by James Hammell

Created on: November 05, 2009

Here are the first two chapters of my children's fantasy novelette: Tanner and Emilia....Into the Darkness

Chapter 1 .... DARKNESS

The ancient wrinkled Storyteller sat beneath the sprawling branches of a huge tree, in a grove of giant orange-capped mushrooms; puffing on a curved long stemmed pipe. In the swirling grey smoke that spiraled upwards from the ancient pipe; two snarling dinosaurs magically appeared; fighting a fierce battle to the death. Clawing and biting with razor sharp talons and teeth, the wispy smoke images battled furiously until they finally faded into the darkness of the dense twisted branches above.

Tanner awoke to the thunderous sound of large flapping wings, at least he thought he was awake; it was dark, in fact it was beyond dark, it was the darkest it had ever been. There was only silence; the flurry of great wings was gone. "What a dream", he thought, though he knew it wasn't really a dream but a preview of things that were about to happen.

It was so dark he couldn't even see the foot of his bed, but his senses were keen, he knew where every misplaced toy was situated. His Star Wars Millennium Falcon, Darth Vader action figure and the storm troopers too, every piece of Lego he hadn't put away as his mom had asked. It was like a minefield on the floor with his toys strewn everywhere.

"Just like Luke Skywalker, the force is with me"; he whispered to himself. The blackness didn't scare him nor did the dark man standing out in the yard staring at his window; waiting. He was just a silhouette, a black figure against a blacker background, but there was something familiar and comforting about him.

Ten kilometers or so away; Emilia stood up in her crib; looking through her window into the darkness. "Tanner will be here soon;" she thought, in the language of the innocent, because she was only nine months old and had not yet learnt the English that the biggers spoke. The silly language with words that sounded the same but were different; like weather and whether and weight and wait. And the biggers wonder why she is so reluctant to say mommy and daddy and such. Tanner was a bigger too, they say he is seven and he speaks the language of nonsense but he still remembers bits and pieces of the language of the innocent as well.

Tanner got out of bed and put his warm winter coat on, he already had on his warmest pants and sweater; he was prepared for the journey. He quietly maneuvered through the mess of toys on the floor without disturbing any of

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