Title: Book One of the Chosen of Shannara
Authors: DracoStarbo ( dracostarbo@yahoo.com ) and Lunablue ( deadredsocks@yahoo.com )
Disclaimer: The Shannara universe belongs to Terry Brooks and affiliated companies.
Ratings: Pg-13
Warnings: This story contains language and ideas that can be found offensive.
Authors Notes: ~Important information to remember when reading this chapter!~ : Quan Am is a Vietnamese Goddess and Che dau xanh is a favorite Vietnamese desert of Deidre's.
As always, Loved something? Hated something? Let us know, by reading and reviewing. Or flaming. Or sending hate mail. We do except all forms of MasterCard, Visa and stalkers are generally appreciated.
Reviewers Response:
Fallen Iceangel: We know you like Eminem, so as a special treat *just for you* there'll be another song by him in the next chapter. That's all we can say, though. ^_^ It's going to be goooooood!
Chapter Three: Potatoes, Asparagus and Che dau xanh
* * * *
"Last one in is a rotten egg!" yelled Brinn Ohmsford to his cousins Lukc and Gok Ohmsford. Pulling off his shirt Brinn jumped off the boat in the sparkling blue waters of Rainbow River. In the cool depths, he swam down as far as possible, using his sport-built arms and legs, until his lungs begged for air. He swam up to the top and flipped his chestnut hair out of his face; the clear water caught the sun's raise and made a sparkling spray of colors that gave this lake its name.
"Brinn, you're going to scare away all the fish!" Brinn heard his cousin, Lukc, snap. To this, Brinn paid no heed and circled to the other side of the boat.
The anger in Lukc's voice was mostly forced. The day was so beautiful, even he couldn't easily get upset with his cousin's antics. In many ways, Brinn was like Jair Ohmsford, the brother of their ancestor that his cousin was named after. Jair was reckless, careless, and always looking for a good time, while his sister, Brinn, was much more mature. Of course, his cousin's name was spelled with two ns, because Uncle Coll thought it would be an insult to take her name.
//Or at least that's how the stories go,// Lukc mused, realizing how much everything seemed like a story to him. It could've been from all of the stories he told of his accentors and their adventures - from Shea to his own father and uncle, Par and Coll - as a way of caring on the family tradition.
Par and Coll had been telling the stories of the Shannara children for about two months in Varfleet; the first two of the Ohmsfords to leave the Shady Vale in a hundred years because of the Federation, which exclaimed that magic was forbidden. But then inn that they were working at burned down and they had to go on an quest given to them by Druid Allanon. They did return to Varfleet to find out that the inn was almost rebuilt, even better than before. However, the inn keeper of the time didn't really like it, saying that you can't go back. So Par and Coll worked for him to finish up the repairs and bought the inn from the keeper for a low price. From then on, the Ohmsfords have owned the new Blue Whisker Ale House, named in memory of the old one.
Lukc remembered the story of how his parents met and became husband and wife. Damson Rhee, a princess of a lost race, now Damson Ohmsford, his mother. She now help run the inn and a waitress, able to handle any drunkard who wants to see her in bed. Brinn helped remove the drunks when they got violent, taking after his father and mother's built. Brinn's mother, Lukc's aunt, was from Kern and came to Varfleet to make it out on her own. She met Coll while working for them at the Ale House and soon the two fell in love and had Brinn and Gok, Lukc's cousins. As the way it goes, it was Brinn who came first, then Lukc, and finally Gok. They all lived as one, big family in the second floor of the inn and sang the songs of Shannara to the travelers to keep the stories alive. Well, more like Lukc did. He was the one with the Wishsong of Dreams, the ability to make people see things in their minds that aren't really there.
With a sigh and a lazy turn of the head Lukc gazed over at his brother Gok who was sitting calmly, a fishing pole in one hand a leather bound book in the other. The only movement noticeable were his blue eyes, which were scanning rapidly back and forth, absorbing the story like dried dirt soaking up the seasons first rain.
"How is it, that no matter how hard this boat is shaking, the book in your hand never moves?"
