I wanted to show you a bit more progress on my Halden story, so I thought I would point you in the direction of this chapter...
Of all the places I’d thought I might be seated, I hadn’t expected to be settled to the left of Princess Suni, right next to one of the princes. I gave him a shy smile as he quickly stood up to hold my chair for me.
“Thanks—uh, forgive me, but I don’t know how to address you,” I said, biting my lip. “My father tells me you are all Halden, so I suppose that would do. But it seems…not enough. Does that make me sound foolish?”
He smiled slightly as he settled back into his own chair again. “Not at all, Princess. I know how strange all of this must be for you. I am Nord Halden. I am also considered the Head of the Halden. Beside us sits my brother Set, and beyond the king are Wes and Oster. Has your father explained the details of this arrangement to you?”
Glancing past Nord, I realized that Set was the dark-haired man who had landed earlier, which made the message on the screen and the behavior of the four guards make a little more sense. A jolt of apprehension hit me as I remembered their nervous reaction to him, and the way he had scolded one of them most severely.
“King Ergon told me that I’m to be married to all four of you, and nothing more,” I said, blushing. “I have to admit, that’s not the sort of thing that happens on Earth much. We’re generally partnered with just one other person. Would it be rude to admit that I feel…overwhelmed by the prospect?”
He cast me a solemn look as he reached for my hand to give it a little squeeze. “It’s perfectly understandable. If it were up to me, I would give you a chance to adjust to the new situation. To get to know us, and get used to the way things are done here on Zaadar. Unfortunately, the contract was quite clear. The marriage must take place by your eighteenth year, and that is probably why the Attans advanced upon you when they did. It’s certainly why your father retrieved you and brought you back to our world today. And it’s quite fortunate that he got there when he did, too. Your death would have ruined years of planning, I can assure you.”
“Yes,” I replied with a little shudder. “I don’t think I would have been too pleased by it either.”
“Forgive me. We are a rather practical people who are seldom ruled by emotion,” he replied with a slight shrug. “But I can assure you that I, too, would have taken the loss personally. Would it please you to know that I’ve kept a likeness of you hidden in my pocket for the last couple of years? A few of my soldiers and I came to Earth expressly to ascertain your progress once, and I used a special device that Oster invented to take the picture.”
“A camera?” I asked curiously.
“No, though the result is similar,” he replied, and reached into a pocket of his shirt to pull out a little golden heart. When he opened the locket, I saw a picture of myself that seemed to be from around the time I was fourteen. But this picture wasn’t flat like a camera would have produced. It looked more like a hologram.
“Oh, you’re right,” I exclaimed softly. “It’s nothing like.”
“You will find that our technology is far advanced compared to Earth’s. However, our buildings and our way of life are strangely medieval.”
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I'm feeling like fairytales, though I don't have many of my own, but I suppose Dark Nebula sort of turns into one if you read far enough, so it works, and then there's my little Fairy Tale Colors book with ten modernized retellings as well. Both of these ebooks can be bought at just 99 cents this week...
This little book contains a set of ten somewhat modernized fairytales which, unlike most of my other books, are a bit on the tamer side. Join Red Riding Hood in her struggle not to get eaten, The Little Mermaid...who happens to be a deep sea diver, or Snow White...who got stuck running an orphanage when her father died. There are ten tales inside this compilation.
Dark Nebula is great because it's a sci-fi with a Groundhog's Day sort of feeling to it. Cpt Herc Hyperion is on Fantasy World hoping to pick up some cryogenically frozen inmates meant to help in his war against a strange space nebula that has begun engulfing planets, almost as though eating them. As the story unfolds, it is revealed that there's a whole lot more going on, and in the end, we're hoping that Araina's fairytale fantasies will actually be fulfilled.
Removed content that isn't on sale anymore
Have fun...and please tell other lovers of fairytales about my little sale (now ended)...Thanks!
Use this low-content book to create characters, settings, internal or external factors that might affect the outcome of your fiction.
Fill the 200 8.5x11in pages with details, or even just doodle in there if you want...
This is your creativity catch-all. Gather up all your story ideas and put them in here. $6.95 plus shipping in the US amazon store.
Written as a companion guide for the Worldbuilding Workbook, you can grab this as an ebook, or better yet purchase the paperbacks together for a more hands-on experience. This companion book is meant to be a sort of instruction manual on how you use your workbook, but also contains suggestions on how to use a three ring binder and create a workbook of your own instead.