Excerpt from The Jade Prophecy - Book 1

Excerpt from "The Jade Prophecy - Book 1" by Starling. Copyright and all rights reserved.

This is a small section from Part 2 of the first book in the series. I will be releasing this book some time soon so watch my account!

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Tamberlain had felt the sensation a hundred  times before, but he still shivered with pleasure as the water finally reached his skin after soaking through his inch thick fur. The wide  shallow lake he was wading through was as warm as any he had ever felt.  The sun was high in the sky and the water crystal clear. Rippling  patterns of sunlight danced on the rocks under the water's surface and  he could feel his claws clicking against the smooth cool stones under  foot as he walked. The going was slow as he was standing up to his chest  in the two-foot deep lake, even when on the very tips of his toes. He  took each step carefully, moving his long waterlogged tail from side to  side like a rudder in time with his strides so as not to loose his  balance on the shifting rocks and pebbles.

In the near distance, hidden by the thick forest encroaching around  the little oasis, he could hear the ever present roar of a waterfall.  It must have been a huge one, he thought. He couldn't see the cascade  through the dense foliage but the spray was carried in the wind high  overhead, filling the air with a glittering mist.

Ahead of him was a small island of sand, rising from the middle of  the lake. A large stone slab that might have been natural or perhaps  roughly shaped by tools sat at its middle. Just the place to sun myself  after a quick bath, he thought. It was such a beautiful day and he had  come across this idyllic spot at the perfect moment to take a break from  his travels and rest his weary body.

Tamberlain bent and splashed water over his short muzzle with  cupped paws. He felt the liquid beading and running down his face and  the fronts of his long white ears, errant drips tickling at the delicate  pink skin on the insides. He smoothed back the now wet fur of his  cheeks and the mop of hair on top of his head, revelling in the feeling  of grooming himself and just wishing he had someone there to do it for  him. That was a pleasure he deeply missed. Tamberlain made lazy sweeping  motions in the water with his arms and watched his reflection break up  and dance on the surface, the image intermixing with dazzling pinpoints  of sunlight. An odd feeling began to grow within him that he couldn't  place, nagging at the edge of his mind. He felt as if he had forgotten  something important. His shimmering reflection was now just a blurred  indistinct outline as the water moved in response to his paws, but he  suddenly found it absolutely fascinating. He was gripped by the impulse  to see himself clearly again there in that natural mirror. He held his  body to stillness, arms left outstretched and paws held loosely either  side of the slowly resolving image in the moving surface before him. 

The water took what he felt was an agonising age to calm its  shimmering and shifting. Finally the wobbling outline of his head  against the pale blue sky began to approach the clarity of a roughly  polished piece of metal, giving him details such as his huge eyes, ears  so long they reach to his hips, a wide fur covered head, the tip of a  pink tongue poking from his astonished gaping muzzle. Why should his own  reflection cause his heart to beat like this? It hammered in his chest  and a thrill of pure joy and excitement raced up his spine. 

But before the image could take on the clarity of the true mirror  that he found himself so desperately wishing for, it started its wild  dancing again as the water's surface was disturbed violently. Tamberlain  gave a guttural grunt of frustration. He was so sure he was holding  himself still enough so as not to make even a single ripple on the  water's surface. Damn it, he thought to himself, I have to see! 

Something made a loud splashing sound, not even a dozen meters  behind him. His wildly shimmering reflection broke into unrecognisable  pieces as the ripples became little waves. Something big had to be  moving to displace that much water, he thought. Even as he turned he  knew something was desperately wrong. The fur on the back of his neck  stood on end and some deeply buried primal instinct started to scream at  him; Run. RUN!

But realisation dawned too late. He managed only to stumble back a  couple of steps and raise his arms in a feeble attempt at protection as  he let out a panicked animal shriek. Even as the blinding suffocating  darkness consumed him, the last terrifying thing he saw hung in his  mind; long white fangs framing a hideous pink serpentine maw, opened  wide as the massive beast lunged at him through the water to claim its  helpless prey. 

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