Monthly Archives: November 2009

Rekka no Ken: The Tactician and the Jewel: Sly Tongues Aplenty

Chapter 3: Twisted Paths     Chapter 5: Secrets in the Storm

 

Chapter 4: Sly Tongues Aplenty

 

Pent’s company continued winding its way through the mountains between Etruria and Lycia, fighting off the occasional bandit attack. They hadn’t seen any soldiers since they had fought Lord Blier. Ceniro found the farseer extraordinarily useful and would hardly put it down, although he nearly learned the hard way not to rely on it wholly as a substitute for eyes when he himself was attacked by a bandit whom he had thought further away than he was. Other than that slight slip, his tasks were much easier and even more successful than they had been, though he attributed that in part to the fact that bandits were disorganized and stupid.

When Pent spoke to Castle Wrigley, Erk and Louise both told him they were fine. Erk was nearly finished reading his “General Compositional Theory of Anima Magic: Volume 3”, and was incorporating what he had learned into his Fire spell, and was looking forward to the discussion of Thunder in Volume 4. Louise did not say too much, but did show him a lopsided brown rabbit she had embroidered on a pillow.

Douglas was still in contact, though barely – the magic of the staff was wearing thin. He had disturbing news.

“I think there is another spider in this web, Pent. I don’t know who for certain, yet, but several people have been acting strangely.”

“Not on orders from Blier, Arcard, or Ocery?”

“No. Blier is gone, of course, but Arcard has been staying out of it and the signs are too subtle for Ocery. Aldash, though, has been sneaking around. My people have spotted him apparently making deals with Lord Eshan.”

“Eshan!?” Pent cried. “That’s very disconcerting.”

“He’s also been talking to Lesil, though that may be unconnected with this affair. Lesil does have business in Faria at present, the county next door to Reglay, where Aldash has relatives.”

Pent sighed. “The question – does this plot reach further than it appears on the surface, or are we dragging too many names into the mix?”

Douglas nodded. “I would personally suspect that we have not found out half of what is going on.” Continue reading

The Totally Not-Canon Adventures of Flairé: City

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Leslie: Wow.

Flairé: Nice, huh?


Now we get to see what they were looking at last page! It’s a city! With vastly oversized gates! The ship sailing into harbour has the royal emblem on its sail, sort of. Lilar-Moihh means Sun-path. So, Sunset Harbour, basically. Except more poetic. It’s a city of mostly white stone, but I did do some pale greys. They were too subtle and got washed out, unfortunately.

Today my Mom coloured a unicorn in a colouring book that was lying around. So we were colouring together! Yay!

Summary of the Novel

Okay. Here’s a serious summary of the novel to go on the back cover, possibly. It’s only a first draft, like the book itself. Which title should I use? End of Nations sums up the physical plot, while Sword’s Innocence sums up the emotional/symbolic plot/theme.

 

 Adhemlenei: End of Nations/Sword’s Innocence

       In an ancient land called the Adhemlenei, The Four Kingdoms, where
unicorns, dragons, and griffons live with elves in peace and beauty, unrest is
brewing. Death and war, so foreign at first to these people, are forced upon
them as insanity creeps into the lands. In the midst of the strife, elf Prince
Flaer, his wife Zela, and his eldest son Flairé must choose between truth and
peace as they struggle to restore reason to the land.

 

Cheesy, huh? : D

The Totally Not-Canon Adventures of Flairé: Birdies

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Flairé: Anyway, let’s go to the city! You should have a look around now that you’re here.

Leslie (looks at him): O-okay.

(walk hand in hand, birdies)


Sorry for being late today. I didn’t have this one drawn or anything, so I did that as soon as I got home from church and JUST finished. That’s… four hours? Eeek, that’s a bit longer than I wanted to spend on it. But look! It’s incredibly colourful! I decided not to be lame, and put in a background! I wonder what they’re looking at in the last panel?

Oh, and I used some coloured Sharpies for some of the colour this time, and they go down so smoothly it’s incredible. You can see it in two trees and a bush in the first panel!

