Jack Echols
Published: 2009-11
Total Pages: 638
Get eBook
Imagine a village in a beautiful, densely forested valley with hills and meadows as well as rivers and streams. The village fronts on an ocean to the west. Here, no one ages, illnesses and injuries heal in seconds. Work is rewarded with free housing, free meals, and beautiful clothing one can pick off a shelf and take home. Useful articles and deliciously prepared restaurant meals are . No money exists. Creative solutions are encouraged and sought after and shared. Love and glory are the parts of life that cause competition. Here, people can be true to themselves without suffering condemnation. People work to serve others. Government is committed to serving the needs of the people. There are no cars, no heavy machinery. Glenners travel long distances on the backs of horses or Maximum Monarchs, twenty-five foot tall monarch butterflies rigged with seating for human beings. King SkyGolden, a half elf, can transform himself into the flying horse named Trumpet. His wife, Rubikan, can do likewise. Golden Glen, a little piece of paradise! Or is it? This is a land where elves once ruled, where their descendants still possess magic. Eagles grow ten foot wingspans. They have teeth reminiscent of fossilized birds. Living in the Pariah Forest are strange creatures created by Kelpie eugenics. Terror Trees and Octopoda Grasses, bees as large as basketballs, a Royal Lamia, the owl that can change to many things, one a half snake, half woman. In addition, the Kelpie queen keeps an obedient pet, a beautiful Lepainea, created by genes from a leopard mixed with those of a hyena. The Kelpie are astonishingly beautiful women and they use magic to destroy men. They behave in vicious and murderous ways, transforming into flying horses. By using their beauty, the magic, and indulging in shocking sexual practices, the women are able to control men and destroy them. Ultimately, it is the intention of the Kelpie to conquer Golden Glen and turn it into Glendura, a place where they can create a commercial paradise by selling the secret of eternal life to people in the Left Behind, the world where the three newcomers are from. In the eastern mountains are the Troll, an ugly, misshapen little people with heads one third the size of humans. Very muscular but stupid, they are led by a queen who has entranced the Cenotaur, a beast born of a rape of a tiny female centaur by the Minotaur of Crete. Once enslaved by the elves, the Troll queen is determined to take over the Glen. The Troll and Kelpie continue their conflict, amoral women of great beauty who are offended by the ugliness of the little people. Battles between them were once commonplace but now, the battles break out only now and then. Kelpie use lepainea to attack the Troll, the Troll have the Cenotaur to counter the cats. But important for both, Glenners are their enemy. If they Troll and Kelpie unite, they could overrun the Glen in a day. This is the world into which the three young people, Sarabeth, Nita, and Zack are thrust, a world with different rules, where no death exists, yet people die. War lurks over each hill, even a sunrise is suspect. But love, like the Glen, is fragile, a tender bud aching to bloom.
