Monday, June 25, 2012

A chapter for Review.

What's new today...

They are relatively short chapters so they won't take long to read.

Here is Chapter 1 from 'Mayan Prophecies'

MAYAN PROPHECIES

(Inescapable Collision)

by

Richard P. Canhan
    

Copyright 2011 by Richard Canhan
IBSN: 978-1-4628-5077-8
Xlibris Corporation 

                                                    Chapter 1

                                                   
The rain that fell in the valley was comparatively light compared to the torrential downpour that fell on the high ground above where the man sat. He was still sitting where he had fallen a few short hours earlier, hungry, thirsty and too exhausted to move. He saw flashes of lightning in the distance and held out his swollen tongue to catch the light rain as it fell, the light rain temporarily cooled his sunburnt face. During the night he slept little, whilst the sleep he got was plagued with visions of being buried alive and he was soon jolted awake with fright, it was then that he first heard a distant rumble from up the ravine. Perhaps just thunder or another aftershock maybe, he thought. He drifted off to sleep again, but the rumbling sound filled his tormented dreams once more. Later he sat bolt upright, wide awake, unsure what had actually woken him and the ground beneath him seemed to vibrate. It was deathly quiet as he looked up at the night sky where the moon tried hard to break through the clouds. The light rain again peppered his eyes and stung his sunburnt face.

Too scared to sleep, but too tired to stay awake he heard that strange rumbling sound in the distance again, although it was louder this time he again dismissed it as thunder. Then something else he heard from up the valley caused him to sit up, he strained his ears. He thought it sounded like snapping tree branches, but there was more to it, it grew louder and louder until finally it filled his ears and mind with a total rush of confusion. It was only at the last second, he jumped to his feet when he realised what it could only be.  

He was standing in the centre of the darkened ravine when the wall of water and debris came around the bend, the rolling crest of the water was illuminated by the moon light that had suddenly burst through the clouds. The flash flood stretched the full width of the ravine and over half way up each side. He stood there in his heavy mining boots frozen to the spot, his feet refused to move, his eyes bulged at the enormity of the water and debris that appeared to tower over him. It was twenty or thirty metres from him and coming fast. A last second scramble up the wall of the sandy ravine was almost a futile attempt and with every step he took he felt he’d slid back two, though it was enough to save him from being hit with the initial force of water and the debris that rode the surge. Even with his bandaged hands he grasped onto a tree root on the edge of the ravine, it was pliable and as strong as a rope, although he doubted his own strength could match it. Within seconds he was washed downstream like driftwood in a storm.  

His almost unrecognisable head bobbed up and down with all the flotsam that the flood had collected; he managed to grab hold of a log and was carried downstream. He fought to stay above the waterline as the log jockeyed along the surge for an quite a distance before the flood dropped five metres as it emptied into a much larger raging river that swirled and boiled its way further down the valley. The man managed to stay on the log longer than he thought he could with the help of a branch that stood upright like a mast on a ship. His makeshift raft sudden hit an underwater obstacle and tipped and swayed and he was no longer able to maintain a grip on the log. He was thrown violently into the murky water and the small sword he had kept now bit deep into the flesh at his waist.

The water swirled and engulfed him as he was sucked down and along the river. He was not even sure which way was up and his heavy boots felt like lead weights, he clawed his way upwards and kicked with his legs and burst through the surface to gasp a lungful of air only to be dragged under once more. He bounced around underwater from rock to rock and just as it felt like his head was going to explode he again lunged for the surface, but was soon sucked under just as quickly. Another attempt was made and again he broke the surface to suck in a lungful of water and air although this time he was not dragged back under, but pulled up short by something around his neck and one arm. Water now exploded over his head and his ears were full of water, he coughed and spluttered as he was dragged backwards through the water towards the shallows. To his surprise and amazement, strong hands grabbed him by his shoulders and dragged him onto dry land. Through foggy vision he saw strange faces peering at him and he heard muffled voices as someone spoke to him in unrecognizable tones that seemed distant. He coughed and spluttered after his near drowning, vomiting a vast amount of murky river water onto the ground. Exhaustion finally took control and he passed out.



The woman had been sitting on a rock just watching the swirling river, she had grown tired of accompanying her brother on another of his forays into the wilderness, when she thought she spotted something in the river but it disappeared. She stood up and saw it again and indicated it to her brother; he immediately grabbed a rope and raced along the river’s edge. She called out to him that it looked like a man but then it was gone. The brother knew the river snaked around the bend so he raced up over the ridge in time to see the drowning man’s head bob up a few times. He timed his rope throw to coincide when he thought the head would reappear, his first throw missed and he cursed. The second throw found its mark and caught the man around his head and one arm, he knew he would have to work fast or the man would drown. The man’s sister hauled on the rope also and together they pulled the stranger in like a giant fish. He coughed and spluttered, and vomited the murky water out as he gasped for air. The stranger lay on the shore, his chest rose and fell heavily with each breath; they turned him over to look at his face.

‘Who is he?’ asked the inquisitive girl.

‘I don’t know, but it looks like he’s been out in the bush for awhile and I guess he’ll tell us soon enough,’ the brother answered as he relieved the stranger of his short sword. ‘And I’ll hold onto this for awhile I think.’ He continued.

They both asked him a barrage of questions, questions the stranger either did not understand or was unable to hear. The questions stopped when the stranger passed out.

‘What’ll we do with him now? The girl asked.

‘We’ll have to take him back to camp, patch him up and find out what his story is,’ the brother answered.

‘We can’t take him back,’ she retorted.

‘And we can’t just leave him out here, can we? He replied.


The girl had to agree they couldn’t just leave him now, after they saved him from drowning, but she had to make a point.

‘What if we don’t like his story Steve?’ she asked uneasily, using the man’s name for the first time.

‘Then we kill him,’ he replied.  ‘But anyone that gets washed down river, dressed in rags and carrying that sword, has got to have a remarkable story, and I want to hear it.’

                                  End of Chapt One  If you want more just let me know what you thought of this chapter and we'll pick another one. Thanks.