Chapter 8 is done! Here’s your snippet and chapter header!

A perfect world

Careful! Beware!

Don’t release the evil there!

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“So you protect Riocht from Drochspior too?” Carlotta asked. The Deilf nodded his assent. “Could you solve an argument for us then?” She motioned for the Lion, the dryads and the Eanaugh to come over. “Could you please tell the Eanaugh and our dryad friends that this Lion is not Drochspior?”

“My dear girl.” the Lion said smoothly. “Have these creatures really been telling you such lies? How could I be Drochspior? I have devoted myself to serving you! Perhaps the dryads and Eanaugh themselves are the minions of Drochspior!”

“They can’t be.” I broke in. “They said that no one has ever been tricked by Drochspior into being evil like him.” The Lion nodded sagely.

“Ah, but if they are Drochspior’s helpers, don’t you think they would say that to get you off track?”

I was on a names website, and I decided to look up my character’s names. The results were kind of ironic.

Carlotta: Strong One (Carlotta is the Riochtian Eve, so she’s the first one to eat the fruit (which is actually drinking water from a fountain in my book)…which means she’s actually the weaker one!)

William: Protector (William’s stubbornness gets them into all the trouble in the first place.)

Gareth (my only dryad with a human name): gentle (Gareth is grumpy and testy in my book)

Chapter 7 is done! It is told from Carlotta’s perspective. I do have thingy (very specific aren’t I?) for the beginning of the chapter, but it’s also in the chapter itself, so I’ll just give it to you in the snippet!

“Don’t you see that the Lion is trying to kill you?” Fen asked.

“He’s too good and nice to kill us.” I replied. “The wind must have blown the fire.”

“Leave it alone.” Gareth said grumpily. “They won’t listen to reason anyway. Why are we still with them?” Fen turned to him, his eyes flashing.

“We are with them because we promised Ri that we would protect them to the best of our ability. Would you go back on a promise given to the great Ri himself?” Gareth shook his head sheepishly.

“Listen, my dears.” Iylde broke in. “There has been a prophecy in our land since the world began. It says:

When two humans

One girl. One boy.

Have ruled Riocht

For seven pure days,

Drochspior’s power

Will be destroyed.

Forever.

Don’t you understand? Drochspior doesn’t want his power destroyed! He wants you dead!”

William sighed. “The Lion isn’t Drochspior, Iylde! Nothing so beautiful and kind could be bad.”

“Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to judge people by appearances?”

“The Lion isn’t a person.”

Chapter 6 is done!!! It is from William’s point of view. Here’s the prophecy piece and TWO snippets!

Two crowns.

One silver. One gold

Will sit on the heads of humans bold.

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I followed my dryad friends to another tent, in which Carlotta, I presumed, was also changing. A muffled voice called out that they weren’t done yet, and Gareth rolled his eyes.

“Women!”

Fen and I laughed, and we all sat down on a fallen log to wait. I quickly bounced up again.

“Wait a minute! Are we sitting on a dead dryad?” The dryads started chuckling, and it quickly blossomed out into full-blown laughter. I frowned and waited for them to stop. When he finally had breath to speak, Fen answered my question.

“I suppose you could put it that way, lad. After a dryad dies, his or her tree lives a year longer, and then dies. But it’s not like there’s a dryad inside anymore.”

I eyed the log warily, and sat on the grass instead, being careful not to sit on any flowers.

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“Your Majesties.” We all turned to see a great lion, his mane and fur golden in the bright sunshine, and his eyes sparkling with life and vitality.

“Oh! You’re beautiful!” Carlotta cried

“Many thanks, Your Majesty.” The lion replied, bowing his head. “If Your Majesties wish to follow me, I have come to show you the wonders of Riocht, and the land over which you now rule.

“That would be wonderful!” Carlotta and I cried together.

“Wait!” Eiolynn broke in. “Please give us one moment, Lion. We wish to speak to the King and Queen.” The lion nodded his permission. After drawing us aside, all the dryads, and the Eanaugh, who had joined us started talking at once.

“Hold it!” I exclaimed. “One at a time!”

Fen spoke up. “I’ll speak for all, if that is agreeable.” The others agreed that he could speak. “You have not been here long, children. You do not know Riocht well yet. You do not know that voice.”

“Know that voice?” Carlotta asked.

“That” said Fen, pausing dramatically and speaking in a whisper, “is the voice of…

AND I’M NOT TELLING WHOSE VOICE IT WAS!!!!!

-Zoe

I updated this map. You can see it bigger here.

Here’s a map of just Riocht. Sorry some of the stuff on the left got cut off. It’s supposed to say ‘The Larychan Sea’ and ‘Copyright Zoe Scrivener 2009′. You can see it bigger here.

*EDIT* I just realized I had troubles with my copying and pasting. Here’s what the story’s REALLY like.

Chapter 5 is complete! It is told from Carlotta’s perspective. You lucky people get TWO snippets. The second one has some foreshadowing in it!

“Come,” Iylde broke in. “You will have plenty of time to learn these things. Right now we want you to meet our friends.” We followed the dryads down a slender path at the side of the mountain. After walking for a while, we came to the river and crossed over a little bridge. We were immediately surrounded by creatures of every description, each of them wanting to say hello. I noticed that they acted formally, and suddenly began to feel like an outsider. A girl with flaming red hair pulled Iylde to the side and whispered in her ear. In turn she then told something to Fen in a low voice and their manner towards us changed to match that of the other creatures.

“Have we done something wrong?” William whispered in my ear.

“I don’t know,” I replied, “But they sure are treating us strangely.”

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“The mountains and reef do protect us from outsiders.” The blue bird replied. “But the Eanaugh and others protect Riocht from the evil within.”

“The evil within?”

“Drochspior.” All the birds whispered with one voice. “The Trickster.” As always happened at the mention of that name, a cold, scared shiver ran down my spine, and I suddenly realized that even Riocht was not entirely free of darkness.

“Has anyone ever been tricked by Drochspior into becoming evil like him?” I asked.

“No.” The blue bird, who seemed to be the voice of the group, replied. “While the water of Pandora’s Fountain is contained, none are tricked by him.”

“Pandora’s Fountain?”

“The place in which Drochspior’s powers and all evil are contained.” Iylde replied, even though I had not addressed the question to her. “If anyone drinks from the fountain, the evil contained there will be released, and Drochspior will be able to use his powers in a limited way.”

“What will happen then?”

-Zoe