Sunday, June 2, 2013

First Page: Gulvane and the Dragon by C.M. Simpson

Gulvane and the Dragon is C.M. Simpson's newest work.

Preparing for a new era in his life, the wizard Gulvane walks the corridors of his mind, remembering the eras locked behind three doors. Forester, Fighter, Assassin. Behind each door lie the memories and skills of who and what he used to be, inaccessible, unless he chose to return to the professions he had left. Uncertain of where his life will lead him, or of what he will become, Gulvane wakes to find a dragon standing over his bed. Now, what would a creature such as that want with an elf like himself?


Gulvane and the Dragon is currently available as a stand-alone short story, but will eventually be incorporated in An Anthology of Mythical Creatures, and the collection, Short Stories and Poetry from 2013.

Gulvane and the Dragon is available from Smashwords, Amazon, Nook, iTunes, Kobo and CreateSpace.

First Page: Gulvane and the Dragon



Gulvane walked the corridors of his mind, going deep into himself to remember who he was, and explore who he might become. The years of an elf were long, many more times longer than the span of an average mortal, and Gulvane was reaching another century, his third as a wizard, his seventh as an elf. In that time, he’d lived a lifetime in each of four different occupations.
Walking down the timber-lined hallway, Gulvane traced a hand along the walls, stopping at each of the three doors that kept the memories and skills that had made up his past. The first door was an oaken gold and adorned by a simple spray of leaves and flowers. A small grey-furred creature peered out from beneath the blossoms, its vivid green eyes touched with blue and gold. Gulvane laid a finger on its forehead and let the bittersweet feeling it invoked touch him briefly. The second door was a glowing bronze, and adorned with a pair of crossed swords. The third door was the color of night, created from a single plank of ebon-wood. A crossbow adorned its center, painted in a shade barely lighter than the surface that bore it.
Forester, fighter… assassin. Was it any wonder he’d become a wizard?
He walked past the gleaming darkness of the third door and stared at the heavy columns slowly forming in the blank space of wall beyond. Soon. His heart was restless, and soon he would embark on another era of his life.
Gulvane sighed. He had enjoyed his time as a wizard. It had been peaceful compared to what he had been before. The trouble was that he had no idea what he wanted to become next… and he was getting old, his body standing towards the end of middle age. He stood contemplating the slowly growing pillars before retracing his steps, touching each door as he passed.
Assassin, fighter, forester, he could return to any one of them by opening the door and stepping into the mind of who he had been. His fingers lingered on the bright-eyed creature peering from the flowers, before Gulvane shook his head and walked on, focusing his thoughts outwards and slowly returning to consciousness.
He woke to find a dragon standing over his bed.
“You are most entertaining,” it said, “and I have always wanted an elf of my own.”
“You look like a man,” Gulvane replied, “yet I know you are dragon. How is it I know that?”
“You are wizard,” the dragon said, leaning forward, quick as lightning, and pinning Gulvane to the mattress by holding the blankets tight across his shoulders.
He bent in closer, until their foreheads almost touched, and then the dragon inhaled, moving his nose a hair’s breadth above Gulvane’s skin and taking in the elf’s scent. It was frighteningly intimate and predatory at the same time.


END FIRST PAGE

If you would like to read more, Gulvane and the Dragon is available from Smashwords, Amazon, Nook, iTunes, Kobo and CreateSpace.

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