Revaramek The Resplendent is...

A fiery woman recruits an egotistical dragon to protect her village...
A hatchling and his mother struggle to flee a poisoned swamp...
A pup and his father wander a lonely desert...
A story within a story within a story...
A zany comedy, a tear-jerking tragedy, a reality bending villain, and an ever-spiraling mystery...

Revaramek the Resplendent has become all these things, and more. And it all began here, which means it's time for this updated intro.

Revaramek the Resplendent began as my first ever NaNoWriMo novel. It started out as a fantasy comedy about a feisty woman recruiting a dirty-minded egotist of a dragon to help protect her village from village-burning bandits. I embraced the NaNoWriMo spirit, and tried to write a complete novel in just one month. I posted as I wrote, with no time for editing or revision, and fully expected the story to collapse under its own weight.

Instead, it became something remarkable that was never what I thought...The comedy was only ever a smokescreen...

For the time being, this blog contains the still-unedited rough draft of Book 1, in which the story remained a comedy...mostly. In time, I'll edit and revise it, and post books 2 and 3, as well. They're available by request, in the meantime.

But for now, here's Book 1, along with the table of contents and links to each chapter. Enjoy the story? Please leave me a comment and let me know, or tweet me your thoughts at @OfTheWilds! 

Quick links:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty One

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Chapter Twenty One

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Mother was already gone when the hatchling awoke. Her dawn farewell was a drowsy memory of loving licks and soft murmurs woven into his dreams. The scraps of old fur and hide she slept usually upon were draped across him. They were warm and pleasant, if a pale imitation of her comforting touch. The hatchling closed his eyes and pretended the warmth was his mother’s wing. He dozed a little longer, dreaming of his favorite tales.

Hunger rumbling in the little dragon’s belly roused him again. He pinned his ears back and yawned, stretching his forelegs. He shook the bits of fur and hide from his body and rose to his feet. The cool but humid morning air was heavy with the swamp’s brackish scent, tinted with the sweetness of the fresh water dribbling from porous rock. His mother’s scent was still there, as well. And something else, delicate yet tantalizing.

Chapter Twenty

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Chapter Twenty

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Revaramek leapt out of the mud, beating his vast wings. Pain seared across the dragon’s back as damaged flight muscles protested. He pushed through it, ascending above the bog. Globs of mud fell from his wings and tumbled from his body as he rose. He leveled off just above the treetops, and clutched Mirelle to his chest, safe and secure.

Every wingbeat was pain. His wings and the muscles that powered them needed time to heal but Revaramek doubted he was going to get it. As he flew, the rest of his wounds joined in the screaming chorus. Burning, bloodied lines throbbed across his limbs and his neck. Just breathing made his lungs ache. When he coughed, little sparks of agony erupted around them. Probably had cracked ribs. At least he could still breathe.

Chapter Nineteen

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Chapter Nineteen

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Revaramek hurtled into the sky. His pain was forgotten, replaced with a sickening fear and a singular determination. In all his life, there were few moments that had ever horrified Revaramek more than the sight of the purple dragon and her maniacal rider snatching Mirelle into the sky. Over the years, he’d nearly convinced himself those other horrible moments never really happened. He locked them away, hid the memories in some dark place they could not hurt him anymore. But this? This was happening, and if he did not stop it, Mirelle was going to die.

He was not the godsdamned comic relief, he was the villain! No, he was the hero!

He would save her.

Chapter Eighteen

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Chapter Eighteen

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Mirelle scrambled into an alleyway when the second dragon arrived. Though she appreciated Revaramek’s warning, she hadn’t been planning to stand out in the open. Her heart thudded, anger welled up inside her. That little runt had just been babbling confusing things to distract poor addle-minded Revaramek long enough for his own dragon to arrive. That would certainly make negotiations more difficult. And they knew each other? Just her luck, the bad guy she was after seemed to have recruited her own dragon’s ex-lover. Disgruntled, no doubt. She’d have to make sure Revaramek didn’t say anything to-

And then the negotiation started.

The purple dragoness launched herself down the street and slammed into Revaramek so hard she lifted him completely off all four feet. Revaramek gave a great pained cough, all the air knocked from his vast lungs. He tumbled down the street, smashed through a vendor’s stall and a wagon, and the female was on him in an instant. She was bigger than he was, battering his head with her forepaws. Claws cut gashes in his green scales and dark red dragon blood flowed across the cobblestone.

Chapter Seventeen

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Chapter Seventeen

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Revaramek galloped down the street towards the gateway. Excitement coiled taut and shuddering in his belly. It prickled at his spines, left his frills flared, their golden edges fully displayed. He’d never gotten to do anything heroic before. And ever since that horrible day he struggled forget, he hadn’t gotten to do anything villainous, either. If he was stuck serving Mirelle, he may as well get to have as much fun as possible. So there was no way in hell he was going to get a bunch of stuffy guards or a stick-in-the-mud councilwoman have all the fun now.

“Out of the way!”  

Revaramek ran up behind the trio of spearmen cautiously approaching the urd’thin and his band. When they didn’t get out of his way fast enough he just bowled them over, spears and armored men flying in all directions. Their commander turned around, eyes wide as he saw the dragon streaking towards him. Revaramek skirted around him, but not before throwing up a forepaw to shove the guard captain aside.

“I’ll handle this! Councilwoman Mirelle has placed me in charge of these affairs!”

“I have not!” Mirelle’s shout followed him down the street. He glanced back and saw her stop chasing him long enough to help one of the guards up. “Let the guards deal with this!”

“Oh, no, Mirelle!” Revaramek snarled, shaking his head as he bound through the city. “You wanted a dragon to solve your problems, and that’s what you’re getting!”

Chapter Sixteen

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Chapter Sixteen

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Revaramek hurtled towards the ground. Wind swept across every inch of his body, flowing over his scales, caressing his wing membranes. The exhilaration of the dive left his sturdy heart hammering in his chest, and his fire glands tingling. He kept all four limbs tucked, his belly twisting in excitement.

From above, the forest looked like nothing more than an immense patchwork quilt woven of every shade of green imaginable. It reminded him of the soft blankets one of his maiden friends used to bring on her visits, all cobbled together from patches of different color and hues. As he drew nearer the earth, the green quilt gradually resolved itself into individual colors and trees. A blue-green fir, a pale green willow, a dark green oak, and flashes of brown where gnarled cypress roots tangled and fought with one another.

It would have been a beautiful dive if not for Mirelle screaming the whole way down.