The Witch Massimara Of Mount Yenka
Into The Swamp of Death
(novel excerpt)



Sample Chapter from:
Quaraun and the Vampire, Into the Swamp of Death
Volume 8 of
The Adventures of Quaraun the Insane

Massimara and her Orc guards all lay dead on the ground. Burned to ash. 

Everyone in the crypt lay dead on the ground. Burned to ash. 

Everyone in the castle lay dead on the ground. Burned to ash. 

Everyone in the village lay dead as well. Burned to ash. 

Every animal in the field, every bird, all dead.

The vast herds of Katopas galloping across the savannah, their bones lay blackened char.

The grass and the trees, burnt to stubble.

The river and all the streams, were evaporated.

Every man, woman, child, bird, insect, plant, and beast. All the cattle and horses and every last Katopa running wild in the savannah. For many miles around in all directions, all was dead. The silence of the sudden lack of birds to sing and insects to chirp, ate like a cancer at the little pink haired, green skinned Flower Gnome's soul as she stared in horror at the true power the Necromancer possessed. Long had she and Bullgaar heard the awe inspiring rumours of Quaraun's terrible powers, but this was the first time they had ever laid eyes on how great his control over life and death truly was. 

As BeaLuna stared out at the blight that had struck the land, she shuddered in horror, for it was not just the people and the animals, but also the plants and trees. Every living thing had withered up and died. The rich green grass, hung brown and dead. Trees that moments ago, were lush and green with life, had dropped their leaves and their dry limbs now hung curled, brittle, lifeless and empty. For as far as the eye could see, no life existed, save Quaraun, BeaLuna, and Bullgaar, who now stood over the dead mutilated body of their Phookan friend.

"Quaraun?" BeaLuna asked. "What did you do?"

"They killed Unicorn."

There was no emotion in his voice.

There was nothing.

"And you killed them...and...and...and...everything else...but...how?"

"I'm a Necromancer. I can kill anyone in the blink of an eye.”

“This isn’t Necromancy.”

“I have full control over life and death.”

“What did you do?”

“I am a god.”

“What?”

“Anything with a soul can have its soul ripped out by my will.”

“Are you a Psion?”

“I am the Grand High Emperor of the Triple Planets.”

“What?”

“What him talking about?” Bullgaar asked BeaLuna.

“I don’t know.”

“What that Emperor shit?”

“It’s a Thullid reference.”

“Those squid beasts?”

“Yeah. The Cult of the Sacred Pink Jelly Fish. They worship some Elder Brain Demon God. That’s what they call it. The Grand High Emperor of the Triple Planets. Unicorn kept saying Quaraun wasn’t an Elf any more. Called him a Thullid.”

BeaLuna and Bullgaar watched the little Elf.

Quaraun hadn’t moved. He was still standing over Unicorn. BeaLuna wasn’t sure what to do. Or say. She had just witness this normally peaceful, quiet little Elf obliterate everything for miles around.

“Quaraun?” BeaLuna asked the wizard. “Are you okay?”

“They murdered my Unicorn with no reason.”

“But you killed just killed everyone ... and ...everything.” 

“They don't deserve to live.”

“Quaraun? Everything deserves to live. You always say that. You never hurt anyone. You never even fight to defend yourself.” 

“They killed Unicorn, just like my people killed BoomFuzzy.”

“BoomFuzzy commit suicide. No one killed him. Don’t you remember?” 

“They didn't deserve to live either.”

“Who?”

“The Moon Elves. They all hated BoomFuzzy. They wanted him dead."

"Quaraun, you can't just kill people and animals and plants and everything around us like that. It's not right."

"They killed Unicorn. That wasn't right."

"But...Quaraun, you just murdered...everyone."

"They murdered BoomFuzzy."

“BoomFuzzy?”

“I loved BoomFuzzy.”

"Quaraun? BoomFuzzy died three hundred years ago. That’s Unicorn. They killed Unicorn, not BoomFuzzy. Unicorn wasn't BoomFuzzy."

"Yes he was."

"Quaraun. BoomFuzzy was an Elf and he died a long time ago. He commit suicide on your wedding day. Remember? He loved you and he couldn't bear to live without you. He killed himself, because you married someone else.”

“I never married anyone. The whole thing was a lie made up by my father. He locked me in the tower. She was his wife not mine.”

“Okay, but that was a long time ago. Quaraun? What just happened now?”

“Massimara killed BoomFuzzy.”

