Dragon's Land Book 1: Lost and Found

As I promised (albeit a little later than I thought), an excerpt from my first novel, part of a trilogy and in the second stage of editing to be published. I hope this gets you excited to read the whole thing!



This is from chapter 4, the first encounter with the series main antagonists, the monstrous dragons of Orcion:

 Clouds obscured the sky, thunder rumbled as a light rain began to fall, adding to the sinister atmosphere. And as lightning lit the dark world the dragon roared at the newcomers, ready to kill.

Cael suddenly yelled to get the dragon’s attention, and it turned its murderous yellow eyes on him.  It resembled a cat in body: long, slender limbs, with wide eyes and pupils that were narrowed into angry slits.

 The dragon’s bronze scales began to spark with electricity, they were shimmering gold in color and they glowed in the darkness and flashed off of the raindrops, adding it seemed, to the storm’s rapidly growing fury. The dragon snarled at its new enemy, spread its wings and turned its body so that its shoulder, and the myriad of bone spikes that sprang from it, faced its foe.

 Cael recognized the movement and tensed himself to jump. The dragon roared and sprang forward covering the distance between them in an instant, Cael jumped aside just in time to evade the razor sharp bone. The dragon continued its headlong rush right past him and smashed into one of the massive boulders that dotted the clearing, carving large, jagged furrows in the stone.

 Diving into a roll, Cael stood up from the ground panting because of the rush of adrenaline from his close shave. The dragon recovered from the shock of hitting the rock and shook its head, apparently fine with smashing into large boulders. The dragon looked at Cael, who was now taking a ready stance and igniting his hands in preparation for the next attack, and narrowed its reptilian eyes with anger. Cael saw the angry glare and smiled as he saw the ragged scar on the side of its neck.

“So it’s you.” He said, “Didn’t think you’d be coming back for more. If I’m honest with myself I thought you were dead the first time.” The dragon roared, shaking the ground beneath the companion’s feet.

 Soran watched the melee and calmly bandaged up Brenna’s bleeding arm, having already taken her to the edge of the clearing so as to avoid getting in the way of the fierce confrontation. Brenna was not taking things so lightheartedly, “Why are you making conversation with it, you idiot!” she shouted in Cael’s general direction, “We have to run, we can’t fight that thing!”

Cael gave her a reproachful look and elaborated, “But we’ve met before, do you really have that little faith in me?”

 The dragon watched them with narrowed eyes knowing that another head-on attack would be useless. With a sudden burst of speed the dragon bunched its leg muscles and leapt towards the Soran and Brenna, knowing that they were the weaker of its current opponents. With a flying leap, Cael intercepted the beast mid-flight with a solid kick to the ribs.

Brenna stared in shock as the beast that had been hurtling towards her at top speed suddenly changed direction to fly headfirst into a tree. “Just how freakishly strong is he?” she thought to herself.

 Cael dropped to the ground and stood ready, knowing full well that even with a powerful kick like that, all he had done was make the dragon angrier. “He isn’t going to fall for the same trick twice.” He thought quickly. Cael sent a double stream of flame towards the still-prone dragon, engulfing it in a sapphire inferno. 

Thanksgiving

I believe that Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of reflection, one that is apart from normal, everyday life, set aside to remind us of what we should be thankful of.
But for Christians, should not this special reflection of what God has blessed us with be a daily exercise?

God blesses us everyday, and many of us do thank Him often for these blessings, but to what point? Do we thank Him for our family, our friends, our jobs? All good things to thank God for....

But my point is this: how many of us thank God for a beating heart?
Or how about thanking Him for working lungs?
Or maybe for bodies that hold our souls in place until He takes them to His side?

Often  I believe that many do not thank God for this life... They see it, (and to a point, rightly so)  according to Romans 8, that the creation and we ourselves are groaning, waiting for heaven's touch.

Have you considered that living life in this sinful, dark, despairing, fading world is a privilage?

How so you ask?

How could we know the love of God if we didn't know the hatred of man?
How could we deeply consider the unfaltering faithfulness of our LORD if we didn't see the betrayal of humanity around us?
And how could we delight in the truth of our Savior, that he died and bled for us, even as sinners, and for now, sinners still, if we didn't see the stark contrast of the world around us, the fading verses the eternal?
And how could we see the glorious light or Christ if we were not surrounded by darkness which begs a constant need for light?

