Elaina J. Davidson's Blog, page 85
November 2, 2023
November 1, 2023
Echo now over 90k!
Around three-quarters of the way now, I think 😵
I'm still headed for a Christmas release, but this does depend on edits etc (and finishing the story, of course). Here's the latest image - pure sword and sorcery!
October 31, 2023
October 30, 2023
October 29, 2023
Excerpt: Orphan - Who is Iris Hill?
IRIS HILL STEPPEDon the pedal, pumping it. It took a while for the car to respond, buteventually the green city commuter lurched forward. She hated it, but funds nolonger permitted an upgrade. This was her transport now, had been for fifteenyears … not that she even recalled the years already gone by between buyingthis at an auction and her current position. Sometime after year two alone, hermemory started playing tricks on her. What was, was no longer part of herreality. It wasn’t illness of a kind with a fancy medical name –as folkwhispered to each other in the butchery the other day – it was deliberate. Irisdid not want to remember her past and therefore she locked everything away,even the moments spent on a lot bidding for a five-year-old baby sedan.
The car swivelled, losingtraction on the gravel.
Swearing, she stomped on thepedal again, the other one, the one that brought the vehicle to a halt, butmissed it and lunged ahead instead.
A young boy flashed into view,and Iris screamed, seeing him grow alarmingly larger in her sights. Huge blueeyes swung her way, as panicked.
She stomped and stomped, and screamed.
ADIN HURTLED SIDEWAYSinto the brush, suffering slashing from sharp branches, and bruising his kneesas he landed on rough stone. A green swirl filled his vision, causing him tocover his face. A strangely dulled scream filled the surrounds, eclipsing allbirdsong, even the pounding of his heart.
The world stilled.
All sound vanished, and life fellinto breathlessness.
A car door slammed extra loudly,jerking him back to life.
“Boy! Where are you? Are youokay?”
The woman’s voice was deep. Heexpected it to be shrill, but that was probably perception based on the soundof screaming. Where had she come from? He could swear her tyres made no soundon the gravel road as she approached. Maybe he had been careless in hisattention, rapt in the sight of so much nature.
He crawled from scratching twigs,searching for her. She had been as terrified as he was. There was a chance sheneeded him to be as fine as he needed her to be on her way and leave him alone.She wouldn’t do that until she saw him.
The old and dinged thing shedrove listed to one side, hanging into the ditch on the opposite side of theroad. He noticed the ditch when he chose this backwater rural lane, and optedto walk on the incline side, where trees grew, and grass. Lots of grass, andwildflowers. He liked grass. Grass was far easier to sleep on than a concretestep in a city.
Another swirl entered his fieldof vision, this one greyed out black rather than dusty green. A swish of toomuch material became a dress. Adin stared at her dress. She was like a witchfrom the tales with her long robe billowing out in the breeze.
He shuddered, wondering if shewanted to eat him.
Pointed red shoes appeared underthe rim of her mighty dress affair, causing him to smile. That wasn’t a sign ofevil; that was a sign of cheekiness.
Adin looked up … into the kindestgreen and brown flecked eyes he had ever seen. It wasn’t her eye colour thatgot him, for he had seen eyes of every colour in his short life, it was herkindness. She exuded it. Stranger still, he knew it as kindness.
“I’m okay,” he said, but hiswords emerged croaked and broken.
Arms akimbo, she studied him. Herhair was dark, far darker than her dress, and all she needed was a pointy hat,and she would be a witch. Frecklescovered her face, though, and he couldn’t make out wrinkles. Maybe not so mucha witch, then. Maybe she liked to play dress-up.
“No, you’re not fine. We need tosee to all those scratches and your poor knees. And I think you’re hungry andthirsty.”
Yes, he was, but he wasn’t goinganywhere with anyone.
He drew himself up. “I’m fine.”
“What’s your name?”
“What’s yours?”
Grinning, she said, “Iris Hill. Ilive up there.” She pointed to a space above his head.
He craned around, but couldn’tsee anything other than trees guarding the road. When he faced here again, shehad one eyebrow raised.
“Adin,” he muttered.
“Adin who?”
“Don’t know.”
“Ah.”
In that ‘ah’ was a world ofunderstanding, as if she knew exactly what he meant, as if she had once walkedthe same path in life as he now did. He stared at her.
She glanced at his knees weepingthin trails of blood. “Adin Stone, is that your name?”
Nodding vigorously, he swallowed.She did understand.
“Well, Adin Stone, we gave eachother a fright. I need help getting my car back on the road and you need helpwith your injuries. Shall we make a deal? I help you first and then you helpme? Tomorrow you can be on your way again, but I’d welcome the company atdinner tonight, if that’s okay with you.”
This time he nodded slowly.
Man, she read him too well.
An orphaned boy searches for a lost girl.
A woman abandons her new-born at a motel in the back ofbeyond. Adin grows up unloved, bullied, and no one remembers him. He doesn’texist.
Until he sees a poster for a missing girl on a lamppost.There is an instant connection to little Sunflower, kidnapped for ransom, onlyto disappear after the money is paid. He exists because he must find her.Alone, he searches, a journey that takes him into the wild places, meetingalong the way some interesting characters.
In dreams he speaks to her, for she is the one who willremember him.
THE ORPHAN
