EXCERPT 1 FROM THE NOVEL GULLVEIG & THE BREAKING OF THE HEXES
Azura had heard all the explosions and commotion and had guessed correctly that it was Rafe that was the cause of it all.
As they passed by one of the doorways, Azura spotted her wand resting on the arm of a chair and reached in to grab it,
only to have someone inside the room that she couldn’t see, reach out and grab hold of her hand and start to drag her into the room.
She let out a loud scream and immediately the wolf turned and ran into the room and launched himself at her would-be attacker,
once again sinking his sharp teeth into the arm belonging to Forneus Gomory, forcing him to release his hold on Azura.
Azura held on fast to her wand and then ran out of the doorway as quickly as she could and disappeared into the forest behind this large house.
Once there she crouched under some large bushes and tried to catch her breath.
Then she remembered the potion that Artio had given her and slipped it out of her undergarments where she had hidden it and quickly swallowed all of its contents,
without giving any thought as to how long she would then have to stay in wolf form.
As she sat there crouched in the bushes, she thought she saw a beautiful silvery-white wolf’s face in front of her
and started to feel a little dizzy and disorientated and found herself slipping forward, almost as though falling directly into the creature’s face, and then… nothing.
A beautiful silvery-white-she- wolf stayed in the bushes close to the large house,
waiting for her companion and surely enough as she watched she saw a large timber wolf running out of the house and he joined her in the undergrowth.
As he reached her, he nuzzled her all over to check that she was okay and only when he was satisfied that this was the case
did both wolves then take off and run deep into the undergrowth of the forest.
Once they were sure that they were well away from everyone else,
they both raised their muzzles into the air and howled in their delight of being free and in the full moonlight.
© Moonwillow 2008
Howahkan sprinkled more of the herbs onto the stones and their sweet aroma once more filled the lodge.
He now started to scoop more water than before onto the stones and then once again the heat intensified.
As Azura once more relaxed she found that she was very quickly slipping into the very pleasant semi-like trance state again as she continued to breathe in the even hotter steamy aroma that now filled the lodge.
She now noticed white sparkly little lights dancing all around the lodge.
They reminded Azura of fireflies in a night sky.
“Those are spirit lights Wakanda,” said Howahkan quietly as he continued to sprinkle herbs and spill more water onto the hot glowing stones.
“The spirits are here to help you.”
Before Azura had a chance to reply, the heat in the lodge suddenly intensified dramatically and took her by surprise.
She was finding it difficult to catch her breath and her breathing became shallow.
“Remember the heat is your friend Wakanda,” said Howahkan.
“Relax. Don’t fight it, it gets a lot hotter,”
and continued to sprinkle herbs and scoop water as he spoke.
By now, Azura had long since abandoned the blanket that she had wrapped around her and was lying down on it.
It was so hot; it must have been at least one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty degrees in the lodge and still getting hotter with every minute that passed.
But, by now, Azura had relaxed again and was becoming more relaxed by the second, allowing the intense heat to seep into her very inner being through her skin and through her breath, relaxing her deeper and deeper until she was no longer aware of anything around her.
Suddenly she was aware of nothing, but the fire pit and its Spirits were whispering to her.
“Trust us, come into the fire, look for the blue flame, walk into it, we will cleanse you, come to us,” whispered the Spirits of the Fire.
Azura felt her spirit rise up and leave her physical body and walk into the flames of the fire pit.
Rafe shifted his position and leant over Azura.
He had heard her breathing change and was a little concerned at how still she was at this time.
“She’s not there Rafe,” said Howahkan quietly.
“She has gone to Spirits of the Fire.”
© Moonwillow 2008
He quickly surveyed his surroundings and out of the corner of his eye he noticed that a car had pulled up on the road that swept past Mount Rushmore and its occupants had got out and were watching the aerial display above them, their faces in awe, unable to quite believe the battle that they were witnessing in the skies above them.
There were four of them, a man, a woman and two small children.