“Quaraun, Unicorn's not BoomFuzzy. I know you blamed yourself for BoomFuzzy's death. Everyone knew how hard you took it when he died. Quaraun, this isn't right. You can't kill people like this. BoomFuzzy wouldn't have wanted you to do this. He was a good wizard, like you used to be. You used to help people, just he did. You can't go around killing people like this."

"BoomFuzzy was a Necromancer."

"No, Quaraun. He wasn't..."

"You didn't know him. He trained me. Where do you think I learned to do the things I do. BoomFuzzy taught me."

"Quaraun this has to stop. You've lost your mind. You don't seem to realize it, but you are insane. You've been alone too long. You can't tell good from bad, right from wrong any more. I know you're hurt and you're not evil, but you're doing evil things and other people won't understand. They won't know about your pain, how much you've lost. They'll just think you're evil. Quaraun, if you kill people like this, the same way the Lich Lords do, people will hunt you down and try to kill you, rid the world of you, same way they do the Lich Lords."

"I'm more powerful than the Lich Lords now. Or didn't you know that? No one can stop me, unless I let them. I'm on the path the Lichdom or did you forget that? I'm not hunting the Liches to kill them."

"But it's not for evil. You want to become a Lich to kill the Lich lords."

"No. I'm not. That's just the lie you tell people, because you can't accept me for who I am. You refuse to accept me just like my father refused to accept me. BoomFuzzy is a Lich and I will join him. He is the Elf Eater of Pepper Valley. We will be together for eternity and no one will stop us or keep us apart."

"Quaraun, you're upset. You don't know what you're saying. Unicorn's death is opening old wounds for you. You're confused and hurting."

"You're confused, Gnome. I told you stop following me. I'm not what you think I am.”

“You're a Lich Hunter.”

“I'm a Thullid wizard of the Di'Jinn order.”

“You're a Moon Elf, Quaraun.”

 “You and Bullgaar are looking to kill Liches, and you follow me because you think that's what I am. A Lich hunter. I'm not. I'm looking to join them, not kill them, that's why I don't want you following me. I'm a Flesh Warner, I seek to become a Lich, you know that. You delude yourself about my motives. You think because I am a Lich hunter that I kill Liches. I am a Flesh Warper, I don't kill Liches I make them. I'm not hunting then down to destroy them, I'm hunting them down to catch them and control them. BoomFuzzy turned himself into a Lich. I have one motive and that's to be with BoomFuzzy. I am trying to find BoomFuzzy. I seek nothing else and I will do whatever I have to do to be with him."

"Quaraun, she said he was a Lich. If BoomFuzzy's a Lich and Unicorn is BoomFuzzy. Then Unicorn a Lich and he can't die. He'll come back. That's what Liches do. They regenerate."

"Unicorn was BoomFuzzy. She killed BoomFuzzy."

"Quaraun. People said BoomFuzzy, killed himself in a Lich ritual. Did he? You were there. You found his body. You were the only one who knew how he died. If Unicorn is a Lich, then he's not really dead, he'll regenerate."

"BoomFuzzy was a Phooka. The gingerbread house, the candy trees, his Elf form, it was all an illusion. He was afraid I wouldn't love him in his true form. BoomFuzzy wasn't an Elf. He was BoomFuzzy the Elf Eater of Pepper Valley, he came to kill Elves to eat and I helped him."

“Quaraun, you have to stop obsessing over BoomFuzzy. He died three hundred years ago.”

"I loved BoomFuzzy."

"I know you did. Everyone knew you did Quaraun." 

"They tricked him. I didn't betray him. They killed BoomFuzzy."

"Your clan?"

"I never loved her. I didn't want her. I still love BoomFuzzy. No one who hurt BoomFuzzy lives."

"Quaraun, who killed your people?" 

BeaLuna backed away from Quaraun as a new thought struck her mind. A thought too horrible to think. Unicorn had said it many times, but she had laughed it off as Unicorn talking nuts. Quaraun's village had died 100 years to the day of BoomFuzzy's death. Only Quaraun survived and no one knew how or why. The entire village...like the villages here in the valley of the katopas ... every man, woman, child, bird, animals, insect, and plant, was dead in a heartbeat. Everything except for Quaraun and BoomFuzzy's chocolate covered apricot trees, had been obliterated, same as BeaLuna had just witnessed happen here. No one had ever seen the Lich Lords in the Deep North. Everyone just assumed it had been the Lich whom had killed the Moon Elves on the 100th anniversary of BoomFuzzy's death.

