An Excerpt
The crystals of the cove gave off a steady, blue pulse. Along the rest of the cavern walls, splashes of blue and red danced about. Each span of color flirted with the next, creating a choreographed game of luminous cat and phosphor mouse along the craggy walls. Tiny fish darted throughout the water of the cave. Somewhere near Thym, a fish with a glowing antenna swam up. It gaped at the partially submerged boy, its eyes reminding the boy of the emptiness within Ulros’s. It swam close to him, passing inches away from his submerged nose before passing by. Another, smaller fish lazily drifted into the horrific fish’s mouth, causing a bright flash to pass along its side. The angler fish wriggled its body to get away from any potential predators it attracted with its flash. Thym brought his partially submerged head above the water just long enough to catch a breath and watch the angler get swallowed by an even brighter fish.
He dove down, allowing himself to come to an even level with a glowing eel. The slithering marine animal paid no notice to him, choosing to focus instead on the consumer of the angler. Thym turned around, coming face to face with a crab the size of him. It scuttled past him, waving a glowing claw in his face. The Voyager boy watched the crustacean scuttle over an even larger crab with a translucent shell. The larger crab raised itself and followed the smaller one, snapping at the disturbed sediment. Thym swam to the giant crab, wrapping his hands around the rocklike carapace. The crab just scuttled on, passing into a tiny tunnel in the side of the cove. Thym watched as the tunnel gave way to a brilliantly lit underwater cavern. He kicked off of the crab, easily making it to a small pocket of air in the tiny cavern.
The air tasted similar to honey and fruit, prompting the boy to allow himself to float in the subterranean cavern. He drifted with a tiny current, every now and then feeling a brush from a glowing crystal along his nose. He opened his eyes to come face to face with a distorted reflection of himself in a smooth rock. His long, shaggy hair billowed around him in the water, creating a halo of keratin. His eyes were hidden in the false dimness of the cavern, but the lines his father had worn around his mouth were starting to display themselves on the son’s face. Thym took a shallow breath and turned over in the water. He discerned several other tunnels leading out of this grotto, but only two of them contained crystal formations. Several glowing fish darted in and out of small, rocklike structures that grew all around the grotto. Some of these rock formations miraculously had seaweed and algae growing on them, giving way to a rich community of bottom feeders and herbivorous fish. One of the rocks moved, proving itself to be another massive crustacean, this time with two long tails and four massive claws. Thym took another breath before making his way to the other crystal lit passage.
He came across two air pockets, these provided by small cracks in the rock leading to a subtly glowing sky. Thym finally passed through the tunnel, coming out underneath one of the rocks in the main part of the cavern he was so fond of. He breached the surface and dragged himself onto his rock. He allowed himself to drip onto the blanket on his rock. The sky was a mixture between orange and grey, contrasting greatly with the steady blue from the crystals. The last glowing fish passed into one of the tunnels, leaving the cove with the dreary twilight. He wrapped the blanket around himself, attempting to wick the moisture away from himself.
Commentary
A Song of Solitude: A Prelude is the first and primary work of a large world and story I’m working on called The Compendium of Elkanash. The Compendium is my magnum opus. It’s been a part of my life since my senior year of high school and has grown from a Canterbury Tales-esque scene revolving around campfire stories to a world spanning scores of characters and many eras.
The Compendium, and particularly A Song of Solitude, have come to represent so much for me and it’s grown with me through all of my aspirations since its conception. It’s a world that’s filled me with more passion than I can express and it’s an experience I’m doing my best to bring to the world.
A Song of Solitude: A Prelude is the first publicly consumable entry and version of The Compendium of Elkanash, but my hope is that it isn’t the last. While I’m certain that I’ll update it in written form, my intent is to bring it to as many forms of media as I can, but primarily and especially to video games.
*Note: There was an error during the original publishing of this work. My first name is mispelled on the Amazon page, but it is in fact my work. That being said, though, A Song of Solitude: A Prelude can be purchased on Amazon or through Createspace’s store directly.