Snippets of a Story

Thanks to the many writing blogs I follow, I stumbled across a wonderful thing called Snippets of a Story. It is hosted by Whisperings of the Pen, and all you have to do is link up and you get to share small snippets from your writing with all the other wonderful writers out there. How lovely.

Well, I hope you enjoy this and I hope that you are entertained, enlightened, and fall in love with the little bits and pieces of my characters that you see.

Dakota glanced around at her friends. Humans? Now that's a name I haven't been called in a long time. Mutant freak, yes. Phoenix, yes. Firechild, yes, but ... human? That's something I don't hear every day.

-The Search for the Allies

A shadow fell over Dakota and Noah, and Dakota looked up.

A foot ---- a giant, hairy foot the size of her kitchen ---- was poised over her head ready to strike.

Dakota gulped.

“Sure. Yeah. I'll come with you, big guy. Just ---- let me ---- get this ---- rock off him ----”

“No. Come now. I squash friend.” the troll said, his eyebrows scrunched together in concentration.

The foot moved closer.

“Fine! Fine! I'll ---- uh ---- come now.”

“Dakota, no!” Jazmyn cried.

“Yes!” Dakota yelled. “But ---- as my, er, dying wish ---- why don't you S-N-E-A-K over here and get him?”

“What is taking so long?”

A new voice had entered the scene. Everyone looked around ---- even the troll. His poised foot wobbled dangerously.

Dakota saw it first ---- the blood red cloak. The long blond hair.

Juliet.

Oh snap.

-The Search for the Allies

Damian moaned and thrashed, then opened his eyes. “Ohhhh ---- where am I?” He looked up at Jazmyn. “Ah. Good morning, beautiful.”

Jazmyn rolled her eyes and sat him up on a nearby rock. “It isn't morning. We were battling a troll, do you remember?”

Damian swayed like a drunkard, and said, with swagger in his voice, “Maaaaaaybe. Did I save your life, sweetheart?”

Jazmyn slapped him.

Damian clutched his face and fell backward off the rock in surprise. “Ouch! What was that for?”

Jazmyn gnashed her teeth, her eyes flaming. “Sweetheart? Sweetheart?!”

“What?” Damian popped up from behind the rock, a bruise swelling on his cheek under his high cheekbone. “Is there something wrong with the term? Would you rather be called darling? No? How about honey, would you go for that?”

Noah guffawed loudly and, hastily, at Jazmyn's poisonous look, turned it into a violent cough.

Jazmyn turned away from Damian and said, stiffly, “Get up. We need to get moving.”

 -The Search for the Allies

“What’s next?” Noah called shakily from his place on the ground, his face paler than it was before, his arm jutting out in a stomach-twisting direction. Though he had been carried by Saphira, and Saphira had handled him as well as she could, he had still suffered painful drops and lurches.

“Healing you, hopefully,” said Dakota, mouth full of ham and cheese. “Ember, could you heal him?”

Ember shook her head slowly, fingering her hardly touched sandwich. “I healed your sister because it was her mind that was wounded. Noah’s mind is perfectly healthy; it is is body that is not faring well.”

“So --- you can’t ---”

Ember sighed sadly. “No. I’m sorry.”

 -The Search for the Allies

Those words made it seem final ---- like he was never coming back. Dakota had never cared for him, not in the slightest. At times, he had been so annoying that Dakota had hoped that something would happen to make him shut up permanently. But that blank look in his eyes and the feeling of his hard, scaly skin would not go away ---- it was like a plaguing nightmare that haunted Dakota day and night.

I'm only fourteen! Dakota thought desperately to herself. I shouldn't be seeing this! I shouldn't be doing this! I should be at home, going to school! Babysitting! Playing with friends! I'm not cut out for this!

 -The Search for the Allies