Ice Wind

Stumbling in the sand …………………. almost there ……………… just a few more feet to water.

A body. A body rotting in the water!

I’ve come so far ………………. I need the water, but all that’s before me is poisoned!

A hard way to die. And for what? I should have just let her go.

Taran Collins was a long way from home and yet what was home anymore? He had no home other than the trouble that always seemed to find him. The Fire Wind had changed everything and it was up to him to see what lay beyond the doorway that had been opened to him. Maybe there was peace to be found if he looked hard enough for it. No doubt there would be trouble as well.

Ice Wind is a continuation of a series of western sci-fi novels that feature adventure, action, and faith. Christian Speculative Fiction – learn to love it!

EXCERPT:

Breathing hard I crashed into a boulder and lay against it for a moment. Dawn wasn’t far, but the fire was closer. Close enough to feel the heat of it against my back.

Grimly I looked back to witness the progress of the sizzling flames that raced along the ground feeding on the explosiveness of the top layer of dirt. I had but minutes before the flames reached me.

I could see greenery to the south, but it was still at least a half days journey away and that was only if I ran the whole time. I wasn’t going to make it.

“God I need help!” I cried out.

Shaking my head I acknowledged that I had been far too stubborn in asking of help from my Heavenly Father lately. It shouldn’t take dire circumstances such as this to provoke conversation with my Maker.

The light was brighter and straightening up from the boulder I pressed on towards the south. Escape from the flames might be hopeless in my present condition, but I had to try.

There were some projecting up-thrusts of rock ahead with one larger mound of rock in the middle of the rocky spires. Maybe I could find a sheltered spot away from the flames. It was my best chance at the moment for survival.

Reaching the first outcrop of rock I realized with a start that it wasn’t a natural outcrop, but rather the fitted stones of a building’s corner foundation. Ruins?

To my knowledge there was no human settlement on this world nor ever had been. The structural remnants were very old from the looks of it and the odd pillar standing here and there were inscribed with a language unfamiliar to me in my travels among the outer worlds.

With renewed energy I pieced my way past ancient piles of rubble toward the central construct of stone that still stood for the most part intact. The air rebounded around me of explosions from the fast approaching storm of fire.

Making my way around the still intact stone walls I came across a pillared entrance way that led into the interior of the structure. I stopped and stared for a moment in profound shock at the emblem that was emblazoned across the top of the entryway.

I’d seen the emblem before. As a boy I had seen my great-grandfather wear such an emblem about his neck on a necklace. I’d even asked him once what it was. He’d smiled and said with a faraway look, “It is but a token memory of a place long since past. Harmony. The symbol signifies harmony.”