Story Time

                It was right after the Council had been destroyed and Moriel and his followers were killing off the remaining Ryders. The council had forbidden Ryders to marry or mate with each other; they were afraid of what would happen if two powerful magic users had a child. They were afraid of the possibilities. But two Ryders fell in love. They had been married in secret and their dragons helped to conceal the truth. On the fateful day that Moriel showed his true colors these two were far away from the rest, hiding in order to be together.

                When the two returned they found nothing but destruction and death left of their once beloved home. Shocked into action the two armed their dragons and themselves. But before they set off, the man made the woman promise that if anything should happen she would leave his side rather than die with him. She was pregnant, and the man did not want anything to happen to his unborn child or to its mother. The woman only promised with half of her heart, for she loved him more than her own life and would have gladly fought and died next to him if necessary.

                But the man knew his mate well, and so turned to her dragon and spoke with her in secret to ensure that the dragon knew to take her as far away as possible to protect his mate and unborn child. The dragon promised, and the four of them set off to challenge and stop Moriel. They caught up with his army three days later and flew straight to where his dragons were kept. The two Ryders leaped off their own and ran into the hall where Moriel and his followers were supping.

                ‘Ahh yes. The two rule breakers.’ Moriel laughed and mocked them to their faces. ‘You two and I are not so very different, you know.’ He taunted them, poking and prodding to see if he could get them to come to his side. The man of the pair was the best magic weaver that the Ryders had seen since their birth, and Moriel was eager to have his cooperation.

                The two answered as one, as their dragons echoed their thoughts with roars, ‘We are nothing like you. We do not murder innocents, and those once considered friends.’ Moriel was so enraged that he struck first against the man and then turned to attack the woman. They battled back and forth, the three creating such a blur of movement that his followers had no chance to intervene.  Finally Moriel saw his advantage and attacked the man. Stabbing him through his shoulder, the woman cried out and flung herself onto Moriel, not thinking for her own safety. Moriel drew a dagger and it raked down her leg making her scream in pain.  A mighty roar was heard and the roof of the hall was torn to shreds by the two dragons coming to the aid of their Ryders. The woman’s dragon grasped her in its claw and with one look at the man staggering to his feet, flew away while the man’s dragon turned to face Moriels dragon head on. White dragon met Black in an earth-shuddering blow.The woman screamed, her tears flowing freely down her face as she saw her mate rise and attack Moriel from behind without her. She begged and pleaded with her dragon to put her down, to return and fight, but her dragon ignored her wishes and flew on.

                On their way out of Moriels grasp the woman and her dragon were shot at. The dragon took many arrows through her wings and many were lodged in her body. She was losing blood too fast. She managed to carry her Ryder many miles before finally collapsing on Virend rock. The dragon knew to come to Virend rock because it had once been a roosting place for wild dragons, and was named for the first dragon to make an alliance with man. The memories of individual dragons are long and hold the collective memories of those passed. The woman tried to heal her dragons injuries, but the wounds were too great. The dragon succumbed to death knowing that she had done everything she could to ensure her Ryder and unborn child would survive.

                The woman roamed into the town and found safety in the tavern and with the people. They had no idea who she was. She had come to them in only her nightclothes. Before coming out of the mountain she had buried her sword, armor and any other identifiable object in the rock. She only kept an amulet her mate had given her as a promise of his everlasting love. The woman had no reason to hope that her mate had lived, and so she chose to live in exile and never reveal who she really was.

New Stuff :)

               She could smell him. Despite the dance floor packed with sweaty college age patrons and the multiple alcohol stains across the floors, his stench found its way into her nostrils.

                Narrowly avoiding the grinding figures, she made her way to the bar area, where at least she could sit and not draw too much attention, though she could feel the eyes of many men watching her as she trod past. She could see herself through their eyes: a tall curvy blonde with legs that seemed to go on forever.

She smiled to herself, and felt their admiration growing as she let her hips sway to the music. They didn’t see her well concealed eye teeth.

 She could smell the bastard, now she just had to wait and see where he was. And she had plenty of time to wait. When you live forever, all you have is time.

                She had followed him across state borders, just ahead of the cops. She could stand to wait a few more hours. His MO was always the same. He would go to a packed college bar, find the girl who was hiding in the corner and flatter and flirt his way into her heart. The unsuspecting female, who usually had had one too many, would follow him out like a little lamb to the slaughter.

                A gentle cough interrupted her inner monologue. Looking to her right she noticed the interrupters were a group of college age boys. All clapping the smallest on the shoulder as he looked sheepishly up at her.  Despite the strobing lights, her eyes managed to register that he had innocent blue eyes and sandy brown hair.

                The bigger boys jostled him back and forth and then pushed him back towards her. “C-can I buy you a drink?” he managed to stammer out before he turned too shy.

                She couldn’t help but smile, he was so young, and had no idea that he was just going to be a pawn for the others for the rest of the night. She looked over at the others. Every single one of them; apes, she thought bitterly.

                “Of course you can, anything you’ll drink is fine with me.” Her voice was melodious and he seemed entrapped in it for a brief second before turning to the bartender. Shutting her ears to what he was ordering for them, she scanned the crowd, trying to catch sight of what she had smelled so prominently upon entering the building.  She felt the young boy turn back to her, one drink offered out to her. She had to be careful with him; she could easily mask his mind without meaning to.

                “H-here you go.” He raised his glass as he handed her hers.

                “Sláinte.” She raised her glass in response and watched his eyes open wide at her accent while speaking. The drink tasted like muddy water to her non human taste buds, but she managed to get most of it down in one gulp. She supposed it was something fruity because there was a strawberry on the rim of her martini glass.

