#freniden brusan

[triscribe]

Trials of Youth Ch1

(...so. So far my attempts to get in a good headspace to finish this book's second draft have not gone well, which means it's time to take drastic action. Hence, sharing the first handful of chapters here, and seeing if my friends having someplace to screech and ask what's next will help)

Dawn bloomed.

In the southern plains, sitting near the very top of a cottonwood tree, a girl admired how light spread across the land, transforming everything by simple use of illumination. When enough time had passed that she could see her surroundings clearly, the fourteen year old turned and looked down.

“Fren! Time to get up, lazy-bones!” A muffled grunt was the only response. Rolling her eyes, the girl started to climb downward, swiftly passing her own hammock to crouch beside the one below. With a teasing grin, she started to push at it, swinging the cloth and its inhabitant from side to side. “Frennnn.”

“Mm’up.” A hand and arm were stretched up out of the mess of blankets, before flopping back over.

“Freniden Brusan, if you don’t wake up in the next thirty seconds, I’m tipping this thing over and dumping you out of it.”

Bunched-up cloth and curly black hair were pushed aside so that her friend could direct his glare towards the girl. “You wouldn’t.”

“I most certainly would.”

“We’re twenty feet in the air, Tali!”

“Then you’ll just have to use your all-powerful wizardly talents to keep from getting injured.” She released her hold on the hammock and stood. “Now come on!”

“Alright, alright, I’m getting up,” the younger boy grumbled, kicking his blankets off and reaching for his bag, hanging from a nearby branch. “I swear, everyone in your family is a lunatic, rising at dawn and ordering other people to do the same...”

“I’m sorry, does this come as a surprise to you?” Laughing, Tali climbed back up to avoid the smelly sock Fren threw in her direction. Within a few minutes, both children had donned their outer traveling clothes and rolled up their hammocks, stuffing the bulky bundles into Fren’s enchanted satchel. Once they’d clambered back down to the ground, the wizardling pulled out some hard biscuits and dried meat for their breakfast.

“So,” he asked around a mouthful of food. “Now that we’ve successfully gotten too far from the city for your father’s search parties to find, do we have a destination in mind to start looking for this missing sister of yours?”

Tali frowned thoughtfully. “Well, much as I want to find Lillia, we could stop by your old home first, visit your family-” She stopped when Fren snorted.

“Bad idea. My relatives wouldn’t let us leave for at least the better part of a month, which I know would drive you insane.”

“It would?”

“Oh, yes. Nothing interesting ever happens in Fammon.”

“Well, fine then, if you don’t want to see your uncle and aunt and cousins, we’ll just go straight north.”

Fren raised an eyebrow. “That’s it? That’s all the great Petalia Crant can come up with?”

“That’s all we need,” Tali argued, looking ahead with a fierce expression. “We go north.”

“I’m starting to have second thoughts about running off with you...”

“Too late to change your mind now!” Tali playfully punched her friend’s shoulder, and giggled when the chubby boy pretended to stagger.

“Hey! Easy with those muscles of yours! I may have extra padding, but that doesn’t mean it won’t get bruised!”

“Oh, quit being such a whiner.”

“Bully.”

“Wimp!”

“Aquimbe!” Before Tali could blink, a spray of water caught her in the face. She spluttered, ducking away as Fren cackled. The spell ended after a moment, water spout fading back into nothing, though the girl remained very much wet.

“That,” she declared, wiping at her face with the edge of her cape, “Was so not fair.”

“Forgive me for wanting to get the upper hand just once,” Fren grinned.

The pair continued to banter as they walked on, eventually finding a road heading in the right direction. Tali checked it over for recent tracks while Fren whispered a quick scanning spell for nearby people. Neither of them found any signs of fellow travelers.

“Should we risk it?” The wizardling asked. His friend shrugged.

“May as well.”

Winding as it may have been, the road nonetheless took them north, and the pair made good time. By mid-morning, they’d covered several miles, and stopped for a water break on top of a shallow hill. When she handed back the water skin, Tali decided to climb another tree, to get a look at their new surroundings.

The girl had only gotten part way up the trunk, though, when something not too far away caught her eye.

Fren flinched as she suddenly landed beside him, fumbling the water skin and nearly dropping it. He didn’t have any time to ask what she’d seen before Tali was dashing off down the hill. Scrambling, Fren hurried after. A few minutes later, they rounded a bend in the road, and he too saw what had grabbed his friend’s attention.

A small, weather-beaten wagon was stuck, one of its front wheels trapped by a deep crack in the earth. The driver, a wrinkled old goblin, strained as she tried to pull it free without much success. Harnessed to the front of the wagon, her horse saw the two human youths first, and whinnied.

“Hello there!” Tali called, slowing her steps as she approached. “Could we offer you a hand?”

The goblin, who’d paused at her horse’s sudden warning, looked over in surprise. “I wouldn’t mind a bit if you did! I just need a tad more oomph to lift it free, I think.”

Tali immediately stepped to her side, crouching in order to get a good grip on the frame of the wagon before glancing over her shoulder. “C’mon, Fren, hurry up.”

He rolled his eyes. “Wizard student, remember? Elvitaere.” A soft yellow light sprang from the pendant tied around his left wrist, enveloping the wagon and causing it to slowly float into the air.

“Oh my,” the goblin gaped. 

Huffing at her friend’s dramatics, Tali nonetheless pushed the wagon’s side, nudging it away from the hole. As soon as all four wheels were over even ground again, Fren ended the spell, letting the wagon gently set back down. The old goblin clapped her hands in delight.

“That was wonderful!” She gushed. “Saved my poor back and everything! Thank you so much, dearies.”

