The Sleeping Beauty - Book 1 - Chapter 35
I’d never seen a giant in real life until I sat on the top of the hill overlooking the campsite where Diedre’s people were being kept prisoner.
Fairy tales are real.
Rose Briar is a diabetic college student without insurance. She’s been scraping by through a combination of maxing out credit cards and relying upon the kindness of strangers.
Unfortunately, she’s spent every dollar at her disposal. There’s no money left to buy her life-saving insulin.
Without her medication, Rose falls into a diabetic coma. She tumbles into a deep slumber and wakes up in a fantastical place called the Dream Realm, where fairy tales and legends of old are still very much alive.
She has one chance to wake up.
She must trek across the world, visit the most powerful object in the land, the Obsidian Spindle, and entreat with the fates; the only beings powerful enough to send her soul back to Earth.
But evil forces don’t want her to leave. They will stop at nothing to capture her and make sure she never goes home again.
Now, with the help of her half-gorgon girlfriend and a mysterious red rider, Rose must race across the land fighting dragons, monsters, and the forces of the Wicked Witch, Nimue, in order to reach the Obsidian Spindle before her body dies on Earth and she’s trapped in the Dream Realm forever.
Will she be able to wake up? Can she survive? Find out by reading The Sleeping Beauty today. If you love mythology, fairy tales, and dark fantasy, then you’ll love the first book in The Obsidian Spindle Saga.
Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial.
I’d never seen a giant in real life until I sat on the top of the hill overlooking the campsite where Diedre’s people were being kept prisoner. They were a lot bigger than I imagined. Uglier, too. Hair covered every part of their body, even their foreheads. They were like walking werewolves, but twenty feet high. Behind the giant were four cages packed so tightly with Diedre’s men that they couldn’t even sit.
“Are you ready for this?” Diedre asked me as we looked over the encampment.
“No.” I shook my head. “I’d never taken out more than a couple monster hunters before I came to Urgu. I can’t take on a giant.”
“Hey,” she said. “You took on a dragon and won.”
“By dumb luck!” My eyes went wide. “Stupid luck, really.”
“That’s more than we’ve had before. Just think about what comes next. Finish this for me and then I’ll have my men take you to that inn to meet your girlfriend.”
“Nuh uh. You’re taking me, personally, if we get out of this.”
“Fine,” she said with a sour expression. “I’ll take you. Just remember, we’re counting on you.”
I looked behind her to see forty men and women ready for battle. They squeezed their weapons, staring at the giant with bloodlust. I bit my lip, trying to block the thoughts plaguing me. I was going to get them all killed.
“Just keep the giant busy while we rescue our men, okay?” Diedre said, pushing me forward.
“Now, go.”
I leapt up and over the hill. Once I engaged the beast, the rest of them were going to come down and open the cages to let out their friends, or countrymen, or whatever they were to each other.
“Sonum augue!” I shouted as a fireball shot out of my hand and slammed into the giant’s chest. The giant turned to me, confused. “Sonum augue!”
More fireballs shot out of my hands, but they didn’t hurt the giant. They connected with him without causing any damage, like I was lobbing Nerf balls at him. He lumbered forward, and the ground quaked. Behind me, the men tumbled down the hill as if their feet had been taken out from under them.
“Reformabit pulverem luto!” I screamed, touching the ground. The ground cracked and twisted under me, until the grass under the giant’s foot turned to mud. “Reditus!”
The ground under the giant spun again, and then it returned to its normal state, except the giant’s foot was stuck underneath it.
“AHHH!” the giant shouted, trying to pick up its foot once…twice…the third time, his foot exploded out of the ground, sending me falling backwards while bits of dirt and debris shot everywhere. The giant slammed his foot on the ground. More rock flung through the air and hit two of Diedre’s men, who fell to the ground.
“Do something!” Diedre said.
“Tutela obice!” I screamed. A bright blue light emanated from my hands and formed a protective barrier between me and the giant. The giant lifted its hand and crashed down on the barrier, which cracked, but didn’t break.
“It’s working!” Diedre shouted. “Hurry up!”
Even with a full day to rest, I only had so much stamina, and casting powerful spells was like running a marathon. I couldn’t keep it up for much longer. It took everything I had to maintain the barrier. Panting from the exertion, I saw men and women scrambling up the hill, their cages now empty. They’d been saved.
“Come on,” Diedre called to me.
I used what remained of my might to push the barrier toward the giant. He struggled to stay upright, but with one final nudge I pushed him to the ground, and he slammed down onto the earth with a mighty crash. With the giant down, I turned back to Diedre and climbed back up the hill to safety.
Fairy tales are real.
Find out by reading The Sleeping Beauty today. If you love mythology, fairy tales, and dark fantasy, then you’ll love the first book in The Obsidian Spindle Saga.
Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial.