Sorry Kenny. I'd been plugging away and completely forgot about MR for a day or two.
My current word count is 42621. I did around 8500 today alone. If I put that much effort into "Gold and Ghosts" [Formerly Into the Hills/Beyond the Hills and/or Blood Moon] it would finally be done. Sadly, I've got roughly a chapter and a half to go and I feel like I'm hitting a wall in that one. Ashes, however, is just ramping up. I had to give up for the day after I plugged out some serious prose.
Ever read a book and get so sucked up into the words that you get all lightheaded when you put it down? Yeah. That happened with my writing today. I hit this stride and just kept going. 901 words, right here, below the fold.
Spoiler:
Don’t do it.” Pearl said, holding me back.
“You’ve overstayed your welcome.” Lightning struck alongside the machine. Jaxx did a double take as he looked around, dead leaves began to smolder.
“Only you can prevent forest fire.” Rosemary said, deadpan. “Do you really want to die here in demon country?”
“You know what happens when the devil dances among the ashes of humanity.” Jaxx looked at me, pleading.
The allure of the machine was almost too much for me, I had to know what it was. I wanted to fly it so bad. The robot was perfection squared, the work of a grand engineer. I closed my eyes, picturing all the working cogs and gears, imaging the monstrous engine that powered the beast. I opened them again to the ethereal glow of ruby eyes staring at me. I stepped closer, inching towards its mammoth boot. Spanish moss dangled above, the wind picked up and I reached my hand out to touch it. The moss fell, there was a shimmering of light and something smacked me hard in the face. The green weed wrapped around me, swirling and circling until it covered my legs and tied my hands. I was bound and trapped.
I caught the sight of fire flecking out in front of me, twisting tendrils of smoke rose in wisps across the forest floor. Heat assaulted me, and I struggled to move, but my hands wouldn’t give from the mossy ropes. I couldn’t break free. Jaxx looked around, stunned as flames licked at the boots of the great machine. Brass went black as the heat popped around the forest. The man with the golden arm jumped back on top of the boot, beating at the encircling flames that sought to turn his coat and life into smoldering ashes.
The world shimmered in the heat of the moment and something snapped around me with a great sucking sound. I felt like I’d been kicked hard in the ear as it echoed through my skull, fluttering about my head. As the forest erupted into flames, the land behind me was enveloped in a faint blue tinge of mist. Embers and ashes floated on a cool, dry wind that sent them floating down beneath our tree and onto my clothes. Autumn leaves turned to ash and trees turned to dust, the vibrant green faded into a dying black. Something simmered and popped, the canopy above wept blue-black tears as the machine came to life. Ruby eyes pierced through the blue glow of the strange bubble around the tree. Flames flickered and faded in the ensuing monsoon.
Something started up, an engine louder than the machine before us. A great hulking airship crested the clouds and hovered over the clearing as the flames dyed to embers and then went black. A saucer dangled on massive steel ropes floated to the ground, hovering above the monster machine like a bell about to ring. Rains pelted the metal man and hail dropped like skulls falling from a pile of bone. The forest came back to life and died a second death as the storms lashed on. No lighting struck, there wasn’t the slightest rustle of thunder. Just rain. Hard and cold and red, like dripping blood from a gaping wound. Scars tore into the earth, rendering the newborn forest into a shriveled husk of its former glory. The saucer dropped lower, close enough to touch the metal man’s helmet. There was a great sucking sound and the tearing of a turbine come to life. Trees bubbled and popped, falling over with the wind. Purple and blue spores spearing them through, sticking out like impaled soldiers.
The machine shuddered, the airship rose into the heavens. Gray light filtered through the ash brown haze. The metal man lurched in place before slowly rising to the skies above. As it crested the trees, a blight settled over the forest. A mutated deer hopped into the clearing, a massive rabbit with gnashing teeth followed close behind. The deer turned to a blackened skeleton, like the horse of death itself. It grew in size and anger as the brown and white of its beautiful coat fell away in bloated patches of fallen skin. The rabbit stepped back on hind legs and hopped up, jumping over the monster deer. It landed on its rump, riding it like a bucking bull. As the deer danced in the shadow of death, the rabbit morphed into a monstrosity I’d never seen before. Its front paws stretched to hands that grew claws of sharpened bone. Its ears wrapped around, like Caesar’s crown. White fur patches turned a sickened brown as the blight took it whole, transforming a peaceful creature into a rabid beast full of blood lust. It darted through the clearing, spearing the remaining animals with its massive claws. Everything died all around us as the rabbit fed its insatiable urge.
When it was fed and bloated, the purple spores sprang to life, circling around the rabbit, arms popped from sideways mold, legs formed from twig and ash. The creatures kneeled servitude to the rabid beast on its fell horse. The ground shuddered, sending the earth lurching as black bubbles filled with a fetid stench rose and popped; the forest floor twisted and morphed into a desolate swamp of fear and misery.
And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did.
Don't know if any of it will make sense when taken out of context, but I wanted to contrast the price of mana used by elves versus that of demons. Two races, one well, different results...