Quarterstars Awakening Read online

  Quarterstars Awakening

  David L. McDaniel

  © Copyright David L. McDaniel 2019

  Black Rose Writing | Texas

  © 2019 by David L. McDaniel

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine or journal.

  The final approval for this literary material is granted by the author.

  First digital version

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Print ISBN: 978-1-68433-370-7

  PUBLISHED BY BLACK ROSE WRITING

  www.blackrosewriting.com

  Print edition produced in the United States of America

  Thank you so much for reading one of David L. McDaniel’s novels.

  If you enjoyed the experience,

  please check out where the Quarterstars Prophecy really begins…

  The Warrior’s Bane

  War for the Quarterstar Shards Book One

  “…an entertaining journey.” –KIRKUS REVIEW

  “…delivers on its intent to both entertain and intrigue.” –IndieReader

  To Brittany and Mitchell, my Alpha and Omega

  beta readers of the roughest of rough drafts.

  Author’s Introduction

  This series, The War for the Quarterstar Shards will be a five-book series: One book for each Quarterstar and this Quarterstars prophecy book. I wrote this book that you now hold in your hands after The Warrior’s Bane, but it isn’t necessarily the second book in the story, in fact, I have written it so that it can be read at any time during the series, full of hints of events that will be revealed in all four of the books. Even though this book is an origin story, Alaezdar Kerlethian is not one of the characters, yet it has absolutely everything to do with him.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Recommended Reading

  Dedication

  Map

  Author's Introduction

  The Weathered Old Man

  Chapter 1 - Year 566

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  The Weathered Old Man

  Acknowledgements

  Note from the Author

  About the Author

  The Weathered Old Man

  The weathered old man walked down the trail that led to the rocky cliff that faced the Rae-Om Sea. The children followed until he reached the edge and stood unflinching on the edge of the precipice. The sea slammed into the cliff face causing gusts of sea spray to climb up the steep face and ruffle his robe.

  “Look far beyond the horizon,” he said pointing outward with his wrinkled and spotted hand. “Use not your eyes, but your mind to see the land that is not there.”

  One by one, the children sat down. The kids knew they could not realize this vision as he wanted, but they knew that another great tale was about to begin.

  “All of this land used to be frozen. Icy frozen tundra: no trees, nothing green, only silvery white, blinding landscapes. This realm had no life, save one man: a hermit.”

  “The Kronn man!” they cheered in unison.

  “Close, but not quite, at least not yet. He did not become the Kronn man until after the battle between the gods. A battle that happened on the other side of this sea.”

  The old man then lifted himself above the cliff and drifted out above the sea. The children’s eyes widened in amazement, for they had heard that he was capable of such wondrous feats, but this was the first time they had witnessed him doing so. They stood up and ran as close to the edge of the cliff as they dared, and watched the old man weave his tale.

  “The hermit was not a man, elf, or dwarf. He had no real shape or form. He merely existed as part of the land, because he was the land. He lived alone, he cared for no one, he had no life other than to exist, but that changed one day when two elves and a dwarf came through the portal. They were not expecting to find the hermit. The hermit tried to use his magic to turn them away by blinding them with snow and confusing them. However, the elves and dwarf persisted and continued to search out and destroy this mysterious barrier to their mission.

  The old man floated above the cliff’s edge and turned the scene into a snowy landscape. The children no longer saw the ocean’s horizon in the background: All was white and crystalline, and they saw that where the weathered old man was floating, appearing as a hunched-over, nearly crippled old hermit standing in the snow facing his adversaries.

  “It was a magical battle between them. It went on for hours with no one gaining any ground on the other until one of the elves cast a spell, changing the hermit into a black evil beast with huge horns growing out of his head and thick leathery wings.”

  “A dragon?” the kids gasped.

  “Oh no, much worse: The birth of the Markenhirth!” he exclaimed loudly and then went back to his tale. The children then saw the whole battle being performed before them as the old man told his tale.

  “The Markenhirth flew to the air just as a star exploded into the atmosphere, crackling and screaming towards the surface, but the Markenhirth unknowingly jumped into its path. The star cut through its chest, slicing through his heart and splitting the star into four equal parts. The Quarterstar shards flew to different corners of the land as the hermit and the newly formed Markenhirth fell to the ground, becoming trapped in the frozen underworld.

