A New Beginning: A Fantasy Adventure (The White Chronicles Book 1)
A New Beginning
The White Chronicles, Book One
J. E. Thompson
Arc Book Club, LLC
Copyright © 2020 by J E Thompson
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Cover by Jake @ J Caleb Design
ISBN: 978-1-952677-01-4 (Paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-952677-00-7 (eBook)
ISBN: 978-1-952677-02-1 (Audiobook)
For my wife and best friend, Wallis.
Contents
1. Vexx White
2. The Proceeds
3. Vexx and Kaylin
4. Dungeoneers
5. Goblin Hunting
6. Charge
7. Partners
8. 36 Hours
9. Doctor Fansee’s Pick-Me-Ups
10. Pollander’s Sheep
11. Setting the Trap
12. Into the Cave
13. The Dead Adventurer
14. The First Job
15. Discount Fashion
16. Old Man
17. Great Treasure
18. Expert Lockpicker
19. The Holy Reliquary
20. Caravan Guards
21. Ambush
22. To the Ruins
23. The Imperial Garrison
24. The Ruby of the Pure
25. Shyola
26. The General’s Mausoleum
27. The Succubus and the Sacrifice
28. Breakfast
29. Doctor Fansee’s Quest
30. Along the Stream
31. Warg Slaying
32. To Fight and Kill
33. Ambushing the Wargs
34. Gathering Herbs
35. Visitors to Cloudbury
36. Cloudbury Fashion Week
37. A Good Night’s Sleep
38. The Damned Souls
39. Ghosts and Spiders
40. Favors for the Dead
41. The Pickpocket
42. The Slums of Cloudbury
43. Throwing Axes
44. Vestrual’s Lumber Company
45. Sneaky Dungeoneers
46. Chaos in the Lumber Mill
47. Through the Flames
48. Guarding the Wagon
49. Breaking the Blockade
50. Don Kordo Does Them a Favor
51. Clearing the Hardringa Estate
52. Agreeing to Disagree
53. Helping the Church
54. The Bakery
55. Heading Down Tower Road
56. One Step Ahead
57. Nightfall in the Lifeless Hills
58. Lergu and Choc-Khra
59. Burning Goblins
60. The Paladin
61. A Giant Misunderstanding
62. The Verge of Death
63. Fighting Together
64. Paralyzed
65. All Downhill from Here
66. Act Natural
67. The Melt Value Alone
68. The Quest Completed
69. A Round for the Dungeoneers
About the Author
The Adventure Continues
1
Vexx White
Vexx felt a lump in his throat as he avoided a deep rut in the dirt road. It had been quite some time since he’d last left Cloudbury, and he couldn’t help but reflect on the occasion. He’d stood tall back then, as tall as any twelve-year-old could have, anyway, no doubt looking as proud and arrogant and ambitious as he knew he’d been. As he still was, for that matter, even if his dreams had all been reduced to dust.
They were fools to expel me. Fools! Besides, the best necromancy requires only the freshest of corpses. What kind of magical academy is built next to a cemetery but also forbids black magic? That’s practically entrapment.
His hands fumbled at his sides, his pale skin a stark contrast against his black apprentice’s robes. After a moment, they settled uncomfortably into his pockets. They’d left him the clothes on his back, at least, even though they’d taken everything else. He had a few coppers in there, along with a finger bone the administrators hadn’t noticed, but he doubted any of that would get him more than the simplest of meals.
Still, Dred Wyrm started with less, and look at him now! The most renowned dungeoneer there is.
Vexx came to an uncertain halt, suddenly realizing that he had walked through all of Cloudbury, his hometown now strange to him. Still, there was no mistaking the house where he’d grown up. The way the grass grew wild, the way the straw ceiling sloped, the gaps in the…windows…
Vexx squinted. Hang on. What’s happened to it?
Without thinking, he burst forward, leaping up the slope and up to the ancient wooden door. He put his hand on the bronze handle and pushed it open, ducking his head to fold his lanky frame through the doorway.
“Father, I have re-” he trailed off, taking in the cobwebs in the corners, the dusty table with a few letters on it. He numbly walked over, glancing into the corners, but there was no sign of life. Vexx’s heart was already sinking. His father would not have let the house fall into this state of disrepair. Not that cantankerous old coot. No, not the old man who had Vexx scrubbing all day and all night any time it looked like he’d tracked in a few stray specks of mud.
Vexx rummaged through the scrolls sitting on the table, opening a few at random, quickly scanning through them. Messages from the town council, something about non-payment of taxes, a death certificate…
Vexx’s vision blurred as he stared at the words. Adelius White, dead of exposure following the late storms. Surely someone would have sent a message to the Magical Academy at Fallanden...he blinked away the unexpected moisture in his eyes.
