I don’t think I’ve explained myself very well with regards to sharing my stories exclusively here on Steemit.
The stories I share – Deadlier Than The Male and The Dusty The Demon Hunter (and in future, Cruel and Unusual, and Blood on the Moon) are all published and for sale on Amazon, Smashwords, iTunes etc.
In the run-up to Halloween, I shared stories that were not yet published from my anthology. The set of short stories was published on Halloween, so Steemit had exclusive previews of everything in that anthology.
The stories, Daughters of Le Fay, Diamonds and Deviants and Finley Moran, Maelstrom Born are all works in progress which my publisher, Gingernut Books is waiting patiently for.
I serialise them and share them with Steemit because I want to. The publisher is a small, Indie company and are exceptionally flexible. My copyright is always mine and I’m ‘allowed’ to do what I like with my stories.
I enjoy and appreciate the replies to these posts, offering help with editing and just about everything related to the stories. PLEASE feel free to comment and offer opinions, you will NOT upset me. To be honest, if something is wrong, or even if it only FEELS wrong for the reader, I want to know so I can improve.
On occasion, I have offered places in my books to anyone who wanted their name ‘set in stone’ so to speak and wanted their names placed upon a character – either of their choosing or mine – some die horrible deaths, others heroic ones. Usually, what happens to the character is the choice of the person donating their name.
Having waffled enough for one post, here’s the story I guess you clicked to read.
Dusty The Demon Hunter 6
Six Tasks
A story in multiple parts - continued tomorrow
Walking towards Hunter’s home, Dusty had just crossed the farm track and could see his house. She smiled just at the thought of him. Hunter was becoming more than a friend and she realised that he felt the same way towards her. She grinned because she had to stop herself from taking a couple of skips as she walked.
Dusty saw Hunter emerge from the front door. She knew it was him because all his brothers were broader than he was; he was built for speed not comfort. That was his favourite saying when the comparison was made.
Hunter waved at her and she waved back. Again, she was tempted to change her gait and set off at a run but she couldn’t possibly do that, it would be far too geeky to run to him – wouldn’t it?
Dusty frowned. Hunter was running towards her. Something wasn’t right; he was still waving. Dusty forgot her fears about seeming geeky and she broke into a run, head down and full tilt towards him. She could hear what he was shouting too: “Dusty! RUN!”
She was tempted to take a look behind her but she saw the fear in Hunter’s face and she knew it would be a mistake, so she kept her head forward and ran as hard as she could to get herself away from the danger that she hadn’t seen yet. Suddenly the air around her shimmered and she skidded to a halt. She was cut off from the world. Dusty had been forced into another dimension where the air was hot and filled with foul-smelling dust and smoke particles. She realised that she was fortunate enough to be half demon; human lungs would have withered in the atmosphere. But she also realised that if she’d have been human, this would never have happened to her.
She looked around her and above. The iridescent barriers seemed to form walls and a ceiling. The floor was hard, like rock; it didn’t gleam and waver like the walls did but it was not the same ground that she had been running along a few moments ago.
She had to take note of her surroundings; she didn’t know where she was or who had brought her to this place.
The shimmering wall before her distorted as though something was making an attempt to get through and Dusty tensed in readiness for an attack. The wall bulged inward, as though it was made from an elastic material and then suddenly its fabric parted. A figure tumbled to the ground, the shimmering wall closing around him, reminding Dusty of the effect of surface tension of liquid. It was Hunter.
Dusty didn’t bend to help him up; instead, she guarded him as he shook his head to clear it and then got to his feet. Hunter saw Dusty’s defensive stance and nodded his approval, despite his dazed state. She was standing with her knees slightly bent, to give her a little bounce in her step if need be. Her fists weren’t clenched tight, they were held loose and flexible – ready to punch, slap or straight-finger jab with less than a second’s notice. Her elbows were close to her sides to protect her ribs and her eyes darted around, taking in everything.
As always, Dusty had her Unicorn rope with her and she unhitched it from her belt. She also had the sword that a good friend had given her for Christmas – she had been on her way over to Hunter’s house to show his father Osborn the gift because he had mentioned that he was interested in seeing it.
Having said that, even with the weapons she had to hand, Dusty was still exceptionally wary. Whoever or whatever had forced her into this other realm was obviously extremely powerful and Dusty wondered what the hell was going to happen next.
A sharp sizzle announced the arrival of something behind her. Hunter’s eyes grew wide but before he had time to shout a warning, Dusty had spun around toward the sound and placed the still-dazed Hunter behind her. She hadn’t heard it before, but she understood that the sound meant trouble for her and Hunter. She was dead right!
A hole had opened up in the shimmering ceiling and things were dropping out of it and landing on the ground. The creatures didn’t seem to realise what had happened to them, where they were or how they had got there. They were falling on top of one another, getting up, staggering around and lashing out at each other in their confusion. They didn’t seem able to see Dusty or Hunter, but both half demons were prepared for when they could.
