I step into the forest, all I want is to escape my stifling family. Sometimes I cannot stand love, caring, or attachment. These dark woods are my refuge. Each tree stands sentinel to my pain, rage, and anguish. The strong armed oak, my lover. The sorrowful tendrils of the willow, my mother. The tall, scraggly, mountain pine, my best friend. We talk through slow deliberation, electric thoughts sent through the soil from my toes to their roots. I wish I could be one of them, the trees, strong, peaceful, elegant, and everlasting. I slowly burrow my toes into the ground, the soft soil caresses my feet. Oak whispers to me. Zap, Zap, Zap. He sends his thoughts telling me that it is okay. I reach my arms up as if to pull nourishment from the sun and leave behind my problems. Reaching, reaching, I spread my fingers, tipped with dew and Willow sings to me. 

     Zap, Zap, Zap. I wish my real mother would do that. She never sings. All she does is tell me to stop hanging around my trees in the woods. I should make friends, but she doesn't know that I do have friends and all she is doing is pulling me away. I hear the whine of my sister's annoying voice lifted upon the wind that winds through my long hair like a white silky scarf. I don't hate my family, I just can't take them all the time. I wish I could become a tree. ZZZip. I send that thought to Oak, Willow, and Pine, but a different voice answers. It rasps Is that really what you want? I respond carefully and whisper I think so. 

     Samraat Tigris was sitting on his gold throne in his gold castle almost dozing off. At first glance during the day he might seem like a normal human being. There was nothing out of the ordinary about his black hair or brown eyes in daylight, but all of that changed once the sun set.  He was a changeling; a wizard that changes into an animal at dusk. On this particular evening it was around 7pm. The sun had just set, so he was in his giant white tiger form. It was still quite early for him. His giant white head was drooping to one side when the doors to his throne room were thrown open. A cheetah raced into the room. He was running so fast that he slid right into the wall next to Sam’s chair, knocking a vase from the shelf. Sam woke up to the vase shattering over his head and the guards jumping to their feet at the sound of the commotion. He recognized the cheetah just in time. It was James; one of the changeling messengers that lived in the city.

     “Stop! Do not harm him.” The guards quickly backed away and sat down in front of Sam’s throne. He waved his paw and the vase was back to normal on the shelf. “What is wrong?” He could tell James was in a considerable amount of shock; something terrible must have happened.

The wizard boy was straggling far behind, as I lead him through the forest. I could feel anger bubble up inside me, each time he snapped a twig with his careless strides. I had promised to help the wretched boy, but I wasn’t sure I could tolerate much more of his company. Why should I help him, anyway? No one was there to help me navigate these woods when I was young, and injured, and afraid. I had to learn how to thrive in this environment. Of course it was mostly trial and error for the first several years, but I survived. I paused, giving the boy a chance to catch up, but as I watched him stumble this way and that, I knew it could take him awhile. 

I sighed, and perched myself on a fallen tree, running my fingers against the wet moss that grew the length of the trunk. It was good moss. I would have to remember this spot the next to time one of my recipes called for some good, wet moss. I drummed my fingers against the tree trunk, as he lumbered through the woods I held so dear. The boy let out an amusing squawk when he tripped over the roots of an old oak tree. I had had enough. I chanted a tune I had invented, asking the surrounding trees for some assistance. Their branches reached out to him, scooping the boy into their wooden arms. The wizard howled as he was unceremoniously passed from tree to tree. Finally, a sturdy yew dropped him at my feet. 

“Thank you, friends,” I chortled, as the wizard boy labored to his feet.

“That was most unpleasant,” he glared at me, brushing sediment from his already torn breeches.

“I warned you to earn your keep.”

https://theprose.com/post/125939/first-impressions

Bobby sat back clutching the gourd bowl drinking down the fatty slop that the lone guard passed through the wooden lashed bars of his dirty prison. The hard stone wall felt cold on his bare back, but the chill helped soothe the burn of his untreated injuries even as the gruel turned his stomach. Two days of drinking grease was paying a toll on the little man’s digestive system, but sheer hunger drove the poor one to relish the single meal afforded the lonely prisoner.

Bobby awoke in his corner cell two days earlier to the stench of rotting flesh and human waste, unaware of why or how he came to be in the underground cage. His sentry appeared to be mute and his L—shaped cellblock revealed little signs of life as he looked up the long corridor lit by oil lamps set strategically on the walls of the narrow passageway. From his current vantage point against the back of his wall he couldn’t see down the corridor his row faced.

Bobby leaned forward and cleared his throat. “Could I have some water please?”

If the guard heard the plea, he made no motion and showed no intention of giving succor.

“Water,—please.”

Nothing.

A strange jumble of syllables sounded to his right. Bobby pushed off the wall and crawled to the wooden poles lashed tightly with leather thongs,— the bars to his cell. “Is someone there?” He pushed his face through the thin partition with considerable effort and looked down to his right. “Hello?”

A woman’s head popped out into the passage and seeing Bobby let out a flurry of garbled speech.  Bobby listened carefully to the dialect as he studied the smooth contours of her features. Her strong, high cheekbones and her dark eyebrows magnified the hazel of ...

Continuation

https://theprose.com/post/135294/the-golden-city-i-posted-the-first-300-words-for-a-contest-but-i-thought-for-any-that-wanted-to-continue-i-would-post-the-full-prologue

Chapter 1

https://theprose.com/post/135238/the-golden-city-chapter-one-prison-bonds

Chapter 5

https://theprose.com/post/155256/the-golden-city

Chapter 8

https://theprose.com/post/136480/the-golden-city

Chapter 12

https://theprose.com/post/246382/the-golden-city

Chapter 20

https://theprose.com/post/246680/the-golden-city

Chapter 38

https://theprose.com/post/165305/the-golden-city-chapter-thirty-eight

Chapter 52

https://theprose.com/post/136801/the-golden-city-chapter-fifty-two

Chapter One

The Beast charged forward and smashed through the outer gate of the city. The creature was gargantuan in size and strength. It was so tall that its back rose above the high outer wall of the city. It slowly backed up, crunching the flattened gate under its hind legs. The city it was attacking was the capital of the local land. The only place in the small country that had Dragon Riders. The only place with the ability to call for help from the surrounding countries. If this city fell the country would crumble in a matter of days.

The Beast swung its massive horned head and destroyed another fifty feet or so of the Outer Wall. This creature was a Bhari Jeyint. One of the last of its kind; some distant, cousin to the Common Dragon.

The Mages and Wizards in their Magic Towers on either side of the main square watched in horror through their scrying bowls and crystal balls. Some of them had theorised this might happen, but the city was completely defenseless to such an attack. None of these men, powerful in their own right, had any magic strong enough to effect something like a Bhari. They scrambled around in shock and panic trying to evacuate the city as fast as possible. Most of the citizens had already been warned and moved to the far side and a few had already made it out into the plains; but the city would be destroyed, there would be no chance of saving it now. The Mages knew their dragons would be of no use against the beast in battle so they used them now to help with evacuation.