Kindle Edition
Amazon
Category:
Action/Thriller
Publisher: Amazon
Type: Fiction
Pages: 138
Copyright: July 3, 2015
Price: $0.99 (eBook)
Three warlocks are content to use their special powers to keep their horse-training business solvent until a pre-teen equestrian and an ancient wizard recruit them to protect a rape victim from enemies that would steal her baby and kill her.
The television mini-series “Merlin” suggested that Merlin might yet walk among us. If that is so, would he have stopped the Battle of Britain? Obviously he did not, but could it be that Merlin was occupied elsewhere? Could an ancient enemy have been on the other side? Could Merlin have created the storm that sank the Spanish Armada? Did the creators of the “Merlin” mini-series contemplate such things? Sometimes during the process of developing the plot for a story, strange questions float to the surface. Most get left out of the story, but still, they are part of what makes writing fun.
Further to that, would Superman show up on the radar? Migratory birds show up on the radar. If Superman or Merlin, assuming he could fly, tripped the air defense warning system, what would happen? In my book “Flying with Fairies” I assume that radar would spot such incursions into sovereign airspace and would trigger an adverse reaction. Therefore, the characters go to great lengths to avoid detection. How would an ancient wizard like Merlin react to radar or spy satellites? I suspect that he would rely on the assistance of younger colleagues, but he might rise to the challenge if his arrogance did not get in the way.
There have been several treatments of magical beings that live among the general public, but often these are located in urban or suburban environments. Many of the television shows are placed in small towns where the locale is familiar to the reader. Finding magical beings on a horse ranch in the Deep South might seem a little strange, but there is no reason it could not be so. There are those who would contend that Central Florida is not the Deep South. In some ways it is, but in other ways it is a world apart. Is more like Texas than like Georgia, even as it resembles Iowa. This is where our three young gentlemen and their delightful ladies live. Welcome to their world.
Three Warlocks, brothers, triplets, run a ranch where they train horses for cowboys and cattle ranchers. They use their special powers to keep their ranch solvent and, in spite of the recent death of their adoptive mother, are content with their lives. All that changes when a pre-teen equestrian shows up with her father to buy a horse. On the same day triplet witches, and their mother are directed to the ranch by a mysterious stranger.
The witch’s mother and the girl’s father have a history, and only he knows that none of this is a coincidence. Within two days, the warlocks, the witches, their mother, the girl, her father and some friends and family use their powers to fight a forest fire. They are then recruited by the mysterious stranger, actually an ancient wizard, to protect a rape victim. The woman was raped by a magical being who intends to steal the baby and kill her. This has been going on a long time and the wizard believes he finally has the team to stop it. The wizard quickly loses control of the team and it completes the mission without him.
The team takes on missions without the wizard, relegating him to advisor status. After several missions on their own, the team emerges far more powerful than anything the wizard could have hoped for. Even though he created the team he does not control them and in some ways the “battle group” he created controls him.
Excerpt
The Monday before Christmas dawned clear and cold. It was a welcome change from the dismal weather of the previous week. The ground was still sodden and the horses’ hooves made squishing noises as they and their riders inspected the property’s fences. In this part of Florida, November was supposed to be the start of the dry season, but this season was not being a typical year. The rains had continued well into December. Garth pointed and his brothers looked up. The pre-dawn sky was beautiful with its smattering of wispy clouds showing pink, magenta and subtle pastels in a pale blue background. The vestiges of the front that had blown through in the night left the sky painted with delicate soft edged hues instead of the more garish brilliant colors typical of a Florida sunrise.
“Not as much damage as I expected,” Waylon said.
“As much wind as we’ve had the last few days, I thought sure this whole fence would be down,” Dylan said.
“None of the cattle got out and the rain greened up the pasture,” Garth said.
“A couple more days of that and we’ll slide through the winter easily,” Waylon said. “Nothing like freshly watered grasses to keep the cattle happy.”
“Don’t get your hopes up.”
They laughed.
As the brothers rode the fence, they discovered a tree limb that had fallen across the barbed wire. The top strand had been broken, but the two lower strands were intact. While most people would have needed a chainsaw to clear the branch, Garth ran his finger around the branch. The flame that issued from his finger cut the wood as neatly as a blowtorch cuts through soft metal. Once the branch was divided into manageable pieces, Dylan created a strong wind to lift the pieces off the ground and dump them where they could be retrieved with a farm wagon later. On other ranches, a rope would be tied to the saddle horns and the horses would pull the branches to their pickup location. The horses did not seem to mind being relieved of that burden and calmly watched the pieces of what would become firewood float in front of their faces.
Waylon cut a piece of wire to make a splice for the broken fencing wire. Garth rested his hand on the overlapped ends and welded them together. Waylon held the splice in place watering it down to keep the heat from spreading and burning the adjacent fence posts. Once the splice was complete, with a wave of his hand Waylon washed away all the evidence of their having been there.
|
