UnKnown Lands: The Great Magnificient ESARF

By K.L. Frase

ESARF is a magical book who becomes sentient in Magidow, a land of powerful magic. ESARF determines he will save a newborn child from having her powers stolen by his not-so-nice master. To save her, ESARF develops the ability to fly, joins with a ghostly friend, and steals the child away to the UnKnown Lands, where magic is no longer thought to exist.

"UnKnown Lands" is a riveting fantasy adventure that captures the imagination and doesn't let it go. In a series of stories, ESARF quests throughout the UnKnown Lands and lends a hand to folks in need of help.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098348700

Book preview

Chapter 1: Saving Angel

Ow…Oww…Owwww…. I tried to scream in pain but found I could not make a sound. I was increasingly aware that I hurt. I had never hurt before. No matter what use I had been put to previously, I had never experienced pain.

Oh, I knew what pain in others made them look like and how some of them yelled while others suffered in silence. I had seen it frequently in the past years (centuries really). But this was the first time that I, myself, had suffered that particular feeling. I found I did NOT like it. Still, I did not let it stop me as I knew just how important and how urgent my task had become. I must stop the upcoming evil!

Why should I hurt? Why do I even know that I hurt? I am a book. I should not be able to feel pain. Why do I feel it then? I asked myself.

I have seen (and been involved in causing) pain in others so many times that I have trouble even remembering most of those instances. Now, after feeling pain for myself, I was glad that I did not truly understand their suffering.

Regardless of my pain, I could not stop. I knew that I must find a way to move about if I was to leave under my own power and fulfill my self-assigned task. Therefore, I continued the spell that was slowly and very agonizingly growing wings on my back cover.

I could feel the strange draw of strong materials slowly coming into my body to make me a version of bones. I did not know where the material was coming from, but I was glad that the magic was indeed working. Despite my doubts, I began to feel the pull as my back cover slowly stretched to cover the now magically completed structures.

I could not rise enough to look at what was happening to me, but I could feel the effects through every page of my being. Just imagine if you had hooks in your flesh that were dragging your resisting body forward along a path you did not wish to follow. That might be close to describing what I was silently suffering.

Even though I was currently invisible, it was likely a good thing that I did not have a mouth from which I could scream. Otherwise, I was sure that I would have been discovered from the noise I might have made. If I was to be discovered, I was sure I would have been stopped from leaving. And it was imperative that I leave within the week or I would fail to stop the upcoming evil being planned.

But I see some confusion on your face. Maybe I need to go further back, to the very beginning, so you can understand better.

When I had first developed sight so many years before, as I said before, I had been disappointed because the woman my master described looked almost normal to me. Nastilade’s spirit did not appear at all the way I had expected the spirit of an angel to look, based on definitions I had heard earlier. It had not taken me all that long to see that Nastilade was physically beautiful.

I could see that Nastilade’s spirit sparkled with the effects of her magic. I should have found it beautiful as well, but the colors in her aura always seemed jarring and turbulent. Still, it was quite some time, centuries in fact, before I discovered just how ugly she was.

The day I discovered the great evil Nastilade desired, my master gently carried me to my bed on his working table in his special room. Generally, only a few were ever even allowed inside his sanctuary. I was special, though, and had my own softly padded bed, an open stand really, to lie on. It allowed my master to open me to a desired page and I would rest both sides against my stand.

This way, I was able to stay in that position for hours at a time without harm or tiring so much that my pages might begin to flop over. The first few times I rested there after growing my eyes, I was able to secretly look around and see things that I never imagined existed. I found my world to be absolutely amazing!

As I was lying on my comfortable bed that specific day, preparing to take a short nap, my master’s lover entered the room. Just as I was fading off into a pleasant haze, I heard her start to talk about needing a renewal. A renewal of what?, I wondered.

