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It's my 100th blog post! And you know what that means...

Below is the second released excerpt for my novel, Coetir: the People of the Woods. The novel is planned to be released in January 2015, so keep your eyes peeled for more information.

If you'd like to see the first released excerpt, check out my post on this blog titled Crossing The Line.

Lastly, don't forget that if you comment on this post you'll be entered to win one of my very own fountain pens plus a surprise gift! Click Here for the official contest rules.


Enjoy the excerpt! I'm looking forward to seeing what all of you comment.

[love]

{RD}

**

            “I’m not going to get this,” I said as I got to my feet. I’d never felt so frustrated in my life. Tiiram had started training me on what he considered the simplest of tasks—coaxing a flame into a fire pit.
            I wasn’t sure how this was supposed to be simple.
            “Take your time,” Elim said, smiling up at me from his seat beside the pit.
            Tiiram stood silently a few feet away, watching me. He’d hardly said a word, and yet he was supposed to be teaching me how to do this. I didn’t understand. He was the one who had pressured me to begin my training. Why was he refusing to teach me now?
            “Tell me what to do,” I said, my head aching in my frustration. Supposedly, Eiriol learned these things much faster than Coetir—but I needed to learn as quickly as possible. If I didn’t master this, Fari would go to the village on her own.
If that happened, knew people would notice her, and they would know she wasn’t from the village. They wouldn’t handle it well. Lionel would fear her.
            “You know what to do,” Tiiram replied. “You’ve seen it done before, have you not?”
            Part of me wanted to scream.
            Instead, I knelt beside the fire, my new dress being sullied once again by the ash around the pit, and I tried. My words were in basic, but they were just as strong in this realm as the Coetir tongue. I asked the embers to spread, to grow into flames—but instead of lighting, they put themselves out.
            “What am I doing wrong?” My eyes looked straight into Elim’s, and I blinked back tears. I hadn’t realized there were tears in my eyes until I looked at him.
            “You’re trying too hard,” he whispered. “Connect with the Vartes; ask for aid.”
            I sighed and my eyes shifted to Tiiram. He wasn’t even watching me. He was looking out into the woods, his body tensed. He was normally so open and warm that to see him nervous made my body tense along with his.
            In glancing to Elim, I saw that he’d done the same. He reached out over the fire pit and he took my hand. “Come,” he whispered.
            “What’s wrong?” My voice cracked, and the pain in my head got worse.
            He hushed me, and our feet silently moved over the dead leaves to join Tiiram.
            “What do you see?” Elim whispered, his voice coming out as the wind. “Beth ydych chi’n ei weld?”
           “Humans.” Tiiram pointed through the trees. “Bobl.”
           My eyes widened when I saw five human men walking through the trees. Their feet crunched on the leaves, and they broke branches that hung down into their path.
           They were all a part of the militia.
           My brother was among them.
           Tomas led the team, his eyes scanning the woods and somehow not even seeing us.
He’d styled his hair differently. I guessed that he hadn’t seen Raichel today—she’d never liked his hair like this.
            I tugged on Elim’s arm. “It’s my brother,” I whispered. “It’s Tomas.”
           “Quiet,” Elim breathed. “Tiiram will shield us.”
            I didn’t know what that meant. The humans—my brother among them—were coming straight toward us. There was no way we could avoid running into them if we didn’t move.
           Neither Tiiram nor Elim seemed nervous about it. They acted as though things like this happened every day.
           As Tomas drew closer, Tiiram whispered under his breath, words of the Coetir, and Elim’s fingers tightened around mine.
           It was, in that moment, as though everything slowed down. Tomas, Samyel, Will, Stepfen, and Paater stepped passed us and into the clearing. They each wore dark clothes, held a sword in their hands, and were adorned by many more weapons—weapons that I didn’t know anyone in the human village had access to anymore. But they didn’t seem to see us. They were focused on the fire pit, and the small amount of smoke that still emerged from the ash.
           “Someone was here,” Samyel said, sticking his hand into the pit. “You think it was them?”
           Tomas opened his mouth to reply, but as he did so the flames returned to the pit. I wasn’t sure if it was my doing or not, but I knew that it wasn’t supposed to happen.
           Samyel shouted in pain as the flames licked at his fingers, and he yanked his hand from the pit. Paater rushed to his side and clamped his fingers over Samyel’s mouth, quieting him, while the rest made a perimeter around them, looking out into the woods.
           “Eyes open,” Tomas said.
           Will helped Samyel to wrap his hand. The burns didn’t look so bad.
           I only hoped that it wasn’t my fault. No matter what, the humans were still a part of my life. I couldn’t give up on them. As an Eiriol, I would have to speak to them.
           “Go to the camp,” Tiiram whispered to Elim, his voice more like a breeze. “Ewch i’r gwersyll.” “I will lead them around the long way.” His eyes pierced into my brothers, but Tomas did not see. “Byddaf yn eu harwain o gwmpas y ffordd hir.”
           Elim nodded, and we walked away. Our feet made no sound—Tomas and his men had no idea that I was ever there. As soon as we were far enough away, Elim looked into my eyes, and I nodded. He released my hand, and we ran. 
            Adam was waiting for me on the edge of the camp, and Qida stood a few yards farther into the trees. She knew that something was wrong. Her stance reminded me of Tiiram—completely tensed, on edge, and ready to strike—only her stance was more vicious than his. She had no problem killing anyone to defend her home.
            I was beginning to understand how she felt.
           “The humans have entered the wood,” Elim said as we pulled up in front of her. “Tiiram is leading them here.”

