The Sleeping Beauty - Book 1 - Chapter 16
My new grizzly bear friend, Ursa, pushed me out of the house just as the roof lit up in flames from the breath of a navy-blue dragon. “Go!”
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.
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My new grizzly bear friend, Ursa, pushed me out of the house just as the roof lit up in flames from the breath of a navy-blue dragon. “Go!”
“Where?” I shouted.
“Away! Anywhere that’s not here!”
The bear galloped on all fours. All around us were guards fighting with the peaceful critters. The soldiers wore full chain mail with swords and shields. It was like I had gone back in time four hundred years.
A cadre of fully-armored guards wearing green breast plates turned to Ursa and rushed her with their swords, but she barreled over them with little effort. Her “inner bear” unleashed, she turned to the guards and bellowed at them. I heard another shriek cutting through the air behind me just as a monstrous black dragon flew over and shot fire at her.
“No!” I shouted, but it was too late. The fireball exploded in front of Ursa and sent her flying into the air. The guards stepped away, leaving nothing but a charred bear laying in the middle of the street, still on fire.
I ran over to her and snuffed out her flames, then rolled her over carefully. She was barely conscious.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Go,” was the last thing she said, before she vanished into thin air.
The dragon had turned around and was staring at me with its yellow, snakelike eyes. The sides of its mouth curled, and it swooped toward me. I spun around, but a dozen guards surrounded me, blocking my escape.
“Halt!” one of them said.
Suddenly, an echo rumbled across the ground, and the guard was flung a hundred yards through the air until he crashed into a house. Four more guards were tossed asunder and, in their wake, I saw her.
“Chelle!” I shouted, rushing toward her.
She grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the dragon, which sprayed fire inches from where I had been standing.
“Come on!” she said, as we sprinted between the fiery houses.
“Where are we going?” I asked, ducking a burning thatched roof.
“I don’t know! Away from the fire!”
I saw the woods above the ridge that towered over the town. Ursa had told me it would take me where I needed to go. “There! Those woods lead toward the Obsidian Spindle!”
Chelle dragged me forward. “And they’ll give us cover from this massacre. Let’s go.”
We scampered up the hill. I glanced behind us to make sure no one was following us. The guards were busy arresting pigs and skunks and other types of critters, and the dragons were having too much fun burning houses to look up at the tree line and notice our escape.
I felt bad for the harm I had brought upon the woodland creatures, but I couldn’t help them. I could barely help myself. With one last tug on my arm from Chelle, I disappeared into the woods after her.