by V F Sharp
The
Forest
of Arrows
Book 1: The Prince of Old Vynterra
V.F. SHARP
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission from the publisher.
First Edition, March 2019
Printed in the United States of America
Copyright © 2019 V.F. Sharp
All rights reserved.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my fantastic editor, J.B. Manas, for not only doing an amazing job editing my book, but also taking me under his wing to teach and mentor me. The time he invested in me will not be forgotten, and I know that what I learned from his insights will shine in every novel I write. J.B., thank you for putting so much tender, loving care, into this story!
I’d like to thank my cover artist, Fran/rabBIT, for doing an incredible job on my cover and map and for being such a pleasure to work with!
Thank you to all my test readers, and especially, Azariah, my momma, and Lindsey. Your insights to the novel were crucial and helped me transform the areas that needed a bit more icing on the cake. Thank you Linds, for your brilliant proofreading, valuable suggestions, and tireless dedication. It assured the novel will be of the highest quality possible!
I’d like to thank DesNDave Photography for taking beautiful headshots! We all know that getting me to take them was like pulling teeth! Thank you for encouraging me to take them.
Thank you to my sister Des for sacrificing your time and using your resources to help me make some amazing bookmarks. They were gorgeous and exactly my style!
Thank you to my best friend, Crystle with an ‘e’. Thank you for always being available to hear me cry and always being there to encourage me through the hard times and to celebrate with me during the exciting times. Love you!
Thank you to all my siblings for the encouragement and continuous love and help during this journey. Thank you, Dave and Des, Jesse and Lindsey and Tynisha and Maverick. And thank you Jesse, for letting me pick your brain on the story! Love you all!
And of course, thank you to my momma and daddy. Words couldn’t fully express how important you are in my life. I love you both so much. Thank you for praying, pushing and encouraging me, all my life!
And mostly, thank you to my husband and to my babies who I will always call my babies! Thank you for your encouragement, excitement, patience, love, cooking, cleaning, and care during this busy time. I love you all more than my life.
Above all, thank you to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who had given me an amazing dream one night, then gave me the courage to write the story and placing some very talented people in my path to make this new writing endeavor come true. Writing this book has drawn me closer and closer to You and may every book I write do the same.
Thank you to all my friends, social media friends, and supporters! Thank you for joining my journey, encouraging me, pushing me, rooting for me, caring for me, praying for me, supporting me, and being so awesome during this writing path. It truly means a lot to me.
For my handsome and amazing husband,
who supports all my endeavors and dreams.
As your barista sidekick; I love you a latte, more than I can fully espresso…
CHAPTER ONE
Ezstasia was ready, her fists clenched with determination as adrenaline pumped through her blood. She gripped the reins tightly as she sat mounted on Tia. As far as giant, long-eared rabbits went, Tia was one of the strongest, her soft brown fur covering a deceptively muscular frame. Ezstasia swallowed as she felt her long, loosely braided, brown hair blowing from side to side with the shifting breeze, tugging gently at the back of her head. She glanced down to make sure the tip of the braid didn’t get caught on Tia’s saddle. She remained still as she waited for Fin to draw his nine-arrow bow, launching the pointed weapons into the sky. Even after all these times playing Arrows, this part of the game still gave her a thrill—the calm before the storm.
There were nine riders playing, all friends who had known one another since childhood. They were all lined up, mounted on their bear-sized rabbits. Like her, they were all getting ready for the moment when they’d hear the loud call, “Arrows!”—the single word that would begin the game.
“Are you sure you checked this place out?” she said to Fin, without turning her eyes from the forest ahead.
“I’m telling you, it’s perfect,” he said. “There’s no way anyone will see us here. We’re hours away from the Cottages. Or anything else, for that matter.”
She turned to him and noticed he was delicately smearing the light blue powder on the nine arrows.
“What!?” she said, loosening her grip on the reins. “You’re just putting the powder on now?”
“We can’t play without it,” said Fin.
She watched in disbelief as he applied the powder to the arrows with a small brush, like the great painters from the northern kingdoms.
“I can’t believe you brought that whole bag of powder,” she said. “You were supposed to apply it back at the Cottages. What if someone saw you with it?”
“Trust me, they didn’t. Besides, this is the weakest kind of magic there is.”
“It’s still forbidden,” she said, glancing around the perimeter for signs of prying eyes.
“Hey, I’m an artist,” he said, smirking. “And I felt like working in the fresh air.”
“Since when are you an artist?”
“Since today.”
She shook her head and rubbed Tia’s soft fur. It was sad to think the giant, beautiful rabbits were the last remnants of a bygone age, as was the ancient game of Arrows—a game Fin had discovered while reading the old scrolls. She would’ve loved to have lived during the days of magic and magical beings. Even at nineteen, it was still one of her greatest desires.
“Do you think the Magiclands are real?” she said to Fin.
“Of course, they’re real,” he said, continuing to paint.
“How do you know? Nobody’s been there for ages.”
“Can you see the wind?” he said.
“Of course not. Nobody can.”
“Then how do you know it’s real?” He laughed.
“That’s stupid,” she said. “I can at least feel the wind.”
Just then, she felt an odd breeze, alternating between warm and cold air.
“Did you feel that?” she said.
Fin’s forehead crinkled. “Feel what?”
“The wind. It was coming from straight ahead, where that big forest is. It was cool. But warm a
t the same time.”
“Just like me,” he said, grinning. “Cool, but warm.”
“That’s the cheesiest line you’ve ever served me. No, I’m serious, you didn’t feel it?”
He looked up from his arrow and tapped his head. “The power of suggestion,” he said. “You didn’t know I had magical powers, did you? All I had to do was mention the wind, and then you felt it.”
“Okay, great magic one, then I guess you don’t need to be putting that powder on the arrows. You should be able to make them fly on your own, right?”
Fin laughed and bowed to her, as if to acknowledge his defeat. “You win the debate, my lady,” he said, jokingly. After a brief pause, he turned to her again.
“But I’ll win the game,” he added, grinning.
“We’ll see about that, Mr. Magic,” she said. “Seriously, nobody’s winning this game until you get those arrows done.”
She watched as he returned to his ‘painting’.
“Seriously,” he said, “the wind is nothing to get mystified about. It happens every day in these parts.”
“Not this kind of wind,” she said quietly to herself.
Ezstasia once again glanced at her surroundings. The field ahead was just as Fin had described: a massive green pasture in the shape of an hourglass. Behind her to the south lied the green, rolling hills that led back to farmlands of the Cottages.
She returned her gaze to the dense, unknown forest ahead, and noticed some unusually tall trees. Though still far in the distance, an odd beam of light could be seen escaping through the foliage, illuminating the mysterious forest with a soft glow. Intertwining vines wound their way from the treetops down to the trunks of the massive trees. She wondered what manner of ancient secrets hid within its thick brush.
“Ladies and gentlemen!” yelled Fin, shaking her out of her daydreams. “We’re ready!” There was a smattering of cheers from the other riders.
Ezstasia resumed her grip on the reins, remaining still and ready as Fin slowly brought up his bow, aiming it directly toward the sky. She could hear nothing but the slight whisper of the wind as he slowly drew back the bowstring, adding the stretching sound of the wood to the wind’s natural symphony. She followed his line of sight to a small crack in the clouds up above. There was complete silence. Then she heard the loud whisk of the bowstring as he released his fingers, sending the nine arrows speeding toward the small crevice in the sky.
The arrows traveled higher and higher into the air—a glistening rainbow mist trailing behind each one like a tail.
“Arrows!” Fin shouted. He quickly mounted his rabbit, and she and the entire group of friends instantly rode off in different directions; each rider going as fast as their rabbit could go. Ezstasia raced straight for the forest, hoping that when the arrows eventually came back down, at least one would travel in her direction. She noticed a few other riders heading in the same direction as her, including Fin.
As she held on tight to Tia and darted forward, she looked up into the clouds. At first, she couldn’t find the arrows. Then she spotted the faint lines of the weapons high up in the sky, soaring upward until they were nearly out of sight. She returned her focus to the forest ahead and then glanced up again just in time to watch as the arrows ran out of momentum and turned, diving back down toward the earth.
The arrows plummeted, their speed accelerating and the magic colors streaming from their tail, growing brighter and brighter. Just as they were about to hit the ground where Fin had released them, all nine arrows changed direction. They began flying horizontally, parallel with the earth and toward different locations, as if they were following the various riders.
If all went as planned, each rider would have an arrow of their own to chase. Sure enough, a few of the arrows were headed in Ezstasia’s direction as she headed toward the forest.
Now the game was on! She frantically squeezed her legs together to drive Tia forward. She glanced back to see the leftmost arrow headed her way.
“Come on, Tia,” she said, leaning forward for maximum speed. “It’ll be caught up in no time.”
The rabbit raced forward at lightning speed as the wind blew against Ezstasia’s face, making her gasp for air.
The arrows were faster than the rabbits, passing some of the riders overhead, and some passing beside them. Fin’s arrow was about to pass him. She noticed Meldon to Fin’s right, the sun reflecting off of his oversized glasses. A third arrow was flying just above him. Knowing Meldon’s meticulous tendencies, he was probably calculating his arrow’s weight and exact rate of velocity. He was the oldest of the group by a couple years, but he acted like he was eighty-five.
Ezstasia glanced back to see an arrow quickly gaining ground from behind her. She readied herself to lock in, just as she knew the other riders were doing with the other eight arrows. The chase for the first one to grab their respective arrow had begun. She wasn’t sure how many riders were headed toward the forest with her, but she had noticed that a few of the others had headed the opposite way toward the hills.
All she knew was that she, Fin, and Meldon were about to be engulfed by trees as they rapidly approached the end of the open, green pasture, heading full speed into the thick, mysterious forest brush—each in pursuit of their own arrow.
Just as Ezstasia entered the forest, her left ear buzzed when an arrow whizzed past her.
“There it is, Tia!” she shouted. “Come on, you can do it. Let’s win this game.”
Tia sprinted faster and faster, disturbing leaves and dodging branches. One brushed Ezstasia on the cheek, leaving a small cut.
She maneuvered Tia as quickly as possible through the forest, avoiding anything that could slow down their speed.
“C’mon Tia! Stay focused on the arrow’s tail.’’ She gave Tia a light tap with her foot.
Just as Tia sped up, the arrow did the same. Its magical tail grew further and further away and made a quick turn to the right, disappearing into an especially dense part of the forest. Ezstasia tugged the reins and turned her rabbit in that direction, but the arrow was nowhere in sight.
“Oh no, we lost it!”
* * * *
Fin was determined. One way or another, he was going to catch his arrow. After all, he had a reputation to uphold.
“Come on, Zon, there it is!” Zon, was the largest of all their rabbits. He was missing an eye, but it didn’t slow him down. He was fast.
Zon was right on the arrow’s tail, the magical colors glistening almost within reach. Fin could feel his heart racing, but his focus was unrelenting. He knew he couldn’t allow one obstacle to slow him down.
He shifted from side to side with Zon as he dodged trees. He had to duck occasionally as the branches were barely passing above his head. Fin was so intent on catching the arrow that he paid no attention to the scratches he knew were accumulating on his face and arms.
Fin realized they were drawing near to the speeding arrow. Carefully, he released one of his hands from the reins and reached to grab the arrow as Zon’s speed brought him closer and closer to it. The tips of Fin’s fingers were only a few feet away from the arrow’s tail. He stayed in that position as they continued at high speed, dodging one tree after the other. His fingers were getting closer to the arrow, but then the arrow inched ahead.
“I am not… losing… this… game!”
As he steered Zon through the brush, damaging everything in their path, he could hear the crackling of branches breaking as falling leaves rained down upon him. Just then, a large leaf flew from out of nowhere and stuck to his face, obscuring his vision.
“Ah!” he yelled out, brushing it aside.
He reached back out. His fingers were just inches away from the arrow.
“Go Zon! Go!” he yelled.
With one final push from Zon, Fin grabbed the arrow with his right hand, closing his fist tightly around it.
As soon as he touched the arrow, he knew just what to expect. Within seconds, a huge flash of bright, col
orful magic permeated the entire forest. Hues of sparkling greens, blues, purples, and reds showered down around him. He knew at that moment that all of the other arrows would be falling to the ground, as the game had been won.
“We won, Zon! You did it!” Fin always liked to give Zon credit for the win. He was convinced it made Zon perform better.
He began to slow the tired rabbit down and raised the arrow over his head as if the trees would cheer him on.
“Yay, us,” he said quietly to his imaginary cheering section.
“I knew we had this,” he said, bringing Zon to a stop. “You get extra carrots today. Good job, buddy!”
Fin dismounted and let Zon eat some of the greenery off the ground cover, along with some berries that were in a nearby bush. It’s amazing how many berries a five-foot tall rabbit can eat.
He grabbed the dented, faded tin canister that was tied to the saddle, and after taking a few large gulps, shared some with Zon.
“Okay Zon, let’s head back to show them who won this game… again,” he said, as he laughed and pet the rabbit’s head.
Fin tied the canister back to the saddle, got on his rabbit, and headed to the open pasture where the game had begun.
* * * *
Ezstasia had been so close to finally grabbing her arrow when it suddenly dropped like an anchor into a bush. Instantly, a huge flash of light appeared through the trees. She knew what that meant the moment it happened. Someone else had won. They had beaten her by a split second.
“Oh Tia, we were so close!”
Ezstasia began to gently run her hand across the top of Tia’s head, as if the rabbit had any sense at all of what had just happened. Tia was still raring to go.
“It’s okay girl, time to slow down. We’ll get it next time.”
As Tia slowed to a gentle hop, Ezstasia began looking around for the arrow.
“Where did it fall?” she said aloud, as if Tia would answer.
Ezstasia saw a tuft of powdered magic twinkle in a bush, just long enough for her to spot it before the colors faded away in an instant.
