by Casey Phelps
As we gazed upon the skies, writing appears in black writhing storm clouds, like inky lines blotting out the sun’s warmth and beauty.
The suns wrath in one day I will hold
Framing the sky in darkness
Hidden the world will be,
I will Triumph over the dying magics
And through their weakness
The shell will return to her rightful place
Oh praise the lady and her eclipse
I watched slowly as the moon, no one had noticed her still hanging in the heavens comes and slowly covers the Sun. It is a solar eclipse, and the world is plunged into darkness. The people cry in alarm as the darkness engulfs them and bedlam breaks out.
There is a pain in my chest, I am in agony.
I clutch at my chest, as the wind rips the breath from me. I cry out, and I reach for Artileon. I just touch the tips of his fingers and I am pulled away. I scream for Artileon, I can hear him roar in frustration. I am lost and the wind whips at my body, I am tossed and shoved and then I land roughly falling to the ground. I have my eyes shut firmly against the darkness. Until I no longer hear the wind, or feel it ripping at my clothes. No longer do I hear the people, I open my eyes.
There beside me bubbles a quiet brook. I am sitting on lush grass beneath a great tree. I am wearing a pair of white converse, a t-shirt and jeans.
The End
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****
Keep reading for the first two chapters of the next book in the Dalthimus series...
Return to Dalthimus
coming 2014 (visit me online for more info on release dates)
Chapter 1
The Lord Sun cannot believe the words of his shell, and her friends. He placed his head into his heads and wept upon his lonely mountain, for his daughter, and all that he had lost. Remembering the time before time began.
He was a rural farmer on the world of Caspara, he'd loved the hard work and effort that paid off each year with the fruits of his labor to feed his family another year. His beloved wife Anha was more beautiful than the sun, her black silky hair hung like the willow cascading across luminescent eyes. She had a wild liveliness to her that was contagious. She had loved to run amok in the fields swirling and twirling with mirth.
One day she brought him the most joyous news, they were to have a child. With a gleam in her eye she said, with your luck it'll be a daughter that will be the undoing of her doting father. Little did they know the import of the words she spoke and the events that were about to unfold.
As the months passed his lovely wife swelled with the growing child. She no longer danced in mirth, she was fatigued and distant. Her sleep was disturbed by dreams she often woke screaming in the nights. Even when he croaked and pleaded she would not share these terrors with her husband.
One fateful morning he noticed that her eyes were dull and shiny, her pale face was drawn and the shadows that ringed her eyes were deepened. He gathered her up in his arms and set off to the brook that meandered behind their home. In the copse of trees that stood sentinel over the spot they came to share each other’s company. He placed her gently on a bed of leaves, the subtle breeze played with the tendrils of hair that slipped from her hair bands.
They sat in silence, until he started to sing a lullaby...
The trees are singing
The lullaby child
The grasses swaying
Adds to their guile
Pulling the sleepy one
Deep into dreaming
And all the while
Baby in my heart keeping
His wife's eyes filled with tears and said simply "I'm sorry my beloved."
He hushed her and kissed her forehead, "you have nothing to be sorry for my love."
She quietly sobbed, and murmured.
"I am sorrowful for what will come, not for what I have done. Know this that my love will guide you that will be enough."
He was bewildered at these strange words from his wife. He decided he must take her back to their home and call for the doctor. He bent to take his wife from her resting spot, and leaned against the mighty tree sending up a prayer to any that would hear for his dearest one.
At that moment his world ceases to exist for him and he was in a barren place. Standing upon a mountaintop, the tree he had leaned on for support there upon the rocky terrain. His wife cried out and writhed in his arms. He shuffled to a flat stone surface, and laid her there. She cried out louder this time and reached across her swollen belly. It finally dawned on him that it was time.
He bleakly looked at his surroundings, no living thing stirred. A wind howled at the mountainside, its lament to the travail that had gripped his wife. He held her and she spoke weakly through the contractions.
"Remember what I told you before that love will be enough...."
She gripped his hands as terror flashed across her face. Her body was not strong enough to bring forth the child. Her eyes widened with the travail that gripped her weary form. Then her body convulsed and she lay silent, a last breath escaped her lips, and her hands fell from its grip on his.
This cannot be; it cannot happen this way. He screamed his rage to the heavens, then remembering the child he took her from his dead wife's womb and wept.
Rain began to fall as he wept. His rage flashed across the sky. It rained down to wash the little girl that clung to his chest.
The sky darkened and matched his gloom. The little babe giggled and cooed. His heart softened and said to the fullness of the night
"My beloved child shall be named Luna for she comes in my night, to remind me of the light that must surely come in the morning."
Thus began the deity of The Lord sun and his beloved daughter the Lady of the Moon. He called the world into meaning as he saw fit, and so began Dalthimus.
****
Chapter 2
“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. I dream you dream together is reality.”
