Chapter 1 of Avalon Tales is here for all your reading pleasure! Not only that but you get the first of a two part Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz to boot! How's that for value?
Don't answer that, you always get a new comic each week.
In other news before we get into the thick of things, I'm still keeping a good distance ahead with writing. Chapter 5 is done, and Chapter 6 is about to kick into high gear. Which it probably should as the previous chapters have all been about world building and establishing characters. What's that I hear you cry? A good author could do all that in one Chapter? Well, I never said I was a good author... Regardless, I'm hoping to continue this streak and burn on towards Chapter 7 where things happen...which is the least spoilers thing I can say.
One thing that has been bothering me is my original plans called for another legacy character to put in an appearance but try as I might, I'm having trouble slotting him into the narrative without setting off blazing red flags for the other characters. Hmm, what to do...
Anyway, lets see what Brennan and Riz are up to...
The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz
This is only a two parter as I'm planning another multipart story for easter this year and I've got a few ideas already...
Ramona was a hard character to design had I had so many different ideas kicking around. Also, looking through my old drafts, she had a few different surnames going on. Kinda hoping I put the correct one up there! Interesting to note that both she and Robyn are rocking completely different versions of the Avalon uniform, as I've still yet to settle on one I like. Also, there was only a month between these two pictures yet Ramona looks a lot better (aside from her tall hair, that's going to get tweaked), shows that my work is still inconsistent.
Short Diversions: Avalon Tales Chapter 1
So, the first proper chapter is here as we see an older Isabelle...well, you'll see. As I said last week, I do actually havd some more artwork to accompany the chapter in the form of two character images. I'll note here that the designs aren't completely final, but they'll do to help give you all an impression to keep in mind.
Robyn Gouzen
First up is Robyn Gouzen, Isabelle’s partner in crime (and in other ways...). Will definitely be seeing some better pictures of her soon but I'm happy with how thd design played out.
Ramona Trask
Now, let's move on to the story. I'll point out now that I've fixed this story's date as late winter/ early spring 1996 (aside from flashback sequences and the prologue which takes place in 1982), so a full nine years before the events of Daemon Soul Awakening. It's proving hard to work the date into the story naturally but I'll figure something out.
Avalon Tales Chapter Index
Chapter 1
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Chapter 1: To Protect
Fourteen years later…
The night’s chill didn’t seem to affect the group of men that stalked the streets, looking for the perfect place to go with their captive guest, a drunken brown haired woman, who could barely take two steps before falling over. There were five men in total, all looking eerily the same, even down to the clothes that seemed badly fitting. They were behaving raucously, howling with laughter, hitting each other as they walked on. None of them showed any concern over the woman in their midst, only to make sure that she was still there, and that she hadn’t hurt herself. They wanted her in one piece after all.
“You fellas don’t talk much, do you?” the woman asked, trying not to slur her words. The men glanced back at her, and giggled. “You did promise me a good time, so where is it?”
“Can’t we eat her now?” One of the men asked another, his voice sounding distorted, an inhuman quality running through it that would have been unsettling to all those who heard it.
“Let’s get off the street first, we wouldn’t want to be interrupted now, would we?” the man who spoke this time was the one leading the group. There wasn’t anything that marked him out as their leader, but aside from the same unnatural voice, there was a commanding tone that sold the idea that he was in charge.
“Get off the street? How about we go over there?” the woman said drunkenly stepping away from the group, eliciting a small laugh from them. She wandered towards a car park that should have been closed off for the night.
“A good a place as any I suppose,” the leader laughed, showing a smile full of viciously shaped teeth that seemed to enlarge the more he bared them. His friends could hardly contain their excitement as the woman draped herself over a car bonnet, laying back on it, closing her eyes, ready for what was about to happen. The leader staggered forward, his body beginning a transformation, heralded by a sickening snap of bones breaking themselves, moving to new positions His clothes were shredded by the change he underwent, and the tatters blew in the breeze. The leader stood proud, his body humanoid in shape, but a dark grey in colour, the skin turned scaly in places while his head was now bestial, like a hyena, the mouth oversized so it looked like it was wearing a permanent grin. A long, thick tongue lashed out between the pointed teeth, while blood red eyes surveyed his meal. Where once had stood a man, stood a demon in it’s true form.