Lifting his head up, Gok turned piercing blue eyes to his brother and smirked, "Talent."
"Why you little-"
Whatever he was about to say would never be finished, for at that very moment the slightly tanned and wet hand of one Brinn Ohmsford grabbed his shoulders and yanked him backwards, into the water. A huge splash soaked the boat and the waves rocked it harshly. The book was left completely dry, never moving from it's steady position. The smirk on Gok's face never wavered as he snuggled cozily into the boat, alone at last with his precious novel.
Laughter rang in the background as Lukc and Brinn splashed each other, care free and joyful as only the innocent can be.
It started off like a gnat buzzing near by, barely noticeable at first. But within seconds the noise had increased to a steady beat, growing louder and louder by the second.
Brinn and Lukc stopped their splashing and just waded in the water quietly, searching for the source of the sound, all of their senses on full alert. Gok lifted his head from the book and was staring intently at the shore his head cocked quizzically. With Gok to balance the boat, Brinn got in and then helped Lukc, for they all felt that being in the water at that moment was a bad idea.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
The beat was so deep they could feel it in their bones, their blood and heart were pulsing to it's rhythm. No words need the two cousins crawled back into the boat, dripping wet. The three Ohmsfords sat there like that, trying to figure out what was going on when Gok noticed something odd.
"Look, the animals don't seem to notice the drum noises at all."
And indeed, it did appear that no animal could hear the noise. The birds were still flying and chirping, the occasional fish could be seen swimming bye, and the deer drinking with her children on the shore was relaxed, ears laid back on her head at ease.
"It's getting louder. And faster." Whispered Brinn, feeling slightly blasphemous for speaking.
Louder and louder and quicker and quicker until one beat bled into the next and their hearts felt as if they might burst. Each boy was gasping to force air into deflated lungs, goose bumps prickle their skin. The beats got so intense that they bordered painful.
Then it stopped and their was silence.
The air still prickled their arms though.
"Um," Lukc said, dread feeling his heart. "We need to get to shore, now!"
As one he and Gok grabbed the oars and started towards the coast line while Brinn packed all their belongings together. Five minutes passed and they had reached the shore. Breathing harshly, not even bother to do more than beach the boat in shallow water, forgetting completely about their belongings, Brinn, Gok and Lukc jumped out of the wooden boat and started running back home. The swirling invisible wind that touched nothing but their arms and their insides growing stronger by the second. Not noticing until the last second, they barely managed from running into a group of four oddly dressed foreigners, about their age.
* * * *
"Oh," whispered a softly pitched voice, "My head."
That was the first thing Aiken heard regaining consciousness.
Strangely, his first thoughts were of Deidre's well being. "Deidre, are you ok?"
Hearing no response he opened his eyes to see a great blue sky. Forcing himself to sit up, he turned around and saw a fear full sight. Deidre was laying unconscious on the green ground, her skin pale and her lips an unnatural blue.
"Deidre!" he cried. Struggling up into a sitting position another wave of dizziness hit him and he fell back down, dizzy.
"Don't worry, she's alive and her heartbeat is steady," Jez's voice washed over his ears like water, cool and soothing.
A sudden scream rips through the air. "Fear the potatoes!"
Memial has jumped up and is looking at the surroundings frantically, gasping for air, her coffee colored hair flying everywhere. "Potatoes. . . attacking. . . potatoes. . . . . . where are the potatoes?!"
Placing his hand on the grass for support, Aiken pushes himself upwards, into a standing position, the dizziness slowly spinning away. "Attacking the mushroom people. Don't worry, the mushroom people are allied with the asparagus. There's no way the potatoes will win."
"Oh, thank goodness, for a moment there I thought . . . heyyyyy!!" Memial exclaims when it dawns on her that Aiken might have been being sarcastic. Maybe.
Memial gasped when she finally noticed Deidre laying there on the ground while Aiken held her hand, worry etching new lines on his face.
"Deidre?"
[i] "Quan am, that's the last time I have a Che dau xanh before dinner," Deidre mumbled.
