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.