Rafe watched in horror as yet another flame red lightening strike left the depths of the forest and headed directly towards these mortals.
As he pointed his broomstick forward and sped towards them, he could see that their predicament had already been seen by some of their own wizards, whom, by now, were sweeping down on their broomsticks towards them and before these poor mortals knew what was happening to them, they were all lifted up onto the broomsticks of these wizards and swept up high into the air, the red lightening strike narrowly missing them and hitting their car, which now exploded into a enormous fireball, burning away on the lonely road.
© Moonwillow 2008
“Do you think you can use your invisibility spell and bury that bottle now?” he asked. “The others have finished burying theirs in the four directions.”
Azura nodded her head and quickly chanted her spell.
“Tego Texi Tectum,” and quickly disappeared from their view.
She crept around the perimeter of the camp until she was in the undergrowth behind the house.
After quickly looking around and checking she had been unobserved, even though she had used her invisibility spell, she quietly crept to the spot where Rafe had been digging earlier and quickly buried the witches’ bottle she had in her possession.
As she finished, she stood up and was just brushing the dirt from her hands, when a wizard came out through the front door of the house and looked straight at her.
Azura held her breath, sure that as long as she was quiet her invisibility spell would protect her.
On this she couldn’t have been more wrong.
© Moonwillow 2008
As you passed through this doorway a wonderful transformation took place. The clothes worn by the mortal world were magickally transformed into traditional magickal robes.
Long flowing dresses for the girls and the women, with fitted laced bodices in the most beautiful mirage of colours, that seemed to twinkle and change in the sunlight as they moved around and the material gently swayed in the lightest of breezes on a warm summer’s day.
Their hooded capes lay on their shoulders and seemed to shimmer to the ground.
The boys and men’s clothes were also in a wonderful array of colours, with their colourful shirts and trousers with long matching capes to complete their ensemble.
A world full of colour and wonder existed where the magick folk didn’t have to hide who they truly were.
It looked to the observer a bit like a mystical carnival with witches and wizards and shamans all working together perfecting their craft.
Cauldrons as big as wishing wells dotted the horizon as far as the eye could see, all bubbling with their potions.
Young witches and wizards all practising to master their skills with their spells and potions with their Professors.
Another group of youngsters were sitting near to the forest, listening intently and scribbling away on their parchments with their quills, at their lesson today on unicorns.
You could see two, their magnificent and powerful white bodies glistening in the sunlight, standing near to Professor Durin as he waved his hands around explaining the magickal properties contained in a unicorn’s horn.
The unicorns had travelled a long way from their dimension on this day to assist the Professor in educating the youngsters.
Yet another group of youngsters swooped overhead on their broomsticks practising their flying skills under the watchful eye of their Master.
© Moonwillow 2008
Azura continued to listen and wait as she heard the door being unlocked and creaking open and she then heard heavy footsteps followed by lighter ones on the stairs.
She decided to stay where she was sat on the floor, as she had quickly realised that it would probably be better for her to appear to be submissive at this stage.
Presently, Forneus appeared again in front of her, this time accompanied by a woman of around the same age as Azura.
Only this woman had a hard look to her face, a cruel streak in her that showed through her whole being and glinted in the icicle look of her pale blue eyes.
Both wizard and witch wore dark robes and like her male counterpart she had an unkept smell and appearance about her.
She was similar in height to Azura, but much skinnier and she had long dirty blonde hair that looked like it hadn’t been washed or seen a comb for some considerable time.
As the woman looked down on Azura, she sniggered her contempt at her and spat on the floor near to her.
“The sooner you tell Forneus what he wants, the sooner this will all be over for you,” she said in a high and brittle voice that could have cracked glass.
Azura just shrugged her shoulders and kept her eyes fixed on the floor.
“Well,” demanded Forneus still staring at Azura through his narrow slits of eyes.
“Do you have anything else you want to tell me?”
