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You are here: Home > Forum > A Place of Safety > Literary Merit > The Chronicles of Valana Volume 1: Shadowlands
The Chronicles of Valana Volume 1: Shadowlands  [message #70078] Thu, 06 August 2015 18:44 Go to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



AB writes in his second language, and gives us more, yet different, elves. Enough has been posted to get to grips with the plot. We are a quarter of the way through the first volume.



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: The Chronicles of Valana Volume 1: Shadowlands  [message #70082 is a reply to message #70078] Fri, 07 August 2015 14:13 Go to previous messageGo to next message
larkin is currently offline  larkin

Toe is in the water
Location: Massachusetts
Registered: June 2015
Messages: 58



An excellent beginning for a saga of two boys seeking adventure.  I think that puberty really starts in the mind first prompting vivid fantasy adventures before boyhood's end.  Many of us spend our lives trying to get back there. 
 
Looking forward to more, AB    
Re: The Chronicles of Valana Volume 1: Shadowlands  [message #70120 is a reply to message #70082] Sat, 15 August 2015 13:40 Go to previous messageGo to next message
AB is currently offline  AB

Getting started

Registered: February 2015
Messages: 14



Thank you for your words. Smile
Re: The Chronicles of Valana Volume 1: Shadowlands  [message #70641 is a reply to message #70120] Wed, 16 December 2015 22:09 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Nick Brady is currently offline  Nick Brady

Getting started
Location: Tulsa, OK
Registered: August 2015
Messages: 7



This is as fine a story as I have ever read. It leaves me with a great thirst for more. Bless us with Volume 2.
Re: The Chronicles of Valana Volume 1: Shadowlands  [message #70852 is a reply to message #70641] Mon, 18 January 2016 22:09 Go to previous message
AB is currently offline  AB

Getting started

Registered: February 2015
Messages: 14



Hehe, Volume 2 is being written. :D 

and because I'm a tease...

 Chapter 1: A good reason to visit an old friend 
 
Tarak Vendril was born in an affluent family in Fadr, his parents and grandparents had followed military lives, with his father fighting in the Great War against Zah Dah. He himself had tried to follow in his father's footsteps but his complete lack of discipline, morals and self-control had seen him discharged from the Fadr regular army.
In the following months Tarak found himself hanging out with smugglers and highwaymen, killing, extorting and blackmailing until he considered himself a bandit and a mercenary. A year later he killed his boss and assumed control of the small group.
It was not often that people actually paid him to rob someone, no, most of the times they paid others to remove him and his kind, but ask him to rob someone in the small forest on the western border of Dara someone did and gave him a substantial reward to boot.
Blinded by the sheer amount of the promised gold he and his men lay their ambush and waited for their prey.
 
An hour or two later they heard the slow walking of horses on the dirt, forest road. From the sounds of the horses and the voices talking to each other Tarak gathered that there must be three or four of them. He signaled his men and stood in the middle of the road. Even if these riders were not the ones they had been paid to rob they would rob them nonetheless. More the gain for them, Tarak thought.
 
"So...why are we going to Dara now, my Liege?" One of the riders asked.
 
"Because I have not seen my friend in a very long time and I have missed him, what good is it being who I am if I cannot go visit a friend when I want?" The shortest of them replied in a very child-like voice.
 
"Matters of state my Lord...." Another one said.
 
There were four of them in total, they all wore capes with hoods over their heads, the shortest one wore a crown made of elderflowers and pine bark, the others wore circlets and helmets, they looked very princely and expensive. That should have been a clue for Tarak, one that he misinterpreted entirely.
 
"Matters of state as well as the ruling of my people will not fall from Grace if I am away for a week or two, that is why I have regency council and my mother and my loves can rule in my stead, for such a brief period of time." The young one replied.
 
"My good Lords...how goes your day? Good I hope? Good. I have a proposal for you, my Lords." Tarak interrupted them.
 
"Proposal? I thank you my good man but we are not interested and we are in a hurry." The young one responded trying to move his horse passed Tarak. Tarak stopped him getting in the way.
 
"I am afraid I must insist my Lords You see I need you to give me all your valuables, horses and those expensive-looking horses and after we ransom you for gold you can go about your lives." Tarak retorted smugly.
 
The young one laughed heartily tilting his head up and holding his belly. "No, I have a counter proposal for you, brigand. Let us pass and you can continue to exist in the world of the living." He said looking deeply in Tarak's eyes through his hooded face.
 
Tarak grinned evilly. "You and whose army? You are four, we outnumber you. You sound like a child. Three bodyguards and a noble brat cannot defeat the sons of death."
 
"Is that what you have named your little group of bandits? One behind us with a spear, two archers one on each side up in the trees and a swordsman hidden in the trees? No magic users? No Speakers? You cannot hope to win or live. Leave with your lives." The boy spoke calmly and with authority.
 
"How....? Men! Attac..." Tarak started barking .....


aaaaand for the rest patience is a vertue :P
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