Matt Adams

Æstella ran towards the front door to her home at the back of the smithy. With the house up in flames, she knew she didn’t have long before either the fire or smoke consumed her. If her father really was still inside, she knew he had even less time to get out safely.

The front door was burning, but that didn’t stop Æstella. Running full speed, she turned her shoulder and jumped through the door. The fire weakened door gave way completely to her charge and, luckily, didn’t set her clothes ablaze.

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Æstella was now running back towards here home. She had never seen a dragon before, but like any kid she had heard the tales and they all ended the same way: destruction, despair, death.

She had planned on turning her day off into a weekend getaway. The burlap sack she had packed that morning with essentials was now lying next to a tree near where she had first seen the dragon. She had abandoned it in favor of speed; nothing in the sack would help, but it would surely slow her down.

Æstella had no clue what she would do once she reached her village and home. The village was not very big, a humble mining village that sat on the mountain range that bordered the kingdom. It was small enough that it never garnered any attention from the rest of the realm. Its small size had always annoyed Æstella who dreamed of the big cities. Now however, she worried it was too large to escape the attention of the dragon flying in that direction.

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Clang. Tink, tink.

Clang. Tink, tink.

Æstella picked up the hot metal and thrust it back into the burning embers. She stared into the embers as the metal heated back into an orange glow. As she stared down into the coals, waiting for the metal to glow the right color from the heat, she saw glimpses of the nightmare replaying in her head.

Æstella turned and closed her eyes as she attempted to banish the blazing forest from her thoughts. She couldn’t understand why the nightmare unsettled her so much. While she lived in the back of smithy, she had never been caught in a fire or seen anyone engulfed in flames.

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Long thin shadows extended across the forest floor, running over brown pine needles and hiding behind the tall, thin trees and cover of night. The unease of these shadows’ presence was only accentuated by their usual lack of existence. Even during the brightest hours of the day, any shadow would find comfort in the gentle darkness that the thick forest canopy provided.

Tonight however, an unnatural glow permeated beneath the canopy that lit up the forest floor. This warm glow was the source of fear for any shadows unlucky enough to gaze upon it.

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His foot slipped off the wet rock. With the sudden loss of purchase, he slid uncontrollably down the cliff face. Luckily, there was a small ledge only a few feet below which caught his fall before it became dangerous.

“My King!” a man higher up on the cliff shouted down to him. “Are you all right?”

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The Masquerade is a story I am writing and releasing here on my site. It is a fantasy centered around a female main character named Æstella (pronounced As-stel-la). I won’t spoil too much of what is to come of Æstella, but she meets lots of people (some of whom will take control of the story) and sees a good amount of death.

This week I will be releasing a chapter everyday of the week through Friday. After that I will be releasing regular chapters, but on a different schedule that I have yet to decide. The one thing I do know without a doubt is that this every day of the week updating is only for this introductory week. After this week the updates will slow to possibly twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. I will post updates here and my twitter when I know for sure. The first part of The Masquerade, Prelude, will be released later today. I hope you enjoy my tale.