-John Lennon
Artileon
I had dreamed of the day I would become king, and never had my dreams actually matched the reality of the day. My imaginations had never seen the beautiful queen at my side, or my brother as my friend. We had journeyed through the land on a quest to save the world. We gave up everything in order to save everything. We learned through the trials and sacrifices and it honed us into rulers worthy of our thrones.
We have begun our rule with healing for our people, and hope across the land. We forged a new path to the light of the Lord Sun, out of the darkness and evil that had stained our world.
I take this throne, the throne of my father before me. I gaze across my people, my eyes fall upon the girl who came from the depths of my prison and threw my world into chaos. My new queen, the Shell of Mahon, the true heir. She hardly resembles the fiery little thing that rode across the desert sands beside me, stood toe to toe with a unicorn, and gave her life for a people she came to love.
I raised my hand; and the gathered crowd fell silent. I watched as an eyebrow rose on the lovely queen's face. I knew she was already suspicious. I can see the questions going through her mind. I feel her nerves getting the better of her as the hush spreads across the waiting throng.
“I have one announcement more to make” I stood from the throne I had just been handed, and reached for Rae’chelle's hand. Her tiny hand slips into mine, as she stands. I knelt to the ground before her. The robes pooling on the smooth marble floor. The crown heavy upon my head as I gaze up at her.
Knowing
this to be his que, the small red dragon Jyar flew to my waiting hand and presented me a ring. I am now the nervous one as his tiny claws graze the palm of my hand, and I look upon the tiny ring I hold out to Chelle. I fix my eyes upon the woman I anxiously kneel before and ask.
“My dearest Queen would do me the honor and become my wife?”
Chelle was surprised, her hand flung to her mouth, stifling her gasp. She fell forward to her knees, holding up the crown she had forgotten was placed on her head and with tears welled up in her eyes, she said “Yes.”
If the din was deafening before now it was downright painful, the people were shouting and clapping and weeping and jumping for joy. The people were riotous for some time in their joy and celebration. I could not keep the smile from my face, as I pulled her hand towards me, and pushed the ring gently on to her finger. I lifted the hand to my lips and planted a kiss lightly on her knuckles. Then I dropped her hands all together and placed my hands on the sides of her face, bringing my lips to meet hers as the noise doubled. I couldn't tear my eyes away from her, her eyes shining with love. The tiny red dragon was flitting over our heads and raining red glittering dust over everyone.
Until a cold wind swept through the throne room, and the flames in the scones wavered. The shadows deepened. A pregnant hush filled the hall. In walked the infamous Lady of the Moon.
The childlike goddess slithered forward her shadows caressing their goddess. Her midnight blue gown shimmered and added to her pale countenance.
“I have come to give a gift to show my favor.”
“In the next day in the fullness of the Lord Sun’s glory I shall show a sign in the heavens.
This is my gift to you and my well wishes upon your reign and upcoming marriage. Blessings to you all.”
She clapped and disappeared from the chamber.
I can't help but worry about the unprecedented arrival of the goddess. I smile tightly as the gathered guests do not need to see a worried King. Chelle is glowing and probably still reeing from the events of the day, she walks with me in a daze.
As they filter out of the throne room and go to the festivities that are happening all around our city, the people wonder about this upcoming event, but go out to feast. The merriment lasts well into the night and even the next morning, the day of the celestial sign. On the arrival of midday the people flood the streets to see what blessing the lady will bestow. We all flood our crowded streets, we are joined by our friends from the Forbidden lands Re'em and his father the King of the Unicorns. We stand with our eyes staring off into the heavens waiting on the showing of favor.
The blue sky is clear with not a cloud, the sun shines warmth across our faces. When all of a sudden, across the sky is written in black writhing storm clouds, like inky lines blotting out the sun’s warmth and beauty.
The suns wrath in one day I will hold
Framing the sky in darkness
Hidden the world will be,
I will Triumph over the dying magics and through their weakness
the shell will be returned to the rightful place
oh praise the lady and her eclipse
Before I coud comprehend the meaning behind the words. I watched in horror as the moon, no one had noticed her still hanging in the heavens, comes and slowly covers the Sun.
It is a solar eclipse, and the world is plunged into darkness.
The people cry in alarm as the darkness engulfs them and bedlam breaks out.
There is a pain in my chest, I am in agony. I stumble slightly.
I clutch at my chest, as the wind rips the breath from me. I cry out, and I reach for Chelle. I just touch the tips of her fingers and she is pulled away. She screams my name, and I roar in frustration. I fling my hands out as the wind whips at my body. I cannot find her, she was right next to me, even the darkness seems to slip like oil between my fingers. The pain is sharpened even as the darkness retreats, it hangs on my heart as if a part of my soul has been ripped from me. A sliver of the sun pushes past the dark barrier of the moon.
****
Chelle
A crushing weight settles on my chest, I shudder with excruciating pain.
I clutch at my chest, as the wind rips the breath from me. I cry out, and I reach for Artileon. I just touch the tips of his fingers and I am pulled away. I scream for Artileon, I can hear him roar in frustration. I am lost and the wind whips at my body, I am tossed and shoved and then I land roughly falling to the ground. I have my eyes shut firmly against the darkness. Until I no longer hear the wind, or feel it ripping at my clothes. No longer do I hear the people, I open my eyes.
