I paused it at 30,241 words. And having only resumed working on it for 3 days i have written 7,000 words. Putting the Novel officially half way written.
So in Honor of hitting that achievement i thought i'd dig out the original work i did on it and post that today!
This comes from the Novels first version, and its first chapter. A lot of which has been changed, deleted, or dropped and put else where.....
The
Summer’s Vale
By
B.T. Smith
Chapter One
My
mind was not at first on the on-coming storm or the harrowing events that would
soon come to pass. My thoughts were dominated by the events in my past; and
even the history before my existence. The serenity of the castle gardens, the
wisp of the wind that brought the smell of honeysuckles made me dwell more so
on many of the things that made me think fondly of my days growing up. It
amazed me how soon time for even the simplest of things would be gone or
completely lost as I looked out past the fields and to the mountain ranges on
the western side of the Kingdom. Soon a mighty storm would be upon us, once
again the storm of war.
…
Twenty years before I
was born a great and savage war had been tormenting this world. The Twelve
Great Kingdoms had shut their doors to one another and it had spilled from just
miring words to blades. For the longest time no one understood or knew why the
kingdoms did as thus. They who were once peaceful or at least tolerant of one
another suddenly struck out at one another, and the war commenced for a few
decades. Every kingdom felt the strain and horror of the war; no one was left
untouched, from the poor to the Kings, all suffered.
My father would become
King at the age of eighteen, after my Grandfather; King Alegrius was killed
while trying to find the perpetrators of the wretched war. A log of notes was
found in his caravan tent that would end the war in a weary truce. As much as
he could gather a group of “wise” men had been the ultimate cause. Great men
who were suppose to guide kingdoms in dire need, turned away from their true
just nature for power. The Seven Grand Magi’s to be precise were the cause of
war, famine and death of thousands of citizens all over the Twelve Kingdoms.
The Seven Magi’s were
the most powerful and wisest of beings on the planet, so it came as a
devastating blow when the royal families of the Kingdoms heard of such
treachery. It was surmised that the Magi’s in their ever growing lust for
knowledge, magic and power; had become corrupted by the very thing that they
sought. They were transformed from just and wise beings, fair in nature to
hideous monstrosities. Contorted and broken by vile magics they fell farther
from their purpose and used words of deception to cause the war.
With the true culprits
of the war known to the great Kings of the time, a search went out from all of
the Twelve Kingdoms. The Seven Magi’s were eventually found and were destroyed;
but hatred had been sown so deeply into the minds of the citizens that all
Magi’s around the globe were sought. Old Allies and Enemies forced out the
Magi’s from their kingdoms. The Kingdoms forced them to leave their homes by
bearing arms against them or with the knowledge that any Magi would be tortured
until they confessed for the evil that they were and then sentenced to a
cleansing, by flame.
Of the Twelve Kingdoms,
only a few wanted to hunt down and kill all the Magi’s, most of the Kingdoms
only banished all magic users from their lands. My Fathers kingdom was one of
the more forgiving of the Kingdoms. The age was that, Magi’s were no longer
welcome in any of the Twelve Kingdoms. Laws dictated that any magic user would
be branded and then outcast from their homes and villages. The brand was a
crude seven piercing an M. It was a simple brand usually on the back of a palm
or on the top of a magic user’s wrist. Personally I always thought it looked
like a poor drawing of a bird…
The Magi’s who survived
the hunting, imprisonment and killing of their “kind” traveled far to a remote
valley. The valley existed between two large mountain chains. It was these
mountains that kept both the Magi’s isolated from the world and the world
isolated from the Magi’s. Most of the Kingdoms, including my Fathers were happy
with leaving the Magi’s valley alone so long as Magi’s left the world is. By
the time of my birth the Valley of Magi’s as it was known was a collection of
villages and towns, and brought together by a council of the eldest.
The Twelve concluded
that the Magi’s territory as a Kingdom, and claimed it as the Thirteenth.
Though the Magi’s were recognized, many of the Kingdoms were still spiteful,
full of hatred that none of the Twelve Kingdoms would speak with the Magi’s or
allow them to enter their borders. In such a short time much of the appearance
of Magi’s were forgotten and rumors and myths were created. Many stemmed from
the visions and accounts of the Seven, that the citizens from all over thought
that all Magi’s were just like the Seven.
I remember such stories
that were created from isolation. All Magi’s must have been hideous, with sharp
talons, or odd clawed hands. All Magi’s had twisted horns and daemonic looking
eyes. There were other stories claiming them to be hoofed or serpent tongued. I
even recall one story giving the Magi’s scales. At the age of twelve however
those myths and stories would be shattered by truth. A most unheard of thing at
the time; an Envoy from the Magi’s Kingdom sought a visit with my Father, King Aleirus.
The Envoy was a group
of nine; it consisted of eight guards from a nearby Kingdom, the Kingdom of
Baltia. All I could remember of the Baltia peoples were that they were one of
the rare neutral Kingdoms during the Great War. Because of that and their small
size of a kingdom, no one saw them as a threat and so it was understood and
accepted when the Baltia people acted more cordial to the Magi’s. However they
were a part of the Twelve and reluctantly and eventually did they banish all
Magi’s from their lands.
The Ninth person of the
Envoy was an actual Magi, supposedly a “Princess” from the Magi Kingdom. While
they traveled in my Fathers Kingdom I knew they would not be harmed, but still
massive groups of people would stop and stare in the towns in which they would
have traveled through. I even heard tales that people would spit in the girl’s
direction or throw cabbages at her and the guards. Most of the people came out
from their homes and their fields to see if all the stories of a Magi’s
appearance were true. When they finally reached the Royal Capital soldiers,
knights and guardsmen had to be called out so the main procession way was clear
so the Envoy could reach the Castle.
I must admit even I was
curious to see if this girl was human at all. I watched leaning on a parapet of
the Castle. And as the Envoy came closer and closer to the Castle I could see
in the middle of the guards there was a girl. She must have been around my age
and looked absolutely normal to me. With that let down I left to go study, I
had been hopping she would have horns at least. At twelve years old I was
deemed not ready to learn of the politics as they occurred, but old enough to
study on what had happened years before. I had learned languages and economics,
I had the education and then more than the stuff that royalty had.
I could speak fluently
in the common tongue, and several other languages, such languages as the
mysterious Kingdom of Taipa, to the language of the stout mountain men of the
Kingdom of Ghawird. But even with all my brilliance and astute nature I was
still too immature in my father’s eyes. I suppose after looking back he was
right, there were many times when I disobeyed him or my tutors. Though I
confess I was still upset when I was told I was not allowed to hear what the
Envoy had to say…
