Selected Chapters from the Novel, in development:

            The sun was peeking just over the smoldering horizon as I crested the hill. I could see Melinda's breath in the cold morning air. We had been riding all night and we were both about ready to collapse. The city, in ruins, lie some miles behind us now. A thick plume of black smoke was rising at a slow and steady pace spiraling towards the heavens, and was casting a shadow down on us and making the air thick with destruction.
            The attack had been swift and merciless; they had come in unseen under cover of darkness and charged the middle of town. Although daunting, the castle was no match for their soldiers especially without anyone inside to defend it. Their troops came in brandishing double-edged stainless steel blades. They were battle hardened and scars marked their faces. Everything was lost in a matter of moments.
            I started as a droplet fell on my nose. The rain was beginning to fall, and  I decided I had better find shelter. I urged Melinda onward promising we’d be there soon. I didn’t particularly know where, but soon we’d stop someplace. Melinda moved at a trot taking me farther and farther away from my only home.
            The rain started pelting me as I rode hard hoping to find somewhere I could take shelter for a little while. Finally a line of trees could be seen dotting the horizon. Slowly they grew until finally I was in the midst of a forest. Although dense and dark it was shelter, at least for a night. After some searching I found a small tree that was uprooted which I could rest under for a while. It was an old tree with sagging branches; it reminded me of an elderly hawker I had once seen in a market place in my town, with rugs draped over both his arms. It was slightly slumped over with a lot of its bark-missing. I can’t explain why, but I felt a pang of sadness somewhere inside me. It was as if I could feel the life inside of it.
            I slept fitfully all morning as the rain dripped off the roots and into a small puddle right next to my head. I couldn't stop the dreams from coming, dreams of home, of the past, of my life. Horrible terrible dreams of what I had witnessed the previous night. The dreams were all the same, I was stuck in my memory of cowering in the barn as the battle raged outside. Each time I jolted awake I felt a new wave of uselessness come over me; I didn't deserve to live I should have tried, and fallen with all the others. I should have defended my home, instead I hid like a child.
            The rain subsided as I pulled my stuff together cramming it all back in my bag. Big thick gray clouds hung overhead as I started my journey anew. Following the meandering path through the dreary countryside it felt like I'd never find another town, like the world outside of my town that I had read about so often in books was only a fantasy that ended with books in my town.

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