The Vietnamese which she mixed into her English sounded like a child's gibberish, leaving everyone feeling confused. Was Deidre ok in the head?
Slowly her eyes opened and focused on a group of boys standing behind her companions, looking slightly startled.
"Who are you?" she asked.
The swirling energies in the air exploded in a roar knocking everyone standing to the ground. Aiken threw himself over Deidre, Memial fell to the ground with a startled curse. Brinn, Lukc and Gok fell on their asses with shocked looks on their faces. Jez landed on her knees, no words escaped her lips.
Powerful winds ripped through the air, while black clouds raced across the blue sky, covering up the sun and setting a circle of midnight above their heads four miles in diameter. In the distance the blue sky and sunlight could still be seen, like the mirage of an oasis in the middle of the desert.
Out of the clouds horrible creatures of green descended to the earth like fallen angels. They were nine feet of height, looking down upon the humans with bead-like, black eyes that shined with a cold red-blood tint. Their bodies, all alike, seemed to be strung together with sticks and yarn and muscles patted thinly on top. On the closest one, a slit for a mouth, opened to show a gruesome set of crookedly sharp teeth and two holds where the nose was suppose to be flared from pin point to nail-head size.
"Hey, aren't those the same creatures that were with that green fog?" Deidre asked, still groggy with sleep and a headache to match.
Aiken tried to move his hands to block her view, but he was so over come with shock and fear, that his body didn't respond other than to squeeze the words out, "Oh, shit."
____________________________________________________________________________ __
[ii] Quan am is properly pronounced Wang am. Che dau xanh is properly pronounced dey-EH Dow-U san
Keep in mind that Vietnamese is a very hard language to speak unless you've been doing it sense you're little - I think, anyway. The friend, who Deidre is based upon, tried to help me understand it, but after twenty minutes of yelling and wishing to bang my head on the desk, we came to what you see above. There's accents - a lot - in Vietnamese, so to simplify it, the capital letters you say a little higher pitched than the others. I'm keeping it at that! -----------------------
Special thanks to our reviewer's:
Fallen IceAngel :
Authors: DracoStarbo ( dracostarbo@yahoo.com ) and Lunablue ( deadredsocks@yahoo.com )
Disclaimer: The Shannara universe belongs to Terry Brooks and affiliated companies.
Ratings: Pg-13
Warnings: This story contains language and ideas that can be found offensive.
Authors Notes: ~Important information to remember when reading this chapter!~ : Quan Am is a Vietnamese Goddess and Che dau xanh is a favorite Vietnamese desert of Deidre's.
As always, Loved something? Hated something? Let us know, by reading and reviewing. Or flaming. Or sending hate mail. We do except all forms of MasterCard, Visa and stalkers are generally appreciated.
Reviewers Response:
Fallen Iceangel: We know you like Eminem, so as a special treat *just for you* there'll be another song by him in the next chapter. That's all we can say, though. ^_^ It's going to be goooooood!
Chapter Three: Potatoes, Asparagus and Che dau xanh
* * * *
"Last one in is a rotten egg!" yelled Brinn Ohmsford to his cousins Lukc and Gok Ohmsford. Pulling off his shirt Brinn jumped off the boat in the sparkling blue waters of Rainbow River. In the cool depths, he swam down as far as possible, using his sport-built arms and legs, until his lungs begged for air. He swam up to the top and flipped his chestnut hair out of his face; the clear water caught the sun's raise and made a sparkling spray of colors that gave this lake its name.
"Brinn, you're going to scare away all the fish!" Brinn heard his cousin, Lukc, snap. To this, Brinn paid no heed and circled to the other side of the boat.
The anger in Lukc's voice was mostly forced. The day was so beautiful, even he couldn't easily get upset with his cousin's antics. In many ways, Brinn was like Jair Ohmsford, the brother of their ancestor that his cousin was named after. Jair was reckless, careless, and always looking for a good time, while his sister, Brinn, was much more mature. Of course, his cousin's name was spelled with two ns, because Uncle Coll thought it would be an insult to take her name.