Finding this more interesting than a nap, I began to listen more intently. I even managed to open a very small slit in my eye lids so that I could see just a tiny bit without anyone else noticing. I heard my master inquire about how soon she would need the treatment and whether she would like to use ESARF for the spell or if her own book had something to use. Now, I was really awake and listening. After all, I was thrilled to know that I would once again be central to a magical event. My excitement did not last long.

Nastilade, my master’s supposedly beautiful woman, responded that she first had to find a suitable baby with witch potential to use. My master said that he thought he had the perfect candidate, although the baby would have to be tested first to find out if her potential powers were enough or not. His lover asked if he could bring the girl here and he agreed.

I did not understand why they would need a baby or what use they planned to make of her. In fact, I had never seen a baby before; although, of course, I had heard the noises and cries of many of them. In those days, you really could not be a being with awareness without having heard such cries and children’s laughter many times.

I think that was one of the reasons why castle walls were made of very thick stone. It deafened the constant noise. I could not understand why anyone would even want a baby. And I most definitely did not think that my master’s lover ever wanted to be a mother. So, I was deeply puzzled.

As my master left the room, Nastilade approached and leafed through my pages until she arrived at her desired spell. Her touch always made me shiver in instinctive repulsion, and that day was no different. After reading one of my spells, Nastilade stretched and grimly smiled in satisfaction, murmuring that the brightest night would be only a little over a week away. She seemed delighted.

When she turned away, I began to read the spell for myself:

Ingredients:

1 newborn baby witch girl with powers of at least a scale of 8; must be less than one month in age

1 knife

1 needle and strong thread made of goat’s intestines

1 brightly moon lit night

Instructions:

Gently bathe the witch girl in the moon light, ensuring all parts are equally exposed. Quietly thank the girl for her sacrifice of her powers. With the knife, …

No. No! I did not read it further as I instantly comprehended what my master’s lover intended to do. And, I suddenly realized, my master was a willing accomplice to that horrible deed. It took me a few minutes to fully absorb the knowledge, the understanding, that my master was a bad man.

For the first time, I understood that some people are basically good, and some may be so dark in spirit that they are willing to bring great harm to the innocent young. I learned then that you may think one way about someone, until you know more of their secrets, but it is only by their actions that you can really judge the quality of their spirits.

I was devastated. I had not realized just how evil some people can become and to what depths of depravity they might be willing to go to further their own ambitions and life. I had thought my master a wonderful, kind and gentle person. Although I knew the child would still survive and have some type of existence left to her, I deeply abhorred the planned pillage of her powers and physical mutilation.

But I was just a book. True, one that could see and think for itself, but still just a book. What could anyone really expect from me? I asked myself. Nothing. There is nothing I can do, was my sullen response back to myself.

Just then my master reappeared, followed by a beautiful woman carrying an even more beautiful baby. Nastilade, he said, I have returned with Mangoia and her girl child, Novalei. I am sure you might wish to spend some time with them in the other room.

The baby girl glowed with her beauty. I could see that her magic strength and powers were to be stronger than any one I had ever met before. And I have met a lot of magic practitioners. Even though she was only a few days old, her eyes held the secrets of the stars and the sparkle of magic within their depths.

The instant that I saw Novalei with Mangoia, I knew that I had just seen the angel I had dreamed about. And in that same short time, I understood this was the child they planned to hurt to rob her birthright powers. In that exact moment in time, I vowed to stop the great evil being planned by my master and Nastilade. I would not let it happen! I just could not! I vowed I would find a way to protect Novalei, even if I was just a book.

When Novalei looked at me and fumblingly tried to reach out to me, I was lost. I knew that I just had to succeed in saving her from their terrible plans, not just because it would be saving a baby, but because it would be saving My Angel, who had instantly become part of my heart. My excuse of just being a book could not be allowed to stand. I would have to find a way. Silently, I sent the thought to her that we would be leaving soon. I would save her. Someway. Somehow.

