I was debating back and forth whether or not I wanted to share the snippets from Rizkaland book two, but I decided they were so go, I had to. They're under the working title of The Dragon's Return, which stood as the book's title for at least two years. It's been changed to fit better with Water Princess, Fire Prince, but I won't be sharing the current title yet.
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Arthur
inched towards the pile and nudged a sword with his toe. There were
so many … and any one of them …
“Must
I remind you that we don't have all day?”
Goaded,
he grabbed the hilt of the nearest sword – a two-handed broadsword
– and spun around to face her.
She
rolled her eyes. “Put that thing down. You clearly haven't been
trained in anything requiring two hands.”
“Is
it that obvious?” he asked, lowering the sword back onto the pile.
“Yes,
it is.” With an impatient sigh, she kicked a sword with her boot,
sending it spinning until the hilt collided with Arthur's foot. “Just
use this one.”
- My Kingdom for a Quest
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And what a subject for it to be changed to! Sure, Casperl had always dreamed of a prince someday coming to him for advice about the Mountain Princess, but now that someone had … well, all of Casperl’s planned speeches disappeared with the wind.
“Um … she’s a princess …”
“Really? I hadn’t guessed.”
“But …”
“Come now,” said Eric. “That’s an established fact. Everyone who’s at least heard of her knows that the Mountain Princess is a princess.”
- "Woodcutter Quince"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Who are you?” Petra suddenly thought to ask.
“I’m complicated,” the girl admitted, her voice echoing eerily all around them. “Most people know me as Laura the Doorkeeper. Alyce – and Mrs. Withawie – were just names I wore.”
“The Doorkeeper?” Petra tried not to think about the fact that the girl had just implied that she had been her own mother.
“I control the doors between the worlds,” Alyce – no, she had called herself Laura – explained. “It was a talent I was born with, though there are many days when I wish I hadn’t. But we won’t get into that now. Jump!”
Petra didn’t even think about it. She jumped.
- The Dragon's Return
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“This
is the road we were supposed to be on,” she declared one morning,
jabbing a finger at the map that she had stolen from Eric's pack.
“Isn't it?”
Eric
glanced at the map. “Yep, I guess it is.”
“And
this,” she added, moving her finger, “is the road we are
on?”
“Yep,
I guess it is.”
She
shot him a brief glare, then jabbed her finger at a spot between the
two roads. “If there was a path here, we could be on the main road
in no time, and it'd save us so much time!”
- My Kingdom for a Quest
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Bad news, I fear,” Mynna admitted, pulling at an especially difficult tangle. “Several of our merfolk have gone missing.”
“Missing?” cried Queen Letitia, setting herself down onto the sand next to Mynna. “How?”
“We aren’t sure, for there has been neither rhyme nor reason, or even a pattern. First it was a soldier on a scouting mission, then a servant at her chores, a singer, another soldier, and this morning … Shelly! From her own bedroom.”
“Your sister!”
“Yes, Mother and Father are quite at a loss for what to do.”
- Mermaid Footprints
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Is she your sister?”
Roxanne’s mouth slammed shut as she realized that her brother wasn’t even paying attention to her, and was instead talking to a dark-haired guy who was, admittedly, quite good looking.
“Yeah, and she likes to complain. Especially when she’s in a ‘they’re going to make me a villain, aren’t they?’ mood,” Riley explained.
“Well, she’d make a good one.”
“My hobby is building torture chambers for our dad,” Roxanne explained.
- ROCKS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I
can't believe Mordreth hasn't found us yet.”
Leo
rolled his eyes as he dumped an armload of sticks on the fire. “I
can, Gavin. We're still here, aren't we?”
“But
he – he always struck me as a more efficient person than this.”
“Viziers
and Kings are always less efficient than they appear,” Leo pointed
out. “Especially when you're hiding right under his nose.”
- My Kingdom for a Quest
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Welcome to Rizkaland, Petra!”
Petra sounded started at the greeting. It sounded like Alyce – Laura – but the voice was deeper. She scrambled to her feet and turned to find herself face-to-face with what certainly looked like an older Laura.
The girl’s nose wrinkled. “Am I older?” she asked. “It happens a lot. I’ve been through so many doors in my life, I honestly no longer have any idea how old I am. Oh, don’t worry about yourself. It’s your first door. First doors never mess with a person’s age.”
Petra swallowed. “So … purple grass.”
“To match your shirt,” Laura pointed out. “Rizkaland is a world of color. You’ll get used to it quickly enough. Only drink blue water, though. Other colors can have nasty side effects.”
Petra blinked. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
- The Dragon's Return
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kath didn’t respond, as they had reached the pool. Instead, she stripped off her coverup and ran over to the diving board. “Youngest first, right?”
“How about most obnoxious last?” asked Clara.
“You know, we could always go shortest to tallest,” Kath mentioned. “That way you go fist, Clara. Although we can achieve the same effect going oldest to youngest, though that would mean I go last.”
Rhoda sighed. “I can’t believe we go through this every single day. Kath, just get up there and dive, since you’re already there, and then Clara can go, and then I’ll go last. Why must this always be so complicated?”
- Water Princess, Fire Prince
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Arthur
glanced back, but Grandfather seemed serious, so he looked back up at
the guards, and shouted up to them. “Hey, would you mind lowering
the drawbridge? I – I mean my friends and I – would like in?”
Even as he said it, he knew he sounded pathetic. The guards rarely
listened to him, and never from this side of the gates.
“You'd
like in, lad?” jeered one of the men. “Do you hear that? He
expects us to lower the drawbridge because he'd 'like in.' Who do you
think you are, lad?”
Arthur
faltered. Usually they knew who he was – even if they didn't heed
what he said. He glanced back at Grandfather, who stared at the guard
impassively.
“That's
your prince!” Robin shouted up at them. “You really shouldn't
talk to him like that!”
“Our
prince, eh?” said the guard. “An old man spirited him away in the
middle of the night. The vizier believes him dead.”
A
chill went down Arthur's spine. That would be just like Mordreth,
wouldn't it?
“He
looks plenty alive to me!” Robin declared. “Ooh! Nice sword!”
Of course she would notice the sword. “Not sure why you'd keep it
out here, but to each their own.”
- My Kingdom for a Quest
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Uh, excuse me sirs,” she spoke up. “I think I’m lost.”
They both turned around and eyed her for several seconds. “I should say you are, miss,” said the man on the left. “Tell me, what malady has befallen you that has forced you to take on the garb of a man?”
Petra glanced down at her T-shirt and jeans. “Um, this is actually how girls dress where I come from. I’m not from around here.”
“That’s obvious,” said the man on the right.
- The Dragon's Return
I like them! :)
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