  “The hermit, now as the Kronn man, disappeared, and with no adversaries to stop them, the elves and dwarf made the land green and became gods to the thousands of people that would soon populate the land.

  “For many years the elven gods Val-Eahea, Raezoures and the dwarven god Har-Ron ruled the land in peace, but what they did not expect, was a new powerful race that rose out of the dirt of the land. The humans inserted themselves into this land and became a complex thread to this tale of Wrae-Kronn.”

 
The old weathered old man then turned back into his normal form and the icy landscape disappeared. Floating back to the children, he landed softly before them and smiled. We are descendants of those humans, and you will soon learn the Tale of the First Human King Dar Drannon.

  Chapter 1

  Year 566

  Traelyn’s ancient body ached. Her ankles, hips, even her slumped shoulders hurt as if her body would crumble to the ground in pieces. Even with all this pain, she still felt the compelling urge to keep walking. She had not been outside of her small but active village for many years because she was too old and too frail to travel any farther than her gardens. Today she did manage to braid her long silver hair back before she left, as she felt she might be taking a long journey, even if it was only a long walk through the forest. Her hair was wiry and brittle, but it felt good to braid it again, as it was something she had not done for herself in such a way for many years. She almost felt young and beautiful again, which made her smile to herself at the absurdity of the thought.

  She really had no idea where she was going, or why she was doing this; she just felt the urge to walk, and walk she did. The trail before her was nothing more than a deer trail of crushed weeds meandering in between the shrubs, ferns, and clustered pine trees. She had to stop numerous times to catch her breath when the trail sloped uphill.

  She had been walking for hours until she came to a massive clearing. The meadow before her was vast and she had no idea that it was here. Three sides were surrounded by thick forested woods that covered three large cliffs on each side that towered high above the evergreen forest, but what impressed her more was what occupied the large meadow: Men. More men than she had ever seen. Her son Daegon and a few of his top warriors could be seen atop a rock shelf on a low portion of the cliff, high enough to give him a complete view of the valley below, but close enough for his men to see him. The soldiers practiced fighting with sword, axe, mace and shield. Her son Daegon was the commander of a few small bands of raiding forces that had changed their mandate from fighting against other human tribes in the area, to hit and run tactics against the large elven forces to the north, but she had no idea he had this many men.

  Walking into the meadow she marveled at the strength and amount of energy the men displayed. They were all so preoccupied with their training that they didn’t notice her watching at first, but as she inched her way in between the fighting, they began to take notice and stopped their training, bowing to her as she walked passed them. Some even took a knee, eager to show their respect and take a break from their training while doing so.

  “Great Mother,” they all gasped or mumbled under their breath.

  By the time she reached the face of the cliff, all of the men had taken the position of one knee bowing in reverence.

  Daegon, realizing what was going on, grabbed a rope that allowed him to repel down the cliff face and hurried down to the bottom. Angry at the distraction by the Great Mother, he threw the rope against the cliff and allowed it to dangle so the others in his company could follow him.

  “What are you doing here Great Mother?” he asked, giving her a mock bow. He then reached out, gave her a hard hug, and held her tight.

  “Where did all of these men come from?” she asked, breaking his embrace and putting her hands behind her back attempting to rub out the pain that was beginning to scream at her from her long walk.

  “These men,” he began smiling, showing his slightly crooked teeth behind his rough and splotchy facial hair “are my latest achievement, as they are the last of the tribes to have finally joined us after generations of intertribal warfare.”

  Traelyn smiled. She hated the elves as much as Daegon did, and he hated the elves with such unmatched passion that few could ever surpass it. The elves had been a painful thorn and major irritation to the human race for generations. When the humans migrated north in an attempt to escape the constant dragon attacks, the elves aggressively turned them away, sending them scattering back to their home under the shadow of the Dragon Cross Mountains.

  Even in peace, their pleas were ignored, and the elves flaunted their superiority over the scattered and disorganized human tribes. Infuriated by the elven arrogance and lack of sympathy, the humans tried to aggressively break into the elven defense system at the southernmost keep, Fort Stone Elf.

  Every attempt to storm the fortress failed.

