Malaki Mayhem

By Ashley Craig

DEBUT YA FANTASY NOVEL FULL OF MAGIC, MAYHEM, MYTHICAL CREATURES, AND ROMANCE!

Ela awakens alone with complete amnesia in a magic-filled kingdom.

Local fairies give her shelter, but soon a royal proclamation is issued banishing all non-fairies from the kingdom -- what can Ela possibly do?

When Ela and her companions discover that Ela is actually Queen Ara and that an impostor sits in her place, they must do the impossible: convince King Phoenix that she is the real queen, recover her memories and powers, then uncover the mastermind behind this mass banishment and stop them for good. Challenging enough tasks, anyway, made even more difficult by her amnesia.

Can this blue-haired former queen and her companions meet the challenge? Can her relationship with King Phoenix recover?

Experience a wide variety of magical, mythical creatures in this unique fantasy realm!

Contains strong language and PG-13 situations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ashley Craig
• Release date: Jul 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386195054

Book preview

Light up your wildest dreams.

Chapter 1

Her eyes fluttered open to bright blue sky.

She squinted against the sunlight and tried to figure out where she was...but she could not think clearly. Her thoughts seemed fuzzy. Nothing made sense.

Had someone drugged her?

She slowly sat up. Even with the careful momentum, her vision spun.

She squeezed her eyes shut and breathed through the dizziness.  Her head pounded.

After a few minutes, she cautiously opened her eyes.

She found herself in a field overgrown with weeds and wildflowers. Lush forest bordered the clearing on all sides. She didn’t remember passing through a forest... Or traveling there at all.

How did she get there?

She carefully stood, brushed off her colorful skirt, and picked debris out of her blue hair.

She felt like she needed to be somewhere... To be home... To do something. Except... She could not picture home anymore.

Where was she? Who was she? Why couldn’t she remember?

One year later

ELA CARRIED A BUCKET of water into the thatched hut she now called home. She planned to heat the water over the hearth so Grandmother Aspen could soak her feet before bed. After everything Grandmother had done for Ela, pampering her a bit was the least Ela could do in return.

The prior year, after Ela left the clearing to search for help, a hunting woodland fairy found her wandering through the forest. He took pity on the lost woman and brought her to his village.

The woodland fairies welcomed her with open arms, despite their surprise at finding a human with no powers in their magic-filled realm.

Grandmother Aspen quickly took her in and, upon learning she could not remember her name, named her Ela, meaning Earth, due to her grace and affinity to nature.

Ela differed from the woodland fairies physically as well as magically.  They were a short, stout race with brown or black hair color. Ela was a tall, toned young woman with long, wavy blue hair and matching blue eyes.

Ela remembered nothing from her previous life. The village shaman tried to restore her memories, but, despite earnest effort, was unable to do so. Her lacking powers in this magical realm, where every creature possessed some form of magic, baffled him. He eventually guessed that she was somehow transported from the human world, and perhaps the emotional trauma from the transport caused her amnesia. He believed the memories may naturally return with time.

The indigo-blue hair perplexed him a bit, but he finally decided it must be a dye that would eventually fade... So far, her hair had gone a year without fading, so Ela started to doubt that theory.

Ela resigned to create a new life for herself, just in case her memories didn't return. She felt safe in this woodland village. The fairies treated her kindly. It felt like home to her now. She would stay as long as they would have her.

The woodland fairies’ magical powers aligned with nature. They could lure animals closer while hunting; they could urge plants to blossom at an accelerated rate; they could heal the wounded; some could even control the weather. The strength of the magic varied greatly from fairy to fairy and often determined one’s station in life. Those better at luring prey became hunters; those better with plant-life became farmers; and so forth. Grandmother Aspen had a way with children and, accordingly, ran a youth daycare. Even at the ripe age of 352 years, she kept up with the most energetic imp, though she was thankful to gain Ela’s assistance.

Many fairy races existed in this realm. In addition to the woodland fairies, there were also mountain, river, ocean, air, and fire fairies, plus more. Some were small, as tiny as shimmering bumblebees, whereas others were enormous giants of legend.

Magical abilities varied greatly, even among the same race.

The average fairy lifespan was 750 years, with lengthy extensions for the more powerful.

The woodland fairies fell on the shorter end of the spectrum both literally and in lifespan, topping out at four feet tall and living around 400 years. They were a short and stocky breed, full of heart and honor. Luck favored Ela that these fairies found her and guided her through this unfamiliar realm.

Though Ela had yet to meet any of the other fairy races, she looked forward to the opportunity to do so. The villagers loved to gossip and regaled her with stories from any and all races, their favorites being the exploits of the mountain fairy king and queen.

In addition to fairies, many other mystical creatures also roamed this realm. Dragons, werewolves, banshees, bogeymen, gorgons, centaurs, griffins, sasquatches — even a hydra was rumored to live in a distant bay.

If any of those creatures betrayed the greater good and became a menace, the mountain king and queen fought side by side to take down the offender and bring them in for sentencing; no challenge was too big. King Phoenix and Queen Ara were the legendary enforcers of good in a realm with the potential to be so bad. Together they ruled the Quarrin Mountain Range and surrounding areas from the namesake town of Quarrin.