“Goblins,” Hunter whispered from behind Dusty.
Dusty didn’t answer him; she stared straight ahead and waited.
Then Hunter gave a little cry of alarm. Dusty looked around to see what was wrong. She thought that perhaps another hole was beginning to appear, but she didn’t expect what she saw.
Hunter had been enclosed in a cage. It had appeared from nowhere. It was a little higher than he was tall and would perhaps give him enough room to lie down in if he lay from corner to corner. He reached out a tentative hand to the bars and was surprised when the touch of them didn’t cause any harm to his fingers.
The goblins were still falling from the ceiling but they had become aware of Dusty and Hunter. They were gathering at the invisible boundary of their own enclosure and they were hissing and snarling at Dusty and ignoring Hunter. It would seem that they had met her before.
Dusty waited.
The invisible boundary was suddenly removed and the goblins surged forward. Dusty had learned a lot about fighting with goblins. She dropped her Unicorn rope to the ground in a line before her and drew her sword. Hunter saw it glow but Dusty had her focus on other things. She held the sword above her head, pointing toward the mass of goblins that were lumbering forward, falling over each other in their eagerness to get at her.
The Unicorn rope worked a treat. If the creatures stepped on it, their claws were damaged and they were slowed down drastically. The goblins were too stupid to realise what was wrong and they continued pressing forward to take turns in stepping on the rope. Dusty backed off a little way so that she had room to move freely. The first ones got close enough to strike with her sword and she felt the power surge through the blade. She saw the electric blue glow as the blade took the lives of the goblins and as she had experienced before, they ‘plinked’ out of existence.
On Christmas Eve when she had first had the opportunity to use the sword, Dusty had had the impression that she could work for hours on end with it. It would seem that her theory was about to be put to the test. Goblins were streaming through the hole in the ceiling and coming onwards to do battle with her.
She sliced through their bodies in swathes and the sound of each goblin as it ceased to exist was like music to her ears. The sword sang, the goblins plinked and she could hear laughter. She thought at first that it was Hunter but she didn’t have time to look at him to see why he was laughing.
On one of her turns to ensure that the creatures weren’t sneaking up around her from behind, she caught sight of Hunter. His hands were clasped so tightly on the cage bars that his knuckles were white. His eyes were wide and staring, his mouth set in a grimace. He was not the one that was laughing.
“Can you hear that?” Dusty yelled to him. She hadn’t realised that she needed to yell, but the noise that the goblins were making made it necessary. She had been concentrating on listening to the sword-song and the tuneful plink of the dispatched goblins.
“The goblins screaming?” Hunter asked.
“No, someone’s laughing,” she said but then had to spin off and attack away from the cage and she didn’t hear whether Hunter replied or not.
Hunter noticed that the rate of the goblins falling from above had slowed to a trickle and almost stopped. Then the hole in the ceiling closed and the goblins that were left were doomed. With no more reinforcements to help them, Dusty’s task became easier and easier. The fewer there were to take on, the less fraught she became. The biting jaws and snatching claws became sparse and at last there was only one left and with a final swipe of her blue-bladed sword and one more ‘plink’, it too was gone.
Dusty expected that Hunter’s cage would be removed and she went to him, but it remained intact. She shook one of the bars with her free left hand but it was solid. Dusty retrieved her Unicorn rope and hitched it to her belt. The sword she kept in her hand; it felt comfortable there and she was benefitting from the energy it was giving her. She knew that if she hadn’t had the sword, she would have been too exhausted to fight the thousands of goblins that had come at her. She would have been overwhelmed in minutes and bitten to death, for once a goblin bites, it’s just a matter of time before the victim dies. It might take longer for a demon to die, but it still succumbs to the poison eventually.
Hunter’s fingers brushed hers through the bars. She turned to him and smiled. “How did you know I was in danger?” she asked him, remembering how he had rushed from his house to warn her.
“I saw the flickering behind you. It was like a heat haze in high summer, but it’s still cold enough for snow. It struck me as odd at first and then I realised that it was coming for you. I was terrified when it engulfed you and I just ran at the haze without thinking. I suppose I was lucky.”
Dusty nodded. “Yeah, I’d say you were very lucky. Not to mention stupid,” she said, but she smiled at him. “I’m so glad you did get through, I’m glad you’re here, even if it is just to watch.”
“It’s not my idea of a favourite spectator sport you know. It’s not great watching my girlfriend battling goblins and not being able to do anything to help.”
Dusty was surprised by his words. They hadn’t discussed the girlfriend/boyfriend thing officially and she smiled at him.
“Girlfriend, huh?”
Hunter grinned back at her but his expression changed as his attention was diverted to something behind her. She didn’t want to turn around to see what had made Hunter’s eyes and mouth open like they had, but she knew that she really must.
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