  They tried many times to send scouts around the keep to reconnoiter the area, looking for a weakness in the fort. They found themselves wandering the forests for days only to return weary, hungry, and scratched head to toe from traveling through the thick forest foliage, leaving them to believe that elven magic was at play to keep them lost in the tangle.

  She assessed the men under her son’s command. “This is such a large force, but is it large enough?” she asked.

  “You are correct, Great Mother. This force is not large enough to take those wicked forest creepers, but what you see is merely the last of the tribes to join our cause.”

  “They have magic. How do you plan to stop the elves from using their magic?”

  “We will hit them hard and fast and then retreat, just as we have always done, but this time, we will not stop like we always have. We will stop, overrun them, and make them beg us to kill them.”

  Traelyn smiled and nodded. “I think you are still being a bit over-confident, but I like your enthusiasm. Tell your men to continue on.”

  “As you command, Great Mother. I will have Traegon take you home.”

  “No, I do not want to interrupt your training. I can find my way back.”

  “Traegon is not needed here,” he insisted.

  “He is your son, he should be by your side.”

  Daegon’s face turned red; as he knew his next words needed to be placed very carefully, as he did not want to anger the Great Mother. “He is not needed here. I do not plan on taking him with us.”

  “My son, Daegon, why? He looks up to you, he wants to please you, he wants to prove his worth to you, when are you going to allow him that opportunity?”

  “Never,” he said as he turned around, yelling for someone to find his son.

  Traelyn turned around to walk back home. Traegon would find her soon enough, she could find her way back easy enough and so could he. If Daegon truly intended to send Traegon, and she was not completely sure he would, he would catch up to her in quick fashion.

  She had just wandered into the forest from the meadow when the sky began to turn purple. This caused her to look up at the sun and witness the red hazy blur that was blotted out by orange clouds. This made her curious because it was a sight she had never seen in all of her ancient years. She had never seen the sun look so peculiar. Shrugging it off as something new to add to her long list of memories, she continued to walk on, but immediately her vision began to shimmer with sparks forming in her peripheral vision. She tried to keep walking, but had to stop when her old creaky knees began to shake.

  “Oh my,” she said as she thought she was about to lose consciousness, but before she fell to her knees a figure stood in front of her and wrapped his arms underneath her arm pits, propping her up.

  “Don’t be afraid Traelyn,” the man whispered in her ear.

  “Father!” she screamed, more like a hoarse shrill of excitement that came out, barely louder than a loud whisper.

  “Yes, but I am not really here. I am only here to tell you it is time. Something has happened in the future to allow me to contact you in this way. One of your children has made this happen, but because of this new event, I know things are about to happen that will shape coming events.”

  “What do you want me to do?” she asked breaking free of his embrace and sitting in the dirt sobbing, unable t
o contain her emotion.

  “It is time for you to find the king of the elves,” he said, smiling the exact same smile that made her ache for his return. Her brain scrambled to bring back memories of so long ago. Her memory was such a fog, three hundred long, unnatural years she had waited for his return. She wondered how she knew he would return. She believed it so deeply for her whole life, but she could not remember why. Then it came to her as clear as it was yesterday. Yes, it was simply because they said he would. The elves had told her this.

  “What is going on?” she asked, trying to remember more. The more she tried to remember the more it seemed she would forget as soon as she remembered. “We will, we will be attacking them soon.”

  “No. That is not what I mean. You must find King Jaerick. He needs you, he wants you.”

  “That cannot be. What does he want with me? The elves, they hate us, they kill our people, and they deserve to die.”

  Her father, Dar Drannon, knelt down beside her, took both of her hands, and stood her up, holding her tightly in a loving embrace that made her feel young and safe again. She wanted to go home. He pulled her away, wiped the tears from her weary and wrinkled face and continued. “It is time to put that aside. Go north and find the elves. If you go with aggression and not compassion, you will find a hard and tragic end to you and your children, and your children’s children.”

  “I don’t know if I can do what you ask.”

  Dar Drannon pulled away from her and smiled as his form began to dissipate. “You must. You will remember everything very soon. Once, very long ago, you were in love with the prince of elves. That prince is now their king. Find him. Find him in peace. Also, know now that I am not far from you. I am not dead, but I am trapped in a place that will not allow me to return yet. Only you can help me someday return. If you do as I ask, it may happen soon, but you must do as I ask.”