The Sleeping Beauty - Book 1 - Chapter 10
I landed on the ground with a loud thud. It didn’t hurt, even though I had been falling for hours.
Fairy tales are real.
Rose Briar is a diabetic college student without insurance. She’s been scraping by through a combination of maxing out credit cards and relying upon the kindness of strangers.
Unfortunately, she’s spent every dollar at her disposal. There’s no money left to buy her life-saving insulin.
Without her medication, Rose falls into a diabetic coma. She tumbles into a deep slumber and wakes up in a fantastical place called the Dream Realm, where fairy tales and legends of old are still very much alive.
She has one chance to wake up.
She must trek across the world, visit the most powerful object in the land, the Obsidian Spindle, and entreat with the fates; the only beings powerful enough to send her soul back to Earth.
But evil forces don’t want her to leave. They will stop at nothing to capture her and make sure she never goes home again.
Now, with the help of her half-gorgon girlfriend and a mysterious red rider, Rose must race across the land fighting dragons, monsters, and the forces of the Wicked Witch, Nimue, in order to reach the Obsidian Spindle before her body dies on Earth and she’s trapped in the Dream Realm forever.
Will she be able to wake up? Can she survive? Find out by reading The Sleeping Beauty today. If you love mythology, fairy tales, and dark fantasy, then you’ll love the first book in The Obsidian Spindle Saga.
Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial.
I landed on the ground with a loud thud. It didn’t hurt, even though I had been falling for hours. Why didn’t it hurt? When I trip and fall it hurts for days and leaves a big bruise, but now, after falling hundreds of miles, it felt like as soft as landing on a plush pillow.
I ran my hands along the grass under me as the breeze swept through my hair. I took a deep breath and smelled the lilacs and marigolds mixed with the sweet scent of freshly cut grass.
Wait.
Where was I?
I wasn’t supposed to be here. I was supposed to be in school. I was supposed to be in the gym bathroom.
What happened? It was all hazy in my memory. I was looking into the mirror. Then I grabbed onto the—
This was a dream.
This was all a dream.
Oh, good.
I would wake up soon.
But when?
I had been in this place for hours. Never had I dreamed so vividly, or for so long.
“You can’t be here,” a hoarse voice cried behind me. “Move along.”
A grumpy beaver wearing overalls over its unkempt fur pushed an old lawn mower. With just a few more rotations, his push mower’s blades would run me over.
“Excuse me, Mr. Beaver, but where am I?” I said, scratching my head.
“You’re on my lawn. Now, I’ve been polite, but if you don’t move along, I’m going to run you over with my mower.” The beaver moved steadily toward me, his push mower turning over with each step.
“I’m sorry, I’m not talking about—”
“I’m not stopping,” the beaver said, taking another deliberate step forward.
“You’re very rude. Did you know that?”
The beaver threw his paw in the air. “I’m not the one taking a nap on another person’s property, am I?”
“I wasn’t napping!” I yelled. “I landed here and you’re being very impolite about it.”
“A likely story.” The beaver was quite close and clearly had no intention of stopping, so I jumped out of the way. I didn’t notice the ditch beside me, though, and when I landed at the edge of it, my foot slipped from under me and I tumbled to the bottom.
“This is the weirdest dream I’ve ever had,” I muttered as I stood up and brushed myself off. I wasn’t wearing my sleep clothes. Instead, I wore a blue dress with a white apron, like the old Alice in Wonderland cartoons I used to watch as a child. It was the most curious thing, and it kept getting curiouser and curiouser.
“I have no idea what’s going on here, but I’m certainly going to find out.”
Fairy tales are real.
Find out by reading The Sleeping Beauty today. If you love mythology, fairy tales, and dark fantasy, then you’ll love the first book in The Obsidian Spindle Saga.
Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial.