Writings
Excerpt From Destiny: The Moon Spirit Chronicles Book 1 by Bethany Almeida
The galaxy stood above all of the others, in full glory as it motioned towards their left. “Those, my dear companions, are the humans. They are my creations to add to this world. I have created them to utilize all four of the sectors. They will live and thrive on land, travel by sea and air, and use flame for protection. They come in many styles, equally loved by me, their creator, and I can only hope that you, my fellow creators, will come to love these humans as I love them. For I believe that these humans will give us the ultimate entertainment, and, I have invested our life forces into them. As you know, we have been getting weaker and less powerful, and our life forces are all but about to disappear. In order to prevent that from happening, I have invested our life forces into these humans; for as long as they believe in our existence, in some way, shape or form, we shall exist.”
The sky, the earth, the flame and the water took but one glance at the humans before instantly falling in love with the creation as the galaxy had. They were majestic beings, given all of the absolute perfect attributes. They were the epitome of life, and they were the epitome of the future of the world. They were about to speak, in order to congratulate the galaxy on its fine creation when the galaxy cut their words off with words of its own.
“I do, however, have one warning regarding these beings. In order for them to accept our life forces, I had to give them the abilities of thought and of reason, as well as complete freedom to use these as they deem necessary. They are imperfect creatures in our perfect world, tainted with desires and wants of their very own. I feel that one day it may be necessary to intercede in our perfect world in order to protect it from the evils that lay buried within these creatures. Until then, though, they will serve as very fine examples of entertainment—very fine indeed.”
With that, the humans were sent to live amongst the rest of the creatures, and the creators returned to their task of keeping order within the different sectors of the world. Occasionally, one of the creators would become angry and cause what has become known as a natural disaster to occur, but, for the most part, all was well in the world. The humans were impressively able to live amongst the other creatures of the world, using them and their surroundings as food and shelter. Their powers of reason and thought became eminent early on as the humans built homes and created meals. Then, slowly but surely, the humans became further adept. They created hierarchies, putting their more skillful members at the top to lead one another in times of hardship.
Monday's Child by Taymon Beal
Fifty-five years ago
a young girl closes her eyes
taking in the world
arranging it in not-quite-even lines.
No one takes notice,
but this matters not.
On that day, she makes three wishes.
Fifty-five years pass.
She has brought forth her first three whishes
and a thousand more
some of her own making, some of others'.
The world which the young girl absorbed
is returned rewritten.
Excerpt from The Tour by Kelly Buffum
We ended up at a gritty diner I would never have chosen to stop at. Its stucco walls were coated with grime and the neon sign flickered wildly. Inside wasn’t really any better. The floor was sticky and the tables looked as if they hadn’t been cleaned in a long while. The wall paper was peeling from the walls and there were water stains on the ceiling. Behind the counter was a huge man, arms covered in tattoos, who didn’t seem too pleased that he was going to have to deal with customers outside the pair in the far booth.
“Hey Spike, how are ya?” Jesper greeted him cheerfully. The man looked like he just might rip Jesper’s head off. Then I realized that that was his equivalent of a smile.
“Jesper! So they’re letting you out and about again I see.” His voice sounded of a three pack a day smoking habit.
“They never tried to keep me in; just had me working the west coast for a while,” he paused, “Still make those to die for burgers?”
“Straight from the lower reaches of hell. And for the lady?” They both looked at me. I just stood there. Jesper sighed.
“Do you like burgers Camille?” he prodded me. I nodded cautiously. “Alright,” he looked back to Spike, “maybe one of your more saintly ones.” Spike spat onto the floor. “No problem. Have a seat.” Jesper eyed the grime coated table, slipped behind the counter and came back with a wet towel with which he thoroughly scrubbed the tabletop. When he was done he looked at me.
“Spike’s food’s great but if he’s not careful he’ll have the Health Department shutting him down. Probably have to tell the boss.” This last seemed speculative. I wondered if I might finally be able to get some answers from him. Cautiously I put pen to paper while he was still distracted.
‘Just what is happening to me? Why? How are you supposed to help?’ When I was finished I dropped the pad in front of him on the recently cleaned surface. He picked it up, read through it quickly and handed it back to me.
“You know most people have some inkling of what’s happening. A little insidious idea.” He sighed and I thought ‘insidious’ over. “Right. You, Camille, have been chosen to become one of the Others. Now this is going to be what you make of it. I help people find their way when there transforming. Others do other things. I’m sure you’ve heard of some of them, guardian angles religion calls them. There are other jobs but none so common. You see Spike? He’s out to redeem himself, was really bad during his life, killed a fellow biker. Now they’ve got him here all day every day with Flip and Murray watching over his shoulder.” He jerked his head to the men in the far booth. “I have to say he’s doing real well.” One of the men had gotten up and was now standing over us; skeletal features barely concealed by his trench coat and hat. “Hello Flip, how goes it?”
