cause right now were all thinking about breakfast and i just so happen to be working on this bit tonight

Nothing in specific had woken Black up as far as he could tell. Yet he shot up, wide awake and alert. He was aware of everything around him, the breeze blowing in through the window, the fresh flowery scent of the gardens down below. There wasn’t a sound besides a bird here or there and he puzzled about why he had awoken with such a start. He racked his memory for any dreams he might have had but came up with nothing.

‘Whatever,’ he thought. He shook it off got dressed and headed down the long spiral staircase to the castle proper.

“Master Black, good to see you awake already. Empress Xu has requested I wake you and send you to the kitchen for breakfast. “

“Oh, um, which way?”

The servant gave Black clear and precise directions. His informative nature also led him to explain that the royal family, for their children’s sake, liked to cook and eat together, casually in the kitchen as often as they busy schedules allowed.

“Thanks.”

Black followed the prescribed route, however tempted to deviate by a few rooms that he passed. He made his way to the kitchen, the smell of bacon or something similar enough kept him on track.

“Ah, you must be Black,”

The emperor’s wife stood at what looked like a gas stove, frying pan in hand. She had long dark red hair, a slender figure and an apron adorned with no doubt some sort of bacon grease from a magical flying pig or golden fleeced lamb.

“Yeah, that’s me.” his lips sleepily rolled the word out as the rest of his senses were distracted by the sizzling on the nearest burner. “Wait, is that a gas stove?”

latest little excursion into Gaia: the world of my book "pantheon"

With closed eyes, his index finger and thumb pinched the air just outside the hole of the box and pulled. Finding the lengthy but slender continent in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean he folded and closed his eyes.

It hadn’t occurred to him that it would be shortly after midnight there, but the city was large enough that time was less significant. The great capitol of the world, Atlantis, was energetic around the clock. A disregard for time surmounted as he witnessed the bustle from within closed doors. The map had brought him into a tall ceilinged and vacant apartment. Inside there was nothing to see.

Outside the industrious world teemed with life, businessmen, trades workers, and tourists all with a tight schedule. Black felt at home. Incubating a love for the big city he found a suitable pace, drew up his hood, plugged his ears and set the volume at a near uncomfortable high.

The city was well lit, as if it sat on the surface of a reflecting pool to the heavens. False fires and enchanted metals and stones glistened under the navy canopy. Black gazed, starry-eyed at the Milky Way. He thought of terrene and it’s polluted skies. He wondered what other small normalities of Gaia he would find surprising. Focusing on the view of our galaxy he thought of when he had last eaten and deemed it time for at least a snack.

Within an hour and a half Black had discovered the unmistakable scent of Chimera dung, navigated the outer rings described by Plato, pick pocketed an elven nobleman and tasted phoenix hot wings. Despite its supposed rarity it seemed overpriced, especially since the bird cooked itself.

All in all he gave the city a five star rating, plenty of thieving opportunities, decent food, gorgeous female creatures from a dizzying array of origins, and the architecture was stunning. Having hellenic origins the towers and temples of Poesidon’s city displayed more curves and intricate design than any ancient Greek buildings he had seen pictures of. Gold and silver leaf adorned even the most decrepit of stones and the famous blood red orichalcum gave the ancient capitol a sense of modern design.

Giddy with the world literally at his fingertips Black made a mental note to visit soon and he studied archaic continental outlines for a rivaling destination.

Paris stood out to him, marked by one of the larger sized dots. Black remembered the mock Eiffel tower he had seen in Las Vegas. He had eaten a crepe at that particular casino before. It seemed that if a non-magical Paris could house such an iconic landmark then the magical counterpart ought to be on par with Atlantis. He tried his luck.

Immediately standing in a cemetery on a hill overlooking a sprawling mass of urban development Black scanned the skyline for a tower ten times as high as the Eiffel. Disappointed he realized he was in an independent world, not just some magic mirror image of reality, but a stand alone, autonomous sphere.

He checked his Map again, less particular and saw the strange lettering of the Vikings nearby. North east of Camelot he saw Heiðabýr. Currently assuming he’d sample the world before the night was over he pressed one side of the soft treated hide to the other. The short distance between the two map markers was exaggerated as the new destination appeared before him. Black stepped out onto a balcony and gripped the railing tightly as the whole structure seemed unstable. The air was frigid and overbearingly dense fog embraced him. Black’s sense of adventure heightened.

