Teaser Tuesday with THE DRAGONS' STONES

From "The Dragon Books"

Annnddddd........ We're back for a Teaser Tuesday!!!

For anyone who doesn't already know, The Dragons' Stones is the novel I completed last year. It's synopsis is "Princess Ciara must retrieve the fabled Dragons' Stones or face life imprisonment. Aleksander hopes that by helping her with this quest, he will make peace with regrets from his past."

From "The Dragon Books"

No, I'm not going to tell y'all why this prompt fits into The Dragons' Stones. Just know that applies. 

Now, it's time for the teaser. Today, it's from Ciara's perspective.

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I paused below a window as worry rolled down my shoulders to the ground. I knew. I remembered. I sighed with relief and kept moving until I was out of the village. Beyond it grew a forest. I marched between the trees. The wind hissed among their leaves, and then I heard something else. Everything went quiet for a moment. I kept walking. There was another sound, almost like a flash flood made of wood and rocks. It… worried me. I walked faster.

But the sound grew louder as it came closer. The trees and bushes gave way, and I screamed at what roared its way through. Cracked tusks ripped white through the black all around, and I knew they would feel like death if they reached my skin.

My hands caught up my dress to run, and my feet pounded into the path. But the pounding behind me shook the ground harder. I could hear its thick breath over the fear making my pulse thud in my ears. It was too close, too close, too close! The back of my cloak caught on something. I fell.

The animal didn’t - couldn’t - stop. Its hooves would smash into me. I knew they would. I clutched at the ground, at the stones. At anything. There! A root. I grabbed it as the rumble slowed. I pulled myself towards it, my body balling up around my head.

Then there was a thud that shook me. I waited. Everything stayed quiet. I uncurled my body and lifted my head up. The animal - a boar I realized - lay on the path. No part of it even twitched, and several spear-like weapons stuck out of its shoulders and back.

The wild boar the guards were talking about, I decided. It had to be. And I had been very fortunate. Those hooves and tusks would have destroyed me in mere moments.

That thought froze my breath in my lungs. Yes. They would have killed me. Destroyed me. And my body would have lain in the dirt and rocks until some traveler discovered it, cold and bloodied. What would be left of it, anyway. I knew the boar would have eaten most of it. I swallowed once, twice.

Do not cry, I told myself. Do not cry. A boar was nothing to cry over. I could not cry now. I had to walk. Had to make it to Hynnford. Had to get far away from Father. I had to. A tear slipped down. Then three and seven and then too many to count. Maybe, I thought. Maybe tonight was for sleeping, not walking.

I crawled off the road, away from the boar’s carcass. Between the deep roots of an oak, I stopped. Salty drops still warped my sight, but my fingers felt something like a velvet covering.

Without another thought, I pulled both cloaks close to block out the night’s chill. Then I shut my eyes against the dead animal, the impossible quest, and even the entire world. I shut them out and told myself to forget them in sleep.

But I couldn’t. I could only pray silently that the Story of the Kingdom of Fire and Ice wasn’t just a story. If it turned out to be, as I feared in the sensible half of my mind, I knew that the swirling half of my mind - the part that had tasted sweet freedom - would never be content in my tower. Never.

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I hope y'all enjoyed that. Let me know below if you prefer this week's Ciara Snippet or the previous Aleksander Snippet. Which POV would you be interested in reading more of? And if you have any guesses about how the earlier prompt ties in to all this, share your theory too!

From "Snoopy Meets Hobbes"