Fantasy

Mystical Prisms and Button-Stealing Dragons

Hi Readers,

We hope our previous adventure landed in your inbox last week. If it didn’t, click here to catch up now. We’ll plot our next move while you do that. 😉

Why might our awesome adventure have gone astray?

Well, because our newsletter host is continuing to have problems. We’ve sent messages asking our Newsletter-Dragon to kindly stop burning the servers, but she hasn’t replied.

Please note: we don’t know if she’s causing the problem or clearing it out. The Newsletter-Dragon doesn’t tell us what she’s doing.

That’s why we’re searching for an emissary who’s durable enough to withstand her wrath. (Dragons hate being questioned by an-y-one.) But Auntie Sovvan is a tough lady. Since she’s not alive in the conventional sense, the Newsletter-Dragon can’t hurt her too much–in theory.

Unfortunately, my aunt left our narrative under mysterious circumstances and hasn’t been seen since then. 😦

Our Newsletter-Dragon must have gotten wind of our plan. On Sunday, she swooped in and stole our send button. That’s why this week’s adventure deployed a day late. Our send button is a mystical object that gives us the power to communicate with you.

What does it look like?

Well, it’s a rectangular prism that reflects our world, but it has this annoying habit of distorting our faces. I always look like I have chipmunk cheeks in it, and the glow of Papa’s eyes frequently gets trapped inside it. I can happily spend hours watching those rays bounce around, seeking an escape. 🙂

On the button’s top, four words1 revolve in an elliptical orbit:

‘Engage the Engines of Fantasy!’

Yeah, our button is pretty special, and we’re very fond of it. So we were really happy when it returned to us. 🙂

We hope you had a great week and are ready for another adventure. Because we so are. Well, maybe not our slightly singed scribe, but she goes where we go, and we go where few fictional characters have gone before. 😉

Before we do that, we just want to give you an update about our fifth book, Curse Breaker: Sundered.

We did a few more test renders:

So far, everyone seems to like the last one but with a few modifications:

  • Get our 3d doubles in focus

We accidentally knocked the 3d camera around. I blame the Newsletter-Dragon since she’s still hiding in cyberspace and can’t defend herself. 😉

  • Fix our clothes because they’re not the correct color.
  • Fix me. I look scared instead of ready to do battle.

I do get a little scared since I’m just a little kid on an epic underground adventure, but I spend the entire book with Papa. Plus, I defend him from the bad magic that tries to take over his mind. (Spoiler alert!)

So I need to look like I’m made of sterner stuff. Because I’m pretty tough for a little kid. Just ask the Adversary who failed to get a hold of me in Curse Breaker: Falls.

He’s still sore about that and searching for a way to get a toehold on yours truly.

We have a new version rendering right now, and when it’s done:

  • Our clothes will be green.
  • We should be in focus (fingers crossed!)
  • I will look like the tough little sidekick/son that I am
  • The lights might not be right though.

They danced around instead of following us. It was the weirdest thing. We looked and looked but couldn’t find anything in the interface to explain their bizarre behavior.  So they may need to be toned down or intensified. We couldn’t tell what they were doing, not even in the simulations. 0_o

We’ll post the latest render around 9/10 p.m. Eastern Standard time if we’re in focus. You can check here to see when it’s up.  It’ll be the first post on the left. We’ll also share it on social media.

And now we must jump back into our ongoing adventure…

Today’s Adventure

[Last week, we saved our scribe. Yes, that finally happened.]

I [Ran] squinted into the light burning on the horizon. As it spread its rays wide, encompassing the sky, bells rang, striking the hour somewhere nearby. They reminded me of home. Shapes moved through the light, and I craned my neck to see them.

“What are those things coming toward us?”

“What things?” Papa looked where I pointed, but the shapes refused to clarify.

Papa shook his head but kept staring into the light as it advanced. It was a column, swallowing up the dirt road and the hills it wound through. A luminous cloud walked in front of it, whipping the winds into a frenzy. Something moved within that funnel, but it was a hazy shape just barely discernible to my tearing eyes as Papa turned and ran, clutching me in his arms.

“Wait, what about Bear?”

“What?”

“You left Bear behind.” I pointed to the silhouette of my most treasured toy and the ghost occupying it.

“Yeah, what about me? Unlike you, my legs are short and stubby.”

And Bear was slowing. His button eyes widened in alarm.

“Bear?”

“I don’t feel so good,” he said just before he toppled.

A bear-shaped ghost flew out of my stuffed toy into the light swallowing everything.

“J.C.!” I shouted.

He still sat on the fallen tree, gilded by light. “The light’s fantastic, isn’t it?” he said dreamily as the light engulfed Him.

“It’s beautiful,” said our scribe as she, too vanished into the light.

Just Papa and I were left, as usual, but he was slowing and breathing hard.

“I can’t run anymore. I’m so tired.” Papa dropped to his knees and held me tight.

He didn’t look right, and I feared he might have one of his shaking fits. Golden rays fell on us. Papa collapsed on his side. Their touch was gentle and soothing and it didn’t try to separate us. Instead, it cocooned us as the world spun around us, and it swept us away.

“Where are you taking us?” I asked light, and the light answered.

“You’ll see.”

There was a smile in its mind-voice, which was a welcome change from Bear’s drier one.

“But I want to know now.”

“You’ll just have to wait until you get there.”

“Will Melinda and J.C. and Bear be there?”

This time there was no response, but I yawned, feeling suddenly very sleepy. I was all tucked up safe in Papa’s arms, and he made a nice cushion. I yawned.

“You’re trying to trick me into taking a nap.”

Papa had tried that once. It hadn’t worked out well for him, and he’d eventually given up on that. I fought sleep, but it crept in and stole me away.

Find out where we end up next week.

Deals, Giveaways & Other Cool Stuff

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If you like epic battles, amazing powers and earning pre-launch goodies, check out the Kickstarter for Death Cloud by RJ Batla.

[Off topic, but what do you think of Kickstarter? Is this something you’d like us to do?

— Inquiring characters want to know. 😉]

Until next time, dear reader

This is your host, Ran, son of Sarn, wishing you a great week!

Errata

1See ‘Correcting the Magical Send Button.’