“I have told you the truth,” replied Azura quietly still refusing to make eye contact with her captors.
Forneus breathed in impatiently and then turned to his companion.
“Well, what do you think Exnar?” he asked in an unpleasant voice.
Exnar de Carabia leant towards Azura staring at her with her icy blue eyes and Azura could smell her vile breath on her as she stared into her face and tried desperately not to gag from the stench of the close proximity of this unpleasant woman.
“She is lying,” Exnar replied sharply.
“Let me at her,” she said impatiently now turning back towards her companion.
“Patience, my dear Exnar, patience,” he replied almost laughing at his companion.
“Let us see how a full night down here in the dark alone, with no food or water changes her mind,” he said then let out a horrible laugh, which his companion added to with her own high pitched shrill.
They then both turned and made their way back up the stairwell again locking the creaking door behind them as they went.
© Moonwillow 2008
As Azura looked skywards from her vantage position from the top of the mountain, she could see three of the wizards still climbing the rock face and pointed her wand in their direction.
“Impello Cado,” she chanted loudly and immediately a strike of blue lightening flashed from her wand and struck one of the men, causing him to scream out and lose his balance and tumble back down the mountain.
Azura quickly ducked behind the rock face again as the two remaining wizards fought back with lightening strikes of their own.
These strikes, hit the rock she was hiding behind, causing some of it to explode under the impact of these strikes and crumble away.
Azura crouched down behind the rock again, lower now as yet another rockfall tumbled down the mountain.
Once again, another loud explosion ripped out into the night, again causing the mountain to shake and the ground underneath them to tremor.
This explosion sounded much closer this time, so Azura knew they were getting nearer to her and were working their way up the mountainside.
She could only hope that those on the ground had by now captured more of them.
Once again, Azura leant around the rock and sent another lightening flash from her wand, narrowly missing them this time and hitting the rock face behind them and quickly ducked back and under cover as they returned fire at her.
© Moonwillow 2008
As Raoul and Bugul-Noz entered the cave they called out to the Chief to warn him of their arrival.
As he slid forward Raoul was once again impressed by the sheer magnificence of this amazing creature that was stood before him.
Chief Icsepta must have stood seven feet tall at the very least.
He was in appearance very similar to Asmodeus apart from the sheer size of him and of course, the seven heads that he possessed, which made him not only one of the most majestic and imposing characters you could ever come across, he could also come across as quite threatening at times, especially when he wanted to.
After all, who was going to argue with someone who had seven heads, especially a creature as large as this?
“Thank you for receiving us Chief Icsepta,” said Raoul bowing his head and nudging Bugul-Noz to remind him to do the same.
“It is very gracious of you to do so.”
“Come, come Raoul, Bugul-Noz,” replied the Chief making it obvious by his demeanour how pleased he was to see his visitors.
The middle head was doing all the talking, which was quite usual with visitors.
There were amongst themselves and that in itself was quite something to see.
© Moonwillow 2008
Rafe sat up and swung his legs out of the bed.
At this point Azura realised that he was actually naked and once again her face flushed with embarrassment and gave her away or so she thought.
But Rafe gave away nothing and if he saw her embarrassment, to his credit, he said nothing.
Azura quickly buried her head beneath the fur blanket.
What was the matter with her?
It wasn’t like she’d never seen a naked man before; she’d had two children for goodness sake.
But in her minds eye she could see Rafe’s broad and tanned shoulders and his muscled torso.
He wasn’t too dissimilar to Howahkan in build and that comparison didn’t go by Azura.
She could still see Rafe’s strong bare muscled arms and legs.
Why was this affecting her so?
She had seen Howahkan in very little attire many times and it never affected her so.
She resolutely closed her mind and refused to investigate this train of thought further.
She felt her face flame again and with a groan she buried her head further until she could no longer hear any movement in the tipi.
Slowly she inched her head out of her cover and looked around just in time to see the two men lifting the flap of the tipi and disappearing to the outside.
