Tower of the Dragon Keeper

If you read this, then at the very least, the first of the scouts that I sent back has somehow managed to find his way.  It was true that the swamp to the towers is full of slimy creatures.  No doubt, they are the former crew of the ships that were lost along the rocky coast not far from the swamps.  It was quite an adventure along the rocky coast.

We lost many soldiers crossing the swamp, and when we arrived at the edge of the thorny woods, we were able to see the tips of the towers from there.  We lost one soldier when we made our way through the thorny wood.  Despite the knowledge of the guides who knew their way in these enchanted lands, they knew nothing of the wood nymphs that live in the wood.

When we reached the great doors of the towers themselves, we were beset by monstrous stone golems.  Guardians of the towers? they may have been.  Most of us were able to pass the golems, which were far too cumbersome to enter the towers themselves.  We ran far into the first tower before turning to see the lumbering things walk back and forth outside of the first tower.

Up we went, far up, and the air itself seemed to burn as we walked along.  Flame and fire engulfed us, as we protected ourselves as best as we could.  We turned to see a skeletal dragon as it's breath melted breastplate and shield.  We escaped into another chamber, before we realized that the unnatural creature had devoured six of our soldiers.

The stench of it's sulfuric reek still lingered in the ash-laden and smoky air.

Stumbled Upon

They covered much ground that day and their reports up to then were uneventful.  They managed to find a way to scale the Ashen Mountains and in two weeks time, they reached the pinnacles.  I was not in the research room when the team started to receive unusual communications.  I rushed back into the research room to the most spectacular scene on the monitors.

Our friends on the Ashen Mountains had managed to uncover quite a scene.  Ahead of them, and hovering far above the terrain, they discovered several unidentified vessels.  They were circular, silent and despite the lightness of late day, the vessels were quite colorful.  Through their equipment, we watched the alien vessels perform various maneuvers.

Suddenly, we heard our friends start arguing with someone.  By the movement of the camera, we realized that there was a struggle.  Soon, the camera was dropped and other than the wind, everything was silent for several minutes.  In moments, we heard a low but audible hum, a barely audible beeping, and the camera feed went out.

Missing Vegetables

Why not.

Left, rather than Right

"I dare you, any of you, if you have the nerve," I said to my trembling friends.

"No, I shan't, and no I shan't," they said to me.

"But the flowers there are so colorful, and the treasures," I said, "they seem to glow with an unimaginable light."

My friends standing all about me remained undeterred.

"Well then," I said, "If I go, then shall any of you follow?"

My concerned friends looked at each other, and one after the other agreed to the test.  Then one ran off, and another, and another, down the dirt road to the village. Only my stoutest of friends remained at my side.

"Dear friend," he said, "rather than exploring the field, the distant barn, and the glade beyond, in which still resides that transparent fiend, shall it not be more agreeable to better visit our most favorite Inn? Where the finest ale and best bread is served?"

I stared at my stoutest of friends.

"When I return, I shall meet you and the rest at the Inn.  I shall pour gold and silver coin on our favorite table, for all of you to gaze upon."

My friend turned and walked down the dirt road.

"Well then," I said to myself as I crossed the forbidden fence and entered the fog.  The distant haunted building lay far in the distance, "great fortune awaits me."

"That was some time ago, and the descendants of my friends still stop at the road and gaze at the haunted building from a safe distance.

I hear them say things as: 'This is where grandfather's friend was lost forever', and 'Do you remember grandfather's stories about he that was foolish enough to pass the fence into the haunted place?'

How foolish I had been."

An Old Encounter

When I built this image, of course in 3D using 3D objects and figures, I received great feedback.  I don't have the file anymore, as the typically unstable PC that I built it on has since gone to that great PC place in the sky, and I don't mean any Cloud storage service either.

I suppose that what it was representing was: the ending mythical age giving in to the beginning natural age, or something like that.  Yes, I know, it doesn't make much sense, but I liked how the completed scene rendered, so I had to come up with something.  Maybe I'll reproduce it one of these days.

Anyway, I posed the figures to represent good versus evil.

A Homage to Sunny Days

When we were very young, we ran and we played, we climbed trees and scraped our elbows and knees.

When we were very young, we stood as statues, we rolled in the leaves and tattered and tore our little sleeves.

When we were very young, we played in the snow, in fields we flew our kites and scratched our mosquito bites.

When we were invincible and very young.

And we collected our great treasures on that now long-gone bamboo, under the summer sun. When we were very young.

