The Battle of the Grontels

The planet Isselintus, the home of Grondos on land and the Fontelemies in sea, runs entirely by magic.All had gone well until suddenly the river dried up and the Grondos lost their only source of water. The Grondo Donnel knew this responsibility would be his in a matter of time and decided it would be best to get some rest.

Donnel layed back in his long, soft bed contemplating the happenings earlier that day. His silver eyes sealed shut allowing his mind’s eye to figure out why. The issel magic had started to fail in some areas, specifically, their water magic. The Grondos noticed that they suddenly had none, and unless something was done about t, starvation and death would surely follow. The only actions available were to buy from the Fontelemies or discover why the waterway went dry upstream.

Buying water from the Fontelemies, Donnel decided, would be a quick, easy fix, but in the long run, it would do more harm than good. With the demand being so high, the Fontelemies would raise their prices substantially and arguments were always arising about the values of the two currencies, Gron and Elems. Therefore, Donnel knew the obvious choice of action was purchasing water from the Fontelemies until they could discover what was holding their water back and then unleash their own source. It all made no sense to him, though, for they had lived off the river for eighteen-thousand years now without any sign of it slowing down, let alone drying.

Another odd happening was the loss of breathing underwater to the Grondos. With the magic, everyone on the planet should be able to breathe the water, but still seventy hunters of guilli, a favorite food fish of the Grondos, nearly drowned.

Donnel told himself it was not his problem yet until other Grondos asked for his help. After all, he reasoned, King Ment the Wise would be able to subdue this crisis as he has done before, even if his advisor, Rocaria, would be no help whatsoever. With that final fleeing thought, Donnel shut his mind’s eye and fell into a disturbed slumber.

Meanwhile, in the open sea Ellen fought the ravaging waves toward home. She had spied on the traitorous Cicil cutting a deal with an unknown species. Unable to hear words in the depths, she wondered what happened. King Venil the Great of the Fontelemies must know what this was all about or else, terrible things could happen. That creature, she thought, if it was one, simply did not exist on the planet. She wondered if it could it be extra-terrestrial.

The being had sharp claws and scales covered it completely, except for two miniature holes for eyes, ears, and a mouth.Either way, the entire nine feet of it could not have been friendly, and that gave all the reasons King Venil must know about it. With a surge of strength, her hands, webbed at the fingers, threw her through the waves and with a deep breath, down to the city beneath the sea.

It was quite a spectacle, seeing the corral city from above encased in a large air bubble. The Grondos could never find it without hundreds of hours of futile search, especially in the coming darkness of night.

A brief flicker of movement near the bottom of the city caught her eye, but she could not tell what it was.She decided it must have been some fish and reaching the spot where it was underneath the entrance hatch, she saw no sign of it.Ellen decided to take a breath of water, although she never did feel comfortable with it. What if the magic failed? At the slightest intake, she realized it had failed. Nobody knew about it, except Cicil, for cicil was under long past a normal Fontelemie could hold his or her breath. Ellen’s arms and legs flailed in a desperate attempt to bring her to the surface before drowning. Taking control over herself and the situation, she cleared her head and quickly made it to the precious air above. With a deep breath for a deep dive, Ellen dove down to the Fontelemie city below. The king must find news of this immediately, because Cicil was his advisor.

With a shove, the hatch shot open and she flew through. Going to all fours, she galloped with amazing grace to the king’s palace located in the center of the city, her particularly sinewy form taking on a new set of elegance.

“Halt!” a member of the king’s royal shield ordered. “You may not pass the king’s gate without request of King Venil unless in dire need, in which I will accompany you.”

Ellen slowed to a halt and reverted back to two legs, a much more comfortable position. “Cicil may be dead, I must speak to King Venil immediately.”

“What is your name?”

“Ellen.”

“So you can attempt to kill King Venil, too? I think not!” the guard shrieked.“Cicil warned me less than a minute ago you might try to pull something off like this and such a thought that a Fontelemie would try something of that nature is preposterous!” The royal shield member tackled Ellen with speed so quick she did not see it coming. In less than a second, he had Ellen bound beneath his weight.

“What are you talking about? She stayed underwater for—”

“Enough, I will not listen to your petty lies!”

“They are not lies, she was talking to this humungous reptile-like creature underwater.”

“Her doings are no concern of yours.”

“But we can’t breathe underwa—”

“You,” the royal shield member ordered pointing. “Take this wretched creature to the cells and lock her in.” The other guard pulled out a corral sack and dumped some goop over Ellen’s wrists.

“You don’t know whatyou are doing,” Ellen cried desperately.

“It is no matter, treason is treason, and you deserve to rot,” the guard commented. “Everyone knows that.” With a ferocious tug at the solidifying goop over her hands, he dragged her to the dungeons of Fontelemie.

Obviously, this is just a small portion of the beginning of the book and based on revisions I have done by pen, this does not reflect what will actually be in the book. Some of the wording has been improved, elaborated, and made more interesting the very day this page is being updated.

This will not represent what the book will look like in final form (it'll be much better in final form) as it is still being revised and is not yet published. The image will not appear in the final version of the book, even though it would not be on the first page, but somewhere near the end.