Synopsis.
The EPIC series tells the tale of young Deacon McTaggart and his transition from recent high school graduate to a legendary hero like his uncle before him. Due to mass vanishings all over Earth, Deacon's mother sends him to a remote part of Scotland to keep him out of harm's way. During supper, Deacon learns that his eccentric uncle Evon was once a revered hero in the world of Avalon. Of course Deacon is skeptical at first, but after meeting Evon's Brownie butler, his Dwarven wife, and the stuffed Dragon head in the foyer, Deacon starts to believe. During supper, Evon explains that the disappearances are the work of the enigmatic Ubaru'ud, a strange being not from Earth or Avalon. Evon also explains that Avalon's time is short, and will be torn apart at any given moment. After drinking to much Meadale after a challenge to his 'Manhood', Deacon accidently finds himself trapped in Avalon. His only way home being the critically injured Faerie, Aika, that Deacon inadvertently lands on when he arrived. Thus begins a race against time to get back home and to save as many as he can before it's too late!
Excerpt.
It was obvious from the start that
the only advantage that Ardron had was his strength, he charged straight at
Deacon, arms wide, leaving everything fully exposed. Either he was confident
that Deacon couldn’t hurt him, or he was just plain stupid.
Deacon guessed that it was a little
of both, but Ardron was partially right, if Deacon charged him head on, the
result would be the same as if a rabbit challenged a freight train to a game of
‘chicken’.
Luckily Deacon was faster and smarter than Ardron, and he would have to use those
to counter Ardron’s strength.
Then when Ardron was almost upon him,
he had two options, stand there and get waffled, or get the hell out of the
way.
He couldn’t retreat to give himself
room to maneuver, that way was blocked up pretty tight with riled up villagers.
Besides, it would make him look cowardly, not the image that he wanted to
convey. There was also no room to dodge to either side.
‘Chicken’ it was, then.
He had to chance ducking under
Ardron’s outstretched arms. If he was fast enough, he could get out of the
corner he was in.
If he was fast
enough.
At the very last second before
Ardron’s arms closed around him, Deacon ducked and dashed under.
Ardron skidded to a halt when he
realized that Deacon was no longer there.
It was too late, Deacon was already
behind him, and he was wide open.
Attacking Ardron’s well-muscled back
would have little to no effect, Deacon had to go for his legs, if he could
bring Ardron down a bit, he could level the playing field.
Deacon cocked his foot back and
delivered a quarterback worthy punt directly to the back of Ardron’s right
knee, the steel toed boot added extra punch.
Ardron’s leg buckled and he was down
on one knee.
Deacon charged and raised his fist to
hit the back of Ardron’s skull and a possible knockout.
Unfortunately, this put Deacon within
striking distance.
Just when Deacon was almost on him,
Ardron swung back with his left arm, his large fist crashing into the side of
Deacon’s head, and he went flying.
The crowd cheered but Deacon couldn’t
hear anything but the clanging of bells in his skull. He had never been hit so
hard in his life.
As he crashed into the sand 15 feet
away, Deacon discovered that not only could he not hear anything, he also
couldn’t move. Or see.
He had heard of people getting hit in
the head so hard, that they were stricken blind; he groggily hoped that wasn’t
the case now.
After what seemed like far too long,
his eyes slowly started working again. Sure, he could only see grey blobs, but
it was better than nothing.
By sheer force of will, he convinced
his body to move, thankful that it wasn’t permanent, that’s when his hearing
decided to return as well, just in time to hear the crowd unanimously shout
“Three!”
Shit.
Somehow, Deacon managed to get to his
feet by the time they got to the count of ‘four’.
Amazingly, a few in the crowd were
cheering him on now.
Deacon still couldn’t see clearly,
but he was standing, technically. He
was on his feet, but far from steady.
He was thankful that his vision was
returning, but would it come back completely before Ardron could come and
finish knocking his head off?
His vision suddenly went dark grey.
A shadow.
Ardron.
Out of sheer instinct, Deacon dropped
to his back to avoid the inevitable fist coming at him. His instinct was right;
Ardron’s fist barely grazed his forehead.
As he landed, he flung his foot up
blindly, hoping to hit something vital enough to buy him some more time for his
sight to come back.
Apparently, he did. The heel of his
boot hit something soft, and Ardron made a coarse, retching sound.
It was a better hit than he had hoped
for, but it would have been even better if his toe had connected, rather than
his heel, but he would take what he could get.
Deacon used the opportunity to put
some space between himself and Ardron. He scooted himself back and shook his
head to clear the cobwebs. It worked. He could see again.
Ardron was hunched over, clutching
his throat.
Deacon only had a few seconds to
decide his next move.
His best option was gaining the high
ground; he had to go for Ardron’s big head in order to finish this.
He remembered the trick that Sharrah
had pulled on him yesterday, but he didn’t have a sword stuck in the ground to
help him catch some air.
But he did have a tree.
The tree had boards in it that let
the kids climb it; he could use those boards too. He just had to get Ardron
closer.
Deacon knew how to do it, and
humiliate Ardron even further.
He cautiously stepped up to Ardron,
who was still holding his throat and sputtering. Deacon was ready to move if
Ardron’s hands decided to.
“Hey Ardy boy!”
Ardron looked at Deacon with through
glazed eyes; he looked like he wasn’t really sure where he was at the moment.
Deacon reminded him by slapping him
across the face as hard as he could.
The crowd collectively gasped.
It seemed that one man slapping
another in the face was something they did not see often.
Deacon spun on his heels to head for
the tree, hoping that Ardron was furious enough to take the bait.
He wasn’t.
As Deacon turned, he felt Ardron’s
hand wrap itself around his braid and yank down.
Hard.
Ardron immediately screamed in agony
as the hidden blades in Deacon’s braid sliced his hand and fingers to bloody
ribbons.
Amidst the boos and cheers from
within the crowd, Inanna’s voice was heard above all. “Remember now why ye
shouldn’t pull hair, brother?”
Ardron simply stood and stupidly
gawked at his mangled hand.
Deacon took his chance and kicked
Ardron high in the chest.
That seemed to
get his attention.
Ardron staggered back and took his
eyes from his hand and focused on Deacon instead, his face showing nothing but
rage and hatred.
Deacon leaned forward and waved his
middle finger in Ardron’s face. He wasn’t sure if the gesture was known in
Avalon, but it had the desired effect.
This time when Deacon ran for the
tree, Ardron did follow.
Someone in the crowd shouted, “Aye!
Ye better run, little Outlander!”
Deacon smirked.
When he was a few feet away from the
tree, he jumped.
His foot caught the third rung from
the ground and he pushed down hard, boosting himself up enough to meet the eyes
of the boys that were seated in the branches. They were the same boys that he
had met the day before; their mouths were little ‘O’s of awe and wonder.
Deacon winked at them before kicking
himself away from the tree and twisting his body in mid-air.
His timing couldn’t have been more
perfect. By the time gravity had taken over, Ardron was almost directly
underneath him.
Between his injured throat and the
bloody piece of meat that was once a hand, Ardron’s reflexes were even slower
than they had been. He had no chance to prevent what happened next.
As Deacon fell on Ardron, he propped
out his elbow and locked it. It was the first thing to connect.
Straight down on Ardron’s nose.
If Deacon had be watching the crowd,
he would have seen most of them flinching away and covering their eyes, but
that did nothing to spare them the sound of Ardron’s nose and face being
smashed in.
Ardron hands flew to his face
instinctively trying to protect his broken face; he staggered back, but did not
fall.
He was beaten; he was just too dumb
to realize it. In his condition, he could not continue the fight without
risking further injury, but nobody was going to throw in the towel, no doctor
was going to stop this fight, he had
to fall.
Deacon could have just pushed him
over at this point, but Ardron needed
to learn, all of these people needed
to learn that he was not the sickly and weak Outlander they believed him to be.
So much for his Anger Management
classes.
As Ardron reeled, Deacon walked over
and stepped up onto Ardron’s bent knee and brought his fist down as hard as he
could on Ardron’s cupped hands, they offered no protection to his face.
Without a sound, Ardron fell in the
sand.
The villagers fell silent all at
once. This was not the outcome they had expected.
Deacon looked down at Ardron. As the
big man fell, his hands came away from his face; it was covered in blood, as
were his hands.
There was no need to count. Ardron
wasn’t getting up anytime soon.
His adrenaline still pumping, Deacon
scanned the crowd with a look that dared anyone else to step into the Circle
with him.
There were no takers.
Endrew solemnly stepped into the
Circle and tutted at his fallen son. “Bai, ye should stick with farmin’, before
ye end up too broken for the Seamus to put back together…”
Endrew walked over to Deacon and held
his hand high. “Deacon has proven his worth to me and all of ye, he has
defended his honor and his name. Do any of ye dispute?”
The crowd was silent. They did not
dispute.
“So be it. Seamus?”
The old Seamus stepped forth,
followed by Daniel.
