Happy Blog Day Everyone!
Weekly Briefs
Harvey Duckman Presents…Volume 3
Brennan, Riz, Valarie hate clockworks...Mysterious eh?
Don’t forget, if you write Steampunk, Fantasy, Sci Fi or Horror (or a mix of the genres), then feel free to submit your work to this growing anthology! Click here for submission guidelines.
Brennan and Riz – A Boy and A Rat
Creator Chaos
Wondering when our next episode records? It should be soon, a series of unforeseen circumstances have prevented us from recording as normal the past few weekends, and as a group we feel it better to record when all of us are present, not wanting to leave anyone out or left behind. We’re still together though, and still have plans for the guest writers, you’ll just have to be patient and bear with us a little while longer! It’ll be worth it.
A reminder of who the rest of Creator Chaos are:
Me – I don’t think I need to explain myself…
Kelvin Rodriguez – Fans and followers of the #vss365 tag will recognize this fellow and his creations, a master of the pun. He also has a mighty fine singing voice.
Zack Brooks – Author of the ‘Charlie the Cupid’ shorts and ‘The Trials of Amaford” novellas, the audio book version of ‘How Not To Be A Rogue’ is out now! This is a perfect chance to get in on this series, with a great narrator. A great guy and the defacto leader of our rabble.
Pete Hartog – Author of the novel Bloodlines, and currently working on its sequel. A great guy with a great taste in music and a fantastic name. He also has a blog you can find here, give it a read! He’s currently working on a sequel to Bloodlines.
Click here to listen to all the podcasts so far and look out for us on Spotify and Apples Music Service!
Vector Unit Regen Orphan’s War
To catch up on the series so far, click here!
Brief Mentions
Liking what you’re hearing about Brennan and Riz? Click here to look at the short story collection of their adventures so far!
Looking for newer stuff?
Click here to order ‘The Yeti in the Snow’, the standalone Brennan and Riz Christmas story. Only available on Kindle. It may be collected in a paperback version in the future.
Click here to order Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 1 which includes ‘A Walk Through The Pleasure Gardens’
Click here to order Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 2 which includes ‘The Black Cat on the Prowl’
Click here to find me on Goodreads
And now…time for our main feature presentation…
Drache Arm Luna – Sand and Bone
The desert sun seemed to stretch the land into a mirage of never ending sand. Adarnis led his camel over the dunes, seemingly going forward with no destination in mind, but he knew exactly where he was going. He’d come into this no mans land, for not one of the surrounding countries had claimed it as their land, pretending to squabble over it when other nations looked it over, finding it an oddity that there would be a place unconquered. It had been claimed though. Adarnis placed an open palm around the amulet that hung around his neck, a bone fragment with a crystal filling that glowed with the warmth of sands.
He had travelled this far, following a personal mission, and now he was going to return the amulet to it’s rightful place, as per the rules of the Bone Clan, the true masters of the region. Having hailed from Ar-Zan, he was well aware of the history of the region, the constant struggles to survive in the arid terrain, and how the ancestors survived through the power and protection of the Bone Drache. Then came the Drache Sundering and the region was separated into the three countries, Ar-Zan, Drachen, and Mir-Tain.
The outside world believed that these three nations, would sooner fight each other then look outward, but the truth was much different. Really, the Bone Clan held the reigns of control of the leaders of the countries and kept their homeland uncontested. Adarnis had to suffer many a trial before he was allowed to properly join the Clan, and prove himself worthy. He stopped the camel so he could gain his bearings and watched the mirages in the distance, the sands rising and falling like tides in the ocean. It was almost midday, the time when he would have thought about resting, but he wasn’t far now from the Tomb, his destination. As he got the camel to move, he spotted bones that had been bleached by the constant sunlight, all the flesh long since picked clean by carrion.
He made a sign of respect for the dead, and then examined it closer, traces of clothes clung to the body, but there was no sign of where they poor soul had come from but whoever it was, a motive wasn’t hard to guess. He heard the rumours himself, and chuckled at how outlandish some of them had been. Stories of evil Vizers leading rituals to raise world ending demons, child sacrifices, all manners of stories told be those who wanted nothing more then a reason to hate those from the region. Adarnis’s job as a mercenary for hire didn’t help these fears, and he knew he was walking in the stereotypes of all those in the Bone Clan. Yet this was what his people wanted. As it caused overs to underestimate them. This was evident when people from the other countries came to visit, and found not, savages and blood dealers, but cities and art, a culture whose work had already existed for a thousand years by the end of the Drache Age.
No one seemed to glimpse the reality of the Bone Clan behind fearsome warriors, that they would be capable of artists and poets, of builders and craftsman who had freedom to develop their talents. Adarnis himself was originally destined for a role as a trader, from a wealthy family, but turned his back on it, wanting to do something for fitting within himself. That is what led him to this land all those years ago, before the sand got into his weathered skin and fatigue and horrors of war turned his hair grey. How many times had he done this ritual now, he’d struggled to remember but this trek was always familiar to him.
Another hour passed but he finally stood in the shadows of a great rift in the ground, turning it into a canyon, which hid the most holy place for the Bone Clan. To illustrate this, it had but a simple name. Tomb. Although he had seen no one repeating his voyage or coming back the other way, Tomb was a hive of activity, as thousands prepared for war and praying accordingly. What he would do, like all others who had returned from war previously, would help the C;lan rise even higher. He made his way into the inner sanctum, and stood before colossal doors. He took off the Bone Amulet and held it aloft. The doors started to creak open and he slipped through, taking in the awe and majesty of the sight in front of him. Sitting on a stone throne, chiselled from the bedrock by people more skilled then anyone around today, sat the perfectly preserved bones of the Bone Drache itself. One of his hands reaching out, wanting to reclaim what was once lost.
Adarnis walked to the hand, and took off his amulet, and carefully placed it within one of the crevice inside the bony hand. There was a light and a surge that ran the length of the giant skeleton, and a pair of eyes that seemed to flash into life, before flickering off again. Adarnis had completely the task of returning each Amulet that is lent out, each one being part of the Bone Drache, and being integral to it’s resurrection. Adarnis then handed over all his treasure that he had accumulated, so that the elixir could be finally finished, and the Bone Drache could live again. What would seem like a tall story to most people, was a way of life here, and hence why so many heard the call to battle and threw themselves in to the fight, wanting to work towards their Drache, helping to secure a resurrection.
That’s what many people never realised about this land, and why so many died trying to uncover it. Just like the shifting sands, the people who lived here have done so for longer then any one knew possible. They had belittled the sand, thinking nothing of the hardships ahead, assuming everything is as it first appears. Yet, the sand was able to overcome the biggest obstacles, and hide entrances. Adarnis then made the offering of sand, pouring it the Bone Amulets. Like the sand, he would be back here soon, he could still fight, and there was much to do in order to win.
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Well that’s all for this week, I don’;t know yet if we’ll be back on a weekly schedule net time or if it will be fortnightly but either way, have a good time and keep writing!
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