                She looked at him candidly, “So did you complete the dare they set you on?” and gestured casually with her head towards the group.

                “Well, I suppose so…” he trailed off looking suspiciously back at them. She placed a hand lightly on his arm. She could psychically convince him to leave without touching him, but masking a humans mind worked better and had less of a chance that she would overwhelm his feeble human mind if she was in physical contact with him.

                “You have had your fun for the night.” She watched as his eyes went wide, and then seemed to stare at nothing in particular.

                “You are going to go back to your house, dorm or apartment and forget about tonight.” She glanced back at the crowd of boys who were turning their attention to the many girls dancing around suggestively. “And you are not going to go along with these boys again.”

                He nodded weakly and headed for the door. She watched as one of the others saw him leave and tried to go after him. But the crowd of people pushed him back, protecting the smaller boy as he left. She smiled to herself; at least she could protect him from tonight. Her mask wouldn’t last as long as she wished, but that was the mortal way. They had to learn the hard way, especially the men.

The Naming

The dragon was growing quickly and Riona was becoming worried that her mother might start noticing the larger and larger amounts of food going missing.  So she had to smuggle the dragon outside during her chores to give him more of an opportunity to hunt. He started in the barn. Riona had never thought that they had a mouse problem until the first day when he had caught five of them before she was done feeding the animals. He was smug for the next several hours until he realized there were no more in the barn and that they had all run away into the fields.

                The horses and chickens were afraid of him at first, but once they got used to him being there, they didn’t make as much noise. Riona was glad, because she wasn’t sure how she would have explained to her mother why the animals were constantly upset.

                After one long day, when they were both safely tucked up in her room for the night, it hit her that she still hadn’t named him. It wasn’t that hard to not use a name, after all, he could sense her thoughts and vice versa, there hadn’t been a time she had needed to use a name.

                He was sitting on the end of her bed, looking very much like an overgrown housecat. When he was stretched out from nose to tail tip he was now longer than her bed. But there he was, curled up by her feet, his body moving gently in time with his breathing, every now and then his tail would twitch.

                She tried to recall the stories of the Ryders that her mother had told her as a child, but none of the names really seemed to fit. There were Eos and Eris, the twin dragons. Then there came Matius, Letimer, Etretia, Lucia and she kept running down the list, but not one of them made any sense with the sleeping lump at her feet.

                Crossing her arms and furrowing her brow she just sat and watched him sleeping.

                Steam emitted from his nostrils with every breath and his scales shone a deep red in the little light that came in through her window. He twitched in his sleep and half rolled onto his back exposing his golden underside. All of his colors were of jewel tones, or precious metals that she had seen coming from mountains.

                “Hah!” The dragon woke with a start, his eyes wide looking around them.

                ‘Is something wrong?’ His mind voice sounded sleepy, but she noticed that his claws were held at the ready, his brown and gold flecked eyes rolled to rest on her. ‘Did you have the nightmare again?’ She noted that his tone took on a certain depth when he hit the word nightmare, and she smiled at his protectiveness.

                ‘No, nothing is wrong.’ His whole body relaxed again as his eyes stayed fixed on her. ‘I think I have a name for you.’ His mouth yawed open in the gesture she had come to recognize as his smile.

                ‘Well? Is it a good one?’ he asked impatiently.

                ‘I think it is.’ She waited a minute, wanting him to be surprised. She had learned quickly how to shield a few of her thoughts from him from time to time.

                ‘Tell me!’

                ‘I am going to call you, Feoras.’ She could mentally feel him rolling the word around in his mind and his feelings toward it.

                Suddenly he perked up, ‘I like it better than the other names you were running though. Feoras.’ He looked up at her with a quizzical expression, ‘Does it mean anything?’

                ‘Of course it does.’ He looked up at her expectantly. ‘I was sitting here thinking that all of the colors of your scales are like the gems that come out of the mountains, and Feoras means ‘of the mountain’ so I thought that it would fit you.’ His eyes lit up at the explanation.

                ‘You mean I’m going to be compared to the mountains all my life?’ His tone didn’t sound upset, but rather awed. She shrugged.

                ‘Well, I guess, if you put it that way.’ She could still faintly hear his mind mulling over and repeating the name again and again.

                ‘Well, I like it.’ He did his dragon smile again and re-curled himself at her feet as she laid down to sleep herself.

Freelance Work

     Those people close to me already know, but I have been hired as a Freelance writer for an acquaintance who works for a real estate company on the side. I have been hired on to write up the house descriptions. My sample piece is as follows.
     What I was given:

     Remarks: Well maintained NO FEE condo. Side-by-side home built in 2006, this condo features an open concept living area flowing into the dinette and kitchen. Vaulted ceiling opens up to 2nd floor loft. Master suite on main level. Two bedrooms and full bath on upper. Spacious kitchen with snack bar. First floor laundry off garage. Full basement roughed for a bath, features nearly 8' high ceilings ready for finishing. Convenient location. No condo association.



     

     My version: 

     

This well maintained side by side condo built in 2006 features an open concept floor plan. The living area flows through the dinette into the open kitchen and snack bar. The vaulted ceilings keep the open concept all the way to the 2^nd floor loft. The master suite sits on the main level as well as a half bath, while two bedrooms and a full bathroom occupy the upper floor. The laundry is located directly off of the attached garage and the full basement with 8’ ceilings is ready to be finished and have a third bathroom put in. Conveniently located five minutes from Pike Lake State Park, and there are no condo association fees.