Defense of the Nest: A Middang3ard Series (Dragon Approved)
Page 8
Alex and Brath gazed at each other. She sure did not want to look like something a sick second-year had thrown up. “All right, I get it,” she said. She extended her hand to the gnome. “Truce?”
Brath glared at Alex, his eyes still full of hate. “Just because there’s a food fight, it doesn’t mean your people didn’t leave us to die,” he growled.
“Yeah, you’re right, but even if my people didn’t help yours, it doesn’t mean I’m not here to help you. I’m right here in front of you, aren’t I? That means I’m here to fight the Dark One, just like you, and I’ll protect anyone who needs it.”
Brath looked at Gill, who nodded silently. “Fine,” Brath conceded. “Truce.”
Gill smiled, the first time Alex had seen him do so, and reached up to the table. He felt around, brought a handful of the black mush down, and took a quick bite. “Are you guys ready to show the second-years that seniority doesn’t mean squat?” he asked.
Jollies, Alex, and Brath nodded in agreement. “All right,” Alex said. “Let’s show ‘em why the first-year cadets destroyed the second-years in the joust.”
Alex rolled out from under the table and shouted, “For the glory of the first-years! May we live in legend!”
Alex tossed a handful of peas at the closest person, only to get a face full of pink and blue cake thrown hard enough to knock her off her feet. Jollies and the rest of them slid out from under the table and grabbed whatever they could before chucking it.
Gill and Brath knelt and helped Alex to her feet. The gnome grabbed Alex’s blindfold, which had been knocked off, wiped it clean, and handed it to Gill, who promptly wrapped it around her head.
The mess hall was quickly earning its name. Food was flying from every direction, and it was impossible to see which year was attacking whom. Some of the dwarves had decided to sit the fight out and were casually enjoying lunch in the midst of the pandemonium.
Manny was content to nonchalantly float through the mess hall, licking up anything he came across.
Alex stood back to back with Brath, flinging whatever they could get their hands on, whether it was coming from the tables or they were pulling it off their clothes.
A gnome came running up to Alex, screaming loudly. Brath stepped to the side, pushed Alex out of the way, and decked the gnome with a heavy handful of elvish peas.
Alex smiled at Brath. “Hey, thanks!”
Brath shrugged. “Don’t mention it.”
Suddenly, a shrill, ear-piercing noise broke through the chaos. Everyone stopped as the door to the mess hall was flung open. Fier, Professor Choice, and Tribble all ran in.
Fier, eyes wide with fury, surveyed the situation. “What in the nine realms is going on here?” she shouted. “Oh, by the gods, there’s no time! Every student to your rooms! NOW!”
The students looked at each other for a moment before Fier shouted again for them to get moving. There was no time to ask questions. The cadets funneled out of the mess hall as the teachers hurried them along.
What is going on? Alex thought.
Chapter Ten
As the cadets rushed toward their rooms, Alex tried her best to figure out what was going on. The instructors didn’t seem to have any time to explain. They weren’t even the ones herding the students to the rooms; that responsibility had been left to a handful of the scientists.
Alex, Jollies, and Manny had almost reached her room when she heard a violent explosion. It was impossible to tell how far away it was, but it sounded as if a bomb had gone off in the Nest.
Another explosion went off, this time much closer. The entire hallway shook, and specks of crystal fell from the ceiling. Are we being attacked? Alex thought as she looked around.
Adrenaline pumped through her body. She’d never been in an actual fight, let alone something on this scale. The closest she’d gotten was the food fight she had just participated in.
She turned to Jollies, who was flying behind them. “What’s going on?”
Jollies flew higher to get a better look at the situation, then zipped back down to Alex and said, “I have no idea. I can’t see anything.”
Gill, who was at their side, nonchalantly said, “It sounds like an attack.”
“How? Isn’t the Wasp’s Nest magically hidden from everyone?”
Gill nodded, his face grim and resolute. “Any spell can be broken if you hit it hard enough,” he replied. “Maybe someone knows what they’re doing?”
Brath opened his door and stepped inside, leaving it open for Gill, who quickly followed. Gill waited for a moment and then called to Alex and Jollies, “You guys should stay in here. It’d be safer for us to be together.”
