Majay Mistrocoli

Merry Christmas break, everyone!  I hope that you are surviving well on this fine winter day.  It has been snowing here, which is great with me.  Here is a picture of our backyard:

This is a beautiful sight!

And now, here are a few snippets from The Dragon Bstirvm, which I dug up when I came home for break and am working on now.

I sipped the thin soup from my bowl.  Soups seemed thinner now than they had been.  I looked into Mother’s face and saw that it was worn greatly.  Perhaps it was only the light of the fire, but I thought that I could see tears in her eyes.  Looking at Janik, I could see how thin her arms were beneath her ragged sleeves, and how her hands trembled as she held the scrubbing reeds.  I stared down at my own clothes, noting their threadbare condition, seeing for the first time the holes in my skirts and the ripped edges of my sleeves.  My eyes were opened.  For so long I had lived in fantasy that I had not noticed the worsening conditions around me.  For the first time in my life I saw things not as I wanted to see them, but as they appeared to everyone else.  When danger reared its head, it tore the blinders away from my eyes.  I was not a princess in disguise, Janik was not a little fairy, Father was not a kindly giant, our house was not the ancient ruins of an enchanted castle, King Edwin was not a grumpy dwarf, and Rusa was not a magical city in the sky.  Instead we were poor, we were common, and we were oppressed.  I had seen only flashes of reality before this, but now that our family could be torn apart, I saw the full blackness of my life.

~The Dragon Bstirvm

As I walked from the smithy I could see soldiers tramping down the street.  They stopped at our front door.

“Father, look!” I cried.

            He came to the doorway and looked out grimly.  “I don’t know what they want.”

            My only thought was that they had somehow heard about Mother.  Perhaps they were going to take her away.  I dropped the basket and ran to the house and in through the kitchen door.  The soldiers were already in the front door, and Mother was standing before them with her hands on her hips.

            “What are you here for?” she asked.

            “Your house has been chosen by lot,” said the captain of the soldiers.  “Have you any daughters?”

            Mother put her arm around Lansel’s shoulders, for Lansel happened to be standing beside her.  “What would you have with our daughters?” she demanded.

            “Orders of the king, woman,” the captain said, flashing a piece of parchment sealed with scarlet wax in front of her face.  “We are to take your oldest daughter.”

~The Dragon Bstirvm

We flew up, up, upward, towards the height of Castle Kaldrob.  The wind was bitter up there, and the air sharp and thin.  We were nearly to the crumbling entrance of the castle when the dragon flew low and dropped me on the ground.  I lay, panting for breath that did not seem to come, as the beast effortlessly soared around the tower of the castle and circled back toward me.  He alighted down beside me and watched as I struggled to breath in the thin air.

            “You are weak from the journey,” he said in a low voice.  He seemed to be stating a fact as opposed to asking a question.  “Catch your breath, Princess, and tell me your name.”

            I looked up at him, meaning to tell him that he was mistaken; I was no princess.  Then I thought of Gabrielle, and I snapped my mouth shut.  If I spoke, the dragon might become annoyed and destroy all of Rusa.

            “What have you brought me here for?” I gasped.

            “What is your name?” he demanded, ignoring my question.

            “Majay,” I whispered.  “My name is Majay.”

~ The Dragon Bstirvm

Thanks for reading and God bless,

More About Lonish

Since coming to college, I have not been writing nearly as much as I did this summer.  I am certain that all of you college people can relate.  However, I have been getting a little bit done here and there, and recently I have dug up Lonish & Co. for a dusting.  They were so happy to see me!

I should think we were!  Leaving us all cooped up in the limbo of non-production!  Some friend you are!

Sorry, Nevarl.  I meant no harm.  Perhaps you should sometime try to get an English Ed. degree.  You need to see for yourself how much extra time I have.

Nevarl

Aye, for I too have a good deal of time at my disposal.

Nevarl, be nice or I will shove you back into the pages where you belong!

There, she is going to be quiet.  Thank heavens!  She is my most troublesome character, you know.  And now, some delightful snippets from Lonish the Swordmaster:

The Maiden of Rugema Ruvin slowly revived, her eyes seeing little, her head paining much.  With great difficulty she forced herself out from under the body of the Dragon.  Dismayed, her eyes fell on the apocalyptic scene about her.  The Estackam had left no living.  Cheol Ruvin bodies lay about her in heaps in the garish light of early morning.

            Birinin walked through the smoking ruins of Rugema with a sinking heart.  The beautiful houses were laid waste, the Cheol stones were broken, and everywhere Death had flung his darkening cloak.

            She found the ruins of her house, and stood there for a long while, her golden light growing paler and paler until it was almost out.

            “They are all gone, and I alone am left,” she said, letting the despair flood her deepest being.

            On the ground outside the remains of the house of the Younger Lord, she found her father’s body.  Behold, a feeble light yet glimmered in his face.  She dropped to her knees and held her father’s face in her hands.  He looked up into her blazing eyes, his own glassing over.

            “Daughter,” he said slowly, before the last of his light sputtered out.  Birinin closed her eyes and bent over her father.

            “But in the stillness of the evening there shall come a sudden attack, and the slaughter shall be great.  In that time know that the end of the Cheolame is near,” she quoted through tears.  “Beware, those that see this day.  Thou shalt not joy again for many a long season.”

~ Lonish the Swordmaster

Oln came clattering back through the forest, this time with several other Cheol Equav at his hooves.  “See, I have brought my brothers and my sister,” he neighed proudly.

            “We are most saddened by this grave day,” said one of the other Cheol Equav.  He looked very much like his brother, so much so that Lonish could barely distinguish between the two.

            “The Estackam are strengthening,” said Nevarl.  “They seek this Mortal Man.  I hate nothing more than a Mortal Man.”  She did not seem vengeful or fierce when she said this, yet Lonish could not help recoiling in disgust at her evident hatred.  “I have shed more tears in the past two days than I have shed in my entire lifetime,” she said quietly.  “Thou art the cause, Mortal Man.  Thou art the cause, and thy family.”

            Lonish resisted the urge to lash back at her.  He turned to the Cheol Equav with obvious exasperation stamped on his face and widened his eyes at them.  Oln smiled a horsely grin at Lonish and snorted.

~ Lonish the Swordmaster

Thanks for reading, and God Bless,