Though they were mountain fairies by race, they ruled justly over all the diverse inhabitants of the Quarrin kingdom, which included the woodland fairies’ home forest. No one from the woodland village had met the legendary royalty before, not even the shaman, but everyone heard the stories. Queen Ara’s hair was rumored to be indigo-blue, so villagers loved to tease Ela about being distantly related to royalty. Though not believing the good-natured teasing, Ela still dreamed that she might meet the King and Queen someday.

Inside the hut, Grandmother Aspen sat in her hand-crafted wooden rocking chair, child-sized compared to Ela, and sighed, relaxing after a tough day with hyperactive children. She picked up her knitting and started absent-mindedly working on yet another project. She worked on so many, it was second nature to her to start one immediately upon sitting down.

Ela sat the bucket of warmed water down in front of her, and Grandmother gingerly lowered her feet in and closed her eyes. Before Ela could even stand up, the knitting needles stopped clicking and soft snores escaped Grandmother’s lips.

Ela laughed and gently removed Grandmother’s feet from the water; she softly toweled them dry. She laid the knitting project to the side, covered Grandmother with a soft, warm blanket, smoothed her gray hair behind her ear, and kissed her rosy cheek, then left her sleeping by the fireplace.

Ela took the water outside to pour out and, as she often did, she looked around the quiet village on this crisp, clear summer night.

The village sat in a small clearing, surrounded by thick forest; the locals called it Tarakin Forest. A small road, more a foot path, led into the village off a main road a few miles out.

Visitors were uncommon there, but since the woodland fairies were always accommodating, they kept a few larger huts big enough to comfortably fit an average-sized traveler.

Grandmother's hut was one of these larger accommodations, one reason she was asked to care for Ela; the shaman also had a larger hut for when visitors came to consult. However, the village mainly consisted of smaller huts that Ela had to stoop to enter.

A large pavilion housing long tables and benches stood in the middle of the village. The woodland fairies held dinner there every night at sunset. Ela found it to be a wonderful tradition and enjoyed participating.

Though Ela enjoyed the quaintness her forest home, she dreamed about moving to Quarrin, which she heard was powered by fairy magic. That meant electricity and running water instead of fires, candles, and wells. It sounded so luxurious to Ela. But she knew it was only a dream. That luxury was too exotic. She could ever belong there. Her place was here with the woodland fairies.

As she stood gazing at the shimmering starlight, lost in her own thoughts, Ela gradually noticed someone talking a few huts down. It sounded as though the voice came from the shaman’s hut. She could not tell who spoke, but she heard the words clearly.

"I’m serious, Shaman. I met a wolf shifter today who said that King Phoenix and Queen Ara are banishing all non-fairies from their kingdom and the ordering lands. Non-conformers will be jailed or executed.  Something about it being the only way to ‘purify’ the kingdom of non-fairy evil.  It didn’t make sense to me. I thought he was kidding!

He said the royal couple is supposed to lead a search party one week from tomorrow, and any non-fairies found during the search will be jailed or put to death. Anyone who wants to remain free — and, ultimately, alive — must flee the surrounding territories before the week’s end. I believe the shifter. It just... It doesn’t sound like the King and Queen. I don’t understand what’s happened, but something’s wrong.

The voices hushed, and Ela could hear nothing further.

The news gave Ela a sinking feeling in her stomach. The persecution, and possible extermination, of entire races just because they were non-fairy didn't sit right with her... This could become mass genocide.

She felt a strong impulse to do something... But what?

Ela went back inside the hut and settled into her cot in the corner. She didn't sleep for most of the night, weighing the possibilities.

Chapter 2

After a busy day helping Grandmother Aspen wrangle the village children in daycare, Ela was exhausted, and the sun was beginning to set. Still, she knocked on the door of the shaman’s hut at her first opportunity.

The short, stocky shaman answered the door with his spectacles sitting on the tip of his nose and wearing in a flowing gray cloak.

He didn’t look surprised to see her and gestured for her to enter.

As she stepped across the threshold she heard My queen! and realized the shaman was not alone. Someone immediately bowed to one knee upon her entrance.

Oh... No! she exclaimed, shaking her head. I’m no one’s queen. Please stand.

The man stood slowly, looking confused.

As he straightened, she noted he looked like her... A little taller than her with short brown hair, and bright green eyes... Human.

He wore a dark shirt, dark pants, and black cloak that fastened at his throat with a brooch that flickered orange like fire.

Peeking out from his cloak was a circular, bladed weapon that was attached to his belt by a loop; Ela had never seen anything like it before.

Something seemed faintly familiar about him, but she could not pinpoint what that was...

She glanced between the stranger and the shaman.

The shaman gestured between the two and said, Ela, meet Maddox. He is a mountain fairy knight. Maddox, this is Ela, a human one of our scouts discovered in the forest last year. She has no memory of crossing between realms.

Maddox shook his head. That’s because she didn’t cross realms. This is Queen Ara. I’d recognize her anywhere. I know my queen. Very well. This is her. I have no doubts.

Hmmm. Strange. The shaman looked thoughtfully between them, while Ela and Maddox stared at each other.

Ela found it hard to believe this man, Maddox, was a mountain fairy. He looked like her — human. Shouldn’t fairies be easy to distinguish from humans? She would know one of her own race, right?

Maddox, the shaman spoke, breaking the silent staring contest. How long have you been away from Quarrin?

"Almost two years, sir. I’m headed home from The Dragon Lands. I stopped here seeking refuge for tonight. I still have a full day’s walk tomorrow to reach the royal villa