Now, miles and miles and inaccessible miles keeps us all one from the other.

Until the day when we shall all be together again.  Under the summer sun, and once again, we shall be very young.

Warnings to Unruly Tourists

The Old Hanton Place has since broken apart and sunk down into the swamp, but in it's memory, it still has it's own history of ghostly goings-on.
 
In the elder days, hard-working folk at the Old Hanton Place used to frighten premodonna tourists with stories concerning the old Hanton ghost.  Folk would say to the tourists that if they acted unruly, or had the intention of skipping out without paying their bill, then greedy old man Hanton would rise up out of his swampland grave and stand at their window just to say "boo!" and frighten them out of their socks.

But those are just stories of local folklore... or are they?

Sirei of the Ruins

I built this scene about two years ago.  Here is a little story about this character.

~~~

Long ago, a small plane set out on a long flight.  While over the Pacific, it was caught in a powerful storm.  Misfortune interfered, and the small plane was struck by lightning.  Try as he might, the pilot was unable to maintain control, and the small plane crashed into the ocean.

Hours later, the wreckage was washed ashore on the beach of an uncharted island.  From the dark jungle, several eyes watched as a wounded person crawled from a break in the side of the plane.  The wounded person staggered onto the beach with a small bundle, and fell halfway to the first coconut trees that lined the jungle's edge.

The eyes continued to watch as the person struggled to get up, which then fell back down and stopped moving.  One of the pair of eyes emerged from the jungle.  Carefully, the ape walked closer to the person and the bundle that the person was carefully carrying.

The ape came closer to the mortally wounded person lying in the sand, her long stained locks blowing in the wind and rain.  She looked up at the ape, which was cautiously kneeling a foot from her.  Knowing that her end was near, the wounded woman pushed the small bundle towards the ape, which carefully took it as the woman's arm fell to the sand.

With the small bundle, the ape slowly walked towards the coconut trees.

Surrounded by the other apes, all of them of many sizes and ages, the ape carefully pulled back the soft blanket to find a sleeping child.

Sirei was the name that the apes would come to call her, as it was the first word that she had spoken in her early years.  She grew to young adulthood amongst her new family on the jungle island.  The years passed and she would become their champion, for the enemies of the island people were many and powerful.  Sirei of the Ruins had many adventures and knew many tragedies in her years on the islands, but those stories are for another time.

The Stone Bridge Resident

I built this scene some time ago, having modeled the bridge myself, and having used foliage from a set by an artist named Tony Meszaros.  I was going for the forgotten bridge in the dark forest thing.  I posted it in order to write a bit of flash fiction for it. Lets see...

~~~

There once was an old troll that lived deep in the dark forest.  Being a traditional troll, he went in search of, and found a slimy stony bridge, where he lived under it for many years.  The bridge itself had been built long before, when the area was first populated by villagers before falling into ruin.

One day, a small raccoon came along.  He was a feisty-natured raccoon, and because of it, had very few friends.  Well, raccoon went along the bridge, then at the center of it, jumped up onto the stone ledge.  He looked down into the water and saw his own reflection.  He was momentarily mesmerized at this, as he thought of himself as a very handsome raccoon.

As this was going on, the old troll awoke from his slumber.  He leaned over and glanced up to see a small raccoon staring down into the rushing waters, and mesmerized by his own raccoon reflection.

"Hm," he said to himself, "it seems that my dinner has come to me this fine evening."

With that, the old troll snuck to the opposite side of the bridge, and quickly climbed up behind the mesmerized, but very feisty raccoon.

Just then, the small raccoon turned to look at the old troll.

"What are you thinking of doing?" asked the small, but feisty-natured creature.

"Well now," began the old troll with a crafty smile, "it seems that you have trespassed upon my home, you see.  And for one to trample upon another's favorite home of many years, well, you must admit, that it is quite impolite."

The little raccoon thought of this and agreed.

"Yes, it is quite unsavory of one to trample over the much favored home of another," the small raccoon said in an "I'm sorry" type of way, "but you must also agree that if it weren't for this bridge, and the safety that it provides for small and defenseless animals such as myself, well, we would have to jump into the fast-paced river, and would never make it to the other side."

The old troll agreed with what the little feisty-natured raccoon had said, but being that it was the late of the day, he was determined to eat raccoon for dinner.

"Well now," said the crafty old troll, "it would seem that you do have a point, and I agree with you most wholeheartedly.  Therefore, let me invite you down under the bridge where we may speak of this more comfortably, over tea and bread."

