Book excerpt: YS THE FALLEN
Dana was running, running away through the stormy dangerous night of the Dracon Lands. She was risking it all to be saved, to escape sin – her home. To save her soul. Panicked, she aimed to be silent, quieter than the trees whipping and crackling from the storm around her. Anything to not raise suspicion of the dragon spirits hiding in the trees and stones. Her feminine frame betrayed her as her ankle twisted on a wet root protruding from the uneven ground – felling her down a muddy ditch, scraping and bruising her. She landed with a yelp and a mouthful of scum as the water below forced through her and stained her blue hair.
The wind quickened. Dana’s breath – her very own heartbeat, both were muted by the winds clashing against the hefty forest. It was like a suffocating symphony of chaos and she couldn’t find her place in the arrangement. She shuddered as the screams from the dragon’s wisps responded to her cry, flying from their homes in the hallows of the nooks and crannies of the dense woods. Like a tornado they spiraled down upon her, moments away from a vicious strike.
Dana’s arms struggled to pull her up from the terrible tide. She winced as she dug her nails into the wet clump of grass above and tried to pull herself over onto level ground. Yet each attempt was met with failure and she found herself stuck in the river of mud. However, one by one the spirits struck her and began to zap away her lifeforce. Her instinct to survive at all costs overcame her pain and exhaustion and she found the volition to pull herself out of the ditch.
The spirits followed as she hobbled along the murky way. She needed to hurry, as the wind was soon to overcome her, and her sight was becoming dim. Desperate in her search, eventually she came to find a giant tree, hollowed out to the size of a cave. She entered just as the wind had become too great a tribulation.
No rain. No spirits. No burden. She fell to the ground taking deep, rapid breaths. Exhausted, her eyes scattered around for any remaining signs of danger. Seeing nothing in the dark, tiredness consumed her.
▄
She awoke with a sweat, her dirty clothes now sodden from the heat. Quickly she pulled her legs from the entryway; her feet baking in the sun. She held them in great pain, wanting to curse but biting her lip instead. Slowly, she stood upon her heels and looked about the hollowed-out tree and what came to her surprise was not its tall ceiling, but rather the giant, dotted egg that rested in the middle of the room on a cushion of twigs and greens. Dana had never seen anything like it. She had to back up to get a full view of the egg, her eyes wide in amazement. She stopped though, as soon as she felt the burning of the sun on her back.
She turned around quickly to avoid the pain, but her sun-burnt soles betrayed her. Stumbling back, she fell and hit her head on something hard and heard a loud cracking sound. She sat silently for a few moments in shock, fearing she hurt herself. From behind her came a jet of an orange colored liquid, small at first but then the stream quickly multiplied. She turned around on her scuffed knees to see that she had fallen into the large egg and cracked it with the back of her head.
Desperately she tried to stop the blustering liquid coming from the increasing cracks – she put her hands upon the biggest gaps in the vain attempt of keeping it together, but with every crack closed, another opened. She cried out when the next stream burst upon her face – she didn’t want to hurt the egg. She didn’t want to kill it. Then she felt a thud against her palm and looked at it in great amazement – a shadow of another hand from inside the egg touched her own, and with this, she backed away. The egg began to pulsate at great rapidity with a bright pink light. Just as fast did the cracks cover entirely until it burst open and from the egg came a wave of orange yolk that enveloped her.
She opened her eyes and found that the orange substance had left her no dirtier. Rather, her clothes (a simple blue dress and cloak), muddy hair, wounds and burns, had all been cleaned and healed after being in contact with the substance. She smiled at the realization. A heavy thud followed, and her mind was brought elsewhere.
From the egg slid out a young man, covered in the slimy orange yolk. Unconscious, he shivered in pain as he tried to breathe. She leapt to him instantly and lifted him onto her lap – opening his mouth and cleaning out what blocked his breath. She then cleaned his eyes and face. He began to calm and breathe normally, sleeping silently upon her. She looked down at him, noticing his gentle, handsome face, almost boyish in its innocence, though he looked to be her same age. His hair, as red as blood, stuck to his forehead until she removed the last remanence of yolk that remained. She comforted him with doting words, “it’s okay, it’s okay. I won’t leave you. I’ll protect you. Sleep well,” she said as if he were a newborn child. She cradled him silently as time passed by.
She has a curse. He has scales.
The Kingdom of Ys has been cursed by the Devil, a mighty dragon who seeks celestial conquest. As Princess Dana, one of the last acolytes of a forgotten church, scours the Dracon Lands hoping to find help for her people, she stumbles upon a giant egg. A handsome man named Ru, who has supernatural abilities, breaks free from the shell.
They set forth on a journey to free Ys of the curses by slaying the Devil, all the while facing Dana’s evil sister and her insidious machinations. But before the apocalyptic battle begins, they first face their own inner turmoil. Ru confronts his relation to the dragon and his contradictory tendency towards good. Dana treads the line between love and lust as she struggles to remain moral in a fallen world.
Can the curses be broken? Or will their relationship be broken first? The bells of Ys must ring.
The fight for salvation begins now!
See Dana and Ru’s epic adventure continue when Ys The Fallen releases on July 18th, 2022! Follow me here! https://scvincentbooks.wordpress.com/