Summary of the Novel

In Microsoft Word, buried in the Options in a list of unused functions, is an ‘autosummary’ function. I found out about this on the NNWM website, and made some summaries of my novel (which sucks, by the way, so I’m going to have to rewrite most of it and cut the rest – because I can’t revise something already written. I just want to keep what I wrote the first time, which does not help me improve!). Anyway, here is a 14 word summary. …Flairé is oddly pleased with it, but he wants me to let you know that the ‘cried’ doesn’t refer to tears.

Zela… “Zela! “Zela?”

“Run, Flairé!” Flairé?”

“Flairé? Flairé smiled. Flairé cried. “Flairé?

Flairé cried.

The 48 word version and the 98 word version are pretty much exactly the same, just… more.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I think my novel should now be called “Flairé Gets Called a Lot“.

The Farseer

This picture can be found in the story chapter below, and is the last of the illustrations for the Pent story to date. I rather like this one; I had no reference for Pent but he came out rather well. This was the second picture I drew, so it’s a little out of order. In this picture, Ceniro is receiving a magical device designed to help him plot strategy. It’s like a GPS, sort of. I’m rather proud of the wilted flower by the waterbarrel. The stick thing that Pent has is his heal staff.

Rekka no Ken: The Tactician and the Jewel: Twisted Paths

Chapter 2: Prize or Artefact?          Chapter 4: Sly Tongues Aplenty

 

Chapter 3: Twisted Paths

 

Two days after they had faced Worelt and his mercenary company, Ceniro woke up in the tent he shared with Pent to find the sage sitting cross-legged on his bedroll, fiddling with tiny bits of metal and glass.

“What is that?” Ceniro asked after a moment. He had to ask three more times before Pent even looked up from what he was doing.

“This?” Pent replied at last, as if startled. “It’s a toy I’ve been working on for the past few days, actually. You always fall asleep so quickly you miss seeing it. It’s almost done, though. Just another hour or so and I can start messing with enchantments.”

“It’s a magic toy?”

Pent grinned. “If I told you what it was, you probably wouldn’t call it a toy. Be that as it may, it is indeed a magic toy. I brought the pieces with me; I hadn’t had time to finish it before we left Wrigley.”

“I see,” said Ceniro, though he didn’t. Pent reached out and patted his shoulder.

“No, you don’t, but that’s okay. You’ll see soon enough.” Continue reading

The Totally Not-Canon Adventures of Flairé: Not Very Helpful Explanations

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Leslie: What is going on?

Flairé: I dunno, but… …you’re here, right?

Leslie: So… do you know Jen?

Flairé: Yeah, of course! D’you think that just because you’ve travelled back in time a few million years that I wouldn’t know my best friend?

Leslie: Even though she’s not actually born yet?

Flairé: Uh, yeah. I guess that would be the case. *THINKING*

Leslie: hahaha (He’s just as odd as Jen said he’d be… but he’s nice and friendly. But how did I get here, and what am I going to do?)


Whoohoo! And it’s time for another page. No background because I still don’t trust myself on ’em.

Leslie politely demands an explanation; Flairé is singularly useless at explaining things in a straightforward fashion. (I think second-to-last panel has him looking very pretty. <3 ) I wonder if he’s acting clueless in order to string the reader along with mystery. …Nah, that can’t be it. He’s just clueless.

Haven’t drawn the next page! I’d better get some done before next week! It’ll be an adventure!

I think his eyes are too light. I’m going to start using the dark green marker for him.

Flairé’s Ride, Part 2

SAFE is not the word he'd use to describe it.

SAFE is not the word he’d use to describe it.

And the thrilling conclusion to the horse chase yesterday! Sort of. He makes it to the next village ahead of the raiders, and I had extra space so I drew a butterfly. His butterfly. Whatever. I mean his butterfly cloak pin. Whatever. This picture and the one before it were inspired by Mark Knopfler’s Speedway at Nazareth. Which is a song about racecars. Go figure.