 ***

            Raichel waited behind her father-in-law’s barn, the hood of her mantle pulled up over her head. She’d changed into a black gown, one with short cap sleeves and a low cut bodice, but one that she could use to keep herself hidden as soon as the sun went down—and it was about to do so. At her side, she’d strapped one of Tomas’s old weapons—the sword his father had given him when he retired from the militia. Tomas had been kind enough to teach her how to use it, when no one was watching, in the privacy of his father’s barn.
           Women weren’t supposed to learn things like sword fighting, but she’d insisted, and Tomas had relented. It was a power that she very much enjoyed holding over him.
By now, she’d been waiting here for hours. If anyone had seen her come here, they would’ve thought she’d left already. They wouldn’t have watched long enough to know that she was still here.
           She’d been planning this out all morning, though she hadn’t expected Tomas to insist that she stay home. She’d planned to go to Cirie’s home, talk her into faking an alibi, and leaving before Tomas returned—but this was even better. The shutters were left open and the door hung from only one hinge. People would think that someone had come for her. They wouldn’t suspect that she’d left of her own accord, or that she’d gone into the woods after her husband. Most of them didn’t even know that her husband was gone.
           Most of them wouldn’t care.
           The sun dipped low enough that she found herself in the shadow of the barn, and the shadow extended all the way to the woods.
           She gripped the sides of her mantle, and she walked into the woods. Her eyes never looked back. She never stopped to make sure no one saw. She only walked, her feet carrying her faster and faster until she reached the edge of the boundary, the point between the human and druid lands.
           “Tyrd, fy mhlentyn.” The words echoed all around her, and she found that as she stepped over the boundary, she understood what they meant. “Come, my child.”
           It didn’t make any sense. One moment, the words were complete gibberish. The next, they’d been comprehensible. It was about as logical as the fact that she’d woken up this morning with ears that sharpened to points.
           The druids had worked their magic, and she was going to find out what it was all about.
           The farther into the trees she walked, the darker the world around her became. Something about the woods made it darker faster than the valley—she hadn’t anticipated that. But she knew more than most about traversing grounds like these. She’d always been with the boys when she was a child. She knew how to climb a house in the dead of night—she could find her way to the druid camp without a problem.
           Her eyes focused on the bright firelight ahead of her, and she didn’t look back.
           There was no telling how far into the woods she was at this point, but she doubted that she could find her way back even if she wanted to. The people in her village had been ordered to dim their lights as soon as the sun went down—there would be nothing to guide her home.
           Strangely, though, she didn’t feel as though she was away from home. It was as though there was a presence, following her, showing her the way, guiding her through the brush.
           Her feet moved more slowly when she realized how close she was to a druid encampment—and how much noise she was making. Her feet had been crunching on dead leaves and naked branches for what seemed like hours, but couldn’t possibly have been.
           The druid camp was not far from their home.
           She stopped a few dozen yards away, secure in the knowledge that none of them had seen her as far as she knew. Unless one of them had guided her here, they wouldn’t have expected her.
           But as she watched them, she noticed the last thing she expected.
           Her husband and his team of men were stumbling their way through the trees, following one of the druid men.
           It was a strange thing, laying eyes on the druid. He was the first one she’d really seen. She hadn’t been there when the one had entered the village—she’d been preparing the evening meal, just as Tomas liked her to. But her husband had described the druids as beastly, as hideous and dangerous.
           What she saw was nothing of the sort.
           He had deep green skin, wore clothing similarly enough to theirs, and walked like one of them. His face and hair were different, but he in no way seemed frightening. He was nothing more than another species of humanoids—just like Ellya had always believed them to be.
           As Tomas and his men were ushered into the clearing just outside the village, she crouched down on her knees, trying to prevent anyone from seeing her.
           The sound that issued from all around her was enough to make her scream, but she crouched deeper into the thicket and covered her mouth. Her arms instinctively wrapped around the trunk of the nearest tree, and she waited to see what would happen.
           If they touched her husband, there would be hell to pay.