Jollies zipped into the room without asking any questions. Alex and Manny followed, and Gill shut the door quietly, then walked to a corner, sat down, and folded his legs.
The boys’ room had an entirely different personality than Jollies’ and Alex’s. To begin with, it was covered in flowers and plants Alex had never seen before. There was an altar to some god in the corner next to Gill. The other side of the room was covered in rugby posters and holographic statues of gnomes, so it was clearly Brath’s side.
Brath climbed onto his bed and opened his book. “Make yourselves comfortable,” he said with only the slightest hint of disgust in his voice.
Alex sat down across from Gill, still taking the room in. “Can we be attacked so easily?” she asked.
Gill stretched his arms as he re-crossed his legs. “Definitely,” he said softly. “We are at war. It isn’t uncommon for the Dark One to attack training grounds. Easiest way to make sure no one can get new recruits or backup.”
Jollies was still flying around, her colors shifting as if she were a buzzing rainbow. “Yeah, it happens all the time,” she agreed. “Just a few months ago, the pixie infantry’s training grounds were attacked. Completely wiped out. It could happen to anyone.”
Alex reached toward Jollies, sensing how distraught she was. “Hey, come here,” she suggested.
Jollies stopped in midair and flew to Alex, landed on her chest, and scooted close to her ear. Alex could hear the pixie’s teeth chattering. In an attempt to take Jollies’ mind—and her own—off what was happening, Alex pointed to the holographs near Brath’s bed. “Hey, what are those?”
Brath’s eyes rose above the pages of his book. “Those?” he repeated. “That’s my family. It’s all I have left of them. They were in the dwarfish realm when it was taken over. That’s why I’m here. It was either this or an orphanage. I figured I couldn’t kill the Dark One from an orphanage.”
Alex was shocked by Brath’s frankness. She knew there was a war on an intellectual level since that was the reason she was here, but she hadn’t understood how it had affected those she was training with. She wanted to kick herself for being so naïve.
“I’m sorry,” she finally said.
Brath returned to his book. “The Dark One will be too,” he muttered.
Alex turned her attention back to Gill, who had his HUD visor on. “What are you doing?” she asked.
Gill pulled the visor up for a second, smiling in a way that made his sharp incisors gleam. “Something I’m not supposed to be,” he said. “Pull up your HUDs and I’ll patch you through.”
Jollies and Alex opened their HUDs, and security camera footage started to play. Alex could see the crystal corridors of the Wasp’s Nest. “What is this?” she asked.
Gill explained, “I hacked into the system. Check this out.”
The camera angle changed. Alex saw a group of ten orcs hacking at one of the crystal doors. When the angle changed again, different orcs set explosives before running away. “Crap, I guess we are being attacked,” she murmured.
The angle changed again. A group of orcs was running down the hall and screaming with their swords raised. “Wait,” Gill whispered. “Is that a human poster? Zoom in.”
The camera zoomed in—it was the poster of Chris Hemsworth as Thor. The orcs stopped in front of
it, confused, entranced, or both.
“Oh, no!” Alex exclaimed. “They’re right outside.”
Alex and the Boundless face a new challenge. The Dark One has done the impossible and infiltrated the Nest. Can they defend it? Find out in Nest Under Siege!
Author Notes Ramy Vance
January 15, 2020
At the time of this publication, New Years wasn’t too long ago. And one of the most common things that’s comes up with New Years are resolutions… But I no longer do them. I’ve found that resolutions are usually things I can’t do. Give up chocolate, exercise more, stop leaving my underwear all over the house (wait… I would never do that… Looks around guiltily.)
That’s why I’ve traded New Years’ Resolutions for themes.
In 2018, my theme was to live outside my comfort zone. To symbolize that, I started to wear two bright and mismatching socks every day. You see, when I was a kid, I was briefly bullied because I didn’t wear name-brand jeans. I don’t want to blow it out of proportion. It lasted a few months, and the kid leading the charge is most likely in jail now (so in the long run, I win). But it was still a sore point in my childhood and something that lingered. So wearing mismatching socks did make me uncomfortable—the operative word: did…
I’ve been wearing them for two years and have gotten over that phobia.
In 2019, my theme was my year of YES. One of my mentors (perhaps you’ve heard of her: Martha Carr) told me to say YES to everything. At first, I thought she was insane (I also thought about that Jim Carrey movie). But seeing her success and realizing that she probably knew some things I didn’t, I began saying YES to almost everything.
Because of YES, I helped organize 20Books Edinburgh. It was a hell of a lot of work and stress, but in the end it was worth it. Whereas I can't say loved every minute of it, I did love that I got be part of bringing together so many talented people. (PLUS I met all of the GoneGod World authors there.)
It also saw me doing more traveling than I have ever done in one single year. Mostly conferences and author events (with one three-day trip to Austin for an author gathering). It was an exhausting year, but so, so worth it.
The results were incredible. I learned so much… Saying YES literally supercharged my year.
Now 2020 is here and it’s time for a new theme. This year is CONSISTENCY. I will endeavor to be consistent in everything I do. That means writing, eating healthy, family time, doing the boring tasks that I hate but are good for me… And I’ll be consistent in forgiving myself should I be inconsistent, too.
I’m looking forward to this theme. 2018 and 2019 really were supercharged years for me. 2020 will hopefully be the same.
What was your New Years’ resolution or theme? I’d love to hear from you…
As always, you can find me in my FB Group: House of the GoneGod Damned! Or sign up to my NL, where I promise to consistently (but not annoyingly) email you :)
Cheers! Here’s to one hell of a 2020!
Author Notes Michael Anderle
January 18, 2019
Thank you for reading this story and checking in on us in the back!
I agree with Ramy’s themes idea.
Last year, I had put a goal for our company to accomplish publishing four hundred (400) books. We didn’t make it (we were between three and four hundred somewhere), but more than that, the goal I set wasn’t the end goal. (Editor’s note: We published on the high side of 350)
The end goal was to “Test Ourselves.”
Meaning, I wanted to push our company so hard, we knew what we could accomplish and to grow our backlist, providing us a large group of stories for our fans to read. It was a “BAHG,” which is short for Big Hairy Audacious Goal.
Otherwise known in the company as “Are you f##king kidding me?”
In 2018, where the theme was “Let’s prepare for 2019 where we do 400 books,” we built an infrastructure towards the goal of making that happen. We put on our thinking hats and sharpened our pencils to figure out how to get to 400. What stories were we going to do? Who (exactly) were going to be doing it? How would we get 400 covers done? How many words of editing would we need to be able to accomplish?
(The answer is a metric sh##load.)
We went running through 2019 like a bunch of teenagers trying to catch free cash raining from the heavens. It was a lot of fun, but man oh man, was it dangerous!
Lynne: I edited between 800k and 1.2m words per month last year, as did my co-editor. Holy schnikes! No wonder we’re tired! But we did learn a lot, mostly that we could not sustain that pace, so for me, see the theme below and substitute “the editing team” for “ourselves.”
We broke (more) than a few things, but in the end, we survived. We are stronger, more capable, and more than that, we are wise beyond our years. (Editor’s Note. I’d say wiser. “Wise” just challenges us to come up with better, more creative errors.)
How can I say that? Because wisdom comes with doing, and the more you do, the more wisdom you earn.
On average (a very odd word, but the best one I can use), a publishing company will put out up to twenty-four books a year.
Some, like Baen Books, do about seventy-two a year.
We published four to five times Baen Books’ total and twelve times that of an average publishing company.
So, we acquired a LOT of wisdom, pushing the company and our creativity. Some of the wounds we suffered I’m sure will heal in 2020. Some won’t.
So as we come into 2020, we have a new theme, and it is…
The Year of Unf##king ourselves.
How’s THAT for a theme?
;-)
Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael Anderle
Other Books by the Authors
Other Middang3ard Books
Never Split The Party (01)
Late To the Party (02)
It’s My Party (03)
Blue Hell And Alien Fire (04)
Death Of An Author: A Middang3ard Novella
Other Books by Ramy Vance
Mortality Bites Series
Keep Evolving Series
Fatebound Series
Other Books by Michael Anderle
For a complete list of books by Michael Anderle, please visit:
www.lmbpn.com/ma-books/
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