Trials of Tartarus

Prequel @AirieLeva

Prequel

Mutt’s POV

The soul purpose of Tartarus is to destroy any humanity that is left inside someone at a given time. It happens slowly, never right away. It tears a hole inside of you, until you barely remember anything from your life before.

Until all you want to do is lay down and die. Some people succumb to that feeling. Others avoid it by killing themselves before it ever sets in. Sometimes people last longer than anyone thinks they will.

Because they hold onto the anger. Anger to whoever threw them down here.. I respected that. It kept them alive, for as long as it could. It gave them the strength they needed to survive. That is, until that anger drives them to madness.

I knew my odds, I knew that there was little chance that I could survive this. I wasn’t angry. I wasn’t scared. I already knew how this journey ended. I already knew what my fate would bring. I was okay with that.

Besides, into Tartarus I had brought with me the one person that could help me through anything. The love of my life, and soon to be wife, Moon Dragon. Of course, she wasn’t physically here with me. I would never let her do that. But she was with me in spirit.

I didn’t know how exactly, but the love she had for me, I felt it coursing through my veins. I felt it wrap around my heart, protecting it. I felt her love, because it was my own.

It was her love that made me stand up, her love that gave me the strength to meet the Trial Lord’s eyes and accept the challenge.

It was her love that I remembered when the world went dark.

It was her love that kept me alive.

Even though she was nowhere near me, she was never too far away.

𝌀

As the world faded away into darkness and I let myself be consumed by sleep I felt the floor beneath me open. And I knew, without a doubt, that the trials had begun.

𝌀

I was met with bright lights when I finally opened my eyes. I was laying on my back, on a table of some sort. It was definitely not comfortable. Groaning I swing my legs over, it felt like I had been hit with a truck.

I blink my eyes until the spots clear, and when they finally do I see a girl sitting across the room. She was in a chair, her back to me. But her blonde hair was unmistakable.

“Moon?” I whisper.

Fear coursed through me. No, no, no, I kept thinking. She can’t be here. That means I failed. Oh gods, what did I do.

She stands and turns, smiling at me, “Is that who you see when you look at me?”

“What?” I demand. “Are you not Moon?”

“No, I am a shapeshifter,” she says. “My name is Caltaya. I am here to help you in the trials. I appear to you as the person that you love the most. The person that holds your heart. For you, that seems to be your wife.”

“Fiance,” I correct her.

She regards me with a tilted head, “Please Matt, we both know that you two get married. There’s no denying true love.”

“Call me Mutt,” I say, blinking.

“Whatever you say, Mutt,” Caltaya says.

“Do you have a regular appearance? Not a different person, but like, who you really are? Please? Seeing Moon, it’s, it’s great, but,” I start, not knowing how to finish.

“It makes you think you failed,” she says with a nod.

She closes her eyes, and it was almost like a bucket of paint was dropped on her. Starting at the roots her hair turned silver, with one strip of blue and one of purple framing her face. It also curled slightly so now it was more of waves instead of straight. When she opened her eyes the ring of gold around her pupil expands, swallowing the blue. Until her eyes were gold with an inner ring of purple.

“I am Caltaya, and I am here to make sure you make it out of these trials alive,” she says, inclining her head towards me.

Author's Note

If you are just reading this book just because, please read The Forgotten Battle first. It will make more sense if you do. It is on the Author's page. @AirieLeva

Reviews

[JayG]

Just a heads up: Every book, even those in a series, must stand on their own. You may include a synopsis of what has gone before, but if you have any hope of seeing publication, that's a rule you cannot break.

[AirieLeva]

Thanks for the advice, but I'm pretty positive that this book stands out from the others in the series perfectly fine. It's certainly not the best thing ever written and since we're still kids and this is a rough draft of the actual book, we're not too worried about where it stands in views of publications so long as someone enjoys the story.

[JayG]

Okay, since you are, as you say, still kids, I looked at the other stories you have posted, and have an observation or two on things not obvious about writing that might help.

1. All professions are learned in addition to the skills we're given in school, INCLUDING the skills of writing fiction.

2. The writing skills we're given in school are meant to make us proficient in writing reports and essays, so as to be useful to future employers. In other words, we learn nonfiction skills, meant to inform the reader. As such you, the narrator, talk to the reader.

But fiction is meant to entertain the reader by making them feel as if they're living the story in real time. So no matter how well you use the writing skills you're given in school the result will read like a report.

And trying to transcribe yourself telling the story aloud can't work because verbal storytelling is a performance art, where how you tell the story—your performance—matters as much as what you say, because the performance is what carries the emotional content. So a reader who can hear no emotion in the narratror's voice, and see none of your facial expressions, gestures, and body-language will get what you'll hear if you have the computer read the story aloud (always a good idea because as you read you know what emotion to place in the words. The reader has only what those words suggest to them, based on their experience, not your intent).

3. Since you began reading for yourself, you've been reading, almost exclusively, professionally written and prepared fiction. It's what you, and those who will read your work, expect from any fiction. And since the writing techniques you currently own are not going to accomplish what you need them to, it stands to reason that a bit of time spent acquiring your fiction-writers education makes a lot of sense.

After all, you can't fix the problem you don't see as being a problem, or use the tool you don't know exists. Given that you're working hard on your stories, a bit of time spent browsing the fiction-writing section of the local library (but not a school library) would be time well spent. And picking up a personal copy of Debra Dixon's, GMC: Goal Motivation & Conflict, would give you the nuts and bolts of writing a scene that sings to the reader.

And for what it might be worth, the articles in my writing blog are meant to give an overview of the issues to the hopeful writer.

Hang in there, and keep on writing.

Jay Greenstein
https://jaygreenstein.wordpress.com/category/the-craft-of-writing/

[Davidgeo]

Don't worry too much about what this guy has to say. He's really only here to talk down to people in long convoluted bullshit rants for the sake of his own thin skinned ego. And don't take guidance from him in terms of publishing, he's only ever self published (i.e. payed to pretend like he's an author) which if my cat had enough money could do in exactly the same way. It's pretty obvious his only real goal in this particular thread is to get you to check out his dumb assed blog which has the same info as a Wikipedia page. Write as you write in your own style, find your own way and do your own thing for your own reasons... don't listen to shallow hacks with too much time on their hands like this d********g. He's not here to help you, he's here to feel "special" by pretending to be more than he actually is. It's actually kind of sad and if I was a better man I would pity him instead of expose him... but I'm not so... there you have it.

[AirieLeva]

Thank you, and I'm not too worried, I think I've mostly made that observation for myself. I think that your cat might be more helpful on criticism as well. Well he should count me out 'cause the only blogs I check are the ones by people I actually like. I will continue to write in my own style, because I feel as though the only writing that people actually read are the ones that aren't the same as everyone else's. To be quite honest, if I thought or wanted that much help with my writing I would ask my sister. I'd get the same length of criticism, but something in there would actually help me. Thank you very much to the advice, I do intend to keep writing the way I write. Once upon a time I might've felt pity for him too, but not anymore. Anyway, thank you soooooo much for it all!!