Yet Another Swords & Sorcery Story Completed: The Demon From Another World

Well, a week after I finished The Unhappy Inquisitor I have just finished another swords and sorcery tale: The Demon From Another World, which is a fantasy homage to the John Carpenter movie The Thing From Another World.

Included in this story, as the main character this time, is a mercenary who appeared in a much smaller part in The Unhappy Inquisitor, Horbeck. 

Whether it's any good I'll leave for others to decide, though it was fun to write.

From the opening page:

It crashed through the clouds in the deadof night, lighting up the sky as if it were day. The high-pitched scream thataccompanied it was as if a thousand dragons (if such creatures even existed,which most people doubted) were being slaughtered in agony. Down it hurtled, cleavingthe clouds and leaving behind a searingly bright trail that gradually dispersedan untold distance behind it.

When it crashed theearth shook far and wide, and those who were awakened by its reverberationsthanked whatever gods they had it was nowhere near where they lived, beforetrying to return to sleep again. For most it was a fitful night.

It landed in theendless wastes of the Great Desert, instantly turning a wide circle of sand scoresof miles across into rough, filmy, strange-looking glass beneath whose brittlesurface lay treacherous chasms.

Gradually,whatever was buried at its core began to cool.

It cooled for years.