Eventually, he managed to wade through the paperwork, his surprise fading to grim resignation. From what he could piece together, following his father’s death, the house had been taken for non-payment of taxes and subsequently sold. And clutched in his hands was the one scroll that bore Vexx White’s own name.
“To the heir of the Adelius White estate, Vexx White, is due a share of the house’s proceeds. If the heir presents this scroll at the town council building on 14 Marionberry Lane, Cloudbury, he or she will receive—”
Vexx folded it up before looking at the sum and stuffed it in his apprentice robe’s voluminous pocket. Somehow, he didn’t feel like spending another minute in this place.
“Well,” Vexx said in the dismal silence, rising from his chair. “No time like the present.”
Vexx dusted himself off and strode purposefully towards the door. He left without a backward glance.
2
The Proceeds
Like most towns in Ilor, the economy of Cloudbury depended on the large forest growing around the Lifeless Hills. Vexx passed a band of foresters trudging along the street, large axes resting on their shoulders. A few men in their early twenties looked his way in idle curiosity and Vexx stared back despite himself, wondering if he could recognize any of them from his childhood. They were about the same age, after all, though he’d been saved from that fate by admittance to the Fallanden Magical Academy.
Or so I thought. What�
�s there for me now?
The council building wasn’t far away, a rickety old building that slumped to the side as if it had been shoved off its foundation by a group of trolls. It bore the grime and half-rotted wood that was standard for older buildings in Cloudbury. The town was a sad, provincial place, which was a fact that Vexx White had never quite realized until he’d left to attend the Academy in the bustling city of Fallanden.
It wasn’t as though he’d travelled much, of course. He’d been all but confined behind the academy’s walls. And then, when he had been expelled, Vexx hadn’t had any reason to go anywhere else but home.
And now, there wasn’t even a home for him anymore.
Vexx pressed open the rickety door and stood uncertainly in the dim interior. A white-haired woman handed over a sheaf of documents to a well-dressed man at a counter.
“Next,” she said, as the man left with his bundle of documents. Vexx scanned the empty room, and after a moment, he approached the clerk.
“Um, Vexx White. I understand my father Adelius White had his house seized after he passed away.”
“Oh yes,” the woman said, squinting up at him. “You must be the son. I knew Adelius, actually.”
“Oh? How was the funeral?”
“I didn’t go,” she replied, sliding out a drawer in her ancient wooden desk. “Adelius was a bastard, and I was glad to see him dead. Now, here we are.” She unfurled the scroll on her desk, then tossed a small sack of coins beside it. “Your share of the proceeds. You attended the Magical Academy, correct? Then I take it you can spell,” she said, tapping an inkwell on her desk.
Vexx smiled. “I know all sorts of spells.”
She shot him an exasperated look.
“Ah, and I know how to spell,” he added, picking up the quill resting beside the inkwell.
“You have your father’s sense of humor. Just sign here, here, and here.”
Vexx scribbled away, then finally set the quill down. “What now?”
“Now?” The clerk slid the coins over to him. “That’s for you to decide, young man. But your father’s former house is now the property of the town council. Keep out of it.” She paused, her expression softening almost imperceptibly. “If you’re looking for work, some of the farmers could use a hand. Perhaps a logging company will take you on as an apprentice.” She shrugged.
Vexx grimaced before nodding silently and scooping up the small bag of coins. His mind was a whirl of confused emotions.
What should I do now?
3
Vexx and Kaylin
He stood uncertainly before the small grave marked with the simple carved words: Adelius White, Devoted Husband and Father. Vexx glanced left and right.
A short chat wouldn’t hurt, would it? But it isn’t as though I’ve mastered the art of necromancy. Vexx’s hand raised a hair and he stood there, motionless. He shook his head and tucked his hand into his pocket.
“Rest in peace, Dad. Maybe we’ll talk later.”
The cemetery was a silent, peaceful place, and the orchard beside it blocked out the hustle and bustle of nearby Cloudbury. Vexx inhaled the pleasant aroma of the apple trees as he turned away from his father’s grave. He stared ahead, past the fence that encircled the cemetery. He had vaulted a fence very much like it several times before, paying midnight visits to a different cemetery, practicing the forbidden Black Arts.
Vexx grimaced. And then I’d been expelled. It wasn’t a pleasant thought, and he cast it aside as he strode outward into Cloudbury, uncertain of his exact destination. I’ve spent too much time in the past. It’s time I made a new future for myself.
