Sharing an excerpt of my next book. I haven’t decided on a title yet.
Enjoy!
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Preface
The small creature ran fast, steadily holding onto something precious. He was being chased by the evil Augustus.
About ten men in horses were coming close to him. Arrows flew through the air, chipping off barks of the trees. One arrow pierced the air striking the creature on its left hand, sparing his life only by the object he held onto his chest. Knowing that the woods only led to a river; the creature dropped to the damp earth, just behind the thick branches of an oak tree.
As the horses came near, Mother Nature swiftly flew some leaves to cover the panting creature. The enemy passed by without noticing him, and he was left for dead in the forgotten woods of Caurus.
Chapter 1: Unusual gifts
The day had started with fairly good weather, but after the morning hours a few dreary clouds started to gather nearby the village of Conscientia. Conscientia was situated in the northeastern lands of Caurus.
Right beyond a hill of blooming sunflowers stood a fragile home. It looked like a tower of a castle, a weathered tower and a vast plain lay behind the tower; miles of land covered with corn and wheat. A young woman was working on those fields. It was Sarah.
Sarah had started to work on the fields that morning, trying to plant as many vegetables as she could. She was sixteen at this time. She had long wavy brown that reached her waist and her eyes were painted of honey, just like her mother’s.
Sarah had been born to Luisa and Julius. When Sarah was only three years old her father Julius died of an unknown illness. A faint memory of her father was all that she had; it would come and go every now and then. A memory of her being picked up by her father and both laughing. It was a good memory, one that she always cherished.
Sarah worked vigorously all morning and sometime around noon she knelt on the ground and opened a burgundy colored box. The box contained many types of seeds; from the most common to the rarest, like the famous Oringiana, an orange shaped fruit with a banana taste. I guess that in modern times an Oringiana smoothie would be quite tasty. The box had dividers that kept the seeds organized into different categories.
Suddenly the sunny skies were covered in a thick layer of dark gray clouds.
“Sarah” called her mother Luisa. “Come inside child, it will start raining in two minutes.”
Sarah set aside her gardening tools and hurried inside as she shook the dirt off from her worn and beaten boots. And after exactly two minutes it started to rain…
The cylinder shaped home was made with stones, it had two levels and the roof was made with wood and hay. Sarah waited inside and sat on a bench in the living room, shaking her leg as to amuse herself. The living room and all the rooms inside the house were rather strange looking considering that the furniture was built to fit onto the curved walls. A spiral staircase stood in the middle of the first floor and divided the main area into three sections: a living room, a dining room and a kitchen. The upper level had three bedrooms.
After some time Sarah looked through the small oval window in the kitchen, “still raining…” she said quietly.
“And it will rain for another thirty two minutes. Please, fire up the stove” said Luisa. “Then take those linens upstairs, if you will.” Sarah did so diligently.
Luisa kept working around the kitchen. She usually kept her dark brown hair in a bun and wore a brown long dress with a yellow apron. She tended to day dream quite often, gazing at the skies or at the endless miles of land. And most days she would be the first to wake up and the last to go to sleep.
It had been more than twenty minutes now, and it was still pouring. Sarah stood in her room and opened a pair of wooden shutters that protected the only window in the bedroom. As she opened the window a mist of rain rushed in and sprinkled her face. From up there she could see the rope that she had tied to the edge of the roof and which ended down beside a small shelter. The rope had a pulley and Sarah had swung down on it many times, never while it rained though. The thought was tempting.
“Don’t even think about it, Sarah Marie Wainwright” said Luisa suspiciously. Sarah knew to never underestimate her mothers’ intuition.
“Do not worry mother” Sarah replied firmly, looking at the raindrops and glancing toward a brass and silver bracket clock that was sitting on her desk.
“It’s been thirty one minutes” she whispered. At precisely thirty two minutes the last raindrop splashed into the ground, the clouds spread out and the land was bright with golden rays of sunshine.