The other men underwent a similar change, though they weren’t as bulky as the leader. All the demons gathered around the woman who was still swanning about on the front of the car, with seemingly no care in the world. One of the smaller demons got too excited and moved towards her first, causing the leader to knock it back in line with his fist, smashing teeth and ripping open part of it’s face with a shower of black blood.
“I’m the alpha, you runt! I get to eat first!” The leader growled, and the other demon backed off with a whimper. “Now, where was I…”
Reaching out for the woman, the demon went to grab her head, but with surprising agility for one they’d thought too inebriated to do much, she rolled out of her way, causing the demon to only catch her brown wig, revealing tied back white hair. Gone was the carefree expression she once wore, being replaced with a fierce determination.
The demon sniffed the wig and tossed it to the side, it’s mouth twisted into a curious grin.
“I thought you looked better as a brunette,”
“And I think you’ll look better as a corpse, demon,” the woman muttered. “How many people have you killed? How many begged for life.”
The demon threw back its head in mocking laughter.
“How many? Your final words, and that’s what you want to waste them on?”
“These are not my final words, though they are amongst the final words you’ll hear,” the woman raised her hand. “My name Knight Major Isabelle Blake of Avalon. By my word, you will all die here.”
The demon was silenced by the mention of ‘Avalon’, he turned to his brethren, as they looked ready to run, their appetites well and truly gone. He tried to rally them, swallowing his own fear.
“Idiots! It doesn’t matter who she says she is, there’s five of us and one of her! We are demons! We can take her!”
“One of me? A smart demon would have noticed,” Isabelle let her hand fall, as the demon leapt at her, reaching for her with his clawed hands. Those claws never reached her though, as a storm of gun fire rained down from the vantage points above the car park. The weaker demons were obliterated in the crossfire, and the leader crashed to the floor, black blood leaking out from over a dozen bullet holes. The beast still lived though, the wounds trying to heal themselves as he crawled towards Isabelle. A series of arrows then pierced the demon’s flesh, pinning it to the ground.
“I will…kill…you!” the demon howled out, rage and pain mixed into one vile noise.
Isabelle took a step forward, and pulled a gun out from a hidden holster under her dress, the barrel of the weapon had been modified, to accept more powerful ammunition. She pointed it at the head of the demon, and coldly said:
“For Queen and country.”
The gunshot echoed more than the barrage a few moments earlier had. The demon dissolved away like the rest of its kind, its threat, ended.
Isabelle lowered the gun. She’d fired it countless times before, and every time, the weight only ever hit her once all was said and done. She breathed in, and held it for a moment, before releasing it, along with what was left of her stress.
“Nice shot, Izzy. Guess I’m rubbing off on you with a shot like that!” a cheerful voice came over on her earpiece, bringing a small smile to Isabelle’s face.
“Never match your skills, Robyn,” Isabelle replied, looking around to see if she could spot her. “Where are you?”
“I’m hiding from you, a sniper like me has to keep her skills sharp!”
“You’re behind that white car on my right. I noted where the arrows had come from when you shot the demon. You didn’t move again because you wanted to make sure that I was safe.”
“Well, I can’t let anything happen to you, can I?” Robyn stood up and waved her composite bow.
“Knight Captain Gouzen! Knight Major Blake! You are still in an active operation!” a third voice interrupted the conversation. This one was more irate and straight to the point.
“Sorry, Cade!” Robyn said. “Oh, wait, I meant Knight Inquisitor Anderson.”
Isabelle started to walk away as Robyn and Cade started quarrelling about procedure. Their personalities were direct opposites, Robyn being a free spirit of sorts, while Cade was uptight, trying to make sure that everything was being done by the book. Even if that book was out of date some decades ago.
“That was quite the performance, princess,” a figure appeared at the entrance to the car park, blocking Isabelle’s exit, a woman looking a bit older than herself, but not hugely. She had dark hair that was tied back.
“Thanks, Knight Master Trask,” Isabelle replied. “Or should I be using your ‘Brunor’ code name?”
“Not while Cade is busy arguing with your girlfriend. You know I’ve never been a fan of that formal stuff. Though if Cade heard you calling me Ramona while on active duty, I bet he’d have a fit.”
“How long is Cade with us for? You neglected to share that part during the briefing,” Isabelle enquired.
“Headquarters sent him to evaluate our branch of the Avalon tree, so maybe till the end of the week? Anyway, how did you like being bait? I always had fun with that role. Getting to be the actress I could never be,” Ramona said with a flourish.
“Difficult,” came Isabelle’s one word reply. “I did it because you asked me to, but that kind of acting is not me. And I need to get out of this dress and back into my combat fatigues.”
“Maybe if you wore the purple one with the open back that I picked out for you, it might have felt better?” Ramona walked over and put her arm around Isabelle,
“No, I was fine in this one, just that I’d feel more at ease in my uniform and armour, especially when we could receive an alert at any point.”
“You worry too much about work, the operation as it stands is over. The demons that have been causing trouble for the last couple of weeks have been exterminated. Be happy about that! Be happy that it was down to you that they’re all dead and no more innocents have to die!”
By this point, Isabelle and Ramona were walking past the rest of the soldiers that made up the task force to deal with this particular infestation. Isabelle felt all the eyes of the men upon her, and it felt uncomfortable. It just added to the need to get out of it as soon as possible, and into something more suitable for her.
“Fitting clothes for a princess,” she heard them snigger.
“Probably wore that when she was putting out to get her promot-” the soldier who was in the middle of saying that was cut off mid sentence as something hit him solidly in the face. Isabelle didn’t have to look to see who’d thrown it, not with precision like that.
“Did you want to finish that sentence?” Robyn asked, tossing a rock up and down in her hand, not unlike the one that she’ed already shot at him.
“N-Nothing,” The soldier said, glaring at her, rubbing the spot where the rock had impacted, little blood dribbling from the cut.
“Good, because if you had, I might have had to shift to something better than a rock, like an arrow right through your bigoted skull,” Robyn mimicked the actions of firing her bow, and the soldier backed away, his peers not saying a word.
“Well, I was going to step in and deal with that, but, looks like I don’t have to!” Ramona chuckled to herself. “Though I got to say, Davis,” she said, addressing the same soldier. “Daring to say something like that in front of your boss is mighty brave, or pretty stupid. I think we’ll find out which one you are once you’ve been cautioned for insubordination back at base. Can’t wait to hear what your father thinks of that,” Ramona said, her voice starting jovial before getting more serious.
“See Izzy? We’ve all got your back here,” Robyn whispered through the ear piece, not caring who was listening in to it.
Isabelle didn’t reply. She hadn’t wanted any of this to happen. She wanted to do her job, and protect the people, like her mother before her. It all was all nice and well having people to have her back, as Robyn had put it, but it also meant dragging them into her fights, putting them in the firing line. She was positive that Ramona had to deal with some flack already from the higher ups, people like Davis had powerful families that were interconnected with Avalon. They made a big enough ruckus with the top, then repercussions would ripple down like aftershocks.
Isabelle was still obsessing over these thoughts when it came time to peel herself from the dress. The real reason she’d worn one that didn’t show her back, was to cover up what was there. She stood with her back to a mirror, and slowly lowered the dress till the snowflake shaped scar revealed itself, looking as tender as the day she received it, fourteen years ago. The more she stared, the more she felt like she was still standing there in that tunnel. The smell of petrol, the heat from the flames, all those sensations and more came back to her. Shaking, she reached round with her right hand, coming within an inch of touching it. That was where she normally left it, but this time, she got closer, and closer, a hair’s difference between her finger tip, and the scar.
“Izzy, you okay?” Robyn asked as she popped her head into the changing room, breaking the tension, and causing Isabelle to instantly retract her arm.
“Robyn, I…”
“Ramona said you were being weird again on the ride back over. You weren’t letting that arsehole get to you were you?”
“No. It wasn’t that.”
“Your scar again?” Robyn asked, taking notice of the fact that Isabelle was standing in front of the mirror.
Not wanting to start an argument, Isabelle nodded. It was a half truth after all.
“I know I keep saying this, but maybe, you could let someone take a look at it again? Especially if it’s bothering you.”
“No, there’s no point, they wouldn’t say anything different than the first time, besides, the less people know about this, the better. I need to prove to everyone that I’m more than my father, and that I’m more than this scar,” Isabelle finally turned away from the mirror.
“Izzy…” Was all that Robyn could say, there wasn’t much she could do to comfort her, other than putting her hands around her. The pair stood frozen within the moment.
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Next Chapter (not live yet)
Hope you all enjoyed that! No chapter next week as per the schedule but the week after? Time for some character building.
Till next time...
Keep on writing!
Peter James Martin
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