He strode past a couple horsemen, perhaps on patrol along the periphery of the Lifeless Hills, a region he remembered to be quite dangerous. Vexx nodded at a family of farmers, who greeted him politely in return, likely returning to their farmstead after selling their wares at the town market. I always thought I’d be a mage, but now, I’m worse off than even those farmers. What am I supposed to do now? I thought my father could at least give me some advice or provide me with lodging while I figured things out, but...
Vexx grumbled to himself as he strode down the dirt road that bisected Cloudbury. First, they kick me out of the academy, and now this? He rummaged through the sack, feeling the varying weights of metal pieces within. A paltry sum, but more than enough to get him well and truly drunk. It’s been ages since I’ve been back. Where should I go?
A blacksmith paused between heavy blows on the forge and glanced over.
“Excuse me, stranger, but where’s the nearest bar?”
“Just down the road,” the bare-chested man said, gesturing with a pair of tongs. He squinted at Vexx. “Wait, aren’t you that White boy?”
Vexx grimaced. “Thanks for the directions,” he muttered, quickening his pace. He could see the bar now: a low, squat structure of timber with a wide, rickety door. Beside it swung a bulletin board on a stand, currently empty of bounties. He pushed his way inside and was almost overwhelmed by the clamoring of drunk patrons from within.
Bottles clanked as adventurers celebrated their earnings for the day, their raucous laughter and the cloying stench of dungeon rot told Vexx everything he needed to know about them. At the table beside them, an orc was furiously playing five finger fillet on his own, enthusiastically plunging the stained blade of a small knife into the splintered top of the table.
Vexx strolled past an unconscious sorcerer to where a young elf woman was pleading with the unimpressed barkeep.
“Just one quest,” she said, leaning close. The candlelight danced over her tanned skin, the elf’s skimpy armor leaving very little to the imagination.
Vexx couldn’t help but give her an appreciative once over as he sidled closer to the bar. Not so bad for an elf. Light on armor for an adventurer, though.
The barkeep shook his head as he polished a mug. “I don’t know if you’re up to it…Kaylin, did you say your name was? That shortbow there seems pretty shoddy. Do you know how to use it?”
“Do I?”
The elf perked up and reached for the shortbow strapped to her back, but in her haste, the end of her bow caught on the stool beside her and she stumbled back. She turned and tripped, crashing unceremoniously into Vexx’s arms. He stood there for a moment with his arms draped awkwardly around her, watching as a pretty blush suffused her cheeks.
“Um…hello.”
Vexx smiled despite himself. “Hello.”
A clang broke the uncomfortable silence as the barkeep set the clean mug down. “Oh, I didn’t realize you two were together,” the barkeep said. Kaylin began to stammer a denial, but by some impulse, Vexx’s hand shot out and covered her mouth.
“That’s right,” he said with a smile. “Vexx White, dungeoneer for hire.”
“Well, I do have a two person job,” the barkeep said thoughtfully as Vexx released the elf woman, who scowled in silence as she got to her feet. “But I doubt you’ll like it.” He tilted his head. “Ya ever tangled with goblins?”
4
Dungeoneers
Vexx’s heart pounded, and it wasn’t just from being next to the attractive elf, who was now brushing her flaxen hair aside and muttering something unintelligible.
Of course, why didn’t I think about it before? I could become a dungeoneer for real, just like Dred Wyrm! I have nothing keeping me from it anymore, and I could use the money. Besides…I’ve learned a few tricks over the years.
Vexx snapped his fingers, a puff of flame hovering in place above his outstretched palm. “Goblins? Goblins are easy,” Vexx said with a derisive snort. He hadn’t fought goblins before. Truth be told, he’d only seen them once or twice, but they didn’t seem like they’d be much trouble. Vexx had trained hard at the academy, excelling in the darker arts since he was ‘a bit too much of a natural talent,’ as he had heard his teachers mutter amongst themselves.
“Well, it’s really only one goblin,” the barkeep said slowly. “But he’s a quick little basta
rd.”
Vexx frowned. “You know him?”
“We’re not exactly on friendly terms. He’s been killing my sheep. I spotted him finally, leaving my farm for a dugout. I figure the two of you could flush him out,” he said, glancing back at the elf. “Think you can handle that, missy?”
“Of course!” she exclaimed with a broad smile, her green eyes glimmering in the glow of the tavern’s candles. “My name’s Kaylin Lulynn, and I was the best shot in my village! We’ll do it, no problem,” she said happily as she turned to look at Vexx, nearly knocking the mug out of the barkeep’s hands. “Hey, do you think—”
But Vexx was already frowning, the excitement draining away. “One goblin? You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s far below my—”
The elf tugged on his sleeve and gave him a pleading look. “Don’t say that, Vexx! Sure, it’ll be easy, but…do it for me? Will you?”