《The Adventures of Hood: Part 1 - The Book of Portals》Chapter 10: As the crow flies.
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Hood locks the door and after cleaning the day’s grime from himself with a soft towel and a bowl of water provided, he pulls from beneath his robe the gift that Grumpini gave him, and lying down on the bed places it between cupped hands and closes his eyes.
[Hood lying on the bed]
He can still hear the sounds of Hy-Jinx, laughter, and the increasingly loud thumping of tankards on tables.
(aside) Now at this point our tale turns tragic
For Barry’s not been trained in magic
And yet with mind altered by drink
He’s lead a certain way to think…
Snatches of verse disturb his concentration but Hood is adept at clearing his mind, has been training himself relentlessly.
(aside) …Now rumour went about the town
As rumours do and people frown
And people talk and point and mutter
‘specially when about a nutter
And rumour was that:
Barry Beerpots liked to drink
but he also liked to stitch
That he’d sewn his hands on to his arse
and woke up in a ditch. Hey!
Did you not wonder why Hood did not temper the weather on his walk south? No? Well, he was carefully practicing the full day, saving his energy, waiting for this moment…
Barry Beerpots had in fact
drank so much ale that
out he’d blacked
And woken up quite out his mind
With fingers stitched to his behind.
Surely not, it cannot be
Oh yes indeed! Look can’t you see!?
But how..and why? Hush here he comes!
It’s all eight fingers, and his thumbs!
How he’d done it none could say
It was in fact pure mystery
Some put it down to pure bad luck
Whilst others blamed the pixies.
[A picture from above of the thatched roof of the Inn, some trees etc seen from over the shoulder of a crow.]
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Now, it’s not that one has to push aside distractions, more let them pass by like mist, and as they pass become aware of the breeze that clears them for you. And as Hood does this, suddenly he is rising, silently into the night. The rain has ceased and the wind lessened, and as he rises, he can see the inn beneath him, smoke curling from the chimney, the slight glow of the fire and candles emanating through the thatch. Again he can hear Hi-Jinx’s voice, blended with the notes of her mandolin, but it is different this time, it’s below him…
Barry to the doctors went
In hopes of finding some relief
But viewing his predicament
Caused consternation - disbelief
“In all my time
I cannot lie, I’ve seen the best and worst
I don’t think this an accident
Most likely it’s a curse.
No surgery can I thus perform
For the manner of the stitches
Are manifold and crossed and bound
And fused onto your britches.
One thing though that I’d recommend
And heartily advise
At no point try to laugh or clap
It would be most unwise.
For vigorous shaking of the hands
Will cause your cheeks to part
And bowing too, do not do that
Undoubtably you’ll…”
…and as he glides into the night, he begins to appreciate his new perspective, begins to see the world as a crow sees the world. The world is aglow with a faint white fire and where it is not there is only darkness. Smell is not smell but colour, which extends like gossamer threads that weft and weave with the wind. Sound is different too, an echo within an echo, as if frozen by and melted by time simultaneously.
A thin red line pulls Hood’s attention and as he follows it, snaking between the dark forms of trees, highlighted with the ever present white flames, he alights on a branch, beneath which lies the small red glowing body of a dead rodent. An overwhelming feeling of hunger grips his stomach and tingles his beak? The crow’s stomach, the crows beak...Hood has to remind himself, for he feels these almost irresistible urges to peck and pull and feed as if they are his. The crow has a will of its own and Hood must wrestle with it for it to do his bidding. With a loud screaming caw the crow takes flight again, against its natural desire. Up over the fields, circling higher and higher, the colour draining from the wind, Hood climbs into the fluid darkness of the night sky, a landscape of forces that ruffle and push, squeeze and flow across his wings and through the nasal holes of his beak. He feels the sharp claws tucked beneath him, lets them flex and scratch the face of the night as he banks silently and, following his instincts, flies towards the chaotic sea, a jumbled scape of fractured shapes and jittering colours that crash against one another to birth the same jumbled landscape again. If there is one thing that represents mystery for a crow then this must be it. A dizzying melange of abstraction coupled with a dredging roar that churns the senses. It is a difficult environment in which to maintain control but Hood welcomes the challenge. Even though his perception suggests otherwise, the sea is relatively calm and, in amidst the merging and emerging shapes, Hood makes out a darker shape from which a single light source burns, and it is to this that he flies.
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Swooping over the edge of a cliff and diving down, the wind changes as he approaches the water, the pressures contained in the air seem to dissipate and drop and it is more difficult to maintain the steady beat of his dark feathered wings but he uses the speed he has gained in his descent to help him. He feels the air cool as he skims the waves, waves that look like crystals forming and reforming, coalescing then shattering until the dark shape that moments ago was simply a speck is suddenly in front of him, to which he rises gently and alights on the edge of its wooden sides. With a blink and a quick preen and an almost mechanical twitch of the head Hood hops down onto the deck of a large fishing boat.
His instincts were correct. For there, crouched in the shadows, a smile carved indefinitely upon a face, is Madeleine.
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As the Godking Wills
The Empire and the Church span almost the entirety of the known world, absent some pockets of lawlessness and the realms of the deceiver. They are governed as a despotic theocracy, ruled in name by the solitary and omnipotent God, Al'Shazan.In practice, Al'Shazan is bored, flighty, cruel and has little interest in ruling the Empire. Instead the Empire is run by the High Priest, Minister of the Treasury, and the Knight Commander of the inquisition. Their job is to make sense of the contradictory nonsense spewed forth by their living God while simultaneously ruling the greatest nation that the world has ever known. The entire time, they have to maintian the facade that Al'Shazan is a benevolent and loving God in order to maintain morale in the general populace. --------- The actual genre for this is more along the lines of a Fantasy Political Comedy/Drama/Thriller. It will not be 'crunchy' (minimal action, minimal descriptions of powers/abilities) but instead be focusing on world building and political maneuvering. As a warning, it is fairly dark.
8 166The Soul Wielder
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8 182The Immortal
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8 83The shackles of destiny (Permanent hiatus)
[Previously named the successful failure]-------------------------------------------------What is the meaning of power? Is it to be able to protect those dear?Is it to be unrestrained and frivolous? Is it to be the judge over life and death?Is is to be respected and worshiped?One's star is one's future, evolve one's star and evolve oneself to reach the pinnacle of strength!Follow Philip on his journey to the summit of cultivators and discover the earth-shaking secrets hidden within his bloodline.Here is my webpage where I will always keep an extra chapter out!Don't forget to bookmark it or follow it! ;)https://westernxianxianovels.wordpress.com/
8 146The Twelfth - End
Mana, Chi, Divine, and Demonic, those four powers, which come from their respective entity, are the basis of all creation. For something to exist in this world, this thing must have either of them if not all four of them. The entities they come from could be considered as Gods. But unlike popular believe, they aren't "intelligent" beings. They act based on something unknown to us. This very thing which gave birth to their children. If the "Gods" couldn't be considered "intelligent", the same thing couldn't be said for their children. All of them could think and act on their own. And that's what they did. They quickly realized that among all the other creations, they were unique. Their abilities were nothing like the others. Even among them, siblings, some were clearly above the other ones. Thus, some of the weaker ones, feeling upset about their inability to oppose their siblings, decided to flee. Somewhere very far. And they managed to find something they had never seen before. Something which would change the fate of all of them.
8 173One among others
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