Flip stuck a toothpick into his mouth, “Ain’t so bad. He’s one of the better ones I’ve worked with. Murray’s not a bad partner either.” His gazed moved over to me. “So you’re the new kid then?”
“That she is.” Jesper answered for me. Flip looked me over appraisingly, nodded and held out his hand to me. We shook. His fingers were no more than bones inside his gloves.
“Nice to meet you kid. Got a name?”
“Camille,” I mouthed at him, then “Nice to meet you too.” His head tipped sideways.
“Sheez you’re going to be fun to work with. Going to have to teach the lot to sign.” He sighed. “Well back to work for me,” he clasped Jesper’s shoulder, “See you around Jesp.” He returned to his table and the taciturn Murray.
Jesper’s head indicated the pair. “They’re Others too. Flip’s been at it for centuries, great guy. Murray’s not so social but not too bad once you warm him up. They work the reconciliation beat. Help people improve their standing in the afterlife.” Our burgers were unceremoniously delivered. “Thanks Spike.” I gave the big man a thumbs-up. Jesper picked up his grease sodden burger and bit into it with relish. Mine thankfully seemed to be less lethally loaded with fats but was surprisingly good. I found myself smiling for the first time since Jesper had appeared. Spike spat onto the floor again.
Excerpt from Founder’s Legacy by Pat Feeney
“I thought I told you to stay away from me, dammit!” Destiny shouted at the tiny bat-winged man who had moments earlier flown through her window and was now seated atop a stack of books on the desk.
“I just figured that you were in a bad mood,” the imp pleaded, fidgeting nervously, “So I decided to just come at a different time and…”
“Get out!” Destiny interrupted him by swatting him with the back of her hand. Books clattered to the ground and the imp flew up to take refuge near the ceiling.
“I guess you’re still in a bad mood,” sighed the imp, “Why are you always so angry?”
“I wasn’t until you showed up,” Destiny grumbled as she picked the books up off the ground, “What do you want, anyway?”
The imp flew back down and stood on the desk. “I just wanted to wish you luck, that’s all. I know you’ve been training hard for this and…”
“And you think that’s still not enough? That I’ll need luck in order to win? Yeah, thanks a lot.” Destiny tossed a book back onto the desk without looking, forcing the imp to quickly move out of the way.
“That’s not what I meant,” he replied, starting to get annoyed. “Look, I’m just trying to be supportive of my great-granddaughter. Is it so hard to believe that I – Ack!” Upon hearing the word ‘great-granddaughter’ Destiny had forcefully thrown a large book at the imp, knocking him off the desk.
“We are not related,” she said angrily.
“Say what you will,” the imp groaned as he got back up, the grimace of pain on his face changing into a wicked smirk, “But the horns don’t lie.” Destiny’s hand instinctively went to the back of her head, where indeed a pair of short, stubby horns protruded from beneath her short auburn hair.
“Great-grandfather Rawlock had fairy ancestry,” she shot back furiously, barely restraining herself from throwing another book. But besides anger her voice also contained a hint of embarrassment. Though she hated to admit it, the imp was right. Anyone with the slightest knowledge of supernatural beings could tell that those were not the horns of a fey. But to think that alongside the many great heroes whose blood flowed through her veins was also this wretched creature…it sickened her to think about it.
“Keep telling yourself that’s the reason,” the imp taunted as he flew back to the window, “Just remember those other precious ancestors of yours wouldn’t have gotten anywhere if it weren’t for old Batter!” With that he flew off, cackling as he did so.
Destiny slumped back into her chair and opened up The Founders’ Legacy to continue her studying. She frowned as she flipped through it to find where she had left off; several of the pages had been bent when it fell off the table. Hecate wouldn’t be happy to learn about the damage. “Then again, Batter’s involvement might be enough to let her off the hook. She supposed the obnoxious little man was good for pinning the blame for things on, at least.
Destiny found the section on last year’s tournament and began reading. The stations were mainly concentrated in the western part of town, as they had been in the three years previous. Not much surprise there, she thought. The geckos had never been very enthusiastic about local tradition. She had seen a bunch of them talking about the tournament in the training yard recently though, so this year it might be worth checking out.
She looked back over the list she had made and started plotting out the optimal route through the town so that she could hit the most likely locations as quickly as possible. After all, contestants weren’t just judged on how well they could execute the challenges; speed was also a factor. And Destiny wanted to keep preparing, despite taking a break from her physical training so as to be fully rested on the day of the tournament.
By the time she had finished finalizing her plan it was beginning to get dark, and Destiny forced herself to go to sleep in spite of her excitement for the day to come. When the sun next turned to face towards Disl the Tournament of Legacy would begin, and she was certain that her diligent training would bring her victory.