"Quaraun...when your people died, I was the only one in the village who didn’t die, besides you and the first thing you said to me, do you remember what you said?"

"You didn't hate BoomFuzzy."

"Is that why we were the only two who survived? You survived because you killed everyone and I survived, because I was friends with BoomFuzzy too?"

"They tricked him. I didn't betray him. They killed BoomFuzzy."

"Did you kill your family and everyone in your clan? Quaraun? Did you kill your own people to punish them for what happened to BoomFuzzy?"

"I loved BoomFuzzy. Unicorn was his true form."

"Quaraun, please calm down. We need to bury Unicorn and you need to go somewhere to rest and think..."

"I will not bury Unicorn. I will not let him die. BoomFuzzy is a Lich. His soul is trapped between worlds. It can be found and brought back. Liches are eternal, they can never truly die, they always come back. It takes a hundred years for a Lich to regenerate. I'm a Necromancer, I can change that. He'll return in hours, not years." 

"Quaraun, Unicorn's dead. Let him stay dead. You can't keep playing god."

"I am a Thullid. I have the power of a god. Life and death mean nothing in my hands. I can take it and give it to whomever I choose. And you with your hatred for Unicorn. You annoy me."

"I don't hate Unicorn."

"You hated BoomFuzzy too. I just couldn't see it back then."







Volume 8: Into The Swamp Of Death

Quaraun wakes up in The Mournful Lamb Inn, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. Every one tells him he arrived covered in blood and collapsed, but no one can answer any other questions, save a gargoyle-like beast of a vampire, who tells Quaraun he is dead by suicide and wanders through the Swamp of Death, the holding ground between life and death, heaven and hell. The holding grounds for people too good for hell but too evil for heaven, as well as the place where lost souls wander until they can be set free: The Mournful Lamb being the resting place for murder victims and suicide victims.

Confused and alone, Quaraun tries to leave the inn, only to discover a vast barrier around it prevents any one inside from getting out.

The vampire tells him the only way out is to look into his own memories and seek out the truth: seek for the three friends, who never travelled with you, answer the question: why do always travel alone.

Unlocking his past reveal a horrifying truth: BeaLuna the Gnome, Bullgaar the Dwarf, and BoomFuzzy the Unicorn were never there - figments of his warped imagination or ghosts of the past, he can't tell which, but in all this time no one but Quaraun has ever seen any of them, for they are all ghosts who now haunt their murderer.

TRIGGER WARNING

This novel is about a murder-suicide, in which the suicide victim is found still alive. 

This novel contains references to and graphic depictions of cutting, intentional drug overdose, suicide attempts, dismemberment, murder, and beheadings.

Some of these scenes are included in the free-to-read-online sample chapters.

Reader discretion is advised.

Possibly NSFW

BDSM YAOI

TORTURE PORN

BARBED KNOTTING WARNING

This novel contains one of the most graphically detailed and brutally violent CBT barbed-knotting torture/sex/rape scenes of the entire series. No part of this scene is available free-to-read online.

Reader discretion is strongly advised.

NSFW


The sample chapters listed below equal about 1/10th of the novel. No additional chapters will be made available free to read online.


The Mournful Lamb Inn



Everyone Is Dead?



Where Are Your Friends?



The Valley of the Katopas (Part 1)



The Valley of the Katopas (Part 2)



The Beginning of the End



The Witch Massimara Of Mount Yenka



Psychotic Dead Things



Six Days Earlier



There is no Mournful Lamb Inn



The Swamp of Death





TYPE: Long Novella/Short Novel

WORD COUNT: 61,449 words

PAGE COUNT: 164 printed paperback pages

POINT OF VIEW: third person; Quaraun’s point of view usually; a few times from Unicorn’s

HAPPY EVER AFTER? no, this volume does NOT have a happy ending; character death ending

CLIFFHANGER ENDING: Yes. Sort of. Almost. This volumes ends with a sort of “To Be Continued...” that doesn’t actually continue

CONTINUING SERIAL? Yes; this is volume 8 of 130

INTERRACIAL COUPLES? Yes; a white skinned cross-dressing male Elf and his black skinned male Phooka lover.

Genre: Dark Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery > Bizzarro > Literary

LITERARY FICTION WARNING: This entire series is Slice of Life Vignette Literary Fiction, meaning there’s a lot of dialogue, a lot of talking, a lot of thinking, a lot of monologue, and a lot of emotional introspective, but not much action going on in this heavily character driven series. Each story is a narrow focused look at a single event (often a single day or hour) in Quaraun's life.



















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