The Seamus knelt down beside Ardron,
who was still unconscious. He looked him over for a moment, then spoke. “Aye,
it’s not too bad. His sissy did him
worse. Have someone bring him to me, if you please. And Endrew, please don’t
let him do this again.”
The Seamus stood and returned home.
The crowd slowly dispersed.
A few of Ardron’s friends stepped
forward. Charn was one of them. He hissed through his teeth when he got a good
look at Ardron. He cast a wary, almost frightened look at Deacon, as did the
other three.
They each took one of Ardron’s limp
arms and legs and carried him off to the Seamus; they kept an eye on Deacon the
entire time.
Deacon had a feeling that there would
be no more taunting from anyone in Fen Glennan.
As the crowd slowly dispersed, Inanna
came running toward Deacon, as did Dio, wagging his tail. “Deacon, ye did it!”
Before he could respond, Inanna
scooped him up in her arms and hugged him, much more gently than the last time.
After a moment, she let him down and held his shoulders, looking into his eyes,
a smile creeping across the corners of her mouth.
Deacon gently put his hands on
Inanna’s hips and was about to pull her closer when Daniel began shouting from
a short distance away.
Deacon and Inanna simultaneously
looked in the direction of the shouting and saw Daniel headed straight for
them, and he was moving fast.
He appeared to be chasing something,
arms flailing in an attempt to catch whatever it was.
It looked like a small, glowing ball
of light, as Daniel approached, his frantic shouting became understandable. “Aika!
Stop! Come back here!”
Inanna smiled. “How wonderful, the
faerie’s all better!”
Deacon wasn’t as pleased, well he was, but the Seamus had warned him what
might happen when Aika woke up.
She’d be pissed off and screaming for
vengeance.
On him.
Oh shit.
Aika was shining like a little
falling star, and moving just as fast. Deacon had barely enough time to notice
that her little hands were glowing as well. They were also clenched.
He had remembered what had happened
the last time her hands were glowing like that. She blasted him in the head,
singeing skin and hair.
It had hurt pretty badly, and she was
nearly dead at the time.
But now? Being fully healed and in
perfect health, she might just blow his face off.
Inanna had seen Aika’s intent to harm
Deacon just in time to swat at her, luckily for Aika, she wasn’t quite fast
enough to hit her dead on, but fast enough to just knock her to the ground.
Aika managed to stop herself from
hitting too hard and was immediately blasting off again. Being slightly
stunned, she wasn’t nearly quick enough to avoid being caught in Inanna’s hand.
The little faerie was totally pinned,
and furious. She spouted off a slew of incoherent curses, but her mood was
obvious.
Inanna held the defenseless faerie
close to her face and asked, “Why are you attacking Deacon, little one? He
didn’t mean to hurt you.” She turned to Deacon. “Isn’t that right? It was an
accident.”
Deacon nodded in agreement. “It was an accident, Aika. I’m sorry.”
Aika just glared at him through
squinted eyes, but after a moment, she seemed to calm down a little.
Inanna gave her a stern look, just
like she learned from her Da. “I’ll let ye go now, but if ye try and hurt
anyone, I’ll squeeze ye until your little head pops off like a dandypuff!”
Now Aika glared at Inanna. “Lemmego!
Noharm!”
Inanna released her.
She immediately flew and hovered in
front of Deacon’s face, looking extremely anxious. “Gottago! Gottago! WarnEvon!
Now! Now!”
She looked about ready to take off
with or without Deacon.
He picked up on her urgency. Now he
was worried. “Warn him of what? What’s
going on?”
Aika grew more and
more distressed by the second. “Elfkin! Coming for Evon! Have a Fae to open the
way! Now! Nownownow!”
And now the moment you've all been waiting for, my Dream Cast for EPIC!
Logan Lerman as Deacon McTaggart. Somewhat of a 'bad boy', Deacon has very little regard for authority, and even less for Bullies, he will always come to the aid of those in need. Initially teased about his 'frail' and 'weak' stature according to the villagers of Fen Glennan, Deacon is fully capable of taking care of himself as you read in the excerpt.
And there you have it! My picks for an EPIC movie. You may be wondering why there are no picks for Ubaru'ud, but if you've read the books, you'd know it would be a daunting task requiring many actors.
Agree? Disargee? Have any choices of your own? Feel free to let me know!
Now I'll 'tag' five other authors and challenge them to this little game...
Muffy Morrigan - The Sail Weaver.
Richard B. Knight - The Darkness Of The Womb.
Shawn Reilly - The Union Series.
C.A. Sanders - Song Of Simon.
Pauline Ramsey - The Beginning.