Aurora Springer's Blog

Bridget loses her family - snippet fr... Escape to Other Worlds in January’s B...

Bridget decides on a destination - snippet of new #Fantasy for #WeWriWa

Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday . Reading is a safe pastime during the pandemic. Sample the work of a new author. Read snippets of stories in different genres.

I’m posting snippets from my new fantasy about a witch and an elf. The book is up for preorder. The main character, Bridget Bramble, lives in a small village. Her plans to go foraging in the woods go awry when a troop of armed men march into the village and beat up the residents.

You can find the complete, and extended, first chapter at https://www.auroraspringer.org/2020/12/coming-soon-epic-fantasy-with-adventure.html

In last week’s snippet, Bridget watched the raiders kill her brother. You can read it at https://auroraspringer.blogspot.com/2021/01/bridget-loses-her-family-snippet-from.html

It ends on a sad note:She had lost the last members of her family.

For this week’s snippet, I’ve skipped most of the next chapter where Bridget runs to the neighboring village and finds more of the damage wrought by the ruthless invaders. Instead, I’ve moved to the next part when she is deciding where to go.

Seeking inspiration for a destination, Bridget stroked the smooth surfaces of the buttons on her bracelet. She had woven the buttons of copper, stag horn, hawthorn wood, and a smooth quartz pebble into the braided leather band. A charm was etched into each polished button and stone. Granny Bramble had taught her how to carve charms and told her about the potent spell to repel evil on the pendant she had inherited from Mama. She touched the heart-shaped pendant tucked under her jerkin. Made of hammered tin, the locket had little obvious value, yet it held a secret, a small crystal with a fiery sparkle.

Had Granny learned the charms from the elves? Her family had migrated from Oakenwald, the legendary land where elves and men lived together in peace. As a small girl, Granny had seen the marvelous elves. She spoke in admiration of their fair faces, lithe figures and musical voices.

And a few more lines:

Other neighbors held a contrary opinion about the elder folk. They claimed elves were cold-hearted, overproud, and despised ordinary humans. Elves used magic to ward unwanted visitors from their woodland homes. Yet none of these naysayers had seen an elf, whilst Granny had often met elves when she was a child in Oakenwald. Whatever the truth, Granny’s stories had inspired Bridget with a fervent desire to meet some of the elves.

A promising destination blossomed in her mind. She sent a prayer of thanks to her namesake, Bridget the mythical healer, Bridget of the holy fires. She would make the journey over the mountains to Oakenwald and find her Granny’s kinsfolk.

Bridget Bramble and the Wandering Elf

Fantasy romance. A young witch escapes the destruction of her home and embarks on a perilous quest for the fabled land where elves and humans live in peace.

In a land threatened by cruel invaders from the east, Bridget Bramble lives in a small village where she barters herbs and carved buttons. When marauders target her village and murder her family, she flees into the woods. Armed with her Granny’s advice and a bag of magic buttons, she sets out on the perilous journey to Oakenwald, the fabled land where elves and men live in harmony. As she travels farther from home, she encounters malicious creatures from the worst kind of folktale.

Lost in the foothills of the mountains, Bridget meets the elf, Windswift the Wanderer. He offers to guide her across the mountain range. But what is the elf doing in human lands? Can an ordinary, or almost ordinary, human girl trust a cold hearted elf to lead her to safety?

Epic fantasy adventure and romance with darker overtones. This story weaves elements of folklore and a quest for a safe haven in a land where magic is real.

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