just couldn’t tell him so, those cuts where deep, anybody else would have found their ribs severed, and even though he had washed the wounds, she could smell the infection already spreading.  Well, for now all she could do was keep an eye on him, and try to find some way to help him heal.

Introducing Lyam Draken

I have decided to start this blog, so as to share parts of the story of Lyam Draken with other folks, so let's take a random look into what is in store for him in his first adventure....

Lyam left the building thinking how nice it would be to get back to the forests. He quickly returned to the inn, retrieved his gear, and headed off towards the forest. First things first. He would check the deeper woods, and then head into the foothills, in order to see what might be pushing the animals from the forest. After that, who knows, where this might lead him.


Upon entering the forest, the first thing he noticed was how quiet it was. Looking between the trees, he drew an arrow, notched it to his bow string, and cautiously proceeded. “The forest isn’t usually this quiet,” he thought to himself as he ducked under a low branch. Carefully scanning his surroundings, he froze as he saw a young Forest Cat prowling along a branch about ten feet in front of him. Keeping one eye on the young cat, he quickly scanned the area around it for its mother. With scarcely a sound, she suddenly leapt from above and behind him. Knowing he didn’t have time to draw and fire, Lyam spun, striking her in the side with his bow, and diverting her lunge. Upon seeing her on the ground, he knew three things, one she was hungry, two she was protecting her young, and three he had fought her at the farm outside the village. Immediately he knew he would have to kill her, because she couldn’t afford to pass up the meal he resembled.

She seemed to recognize him as well; she laid her ears back and slowly started to circle to his left. Her cub was already moving towards his right, he had always assumed these animals were smart, but Lyam didn’t need to die to prove it.

Calmly he drew his short sword with his right hand, while holding his bow in his left. Suddenly she rushed. Without knowing why, Lyam stepped into her rush, and swung his bow into her mouth forcing her to the side once again. The cub charged in from behind him, and instinctively he swung back-hand striking the cub across its head with the flat of his blade, dazing it. As the cub rolled across the ground, the mother lunged again, this time Lyam leapt up in the air, and landed astride her back. Quickly she rolled over and tried to claw and bite at him, but he managed to grab the back of her neck with his left hand while stabbing her with his right.

As she died, he looked over at the cub wondering what he should do with it. He didn’t like the idea of killing it, yet wasn’t sure if he could tame it.

The cub, by now was shaking its head and slowly backing away from him.

He watched it, and slowly pulled some salted pork from his pouch. Gently he tossed it in front of the cub, causing it to start slightly, and then, smelling the meat it came forward a step to eat it.

Well, Lyam thought, at least the stuff wouldn’t go to waste, as he gently tossed another piece towards the cub. After a bit of playing ‘catch the meat’, the cub got close enough to touch. Very cautiously he stretched out his hand with a piece of meat in it.

Gently, the cub took the piece of meat, and sat down to stare at him as it chewed it.

Now that the cub was somewhat used to him, Lyam picked up his bow and started through the forest once more. He offered the cub some more meat every so often, so it would continue to follow. An hour of travel brought him to a stream where he decided to rest for the night, and to do some fishing

....well there you have it, a small piece of the book.