“What is this?” he mused.

Small orange fires, barely visible, blazed in the distance. Below they appeared faint as if viewed through a veil of water, but that didn’t account for the fires above him, or the sound of waves underneath the patio on which he was perched.

Fumbling with Yuki’s stash, Black retrieved his own flying carpet and tore off into the fog. Narrowly missing the sharp claws of a wooden gargoyle perched atop an adjacent rooftop he steadied his pace. Black realized as he began to descend that Heiðabýr wasn’t a network of houseboats as he was beginning to think, but a collage of super towers and skyscrapers.

Black found the night to be clear as day below the low lying cloud cover. Chilly and damp he followed his nose to a warm smelling nighttime bakery. He stopped in for a warm drink and some bread.

As he warmed himself he sized up the square that rested outside the windows of this cozy shop. Stately looking structures stood on all sides. Several alleyways branched off in various directions, but the balconies were what gripped his gaze. This was a flying town. Valkyries and seraphs leaped and hovered to and from door to door, going to and fro without touching the grassy streets.

The hustle of the city had an eerie sound to it. Fluttering like an aviary during mealtime, the aerie of hundreds of Heiðabýrian wings echoed underneath the tumbling cumulus.

Finishing his drink Black stepped out alone onto the grassy field. Feeling out of place under the air traffic he considered a new destination. The marker for Babylon had caught his eye as he was bringing Heiðabýr closer. He thought it would be a nice warm contrast to the icy Viking capitol. Making his way toward a covered alley under whose seclusion he could inconspicuously travel his path was broken by a shower of shattering glass.

“Hey watch it!” he yelled. “Some people are walking here!”

Realizing how silly that must sound in this town he ducked for the cover of a second story porch.

He heard someone push aside a few window remains and offer apology and go back to whatever sort of ruckus that was pushing the more breakable elements to their limits. Whoever had made the voice sounded young, out of breath, and at pretty. Black wondered if she were in a fight and needed help. Once again retrieving his carpet he took to the skies.

Through the jagged opening he realized this girl was indeed in the middle of a fight. A couple years his senior, she was effectively sparring with what appeared to be a trainer. They both wore heavy coats and carried massive pole arms. Black watched them practice moves and counters over and over again. He understood the heavy coats to be part of the training, having often worn layers of sweats weightlifting and in the various martial arts classes he had taken. Foster parents always seemed to think they could subdue angst and help give an orphan structure and discipline. For Black all they did was open his eyes to the different styles of fighting and instill a mischievous desire to test them all out. This girl was using a style unlike any he had ever seen.

As she was knocked to the floor by her trainer he caught a glimpse of her face. Matching her voice her features were striking but soft. Cropped white hair and eternally blue eyes, thin lips and a resolute determination caught Black like a siren singing to a weary sailor.

“Hey! Vayursh.” It sounded like the girls trainer was chanting some spell at him as he was caught peeping. Black ducked and sped off down the alleyway. Not looking back to see if he was being followed, he grabbed his map, found the next town and saved himself from hitting the hard brick end to the alleyway.

The escapades of the evening had taken their toll as Black fatigued. He decided to return to his new room in Capriis. After all he was scheduled to travel again toward Atlantis in the morning and he needed what little time was left to sleep.

That night his subconscious forced him to run from a gorgeous girl with glass hair and a sharp poleax, never getting any farther from her and always wanting to turn around and meet her.

slew of nice ones

below are random excerpts from my novel, one from each chapter. please comment!

