The Adventure of the Jigsaw Dragon

By Kevin L. O'Brien

About a year before they met in the real world and became Team Girl, Eile Chica and Sunny Hiver played an online role-playing game called Otherworld, a more family-friendly version of World of Warcraft and other such games. Eile had created the fighter and thief Braveheart, whereas Sunny played a magic-user named White-Lion. They met while independently exploring a lost temple of evil, became friends and partners, and adventured together afterwards.

This is one of their sessions. They broke into the country villa of a powerful count to steal whatever they could, but were caught. Rather than have them hung, he "hired" them to rescue his young wife, who had been kidnapped by a dragon. However, the mission won't be as simple as it sounds, because a previous rescue attempt went seriously wrong, and now the Girls have to clean up the resulting mess.

If they can.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kevin L. O'Brien
• Release date: Feb 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311701503

Kevin L. O'Brien

Kevin L. O'Brien was born with a pen in his hand.Well, not quite, but he has been writing for as long as he can remember, at least since First Grade. Writing has always been his first, true love, but it hasn't always been his career. He worked for 15 years as a biomedical researcher, then for 3 years as a web designer. However, after 30 years of trying to be published in print with little success, he has decided to try his hand at self-publishing.He writes primarily speculative fiction -- fantasy, science fiction, horror, and their sub-genres -- but he also likes to try his hand at thrillers, suspense, mystery, and even westerns. However, his stories tend to have a fantasy element, no matter how subtle.Most of his stories involve the following three main characters:Medb hErenn (http://www.medbherenn.com/) -- One-time queen of Ireland, she is over 3500 years old. A warrior and a sorceress, she cannot be harmed by any weapon made by the hand of man.Eile and Sunny, Team Girl (http://www.teamgirlforever.com/) -- They are two adorable, vivacious, fun-loving young women whose motto is ONWARD TO ADVENTURE!!! Yet trouble follows them like a love-sick puppy wherever they go.Sir Differel Van Helsing (http://www.sir-differel.com/) -- The descendent of Abraham Van Helsing and King Arthur, she heads the Caerleon Order, the premier monster-hunting organization of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. She commands Dracula, the most powerful vampire extant, and the greatsword Caliburn, better known as Excalibur.He also writes a series of sword & sorcery stories set in an alternative universe known as the Lands of the Dreams of Men.Kevin lives in Denver with his family and 4 cats.For more information, see his website: http://www.kevinlobrien.com/

Book preview

The Adventure of the Jigsaw Dragon

Kevin L. O'Brien

Smashwords Edition

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Text Copyright 2013 by Kevin L. O'Brien

Cover design and typography copyright 2013 by Kevin L. O'Brien

Firestarter font distributed under a free use license by Jakob Fischer

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License Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. It is licensed for your personal enjoyment and remains the copyrighted property of the author. This ebook may not be sold, reproduced, or copied, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes, but it may be given away if no changes are made. If you enjoyed this book and would like to share it, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from Smashwords or their favorite online retailer, where they can also discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support, and for respecting the hard work of this author.

Please consider writing a review for this book on the retailer's website.

If you see any misspellings or typographical errors, please notify Kevin L. O'Brien using one of his online social networks. Thank you.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents, including those based on the real world, are either products of the imagination of Kevin L. O'Brien or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Because some ebook platforms do not support special characters, certain words may appear misspelled, but this was done deliberately to avoid the problem of the platforms deleting the characters. Also, the LRF platform used by older models of the Sony Reader does not permit the use of links to external URLs, whereas the PDB platform used by Palm reading devices does not support any form of linking whatsoever.

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Table of Contents

Preface

The Jigsaw Dragon

About the Author

Other Books by Kevin L. O'Brien

Connect with Kevin L. O'Brien

Sample Excerpts

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Preface

The nice thing about writing for my characters Eile and Sunny of Team Girl, is that I can place them into any scenario I want. Specifically, I am not limited to contemporary tales set in a modern world very much like our own. As such, I have created four types of Team Girl stories:

Contemporary Tales -- Stories set in our 21st century world. These are the foundation stories which establish and develop them as characters. They include stories of the Girls adventuring in exotic locations, traveling to alternative Earths, and going back in time.

Dreamworld Tales -- Stories set in H. P. Lovecraft's Land of the Dreams of Men. Technically they are part of the Contemporary world setting, being as the Girls from the Contemporary tales appear in the Dreamlands tales. These are essentially low-fantasy, sword & sorcery stories.

