Here is a short excerpt from the book:

 

Arianna

A Tale from the Eleven Kingdoms

 

 

Arianna’s eyes fluttered open and then fell shut again. Her eyelids felt so very heavy! The effort to open them was almost too much. Once more, she blinked. The images her eyes took in during that brief glimpse started to trickle down to her consciousness. Once they reached there, what she had seen took a little while longer to process.

 

When it did, however, an immediate alarm reaction sent a jolt of fear through her brain. Her fight-or-flight instinct awoke. Danger signals vibrated through her dazed mind. But, even that was not enough to shake her out of her semi-conscious state. Rising up through layer after layer of dense, numbing fog, she finally reached almost full awareness.

 

Her eyes flew open. Arianna’s first sight was of the cloudy sky above her. Next, she noticed wet dark gray stone flashing past her. The jagged rock was covered here and there in pale green lichen and reddish-green moss. Funny that she would take note of such a detail at a time like this.

 

Where was she? What was going on? It took her somewhat fuddled brain a few more moments to thoroughly comprehend the entire situation. She was falling! This realization was enough to finally catapult her to full consciousness. Why was she falling? And how had she gotten here? Question after question raced through her mind. She had answers to none.

 

The logical part of her brain finally took over, and she tried to analyze her situation. Her thinking, however, was still not up to its usual speed. Arianna felt frustrated. Shaking her head in an attempt to clear it, the girl began to evaluate her circumstances as quickly as she could. Her knees were almost level with her horrified gaze! What a most undignified position! The air was rushing past her with incredible swiftness and her waist-long hair was streaming out above her like a wind-whipped flag. Her dress was obscuring her vision straight ahead.

 

Looking up, she saw a rock ledge above her. That must have been the place she had fallen from! She needed to see how far away the ground was and get a look at the place she was plummeting towards and fast. Since she had already dropped for such a long ways, time to help herself might be running out. Carefully, she straightened herself out and turned her head and shoulders.

 

As soon as she turned, her honey-colored hair began to whip into her too pale face. Tears sprang to her eyes and obscured her vision. She was usually very proud of that shiny golden mass. Right now, however, it was more of an annoyance than an asset. It was seriously getting in her way. Impatiently gathering together the strands of unbound hair, Arianna finally managed to glance over her shoulder. She shuddered, and her eyes grew huge as she took in the sight.

 

She seemed to be falling from very high up! There were woods below, but the individual trees were still too small to make out clearly. Unless she could stop her momentum, there was no way she would survive hitting the ground tumbling from such heights! On the other hand, still being this far up left her some time.

 

How had she gotten into this predicament? And, where was she? This entire situation was very strange! Going by the rapidity of the rough rock racing past her, she knew that she was falling incredibly fast. But she was still such a long ways up! How could that be? Arianna had expected to hit the ground at any moment now! Maybe there was a chance to save herself after all. But how? She was flashing past that cliff face at such tremendous speed!

 

Her horrified gaze was drawn once again to the dark forest below. For a moment, she watched in fascinated terror. The trees now looked like little toy trees. They were most certainly getting increasingly closer!

 

Fear constricted her throat. Her heart was frantically hammering in her chest like a drum, so fast and hard that it hurt. Tears of desperation started to overflow her large sea-green eyes but were instantly whipped away by the speed of her descent. She had to think! Why was her brain so muddled the one time she needed it most? What had happened to put her in such a state?

 

Shaking her head, she pushed those thoughts aside. This was not the time to figure out what was going on or to give in to her fears! The priority right now was to think of what she could do to save herself. There had to be something! If she wanted to live, it was time to take action! Determinedly Arianna started to push down the panic which was threatening to take away what wits she had left.

 

Never in her life had Arianna given up without a fight. She was not about to this time.   

 

 

To be continued ....