//Or at least that's how the stories go,// Lukc mused, realizing how much everything seemed like a story to him. It could've been from all of the stories he told of his accentors and their adventures - from Shea to his own father and uncle, Par and Coll - as a way of caring on the family tradition.
Par and Coll had been telling the stories of the Shannara children for about two months in Varfleet; the first two of the Ohmsfords to leave the Shady Vale in a hundred years because of the Federation, which exclaimed that magic was forbidden. But then inn that they were working at burned down and they had to go on an quest given to them by Druid Allanon. They did return to Varfleet to find out that the inn was almost rebuilt, even better than before. However, the inn keeper of the time didn't really like it, saying that you can't go back. So Par and Coll worked for him to finish up the repairs and bought the inn from the keeper for a low price. From then on, the Ohmsfords have owned the new Blue Whisker Ale House, named in memory of the old one.
Lukc remembered the story of how his parents met and became husband and wife. Damson Rhee, a princess of a lost race, now Damson Ohmsford, his mother. She now help run the inn and a waitress, able to handle any drunkard who wants to see her in bed. Brinn helped remove the drunks when they got violent, taking after his father and mother's built. Brinn's mother, Lukc's aunt, was from Kern and came to Varfleet to make it out on her own. She met Coll while working for them at the Ale House and soon the two fell in love and had Brinn and Gok, Lukc's cousins. As the way it goes, it was Brinn who came first, then Lukc, and finally Gok. They all lived as one, big family in the second floor of the inn and sang the songs of Shannara to the travelers to keep the stories alive. Well, more like Lukc did. He was the one with the Wishsong of Dreams, the ability to make people see things in their minds that aren't really there.
With a sigh and a lazy turn of the head Lukc gazed over at his brother Gok who was sitting calmly, a fishing pole in one hand a leather bound book in the other. The only movement noticeable were his blue eyes, which were scanning rapidly back and forth, absorbing the story like dried dirt soaking up the seasons first rain.
"How is it, that no matter how hard this boat is shaking, the book in your hand never moves?"
Lifting his head up, Gok turned piercing blue eyes to his brother and smirked, "Talent."
"Why you little-"
Whatever he was about to say would never be finished, for at that very moment the slightly tanned and wet hand of one Brinn Ohmsford grabbed his shoulders and yanked him backwards, into the water. A huge splash soaked the boat and the waves rocked it harshly. The book was left completely dry, never moving from it's steady position. The smirk on Gok's face never wavered as he snuggled cozily into the boat, alone at last with his precious novel.
Laughter rang in the background as Lukc and Brinn splashed each other, care free and joyful as only the innocent can be.
It started off like a gnat buzzing near by, barely noticeable at first. But within seconds the noise had increased to a steady beat, growing louder and louder by the second.
Brinn and Lukc stopped their splashing and just waded in the water quietly, searching for the source of the sound, all of their senses on full alert. Gok lifted his head from the book and was staring intently at the shore his head cocked quizzically. With Gok to balance the boat, Brinn got in and then helped Lukc, for they all felt that being in the water at that moment was a bad idea.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
The beat was so deep they could feel it in their bones, their blood and heart were pulsing to it's rhythm. No words need the two cousins crawled back into the boat, dripping wet. The three Ohmsfords sat there like that, trying to figure out what was going on when Gok noticed something odd.
"Look, the animals don't seem to notice the drum noises at all."
And indeed, it did appear that no animal could hear the noise. The birds were still flying and chirping, the occasional fish could be seen swimming bye, and the deer drinking with her children on the shore was relaxed, ears laid back on her head at ease.
"It's getting louder. And faster." Whispered Brinn, feeling slightly blasphemous for speaking.
Louder and louder and quicker and quicker until one beat bled into the next and their hearts felt as if they might burst. Each boy was gasping to force air into deflated lungs, goose bumps prickle their skin. The beats got so intense that they bordered painful.
Then it stopped and their was silence.
The air still prickled their arms though.
"Um," Lukc said, dread feeling his heart. "We need to get to shore, now!"
