Tesser: A Dragon Among Us (A Reemergence Novel)

BOOK: Tesser: A Dragon Among Us (A Reemergence Novel)
9.87Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

TESSER

A Dragon Among Us

A Reemergence Novel

Chris Philbrook

Edited by Lauren Henchey

Designed and illustrated by Alan MacRaffen

Tesser: A Dragon Among Us; A Reemergence Novel
Copyright © 2013 Christopher Philbrook
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission of the author. Your support of author’s rights is appreciated.
Published in the United States of America

First Publishing Date June, 2013

All characters in this compilation are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Lauren Henchey: Editor

Cover design and interior layout by Alan MacRaffen

Special Thanks to all of the
 

members of the Inner Circle:

Carey Anderson

DeLaina Craft

Derek Carrier

Doug James

Ilox

J.C. Fiske

Jamie Rogers

Junior Black

Lindsey Carrier

Matt Chambers

Mike "Haus" Cartwright

Pistol Annie James

Rob "Ontos" Roche

Vincent Carrier

Also by Chris Philbrook:

Elmoryn - The Kinless Trilogy

Book One: Wrath of the Orphans

Coming Soon:

Book Two: The Motive for Massacre

Book Three

Adrian’s Undead Diary

Book One: Dark Recollections

Book Two: Alone No More

Book Three: Midnight

Book Four: The Failed Coward

Book Five: Wrath

Coming Soon:

Book Six: In the Arms of Family

Book Seven: The Trinity

Book Eight: Cassie

TABLE OF CONTENTS
:

Prologue The Dream

Chapter One Abraham "Abe" Fellows

Chapter Two Tesser

Chapter Three Matilde "Matty" Rindahl

Chapter Four Tesser

Chapter Five Abe Fellows

Chapter Six Matty Rindahl

Chapter Seven Tesser

Chapter Eight Sergeant Henry “Spoon” Spooner

Chapter Nine Abe Fellows

Chapter Ten Tesser

Chapter Eleven Tesser

Chapter Twelve Matilde "Matty" Rindahl

Chapter Thirteen Abraham “Abe” Fellows

Chapter Fourteen Tesser

Chapter Fifteen Sergeant Henry “Spoon” Spooner

Chapter Sixteen Mr. Doyle

Chapter Seventeen Matty Rindahl

Chapter Eighteen Tesser

Chapter Nineteen Sergeant Henry “Spoon” Spooner

Chapter Twenty Abe Fellows

Chapter Twenty-One Matty Rindahl

Chapter Twenty-Two Tesser

Chapter Twenty-Three Matilde

Chapter Twenty-Four Mr. Doyle

Chapter Twenty-Five Tesser

Chapter Twenty-Six Alec Fitzgerald

Chapter Twenty-Seven Sgt. Henry Spooner

Chapter Twenty-Eight Matty Rindahl

Chapter Twenty-Nine Tesser

Chapter Thirty Alec Fitzgerald

Chapter Thirty-One Matty

Chapter Thirty-Two Tesser

Chapter Thirty-Three Alexis

Chapter Thirty-Four Abe

Chapter Thirty-Five Spoon

Chapter Thirty-Six Tesser

Chapter Thirty-Seven Spoon

Chapter Thirty-Eight Fallout

Chapter Thirty-Nine Mr. Doyle

Chapter Forty Matty

Chapter Forty-One Sergeant Spooner

Chapter Forty-Two Abraham

Chapter Forty-Three Alec Fitzgerald

Chapter Forty-Four The Dragons

Chapter Forty-Five Tesser

Chapter Forty-Six Matty

Chapter Forty-Seven Mr. Doyle

Chapter Forty-Eight A Leaf on the Wind

Chapter Forty-Nine Spoon

Chapter Fifty Tesser

Chapter Fifty-One Abe

Chapter Fifty-Two Mr. Doyle

Chapter Fifty-Three Alec

Chapter Fifty-Four The Dragons

Chapter Fifty-Five Tesser

Chapter Fifty-Six Spoon

Chapter Fifty-Seven Alec

Chapter Fifty-Eight Tesser

Epilogue

About the Author

Additional Online Content

Prologue:

The Dream

I am flying.

I have done this before, many times, and it is joyous.

I feel the gusts buffet my body left and right, up and down. Though the wind is reckless, it isn’t violent. I feel the energy of the air lift me higher and higher, through the cool mist of a thick cloud that clings to my face and invigorates me. It is much like the first inhalation of the ocean's air after a long journey to the coast.

Far below me, I see green grass, lush treetops, and grey pebbles poking through the skin of the world. There is a single brown line of disturbed earth winding forward that I know to be a human road. I have flown over it many times before, and I have walked it as well. It is familiar to me, but I cannot quite place where it has come from or where it is leading.

It doesn't matter. I have eyes that see, ears that hear, and a nose that smells. In time, I will discover everything. When I flex my wings and dip below the clouds like a descending sparrow, I can see that miles ahead the road rises on a hillock and ends at a tall wooden gate. Fortified wooden walls spread in both directions. At the center, a majestic castle made of stone and timber sits in stark contrast with the surrounding hovels of mud.

I think it is my castle, but I don't live there. It is mine in the same way that a King owns a dog. Or a Queen owns a King.

My dream is almost over.
 
I feel it like a blue dawn rising on the edge of a long night. It has been a good dream for the most part, though in life, no matter how much the sun shines, storms always appear now and again. It is natural, unstoppable; it is the way of the world. It is the way of my kind.

I sense that I have been dreaming this dream a very long time. More than a night, or a week, or even a year. Centuries have passed, maybe a millennia since I last lay open eyes on the waking world. The castle I am soaring towards in my dream is certainly gone, buried underneath centuries of revolution and crumbled empires.

These thoughts do not cause me alarm. Nor do I fear what the world will be like when I open my eyes soon.
 

I am beyond mortal fears.

Those that wear two skins are but a nuisance to me.

My skin breaks the teeth of those that drink blood and stalk the night.

Were it not for the teachings and lineage of my kind, the magi would be ordinary, not the wielders of primordial might that they are.

Goblins, monsters, and fae are my kind and they pay me the respect that is my due.

I am the bringer of death from high above.

I am the giver and shaper of life in so many forms.

I am the bringer of light that illuminates all darkness.

I am the stone that cannot be broken and the blade that cannot dull.

I am the legend your grandfathers were told by their grandfathers.

My footsteps shake the ground like the war march of a hundred legions.

My heart beats as the thunder shakes the sky.
 

If this body does not suit me, I will change it and become whatever will thrive in the soil of the times in which I awake.

I am Tesser, and I am a Dragon.

And as I arc my wings once more to soar above the clouds, my mind elevates me away from my slumber; my fear finally makes itself known. A question, a single nagging lost memory, occurs to me.

Why did I allow myself to be pacified in sleep for so long?

Long slumbers are not my way.

Acquiescing is not my way.

I think I'll find out why I have slept so long now that this dream, this long, long dream, is over. And those that have seen to my sleep had best have had good reason for my time lost.

Because I am Tesser, and I am Dragon.

Chapter One

Abraham "Abe" Fellows

BOOK: Tesser: A Dragon Among Us (A Reemergence Novel)
9.87Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
Against the Wind by J. F. Freedman
Theirs to Claim by Newton, LaTeisha
Saving Grace (Madison Falls) by McDaniel, Lesley Ann
Second Hand Jane by Michelle Vernal
I Thought It Was You by Shiloh Walker