----

The museum was quiet, closed under care of security guards. Richard didn’t know how the stranger would come but he said he would. It was all the same, he didn’t care, he wasn’t going to ask. Questions got people like him into trouble, not authority trouble but trouble with trouble itself. -ch 1

----

It was the sunset that broke the silence, the sharp contrast of the shadows bouncing off the walls of the canyons and the bright glow of the rock reflecting sun. The shadows danced along the towering walls as the sun disappeared. They looked animate and moving. -ch 2

----

You think a meteor killed off your ‘dinosaurs?’ Think again. Your dinosaurs were obliterated, a genocide committed by the dominant clan of dragons, the stewards of the worlds. The oldest of creatures, cunning, clever and proud they abandoned Terrene long before man was ever around. -ch 3

----

seldom was such a brutal death lurking over chance of failure. He could hear his breath loudly flow, in, out, in, like the sound of crashing waves heard from under water, it resonated in his head as if he were listening to the inhale-exhale with his ears plugged. That ended abruptly as Yuki flicked Black on the nose. “Go now, up!” -ch 4

----

Black almost failed to contain his audible epiphany. The idea to hide gave him hope. He still had Yuki’s box the ultimate hiding tool, maybe there was some way he could use it to get out of this mess.

Black concentrated on that one thing, getting out. Eyes tensely shut he tried to follow Yuki’s dicey directions. He pulled something out of the box. Not ready for the way it fell into his hand Black failed to catch what came out. Startled he retracted his hand as something soft and supple wriggled its way out of the box. The light from the late afternoon cast sharp shadows into the loft. He glanced nervously out the window again to make sure he was safe up there.

Warm air eddied around him as he looked out into the late October afternoon. The moon hung in the sky already and people down below finished their errands preparing for a pleasant evening at home. Black knew it was a long shot but the idea of there being something in that stupid box to help him hide from an enraged kingdom and a devious cult, was absurd. -ch 5

----

The first thought to race through Black’s head was ‘I need to learn how to do magic on purpose.’ It was followed by more serious feelings and concerns. Uncomfortably he stood there wishing he wasn’t the steward of anything. He almost preferred being caught and jailed over being given rights, authorities and responsibilities. It didn’t feel like the proper response to surrender. He wanted to give back the sword, and spend long lonely nights thinking about his actions while slowly going mad in the dark dungeons. He was sorry for what he had done and he didn’t feel like an adequate or appropriate guardian of anything, let alone an entire city. -ch 6

----

Nearly strutting into the emptiness he saw no trace of the rude doorman except for a drip of blood about to fall from the inside door handle. Black didn’t really feel sorry for the unfortunate and uninformed man, he just noticed. This was not the sort of company one would want to annoy. -ch 7

----

“Sure.” Black agreed, handing Evo the map. The “you are here” dot changed from black to red and the letters above it now read Evyndr.

“How nice, it knows my name.” With that Evo let the Atlantic sea fall into his palm as he drew the dot labeled Capris close to the red one marking where he stood. The wall in front of him vanished and the scene shot forward to a very similar room in a tall tower somewhere in Capris. -ch8

----

Black didn’t realize at first he had walked into a jewelry store, the shrunken head that hung outside over the door just didn’t seem to him like something that begged to be worn around one’s neck. - ch 9

----

The next morning Black was inclined to start the day off grumpily but the bacon and French toast wouldn’t tolerate any such behavior. It was surprisingly good and the powdered sugar and hazelnut chocolate spread melted away any resentment he had for Civara. She ate her specialty breakfast in their company. Her portion seemed too light to feed a centaur, but ‘maybe,’ Black thought, ‘the idea is to get more conversation in.’ He didn’t care about motives or any awkward flirting, the egg dipped bread was so good. He ate a double portion that countered the rate at which he ate and they all finished at about the same time. -ch 10

----

They had read about the tree in the heart of the underground drainage system and its restorative properties but they hadn’t imagined that the water treatment plant integrated further biological systems including moss coated tunnels and sweeping ferns to carry currents through the network of canals and tunnels.

Neither of them spoke as they searched. The light scent of a spring garden and the sound of running water made the sewers too serene to pollute with bad jokes. - ch 11

----

“I congratulate you on finding this hallowed room, but I cannot give you what you seek only point the way. It is a perfidious path. The way to wisdom is designed to lead one astray.”

“What must we do?”

“You must destroy the monster of Camelot if you wish to solve all your riddles.” -ch 12

----

"...they made the international species creation committee. If you have a good idea for a new plant or animal you have to go through a rigorous approval process. And it’s no secret that great culinary promises usually get passed quicker than other requests.”

“What sort of other requests do people make?”

“Oh, all sorts of things. People want plants for medicines, animals for work, and both for any number of shady activities. The Chinese just busted a major worm fighting ring last week. It was big news.”