As one he and Gok grabbed the oars and started towards the coast line while Brinn packed all their belongings together. Five minutes passed and they had reached the shore. Breathing harshly, not even bother to do more than beach the boat in shallow water, forgetting completely about their belongings, Brinn, Gok and Lukc jumped out of the wooden boat and started running back home. The swirling invisible wind that touched nothing but their arms and their insides growing stronger by the second. Not noticing until the last second, they barely managed from running into a group of four oddly dressed foreigners, about their age.
* * * *
"Oh," whispered a softly pitched voice, "My head."
That was the first thing Aiken heard regaining consciousness.
Strangely, his first thoughts were of Deidre's well being. "Deidre, are you ok?"
Hearing no response he opened his eyes to see a great blue sky. Forcing himself to sit up, he turned around and saw a fear full sight. Deidre was laying unconscious on the green ground, her skin pale and her lips an unnatural blue.
"Deidre!" he cried. Struggling up into a sitting position another wave of dizziness hit him and he fell back down, dizzy.
"Don't worry, she's alive and her heartbeat is steady," Jez's voice washed over his ears like water, cool and soothing.
A sudden scream rips through the air. "Fear the potatoes!"
Memial has jumped up and is looking at the surroundings frantically, gasping for air, her coffee colored hair flying everywhere. "Potatoes. . . attacking. . . potatoes. . . . . . where are the potatoes?!"
Placing his hand on the grass for support, Aiken pushes himself upwards, into a standing position, the dizziness slowly spinning away. "Attacking the mushroom people. Don't worry, the mushroom people are allied with the asparagus. There's no way the potatoes will win."
"Oh, thank goodness, for a moment there I thought . . . heyyyyy!!" Memial exclaims when it dawns on her that Aiken might have been being sarcastic. Maybe.
Memial gasped when she finally noticed Deidre laying there on the ground while Aiken held her hand, worry etching new lines on his face.
"Deidre?"
[i] "Quan am, that's the last time I have a Che dau xanh before dinner," Deidre mumbled.
The Vietnamese which she mixed into her English sounded like a child's gibberish, leaving everyone feeling confused. Was Deidre ok in the head?
Slowly her eyes opened and focused on a group of boys standing behind her companions, looking slightly startled.
"Who are you?" she asked.
The swirling energies in the air exploded in a roar knocking everyone standing to the ground. Aiken threw himself over Deidre, Memial fell to the ground with a startled curse. Brinn, Lukc and Gok fell on their asses with shocked looks on their faces. Jez landed on her knees, no words escaped her lips.
Powerful winds ripped through the air, while black clouds raced across the blue sky, covering up the sun and setting a circle of midnight above their heads four miles in diameter. In the distance the blue sky and sunlight could still be seen, like the mirage of an oasis in the middle of the desert.
Out of the clouds horrible creatures of green descended to the earth like fallen angels. They were nine feet of height, looking down upon the humans with bead-like, black eyes that shined with a cold red-blood tint. Their bodies, all alike, seemed to be strung together with sticks and yarn and muscles patted thinly on top. On the closest one, a slit for a mouth, opened to show a gruesome set of crookedly sharp teeth and two holds where the nose was suppose to be flared from pin point to nail-head size.
"Hey, aren't those the same creatures that were with that green fog?" Deidre asked, still groggy with sleep and a headache to match.
Aiken tried to move his hands to block her view, but he was so over come with shock and fear, that his body didn't respond other than to squeeze the words out, "Oh, shit."
____________________________________________________________________________ __
[ii] Quan am is properly pronounced Wang am. Che dau xanh is properly pronounced dey-EH Dow-U san
Keep in mind that Vietnamese is a very hard language to speak unless you've been doing it sense you're little - I think, anyway. The friend, who Deidre is based upon, tried to help me understand it, but after twenty minutes of yelling and wishing to bang my head on the desk, we came to what you see above. There's accents - a lot - in Vietnamese, so to simplify it, the capital letters you say a little higher pitched than the others. I'm keeping it at that! -----------------------
Special thanks to our reviewer's:
Fallen IceAngel :