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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.
Thank you to those that gave a quick review to my debut release of "Mayan Prophecies" It was really appreciated.