“You’re very welcome,” Tali said. “Is there anything else we could help you with?”

“Well, now I feel silly, but I’d emptied out everything I could to make this old hunk lighter - I don’t suppose the two of you would mind giving me a hand putting it all back, would you?”

Blinking, Fren leaned over to look at the other side of the road. Sure enough, several blankets were spread across the ground, dozens upon dozens of books and knick-knacks and other peddler’s goods piled atop them. He gave Tali a side-eyed glance, and sighed when she glared back.

“Happy to be of assistance, ma’am.”

[triscribeaucollection]

Finally getting back to posting on my Patreon account, which is Totally Not Something I Forgot About For Eight Months. Ah-heh.

Anyway, new posts as of the last hour:

First chapter of my in-progress second novel, Trials of Youth, available to everybody:

“Mm’up.” A hand and arm were stretched up out of the mess of blankets, before flopping back over. “Freniden Brusan, if you don’t wake up in the next thirty seconds, I’m tipping this hammock over and dumping you out of it.” Bunched-up cloth and curly black hair were pushed aside so that her friend could direct his glare towards the girl. “You wouldn’t.” “I most certainly would.” “We’re twenty feet in the air, Tali!”

Intro bit of a new DC fic, so far called Fae Bats, which is locked to my paid members of now but will become free to view in a week:

One didn’t have to be Odd to travel with the circus, but it certainly helped. If one were Odd, they didn’t ask questions about how the trailers managed to move from one city to another practically overnight, even between places hundreds of miles apart. If one were Odd, they wouldn’t hesitantly mention how there didn’t seem to be any cages for animals, and yet during shows, all sorts of bedazzled beasts appeared to perform. If one were Odd, they didn’t need to bother with a net while flying.

Also an intro for another installment of 'Avengers Nonsense Starring Spider-man', my catch-all Marvel fic series. This one's called A Longterm Arrangement and is a post-Civil War fix-it, and will become free to view in two weeks:

For all that they’d become pretty close in the past few years, Sam couldn’t quite read the look on Steve’s face, as he watched a replay of that Spider-twerp catching an SUV and tossing it back on top of some goons busy shooting at Stark. The clip then jumped to clean-up, as some intrepid reporter - or idiot with a cellphone - managed to record the helmet of the Iron Man suit retracting, and Stark outright grinning as he slung an arm around the shorter hero’s shoulders. Steve’s frown deepened.

[triscribe]

“One moment, Tali stood tall above the battlefield, openly challenging a dark god. The next, black lightning erupted, and all Fren could do was stare, his mind empty but for two words: no... please...”

[triscribe]

Since for this year’s Nanowrimo I’m doing the second draft of my book Trials of Youth, I decided to make good use of my time stuck at a clerk’s desk by sketching a few of the main characters. Didn’t have my own art supplies with me, but these didn’t turn out half bad for ball-point pen on sticky notes!

Tero and Rajan (AKA The Night Terror and the Ragebeast) are Amkyn kids who’ve been slaves since infancy and earn their keep in their owner’s gladiator pit. Despite their two species, Felisapi and Ritikai, typically being adversaries, the pair are best friends who’d do anything for each other - even risk deadly punishment by escaping together when the opportunity presents itself.

Mifus the centaur is *supposed* to be alone on his coming of age journey, but of course that went pear-shaped right from the start. He’s an up and coming sass-master with absolutely no ability to turn his friends away from the lure of Adventure, and spends a lot of the book sighing to himself.

And poor Fren, the young wizard prodigy who decided to spend his year studying abroad in the company of his best friend, the ever-adventurous Tali - whom he has a rather obvious crush on. Sadly, she’s a bit of a daredevil who often over-estimates his magical abilities and tends to get the both of them into trouble.

Fren and Mifus bond very quickly over how much they sigh in exasperation. Tero and Rajan find them exceedingly entertaining to observe.

[triscribe]

Decided that I’ve dropped these guys into enough alignment charts over the years that it was time to make a quick one of my own!

Warning: while Sweetness maintains an even concentration no matter size, Bitterness becomes Highly Concentrated and Dangerous when condensed into beings of small stature. (Ex, Seesor and Ama are equally adorable, Sana and Mentras are disproportionately snarky and will not hesitate to Cut a Bitch)

Warning Additional: Bitterness gains potency with age, and minor dragon gods left to simmer for thousands of years will put even the most condensed shortie to shame. (Ex, Nentanuk will not Cut a Bitch, she goes straight for the fireball so intense it straight up disintegrates)

[triscribe]

“Right. Battlefield. Top ten worst places to get a concussion, Fren absently thought to himself.”

[triscribe]

For your character thing, tell us about F :D

/excited cackling

Okay, first person who sprung to mind was my wizard-boy Fren, from the world of Sarant, full name Freniden Brusan. He’s a bit on the chubby side (well-covered, shall we say) but with an astOUNDING amount of magical power for so young a guy - he’s only 13 in my Turning Point Trilogy, already on his year of studying abroad, having started his apprenticeship at age 7. The transition back then from middle-of-nowhere-country farm kid to city-dwelling student of arcane magics was a bit hard, but he made a good friend in Tali Crant, and she helped him adjust.

Sadly, Tali’s biggest natural gift aside from forming fast friendships is being an outgoing adventurer, so poor Fren (who’s developed a bit of a crush over the years, come on, it was bound to happen) gets dragged along more often than not.

The last little teaser-epilogue of my first book, Wolfen’s Rage, is of the two of them setting off on a grand adventure, with the vague goals of picking out a major field of study for Fren and seeking any news of Tali’s big sister, who vanished four years back.

Little do they know just what sorts of insanity they’ll get into along the way… ;)