The Orphans

By Barbara G.Tarn

Keiko is the only girl in an all boys street gang, and she's in love with their leader, Kumar. She's happy to hear they're leaving town for the jungle, unfortunately trouble waits for them.
Kumar escapes the Sect to meet a tiger hunter who might become a mentor - but loses all his friends in the process.
Adult fantasy readers only

• Language: English
• Publisher: Unicorn Productions
• Release date: May 27, 2011

Barbara G.Tarn

Barbara G.Tarn had an intense life in the Middle Ages that stuck to her through the centuries. She prefers swords to guns, long gowns to mini-skirts, and even though she buried the warrior woman, she deplores the death of knights in shining chainmail. She likes to think her condo apartment is a medieval castle, unfortunately lacking a dungeon to throw noisy neighbors and naughty colleagues in. Also known as the Lady with the Unicorns, these days she prefers to add a touch of fantasy to all her stories, past and present – when she’s not wandering on her fantasy world of Silvery Earth or in her Star Minds futuristic universe. She’s a writer, sometimes artist, mostly a world-creator and story-teller. Two of her stories received an Honorable Mention at the Writers of the Future contest. She writes, draws, ignores her day job and blogs every other day.

Book preview

The Orphans

by Barbara G. Tarn

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Smashwords Edition

Barbara G.Tarn copyright © 2011

electronic edition by Unicorn Productions

November 2011

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Smashwords Edition License Notes

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The Orphans

Part one: Keiko

Are you sure they will be released today? Hayato asked for the third time, worried.

Yes, Keiko answered, absently. It had cost her some cajoling of one of the guards - well, actually a lot more than cajoling - to learn their friends were bound to be released after their one year stay. She was worried, though, worried for them. Well, mostly for one of them who never complained, but took everything on his shoulders.

When will they come out, then?

I don't know.

What if they're not released today?

Hayato continued his questions, as worried as she was, but she couldn't be more precise. And she wouldn't tell him how she got the information either. They were twins, but still she refused to discuss certain matters with him.

We come back tomorrow.

But...

Hayato, enough! she snapped. Do we have anything better to do than wait out here?

Uh... no, Hayato lowered his head, defeated. But if they don't come out today...

The door of the Correction House opened and Keiko brightened. They're here.

Hayato looked up and smiled, relieved, seeing his friends exiting the ugly building that had no outside windows.

Kumar, Shafiq, we're here! he called cheerfully, waving his hand to attract their attention in the traffic of the cobbled street. Keiko was happy his voice had come out, because hers was choked in her throat as she stared at the one she cared for: he had lost weight, and color. And there was no sign of his rare smile.

The three teenagers that had just come out of the Correction House joined them with puzzled expressions. The youngest, Jayanta, brightened, but the other two looked wary.

What are you doing here? the leader asked bluntly.

"I thought your parents had taken