Anusha is Restored to The Six

Anusha is Restored to The Six

Excerpt from The Quest for the Golden Flowers, which will be published this summer (2014):

The Quest for the Golden Flowers is the story of six children accidentally sucked into another realm where they must make a quest to recover magic golden flowers to save both their world and the magic realm. In this excerpt, the prophesied Six have already traveled far and met with many adventures.

The Six are Grayson, Grant, Will, Mady, Garrett, and Leyton.  Anusha is an Elvish princess who sneaks away to join The Six. Ardopla  and Parmaka are a pair of baby dragons who also have attached themselves to The Six. Griff is a young griffin the two younger children have adopted along the way.

All the kids have special powers gained through the discovery of the golden circles of power, rings with dragons etched on them. In this episode, Will uses his power of mind-speak, which he can broadcast into the minds of The Six, so they can communicate with each other and the animals without actually speaking.

Princess Anusha had been left behind to  die, but the Six found a way to rescue her.


The excerpt:

The Six remained in a line near the cliff, peering into the void. It seemed like forever. Then Leyton began hopping up and down. “I see something coming! I see something coming! Is it them?”

“I don’t see anything. It’s probably a distortion, an illusion. This is the Whorl Cavern, after all . . . Wait! I see something, too.”

“I do, too. It’s Ardopla!”

“I don’t see a passenger. Where’s Anusha?”

Everyone strained to see the approaching dragon. No one could see a passenger.

“Looks like Anusha couldn’t climb aboard with her broken leg. One of us should have gone along to help her get up on the dragon,” said Grayson.

“Yeah, but Ardopla got excited and took off too fast,” Grant said.

The dragon was coming in for a landing.

“Uh, oh!” The kids realized they were at the edge of the cliff where Ardopla would land. They scattered in all directions.

Ardopla skidded in and whammed into the transparent shield. The dwarfs who were still pounding on the other side of the barrier, panicked and ran screaming down the tunnel.

“~Ooof!~” Ardopla said into Will’s mind. “~Forgot about wall that we can’t see! Can you help princess down? Trouble getting on. Hurt leg more.~”

“Anusha’s here! She’s laying on the dragon’s back! I think she’s passed out from the pain. Let’s get her down. Looks like she tied herself on.” Will was already climbing aboard.

Everyone pitched in, even Parmaka and Griff, and Anusha soon was resting next to the fire with her head in Mady’s lap. With tears in her eyes, Mady gently brushed some stray hair away from Anusha’s closed eyes.

“This is not good. We need help,” said Grayson.

“~Need healer.~” Ardopla’s lovely dragon eyes were swirling in distress.

“~Do you know where to find a healer?~” asked Will.

“~No. Not here. Somewhere.~”

Screaming! Now what? The kids looked down the tunnel through the transparent shield toward the sound. The dwarfs were coming back, legs pumping, mouths open, screaming.

Chasing them were two of the biggest cats the kids had ever seen. Wow! The cu felicop of the foothills were huge, but these cats were tremendous; they must be the cu felimax!

The kids were horrified. The dwarfs were mean, but no one deserved to be ripped apart by those huge glistening fangs. The boys all ran to the shield and screamed and hollered, jumping around, pounding on the shield to distract the cats. When the big cats growled and slavered against the shield, the dwarfs escaped down the tunnel, running as fast as their short legs would take them.

The cats tried and tried to get at the boys, but lost interest when they could find no way to get past the barrier. Turning away, they loped after the dwarfs. The kids stared after them.

“I hope they had enough of a start to get away from those monsters.”

Everyone nodded. The boys settled at the fire with Mady and the princess.

“What are we going to do? We need to get help. But who? And we’d have to take down the shield and travel the tunnels. Where do you think those cats went?” Garrett was worried.

“We have to get her out of here. There is no sense in waiting. If we meet up with the big cats or other monsters, we’ll just have to fight them,” said Leyton.