Alternative Reality Tales -- These are stories set in other worlds, where the Girls are different from what they are in the Contemporary tales. These should not be confused with Contemporary stories of the Girls traveling to other worlds or going back in time, because while the alternative Girls have the same personalities, they are natives of the alternative worlds and lead completely different lives from the Contemporary Girls.

The fourth type of Team Girl stories is set in the milieu of an online role-playing game called Otherworld. Similar to World of Warcraft, only more family-friendly, people are able to play with or against each other, or by themselves, in a fantasy sword & sorcery world. These stories are also connected with the Contemporary tales, because about a year before they met in person, Eile and Sunny met in Otherworld and started playing together. Eile had created a fighter/thief named Braveheart while Sunny's persona was a magic-user named White-Lion. Though they never exchanged their real names, Eile did reveal that she lived in Denver, and when Sunny fled Indiana to escape people who were trying to kidnap her, she headed straight for Colorado to try to find Braveheart. They finally met face-to-face, and the rest is history. These stories are also meant to be low-fantasy sword & sorcery tales but with a gaming flavor. I myself played Dungeons & Dragons while in college, and I imagine it heavily influenced my preference for fantasy S&S genre stories.

This story describes one of their joint gaming sessions and sets the tone for future stories.

Back to TOC

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Eile Chica crouched behind one of the pylons at the foot of the stairs. She turned her head to shield her face from a tongue of fire that lanced past her hiding place.

Are you ready?

Eile glanced across the causeway. White-Lion was hunkered down behind the opposite pylon.

Yeah, as ready as I'll ever be.

Another gout of flame interrupted them.

Okay, on three, White-Lion said after the fire dissipated. "One, two, three! Let's go, partner!"

She rose and dashed out onto the first step as Eile watched. Looking up the stairs, she held out her staff and shouted, Halon! A milky-white, concave shield appeared in front and slightly above her. A stream of fire shot down from the top of the stairs. It hit the shield square in the center, but instead of penetrating, the flames spread out along its surface and flickered off the edges.

White-Lion gestured. Come on!

Eile ran up behind her, trying to keep low. Together they advanced up the stairs, while the fire covered the shield.

Eile couldn't see anything through the flame, but as they climbed she saw the shield go from white to yellow to orange. Her stomach knotted in cold fear; she expected it to collapse at any moment. If that happened, they would be incinerated to char before they even felt the heat.

It seemed to take forever to reach the top of the steps, as the shield turned a dull red and then glowed a molten cherry. Finally, White-Lion came to a stop. She pulled her staff back; the shield retreated towards her and turned to orange as cracks began to appear. Eile broke out in a cold sweat and her mouth dried up. If this doesn't work..., she thought

Kii-yaaah! White-Lion pushed the staff forward. The shield jumped away from them and rammed the source of the flame. It shattered and dissolved, but it extinguished the fire as it threw a figure back.

Go!!

Eile charged around White-Lion, up the last few steps, and between two more pylons.

She lifting her broadsword and roared. Rrraaauuugh! The figure recovered and threw itself at her. It had a body like a cross between a velociraptor and a dragon, including sickle foot claws and a long, sinuous tail, but minus the wings. The head, however, looked like that of a milk-skinned, sable-haired woman with ice-blue eyes.

The dragon-lady got in the first blows, leaping up and raking at Eile with its claws. She parried the hands, but the sickle-claws skidded over her breastplate and the steel scales covering her belly. She danced back then sprinted forward, swinging her sword. The dragon-lady blocked the short, wide, thin blade with its arms as it raised its tail. She saw it had a spike on the end, and her opponent held it poised as it looked for an opportunity to strike.

Cripes, this is like fighting five people at once! I don't know how long I can hold her off. Move!

Right! she heard White-Lion say, and out of the corner of her eye she saw a streak of gamboge hair move around the outside of the pylons to get to the plateau behind the dragon-lady.

Sunny Hiver paused after she clambered over the edge of the plateau and stood up. Looking back, she watched as Braveheart and the dragon-lady struck and parried, slashed and blocked, while they waited for an opening to deliver a crippling blow. Braveheart wore a furious expression of intense concentration, though the vivid fuchsia locks that framed her face made her appear comical. Her long ponytail of seal-brown hair waving like a flag didn't help either.

"Dammit, White-Lion, go, go!"

Sunny turned and jogged further onto the plateau as she searched for their quarry. It was as big as a gymnasium, and sheer granite cliffs enclosed three sides. At the far end, she spotted something, and sprinted towards it. As she got closer, it resolved into a female form, dressed in a simple gown, tied up with a bag over her head.

She broke into a run and reached the