Chs 10 and 11: Samantha is under attack by randomness!

Chapter 10: The Triad

So Sam and Captain Tithers end up in a cave with a waterfall at the end. Malachi squawks a few words ("Re-tractum!" "Con-structum!") and the waterfall stops and spawns a bridge from the cave to a shore at the other end.

Once they reach the other end, they reach a tropical paradise, but

the colors were strangely different from the colors they had seen on Bimini. White sands were now black sands. Shiny and gleaming like onyx or thousands of tiny black diamonds. Palm trees had golden fronds. Red hibiscus were now crystalline, clear, diamond-like. Sunny skies were white with baby blue puffs of clouds.

I have a hard time picturing what that looks like, but the description makes me think of a simplistic video game hack where the hacker just messed with a few colors rather than creating any new graphics. White sky with blue clouds? See-through plants? It could be beautiful, or hell on the eyes and brain. I'd love to see someone draw a picture of this. (Maybe I should commission someone on DA, like I did with the illustrations to my The Adventures of Archie Reynolds riffing.)

Samantha then meets the Knights of the Old Order, ten boys dressed in natural brown leather pants and vests. They're sitting on their kallions, which are, well,

Kallions may have had the grace and agility of a gazelle, but they were as strong and muscled as a horse. Each one of these magical creatures had its own unique markings. Cheetah spots or cow spots. Tiger stripes or zebra stripes. One was black with a white stripe down its back like a skunk. Another was marked like a giraffe.

They had two horns that curled back around their ears like a ram’s. Great for battle battering. But when they were really angry, kallions could straighten their horns out, making the creatures look a little like two-horned unicorns. When they were angry, they could also fly, hover, and dart much like willawogs.

So... athletic horses with ram horns that can fly when they get angry, and sometimes have zebra and skunk and giraffe spots. I get it.

Arstaef, a proud warrior ten-year-old boy, gets off his kallion, greets Samantha while hiccuping, and kisses her hand. Aerynon is truly a strange land indeed.

Samantha and Arstaef look into each other's eyes and smile. Romance!

Ten-year-old Thelwyne gets off her horse. We're told that she's a prodigy, a seer, a prophet, and wise beyond her years. She also kisses Sam's hand. She tells Samantha that the Triad is finally complete with her now joining the other two kids. And that's where our chapter title comes from.

The two ten-year-olds are shown to be clearly in charge, despite being the youngest of the Knights. A kallion walks up beside Samantha, and Captain Tithers helps her mount it.

Tithers says he's staying behind, and despite having known him for like a day or two, Samantha argues that he should come because "you're the only one I know. You brought me here." Tithers instead sends Malachi the parrot to her, and the Knights+Samantha take off.

Poor little Sam's face was a study in confusion. By now, she was about as mixed up as a pot of jambalaya.

Oh narrator...

Chapter 11: Aldur

Sam and the Knights of the Old Order travel along a jungle path, when suddenly, twenty hissing serpents drop simultaneously from the branches above them. Serpents with poisonous fangs. I call hax!

To fight the serpents, some Knights made a fist with their fingers toward the ground releasing laser swords from a weapon they wore on their wrists called the Kylanthian Cuff. But these were not simple light sabers. These lights could bend, curve, form a circle like a lasso, or even a coil. The swords moved, curled, and danced according to the will and the skill of the warrior.

Others made a fist, palm side up, and pulsated their knuckles down, shooting laser bullets from the same device.

What.

So we now have a book that's about ten-year-olds who ride super-athletic horses with spots that fly when they get angry, and are armed with lightsaber-esque swords and guns. In a world that looks just like ours but with weird colors.

Malachi joins the fight by pecking at the serpents' eyes. Thelwyne pulls Sam aside and gives her a dagger with emeralds on the handle and explains to her that this Dagger of Balador kills in one hit. And it's Samantha's birthright, so she'd better use it, but be careful.

Two serpents head for Sam, but they're quickly beheaded by Arstaef and Thelwyne.

Malachi circled above Sam’s head and pecked at any serpent that came close to her as Sam held her dagger awkwardly, occasionally swiping with it and hitting nothing.

Well, Sam just entered this world, and she sucks at using her One-Hit Wonder dagger.

A snake wrapped around a Knight, lifted him from the ground, and crushed him. His dying screams reverberated through the jungle.

How old are these Knights again? We only know that the youngest are ten. So now we have Infant Immortality averted in a brutal way!

We get more details of the fighting against the serpents, but really, there's not much for me to describe or quote here. Except this:

Then laser bullets flew in from the direction of an enormous tree those of the Old Order call Aldur. From high up in the branches, wave after wave of these bullets showered down on the serpents.

Laser bullet shooting tree! Okay, obviously people live there who are shooting bullets at the serpents. It isn't too long before the serpents are killed both by the Knights and the bullets shooting at them from a distance.

The bark covering the secret door to the massive tree is moved aside, and the Knights head to the door. The door opens, and we meet Isolde, acting queen of the Old Order. She's about thirty years old, proving that kids don't run everything in this world. But she apparently has no problem sending elementary school-aged warriors into battle, knowing some of them will be killed.

“The child?” she asked. “Where is the child?

You mean the children you sent out to fight poisonous snakes?

Of course she means Samantha. The Knights move aside to reveal Samantha, and Isolde does what everyone in this world does, and kisses Samantha's hand. Isolde reveals that she is Samantha's aunt.

The sound of kallion hooves can be heard in the distance just then, and everyone rushes inside the tree. The door closes, and the bark arises to cover the entrance.

Honestly, this is creating vivid pictures in my head. Now I really want to commission artists to illustrate this story. Anyone else agree?

Moments later, five of the Orcus and two Mordantaurs galloped by on red kallions. The Orci were old, muscle-bound, short, stout, hairy, and clad in red leather – not unlike trolls. Among them were three you will meet later: Krell, Dain, and Tasmin.

Narrator, you and your overt Foreshadowing. So not subtle, you are.

And thus begins Samantha's adventure in the World of Randomness.