“Worm fighting? Really?”

“Yeah, near the Gobi desert people were illegally breeding massive sandworms with all sorts of creatures. Giant insects, man-eating beasts, you name it. They were getting out of their cages and terrorizing local villages. It was a big problem. There’s still several major rice paddies infested by deadly worm-beasts guarding rice with their lives.”

“Why rice?”

“Some guy bred his worms with bugs that love rice. Needless to say worldwide sushi prices have skyrocketed.” -ch 13

----

“The beast that almost took your arm home with it, it was a hydra. Do you remember seeing the bouquet of heads joined together at the neck as it chased us down here?”.........”Well, as you may or may know Hercules was one of the first ones to figure out this little detail about hydras first hand. Hercules cut off the heads and burned the stumps before they could grow back. But concerning hydras the more famous is the Gothic prince Alucard. He exploited the hydras ability and cut off heads until finally the fiend had so many heads they began to tangle and inhibit movement. Eventually it couldn’t support the weight of its own heads and collapsed. Of course Alucard wasn’t through. Still he severed head after head until the monster’s body actually split in half. Sadly for hydras they can only regenerate their heads.” -ch 14

----

His flaccid body pounded into something solid. He was caught on what he realized was some sort of grating, current sweeping past. The jolt of the collision had jostled his consciousness. Black knew there were few precious seconds to live. He reached for his block, his cube, the one thing he was certain could save his life, his magical and spacious toolbox. Black’s numb fingers withdrew a soggy piece of worn leather. He felt the soft pelt in between his fingers. He felt the edges tug away with the stream of newly cleansed water. He folded. Nothing. -ch 15

----

Although he felt a distinct tug to drop kick each and every one of the burly dwarves off the nearest pier, he had a feeling it would be his own head he was in over, not theirs.

Regaining his wits after clearly avoiding certain doom, he eyeballed the various Viking styles of construction. He noticed many similarities to the way Capris had been built, but this was pure Viking -ch 16

----

Wait here I am just going to tell my Mama that I’m going out for a fly.”

Black sighed a little, as Ika jumped off the balcony and landed about fifty feet away on the roof of one of the small buildings that made up her house. Bending down she stuck her head upside down in a window and held a small inaudible conversation. She fell forward off the roof intentionally and somersaulted into a skyward soar. She spun gracefully around and glided over to the tree house.

“Ready?” she piped as she headed for the far side of the fort, away from her mothers’ sight.

“I have a carpet.” Black offered.

Ika only giggled. She snuggled right up next to Black and positioned him in front of her facing away. Her arms wrapped around his chest tightly and her feet curled up in front of Black’s locking his in place as she fell straight forward off the back ladder.

The wind rushed past as they free fell, face forward from fifteen feet high. Black tensed up and Ika spread her wings and caught a current. -ch 17

----

“I’m telling you it was the perfect first date. What’d you and Civara do?”

“Not much, Centaur stuff I’ll tell you when you have four hooves.”

“Yea that’s code for boring. I bet you didn’t even kiss her.”

“Not on the first date! You?”

“Like you said, first date.”

Evo still couldn’t believe that Black had gone to Heythabyr for a date. He couldn’t blame him but he couldn’t believe it. He had also lied about kissing Civara and wondered if Black had done the same. Black hadn’t, he merely told the truth and got away with it. -ch 18

----

He turned and ran the drill again. This time he wasn’t so lucky. One of the bugs had crawled up his leg. Freaked out he tried to shake it off but he still stood on top of some of the bugs. More and more bugs ascended his pant leg as the leg climbing pioneer was sailing toward the far end of the room. Screaming and panicking Black thrashed and tried to swipe off as many as he could, only to introduce a shortcut to his arms. Covered neck down in snapping insects he vomited. The bugs ate it. Black crumbled when one or more of them chewed the ligaments behind his knee.

They covered his head. His scream was cut off by the taste of them. Sour bitter and everything gross all in one. Black chocked and coughed out the bugs. He managed to yell proudly, “I’ll never give in!” The bugs seemed more furious than ever and the swarm spoke in a cold quick voice. -ch 19

Hope you liked em, once again please comment, ALL feedback is immeasurably helpful and appreciated. thanks