She heard the resonating slap as the flap dropped back into place hiding her from the world outside.
© Moonwillow 2008
The beautiful silvery-white-she-wolf and the timber wolf continued to howl at the moonlight for a while, with their heads thrown back just luxuriating in the pleasure of hearing their own voices.
Eventually, the she-wolf stopped and just watched her companion as he continued to howl.
She then turned and ran back towards the undergrowth, only stopping to ensure that he had noticed and was following her, which indeed he was.
Both wolves continued to run deep into the forest until they found themselves by one of the many streams that ran through the forest and they both stopped to take a drink.
Once they had both satisfied their thirst, they looked deep into one another’s eyes, both recognising the deep passion that they had for each other, shining there, for all to see.
They both now stood next to each other shoulder-to-shoulder, no longer gazing directly into each other's eyes, but stood in a kind of mutual non-threatening stance; both seeming hesitant to back off or to advance.
A few minutes later, the she-wolf sniffed the timber wolf’s muzzle and followed this by her flicking her tongue across his muzzle and his cheeks.
Eventually the timber wolf returned her advances, by giving her a series of light flicks with his tongue across her muzzle and across her head.
Both wolves then began to nuzzle each other, gently at first and gradually increasing in intensity until they were both intensely involved in their courtship of each other, by exploring each other with their affectionate nuzzling and full grooming, each delighting in the discovery of the other one’s body.
The excitement between the two animals grew, reaching a fever pitch, until neither of them could stand it any longer and the timber wolf mounted his beautiful companion, taking them both to a height of ecstasy that took them over fully, until they had both reached a climax that satisfied them in a way of wholeness and completeness that neither of them had ever experienced before.
When their feelings of ecstasy started to subside a little, the timber wolf got down off his companion and gently nuzzled her.
The she-wolf now lay down underneath the bushes and gave in to the luxurious feeling of the pampering that she was being given by the timber wolf’s gentle nuzzling and caressing, until eventually, she was lulled into a deep sleep.
The timber wolf now looked at his sleeping companion, his heart almost bursting with the love he felt for her and he lay down beside her, curling himself around her protecting her while she slept.
© Moonwillow 2008
“Good,” Blayze now gave them a small smile.
“I’m going to get Tatsuya, make sure you get everyone away from here quickly,” he said and teleported back to the edge of the forest.
Once there he gently whistled and almost immediately an orange and red speck appeared in the distance coming closer and closer, finally landing on the ground next to him.
Blayze quickly climbed onto this large creature and soared into the air, heading back towards the camp they had just forcibly evacuated.
After quickly scanning the area and making sure it was all clear, he spoke gently to Tatsuya.
“Okay my friend, time for you to have some fun,” he said and swooped down towards the run-down houses.
As they flew over the houses, Blayze could feel Tatsuya take in a deep breath and he could feel the fiery energy building inside the dragon, bubbling away like an inferno inside of him, until finally it exploded through his nostrils downwards towards this small settlement, immediately igniting anything that was in its path.
Over and over swooped Tatsuya, having the time of his life, for once being allowed to release the enormous fiery power inside of him until there was nothing left beneath him, but a burning pile of ashes that was once the encampment of the Dark Wizards and their families.
After a final swoop and release of the enormous power that this magnificent creature possessed, Tatsuya flew over the forest and landed just outside the Shamanic Camp allowing Blayze to scramble off and join Howahkan in the medicine tipi to say the counter-curse and finally break the hexes on the remaining witch and wizard.
Blayze and Howahkan then joined the camp’s inhabitants, who by now were loudly celebrating their victory and securing the witches and wizards they had captured in a tipi, surrounded with excited and screaming teenage natives, only to eager to gain some target practice with the spears and bows and arrows they possessed and held in their hands as they chanted their victory song around them.
© Moonwillow 2008
Anyone who wishes to purchase the novel will find it at WH Smiths, Waterstones, Amazons, among other smaller retailers in the UK.
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