Tara Maya's Tales

"Moth Dancer" by Electric Rainbow The Unfinished Song: Initiate ( Start at the Beginning of the Novel ) Chapter 3  Brena Before dawn, the clanhold of Sycamore Stands already throbbed with the sounds of women pounding nuts. The astringent smell of acorn drifted from the leeching ditches between the clay domed huts. Once Zavaedi Brena made certain her snoopy neighbor, Auntie Ula, was not following her, she urged her two daughters, Gwena and Gwenika, past the clanhold stocade, down the embankment, to a spot hidden by sycamore trees. They did this every morning, yet every morning Brena had to battle all over again to force them to move, as if it were the first time. Gwena, the oldest, spent an inordinate amount of time combing her hair. On the way to the woods, she craned her neck to attract the attention of young men burning brush for gardens. Several of the hoolilgans smiled at her like idiots, until they saw Brena and hastened back to work. Gw...

"Captured" by Arwen Danelle Robertson,  arwenart.com The Unfinished Song: Initiate ( Start at the Beginning of the Novel ) Kavio …the men cudgeled his back. The blows brought agony without the solace of oblivion —the warriors knew their art, and steered their blows away from his head, aiming to hurt and subdue, not kill—yet. They tied his hands and feet, yanked his hair to expose his neck. A mountain of muscle tattooed on both arms and both cheeks loomed over Kavio. “The death blow is mine, blame or fame. You are all witness,” the leader barked at his men. They grunted back. This man knows who I am . Unfortunately, their acquaintance was not mutual. “I know why you plan to kill me,” Kavio announced. Bold lies worked best. “But just the opposite is true.” The leader shot a beefy hand out to grip Kavio’s neck. “Don’t waste my time.” “Let me prove it.” “How ?” Good question. Kavio would bet his mother’s goat and toss bones th...

The Unfinished Song: Initiate ( Start at the Beginning of the Novel ) …follow him into exile. Or maybe some would-be enemy wanted to make certain he would never return. Kavio climbed higher into the mountains. The peaks met like clapped hands to divide the rains of the world in half. All waters of the eastern fingers cascaded into a drought-dry landscape of sand- stone phantasmagoria—stone rainbows, stone islands, stone waves, striated stone flavors of pepper and cayenne. All the waters to the other side flowed west, through terrain sweetened by late summer storms, down, gently down through valleys of oak and golden poppy, down, gently down to coastal forests and the sea. In the mountains, however, autumn had already given way to winter, and he found the pass already thick with snow, where he sacrificed a night and a day to lay a trap. He had to choose his spot, plan his moves against possible countermoves, dance a spell without making it obvious to any hy...

"89" by yag65 The Unfinished Song: Initiate ( Start at the Beginning of the Novel ) Kavio “…accept being smoked out of the Labyrinth like a rat?” cried Nilo. “You’re just going to let Zumo win? You know that none of us will ever follow him as War Chief !” “It’s too early to say it will come to that.” “His blood flows from the Bone Whistler, and so do his ambi- tions. He’s already got you out of the way!” said Nilo. “With the White Lady under the Curse of Obsidian Mountain and your father growing older, and now you exiled—who else is there to stop him?” “You going into exile with me won’t help,” said Kavio. Nilo exchanged glances with some of the others. “It will—if we go to the Yellow Bear tribehold to raise an army against him. There are many of our people still living there who would follow us, who would follow you, Kavio. You could return in a year’s time with Tav- aedies and warriors at your back! We could finally wipe out—” ...

The Unfinished Song: Initiate ( Start at the Beginning of the Novel ) …shunned them, but everyone needed them. He left the bodies beneath the skull stone. After a slight hesitation, he relieved one corpse of legwals and a spear. The legwals stank of sour milk and blood, a stench that reminded him of the first time he’d killed a man. Though Kavio had only been ten, not yet past Initiation into manhood, he’d already been Tested and proved a Tavaedi. During the fight, he’d been so sacred he pissed himself, and because of that so embarrassed, he hadn’t told Father what happened. His stupid fear, his stupid pride, had almost started a war. Was this the meaning of his journey omen? He’d spent his whole life trapped in the literal and political mazes of the Rainbow Labyrinth tribehold. This was his chance to shed those restrictions, grow himself anew. He didn’t want to be his father’s shadow, or his mother’s reflection, but neither did he care to be a rov...