Excerpt from chapter 1 of Tiger Eyes and Dragon Teeth, my first epic fantasy novel
Chapter One—Who am I? Light. Glorious, blue prisms of light sparkled off every leaf and branch. Thick, powdery sap burbled slowly inside the crystalline tree. The Great Sapphire Tree of Jaria was one of only a few hundred sapphire trees that were still known to exist. Its leaves were hard and thick as sapphires, its branches like iron bars. Such trees were rare, most having been harvested long ago. I brushed the leaves with the tips of my fingers as I passed the tree, and stooped to get to the cave behind it. I hadn’t made the climb to see the tree, rather to get at the cave and a likely source of milk bulb. I leaned down with a lamp, sniffed the air and listened. A soft scuffling noise reached my ears. Heart thumping, I touched the hilt of my knife, sheathed at my belt. ‘Who’s there?’ I asked. A faint growling rumbled off the wall of the cave. It was too deep and throaty to be a treelion. I guessed it was something more like a rock panther or maybe even an icetiger. I tried to keep my...