Where Lies Adventure!

CHAPTER 4 Epiphany         “What will you do?” Shepherd heard Cecily’s voice ask.   There was a bemused wonder in her tone that mocked him.   She knew full well he didn’t know what he was going to do, because she was part of him.   What an inane question. A twinge of awareness arose in him; like a hair standing on the back of one’s neck in a tense situation.   He turned to look full on into the face of the pale lady that was both part of and apart from him.   “I will not apologize.   It was an inane question.” Shepherd turned back to the suffering woman on the alter.   Her tidal wave screams were receding into long, low ripples of torment; her moans belied not just physical pain, but the existential suffering that came with realizing her life would never be the same again.   She would never see…anything, ever again.   “I have to help her,” Shepherd declared in a bold and brash tenor.   “But you meant to,” the voice of Finnian argued.   “Before the priest

CHAPTER 3 Spells              Shepherd idled along the crest of the great hill that overlooked Malthanon.   Once upon a time, he had journeyed to this very spot in the company of two friends.   Cecily was on her quest to retrieve the sword of the GodKing, and he had convinced Finnian, his dearest friend, that they should join Cecily’s enterprise.               On their initial journey from his small, shepherd’s village, Shepherd weighed whether or not he was doing the right thing.   He had been so invigorated by Cecily’s mission; by the chance to be great and fulfill a sacred crusade in service to the gods that had fascinated him ever since he was a child.   But the moment he saw Malthanon, perched atop this great height, he knew that he had made the right choice.   Though he’d question it all through their adventure together, he always fell back on the feeling of seeing the great city for the first time: a feeling of having found home.   He’d never been

           “I’m afraid, Mr. Reyes, that the tumor in your mother’s lung has more than doubled in size over these last four months,” the doctor said.             “What does that mean?”   David asked.   He put his arms around his mother and held her tightly.   He could feel her looking up at him; this sixty-eight year old frail Spanish woman who could only catch every other word of what the doctor was telling her.   After the doctor told him all the details, she’d immediately ask David to recount them in their native tongue.   He’d never hated doing that before, with normal things like buying a washing machine or ordering at a restaurant.   But ever since his grandmother was brought to the hospital it had gotten harder to have the same conversation twice in such rapid succession.   He felt like he had no time to take anything in.   No time to wade into the pool and get used to the temperature of the water.   He heard bad news and had to dive into telling his mothe