"Ah yes, let us do so," replied the raccoon as the old crafty troll turned to climb down first.

Being a feisty-natured raccoon, and one with many years of experience with crafty-natured creatures, the little raccoon jumped up onto the rocky back of the old troll, causing him to lose his balance and fall into the onrushing water with a splash.

The little raccoon ran across the rest of the bridge, then along the side of the riverbank and looked down at the troll.

"Well sir," the little feisty-natured raccoon started, "it seems that I won't have the time to join you for tea and raccoon, er, I mean, tea and bread."

The little raccoon turned and ran into the forest and disappeared amongst the foliage.

Unidentified

Ages ago, those humans were still living in caves and still forming tribes.  They had very little knowledge in anything other than survival.  Soon after, they developed into societies and civilizations.  It did not take them long before they started to stress their assigned planet.

Well, It seems that after they managed to get their hands on some of our technologies, they were able to manipulate those technologies that should have taken them generations to develop.  It seems that they are now visiting other planets.  Through one of my explorer drones, I am watching one of them now.

Onslaught in the Vacuum of Space

The solar system consisting of seventy-four planets was deathly silent.  The armada of six hundred warships had arrived several hours before, and scans from all warships have not discovered any unordinary activity.  D-48c-Neptune sat at it's station for hours, watching the console and the reports of the destroyed cargo vessels orbiting one of the planets.

"They were unusual signatures," The battle-worn bio-robot thought to itself.

In it's years in service, D-48c-Neptune saw many confrontations.  Now, it was serving aboard warship 77, as part of the quadrant's defensive force.

Scanning continued.

From one of the distant planets in the solar system, sensors indicated a life source.  Considering the planet's distance from the armada, it was clearly a great number of life forms clustering together.  D-48c-Neptune watched the sudden reports from several of the other planets and their moons.

Suddenly, billions of life forms began registering throughout the solar system.  It seemed as if the beings themselves were capable of transversing the emptiness of space.  Sensors indicated that the beings were linking their own bodies as they moved from one planet and moon to the others.

The full armada attacked the swarms with all of it's firepower, but it seemed that the sheer massive number of the life forms were far too numerous.  As the multi-appendage creatures quickly reached the warships, D-48c-Neptune noted the tearing and ripping as the creatures physically demolished all warship that they could reach.

D-48c-Neptune left it's station for the main battle bridge.  When it arrived, it noted the ship's captain lying on the ground in shock.  Some humans were attempting to assist the captain, but they knew that as a child, she had encountered this species once before, and that they had left a lasting terror in the captain.

Other humans and bio-robots fought the swarm to the best of their ability, but it was clear that the battle was a lost cause.  The battleship's commander declared a retreat, and in moments, the two remaining and severely damaged vessels of the greatest armada, managed to escape the infested solar system.

D-48c-Neptune realized that they had encountered one of the most devastating forces in the universe.

Microscopic Devastator

Imagine that you are part of a team of explorers.  You have been assigned to survey a newly discovered planet in the ongoing search for energy sources.  From orbit, the planet seems as if it were formed from gaseous material.  Upon further inspection, your team discovers that the planet has a solid surface, although no available sources of oxygen.

You join your exploratory team on a mission to the surface.  From within the vessel, you can see the seemingly endless terrain.  It is sharp and rocky in places, and in others, the terrain seems as smooth as glass.  Some time later, you are standing on the very planet itself.  The surface under your boots is clearly very unstable.

You walk for what seems to be hours as your team collects data.  Suddenly, your suit sensors detect a fast approaching life force.  The unknown being is detected by your team as well.  You are concerned because these life sources were not detected from orbit.  Instantly, warning alerts from your vessel indicate a danger situation and your team is recalled.

In moments, an energy strike obliterates a member of your team.  Frantically, you and your team make for the vessel.  You move as fast as you can as energy strikes ignite the very surface of the planet all about you.  You hear a strange sound as like a grinding and cutting machine, cutting and tearing.

Sweat beads on your forehead, as you see defensive energy bolts firing from your vessel ahead of you.  They cut through the dense atmosphere, passing your suit by inches and disappear behind you.  A high shrill voice cuts through your protective suit and bursts within your head, dropping you to the ground.

You try to cover your ears, but for your helmet, are unable to.  Struggling to stand, you stagger back in the direction of your vessel.  You notice that your suit no longer detects your team members, and you make an extra effort to make it back to the safety of your vessel.  Before you, you see a great amount of sparking and heavy smoke.  Staggering forward, you notice that your vessel lies on it's side and in ruin.

