Hello again
It’s been a while, so I thought I’d treat you all to a sample from my first book ‘The Unclaimed Throne’!
https://www.amazon.com/A.-J.-Dormaar
Chapter Twenty
The Great Deceptor
The treetops rustled again. This time their attention was directed to a large bushy spruce tree nearby and they came closer, wondering what would happen next.
Great blobs of snow plopped down from the snow-laden branches, splattering everyone and causing them to run in all directions. Guilin wiped a big blob from his eye and glared up at the tree.
“So there you are, you great spineless chicken! Get down ‘ere this minute!”
Dead silence.
“Well? I went to a lot of trouble to bring you ‘ere!”
Still, there was not a sound. Guilin stood there turning red with frustration. The others kept a safe distance, not at all sure about all the snow still left on that big tree. But Auryn, who as you know by now did not scare all that easily, was becoming more and more intrigued by this Thing in the tree, and came out to address it herself.
“Just who are you anyway? Until you have let us know one way or another, I shall remain here until you have to come down!”
But nothing could have prepared her for what happened next. For there came a tremendous crash and a roar like thunder that startled everyone so much that they all leaped in the air with fright and crashed back down in the snow.
“I AM THE GREAT DECEPTOR,” roared the voice in the tree, “MASTER OF DISGUISE AND ILLUSION, GENIUS OF COURAGE AND CUNNING, DEVIOUS AND DARING DEEDS!” And upon ‘Deeds’, the very ground shook and a giant wall of snow fell off the very top of the tree, burying everyone below.
“If you are so great and courageous then,” Auryn went on, by now suspecting just the opposite, “then you will have no fear of coming down.
“THE GREAT DECEPTOR MUST NOT BE SEEN!” was the majestic roar. “I AM AT HOME IN THE HEIGHTS!”
“Why you…you…you preposterous ‘umbug!” Guilin spluttered as he battled his way out from under a pile of wet snow, “you’re nothin’ of the sort!”
“Well, then,” reasoned the princess with a smile, “since you won’t come down, then I will go up.” She hitched her skirts to her knee and made as if to climb.
“D-Don’t do that!” came a sudden quavering voice, very different from the bombastic bellow of before. “The…the Great Deceptor can be most reasonable…”
“Can I detect a little nervousness there, O Great One?” asked Auryn with humorous sarcasm. “The Great Deceptor is afraid, perhaps?”
“NEVER!” was the answering yell of indignation, and the tree rustled more than ever. “I AM STRONG AND BRAVE, MASTERFUL AND RESOURCEFUL, DEFIANT AND H-H-HELLLLLP!”
There came the sound of crashing branches and snapping twigs as the Great Deceptor lost his precarious balance and toppled most ingloriously toward earth. Yet another wall of snow slithered off the tree, and while Auryn managed a hasty retreat, Guilin was not quick enough. Still not recovered from his first battering, he was buried under a mound of white in seconds. Garth and Perria hastened over in response to his muffled howls and tried to pull him out.
But Auryn had other things to think about just then. For with a final howl, the Great Deceptor flew off the lower branches and fell face first at her feet. Shivering and whimpering, he staggered to his feet quivering like a jelly.
“Ooooooooh…it’s c-c-c-cold…”
“I see that the Great Deceptor is as feeble as he is clumsy,” came the princess’s voice. She was standing back, desperately trying not to laugh. For the creature in front of her looked anything but courageous and cunning, daring or devious, masterful or resourceful, strong or brave, and
certainly far from defiant. All she saw was a very small, slender man who barely reached her elbow. He had the finest features she had ever seen – transparent almost – but what truly made him remarkable was that he was a soft, glimmering white from head to foot. He looked at her then at himself with bitter woe.
“It’s not fair, it’s just not fair!” he exploded, sniffing back sudden tears. “You’ve gone and ruined everything!” He tossed back his head with a pout, sending his long silky white hair awry. “Not fair at all!”
“Just why do you call yourself the Great Deceptor?” Auryn wanted to know. “And what are you exactly?”
The other sighed miserably. “All right, all right. I admit it! So much for making a great first impression! I do so love a good entrance! My true name is Arion, a Zephyr of the Air, and those of my kind can mimic any other creature we wish – for a short time only. Ahhhhh…ahhhhhhhhh…CHOOOOOOOOO!” and the force of that sneeze sent the tiny sprite flying backward into the snow. He scrambled to his feet even more upset than before. “I’m wet through!” he howled, hopping from one slender foot to the other. “I hate ice and snow and damp and cold winds and the dark of night! What with caring for my delicate constitution! I was made to come here! I hate it here! Exposing a sensitive delicate being like me to…to…ahhhhhCHOOOOO!” and with another enormous sneeze he fell over backward again. “I shall never see my airy home again!” he concluded pathetically. “I shall die here in these awful forests of misery and cold, and be never seen again!”
“That is the important someone?” Garth asked with disgust. “He sure doesn’t look up to much!”
“I must say that I, for one, expected someone more…well…substantial,” Perria had to admit, looking at Arion with dubious unease. “Really, husband, what on earth possessed you?”
“Necessity,” her husband growled, “and ‘e’s smarter
than ‘e looks.” Arion looked around at them all with a sudden smug smile and let out a snort of triumph.
“Fooled you all up in that tree just then didn’t I? Hah!” He tossed his head back again, his long hair flying. “I outsmart everyone! The Master of Disguise and Deception triumphs again – ow!” he yelped as Guilin gave his arm a sudden sharp yank.
“How can he be of possible use to us?” Garth wanted to know.
The Great Deceptor (now Arion) looked as if he had been mortally wounded. He looked at Garth and gasped. He mopped his brow as if he was quite overcome. He staggered several steps backward.
“Use? Use he says? I am greatly offended! A Zephyr of my caliber! I, the Great Deceptor, who have traveled near and far, I, the swiftest of all the spirits of the air! I, the confidant of the winds who are my ears and eyes! No, this cannot be true! No, no.”
“Unfortunately, ‘e is correct,” Guilin said tartly. “You two need a reliable guide if you are ever to leave this world. And ‘is kind are the only ones ‘oo know where to go and what to do, all the risks involved. And…drat it, I ‘ave to admit this in front of ‘IM – ‘e’s the best there is.” The Great Deceptor preened himself with great pleasure and appreciation upon hearing this remark.
“He’d need to be!” Garth commented darkly.
During all of this, Auryn had been standing back surveying the entire scene. For some reason, the entire episode had struck her as being enormously funny. The laughter she had been holding back now for some time burst out with a giggle, and rapidly became louder, and the more she tried to stop herself the worse it became until her cheeks were wet with tears. The others stared at her with mute disbelief.
“Dear me!” Perria exclaimed. “What brought that on, I wonder?”
Auryn could not say. For she paused to take one
more look at the Great Deceptor. Then she collapsed into hysterics completely, laughing until she could laugh no more.
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