There beside me bubbles a quiet brook. I am sitting on lush grass beneath a great tree. I am wearing a pair of white converse, a t-shirt and jeans.
I stared in disbelief, doubt raged through my mind at the loss. I began to wonder if it was all a wild dream, that I was merely sleeping and the terrible thought was crushing. I looked at my hands and saw to my immense relief the ring of power, and scrambled to the edge of the brook to examine my face. There the blue sunburst and the red dragon mark sat in my skin.
I traced the lines as they blurred as my eyes filled with tears, and then my exhaustion and fears subsided into delirious giggles.
I wondered how I would explain this to my mother.
I slowly gathered myself dusting off the sandy red dirt that clung to my jeans after being deposited back on my world.
Caspara.
No longer her world, no longer her home she felt a stranger, and alone. Her heart ached for her king and dragon. She glanced at the other ring she wore upon her left hand, engaged to a man worlds away.
Steeling herself against the tears threatening to tumble over her cheeks, she steadies herself with a deep shuddering breath and set off for the village she called home once upon a time.
A small wooden sign that she took for granted at the place the woods met the road into town proclaimed to passersby the village's name, Ternith.
I crinkled my nose at the smell of the asphalt that smelled of the tar they had plastered across what used to be a gravel road. I wondered what else had changed and what time had passed in my travels to Dalthimus.
She snuck back to the cover of the woods and approached her family's home from the back entrance. Staring with sudden homesickness she examined the small structure. The brick was painted white, her mother had always hated the ugly gray that was there originally and she often begged my father to paint it. They had good-naturedly squabbled over it for some time; I wonder how she finally convinced him. I took in the forest green shutters and the terra cotta shingles on the roof, with the ivy climbing lazily up the sides. Roses bloomed in the garden marking her path to the patio doors. The breeze played with the laundry that hung to be dried in the sun. At that moment I was saddened to find that my home had irrevocably changed and that so had I.
Syble walked out to the porch with a glass of sweet tea. She numbly went to the small table and sat heavily. Her eyes not focusing, she stared blankly. Her eyes raked the forest until landing on me, her eyes lit up. She sat motionless unable to comprehend what she was seeing. I frowned that she wasn't running through the flowers to greet me, maybe I was in trouble. My lips trembled as I said "mother."
She gasped and stood up knocking her drink to the ground shattering the glass, and ran to the shelter of their home sobbing hysterically. Her father had heard the noise and came careening through the house to see what had upset his wife. I had been immobilized by the reaction of my mother.
I was frozen in fear, what had passed in my absence that would evoke such a response. He held and soothed his distraught wife while searching the yard for what had disturbed her. The evidence of barely contained anger was written plainly on his face. His face went slack upon locking gazes with me.
"It can't be..."
His voice broke, and tears streamed down his face. He hushed my mother again and set her upon a chair in the kitchen. Seeing that she was fine, he went to the doors
and strode forward. He marched through the flowers and came to stand in front of me. Both of us had tears running down our reddened cheeks at this point. My heart was broken for my parents. He reached out and touched my shoulders, then my face, traced the tattoos, staring in bewilderment.
"Please say something daddy," I pleaded earnestly.
"Rae’chelle" was all he uttered before embracing me and weeping. He broke the embrace to look again at me.
"We had lost hope of seeing you again. Your mother has been beside herself."
"I'm so sorry," I snuffled.
"Come inside we will have to convince your mother that you are not an otherworldly specter." I looked at him seriously, this man was not who I had left behind. He went on to explain, “Everyday she comes and searches the yard for you. She spends hours waiting for you to walk up the path. I have done everything I could think of to make her snap out of this sadness. I painted the house; I planted and nurtured the roses. I cultivated the vines, just as she always wanted."
We walked into the house, and into the kitchen. My mother trembled in her perch on the kitchen chair. I dropped to my knees before her, taking her frail hands into my own.
"Mother it is truly me, I am home." I did not think I had any more tears but a fresh flood wetted my cheeks.
She stared at her hands, and then followed mine up to my face. I searched her face for any recognition, for any sign of my mother. She took her hand from mine and reached out to touch the tattoos on my face. "You are no daughter of mine child."
The words hit me like a slap to my face. I couldn't comprehend the betrayal I felt from her blank state and callous statement.
"Of course, it is me mother. It is Rae’chelle. I am back." I pleaded.
"Torment me no more, haven't I suffered enough already. Leave this place. My daughter is dead." She stood and walked away, leaving me dumbfounded and broken.
"Leave her be for now child, it will take some time. I'll make some tea."
"I'm not sure I have time." I said.
He stared at me and said that now I was talking like my mother. Ominous sayings and dark murmurings. She sleeps in your room now with your lights lit up she never leaves after dark falls. She walks clear of the shadows and wants lights on all the time.