Everything is silent.

You turn to see a strange creature floating silently above you.  In one arm it wears a heavy red-hot weapon almost as large as you are and in the other it carries a huge red-hot cutting machine.  The creature lets out a piercing shrill that makes you fall to your knees, as the beast descends down towards you.

~

I couldn't resist writing a little story.  Did you survive this dire and hopeless situation? That is for you to decide.

Some Childhood Inspirations

When I was a child, I played with a particular toy line that was available back in the mid seventies.  They were from a science fiction storyline that was supposed to exist in a microscopic universe.  I like to think that they contributed to my love for science fiction story writing.  Some time ago, I attended a convention and just happened to see those same figures on display.

After I came home, I proceeded to reproduce them in 3D and build alien worlds for them.  My "versions" of those figures don't look exactly like their toy line versions, as I tried to make them look as if they really existed somewhere out there.  I would love to write stories populated with these creatures, unfortunately, since I do not own them, that may not be possible. But, oh, the stories that i could write.

Oh well, at least I can build and render scenes.  This is the first of three images.

I was interviewed today...

Today, I was interviewed by the talented Cyndia Rios-Myers.  She is the author of: "The Song of the Sleeping Grass" and "Joppa Park".  She is also the author of the ongoing paranormal romance series: "The Wolves".

I'm telling you, one day you'll see her name up there with the great contemporary authors of our day.  Check out her work if you get the chance.

You can read my interview at: www.cindyrios.blogspot.com

Generations of Ghosts

There once was a man who moved to the area long before my time.  He was a seafaring man, and according to those who like to sit and talk by the seaside, he was a quite imposing sight.  Soon after he arrived, he went around town, looking at all of the houses that had been available at the time.  Finding none that suited him, he paid for one to be built.  When it was completed, it was a great mansion.

He lived in his mansion for several years before finally deciding to mingle with the locals.  He was a very generous man, having given much of his fortune to improve the seaside town.  It was well known, although rarely mentioned, that he was a very wealthy man.  Some say that he had been a naval officer, although it was said that he himself did not like to speak of his past.

In time, he married and took his wife to live in the great mansion.  The stories say that his wife was a good-natured and very generous woman herself.  They had several children, one of which they named Tobias.  No one remembers the names of the other children, or what became of them.

One day, during their aged years, the old man had many building built in the area.  Of those buildings, only two survive to this day.  His great mansion remains on the hill, as does a seaside grain silo that he had built.  It eludes me why anyone would build a grain silo near the shores of the sea, but he had become quite eccentric.

According to the stories that mentioned the silo, it was never used for that purpose.

Some say, that the old man's spirit can be seen walking along the shore.  Others say that they have seen it walking towards and around the grain silo itself.  It is well known that he still haunts the great mansion that is still inhabited by his descendants.  His grand nephew Michael lives there with Victoria and a younger girl named Stephanie.  Whether Tobias, or any other members of that family remain there, I do not know.

Arun and the Princess

Arun used the legendary sword to break through the wooden drawbridge and enter the castle and the wizard watched.  Arun climbed great stone steps and crept across great dark chambers while the specters watched in the shadows and the wizard was intrigued.  He rose from floor to floor and hallway to hallway in search of the little princess while the specters mumbled to themselves and the wizard allowed him, for the boy’s bravery fascinated the old wizard.

Arun broke through the lock that sealed the door to the princess’ tower while the specters circled in every shadowed corner of the chamber and the wizard watched with great curiosity.  There she sat, the little thing, the princess of the southern realm.  She smiled when she saw Arun, for she saw that he was brave.

‘Are you here to save me?  Are you here to take me back to my father?  And yes you are.  But you are so small and so young to be a mighty hero, yet you carry the legendary sword.  What is your name?’  The princess asked.

Arun put down the mighty sword.  ‘My name is Arun and I am a Page of the king’s court.  I am your hero and I am here to rescue you.’  Arun said heroically.

Up the dark and winding stone stair and through great halls, Arun the Page and the little Princess crept.  The specters followed.  The wizard noted the bravery in the Page. Along long hallways and narrow passages Arun led the princess and down, down the stone steps towards the break in the drawbridge of the castle that he had made.

Around the final corner Arun led her.  They looked for the break in the drawbridge to make their escape, where the princess put her hands at her mouth in terror.  Arun unsheathed the great sword, for there at the break in the drawbridge stood the mighty wizard himself and his servants with him, their glowing eyes and ancient swords and battle armor shining in the darkness.