What I say is this: when you begin to thank God during this special time of reflection, (which oddly enough comes in the season of death and harvest)  thank God that He is so far different from what you see around you, and thank Christ for allowing you to live through Him in this dead world.

In Christ Alone,
-The Scribe

Current projects

So I thought it might be nice for any reader who is interested in what I am up to writing-wise to have a list of my current projects.  Any questions about any of these projects can be directed through the comments, well, here you go!
Dragons Land Book 2: The Lost Library
This is the second installment in a trilogy that I have been planning and writing for 4 years now, almost 5,the first book is completed and undergoing editing right now, I will post excerpts from that in the near future.

Incarnate: the Grinning Reaper
This is a pet project of mine, and an idea I'm quite proud of, not much to tell yet, but I have most of the main plot planned out and some of the first book written.

Bloodletter: Bloody Fate
The rebirth of an old idea, not much for this one but I have main characters and plot mostly done, lots of work still to do, but it is on my list.

The sequel and prequels to Dragon's Land
No titles yet, or, I don't want to give them away just yet, but aside from Incarnate these are my next projects after Dragon's Land.

I have quite a few others in the wings, but the ideas are too rough to reveal just yet.
Anyways, there you have it, I've got my work cut out for me, but I'm going to enjoy every moment, and hope that you all can enjoy the fruits of my labors in die time.

-The Scribe

The Rising of the Moon

This will be my first post that doesn't involve Scripture so bear with me, there will definitely be more of that in the future, but since this is a dual-purpose blog, this is the other purpose.

I've been thinking of a new idea for a story, I haven't figured out a setting, or really a plot, but I have a character, one with a serious dual-personality issue. Here is a bit of dialogue:

"Why are we following some guy we don't know sis?"

"You wanted answers, and he might have them, or...  She might have them."

"What do you mean she? Does he have a girlfriend, or a wife or something?" he said with a snort.

His sister turned around and shuffled her feet a little, looking a little guilty.
"No, he doesn't, at least, I hope he doesn't. Anyway, that isn't what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" her brother asked with raised eyebrow apparent, even in the dark.
"Let's just say he has dual-personalities, like, really badly."

Her brother looked even more skeptical, "So we're following a crazy person in the middle of the night to who knows where?"

The person they were following appeared right beside them even though he had been far ahead seconds ago.
"She means I have the soul of the Night Queen embedded in my body, that is as dual-personality as one can get, now let's go." with that he walked off into the dark, and of the brother and sister wanted answers to what happened to them, they had no choice but to follow...

The Grace of God, to a Worm of a man

Psalm 22 verse 6 says something interesting...


It says "But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people."

This statement in light of earlier verses in this Psalm (i.e. verse 3 "Yet You are Holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel."), throws a very stark contrast into the human heart.

Jeremiah 17 verse 9 says that the heart of man is "deceitful" and "desperately wicked", and if the heart is said to be "deceitful" who is being deceived, and what is the deception?
Well to answer plainly, we, humanity are being deceived, by our own inward selves, by our lying, wicked hearts.
What is the deception? Simple. that we are more than worms...
This Psalm reminds the heart of its own lies, and thus we do everything in our power to avoid things like this Psalm, things that remind us of our lowly nature.
Why do we need to be reminded that we are lowly?
Isaiah 6 verses 1-3 reveal it quite plainly:
 "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!'"

God is Holy, He is high and lifted up, the earth shakes just being near His presence, so who are we in comparison?

Worms... Lowly crawlers of the earth.
And yet... He values us...
Within the same passage that speaks of us as worms, we are told that God cares for us, that He rescues us (Psalm 22: 9-10 and on).

God cares for us, and values us. The fact is, we are worms, let not your heart deceive you! We are worms. But God, the Most High, the Holy One, loves us and cares for us. Psalm 103 is full of great promise and obvious care.
See this in particular: Psalm 103 verse 14: "For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust."
Dust we are, worms we are. But He still remembers us, He brings us to mind, and our God cares for us. Indeed: Psalm 103 verse 13 says: As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion on those who fear Him."
We are worms, we are dust, but our Heavenly Father cares for us.

Grace be with you--
The Scribe