Oddly, Novalei then became just a normal baby with her shine suddenly subdued beneath a shield of contentment. I knew that I could not allow myself to fail. I must succeed. I had to save My Angel from the fate so heinously planned. I started to plan as I watched Nastilade leave the room with my master, My Angel and her mother.

Later that night, I devised my plan to become invisible and thus became lost to the senses of my Master and his lover. Later, I searched and found a basic spell to build bones and hands and another one that enabled birds to fly farther and longer than most. With a little time and experimenting, I enacted my brand-new spell to grow the wings befitting of the dragonet skin I wore. I began to endure pain in what seemed like an unending torture that lasted for a solid three days before it finally ended. It is the first time I had endured pain and I shall always remember it.

Perhaps now, you can understand why, in my mind, my journey started with my enduring the agonizing pain described earlier. It was the point when my adventure moved from being just a vague plan in my mind to something real, something to be faced, a challenged to be overcome. It was the point where I truly realized that I would be leaving behind the only home I had ever known. It was the point when I recognized that, no matter what, saving Angel made anything I might go through worthwhile.

Once my pain finally receded, the first thing I did was stand up on my newly made wings and look in the mirror to examine my new appendages. I thought my new wings were rather large but at least the boney structure ended in a pair of functioning hands, one on each side. Hands which I felt would be greatly needed if I were to succeed in saving My Angel.

With three days gone, I still had much to figure out and do. I had little time to admire my new appearance. My problem was simple. How does a book, with untried wings and unfamiliar hands, spirit away a baby without causing harm?

I spent nearly the next entire day making one plan and then rejecting it. Making another and rejecting…over and over again. Until finally, I screamed mentally with frustration as I failed to come up with a plan I thought might work. To my surprise, I heard a voice say, What is wrong, my friend?

I looked up to find that it was Westlund Tugship talking. He was the castle ghost, or I should say, the nicest of the castle ghosts. Most of them were either too self-centered to talk to a lowly book, even the Great Magnificent ESARF, or were too twisted for me to want to be around.

For a ghost, Tug was kind. Oh, he still had times when he would do some mischief and I would hear howls of laughter or sometimes screams of WEST! You Pest! But he never actually hurt anyone, and he had a fun-loving personality. Once I found out that Tug did not like his nickname of West, I began to call him Tug which he seemed to like. Perhaps that was the reason he was my best friend. Well, actually, my only friend there.

Tug was as appalled by my explanation of what was being planned as I was. Perhaps even more, as he liked playing with My Angel, ever since she had arrived early one morning about a week before. Tug quickly agreed to help figure out an escape. Putting our heads together certainly made it easier to plan our escape.

Our first problem was how to distract my master and his lover. The only way we could think of was to have Mangoia pretend to run away while Tug and I would take My Angel a different way.

But how can we take a newborn in one direction while her mother goes in a different one? Wouldn’t we have trouble taking care of her? Tug asked.

I told him that a diversion like this would have to be only a day or so long and that I was confident we could manage My Angel by myself for such a short time. After all, I had my newly made wings and hands now. Surely, I could handle the simple needs of a newborn baby.

Tug reminded me that the baby’s name was Novalei and her mother’s name was Mangoia. But I told him that Novalei was, is, and always will be My Angel in my heart. He would have to forgive me if I forgot to call her by her given name and instead named her My Angel.

The next issue was how a ghost and a newly flying book would be able to carry off a child, even a small newborn weighing only a few pounds. Novalei still would weigh nearly as much as I did, and I most certainly would not be able to carry her very far before my wings and strength would give out.

After discussing several ideas and then rejecting them, I sighed, Maybe you could just possess a horseman or something! That would simplify things!

Tug was silent for a moment before first nodding and then shaking his head while saying That is a good idea, but I am not strong enough to possess a person for more than a few minutes at a time. The longest I have been able to possess something was a weasel, which I possessed for about a year. I could have gone on for years longer but abandoned it when I was distracted one day, and a fox caught me. I did not stay for the final moments but at least I kept the weasel from feeling anything.

Thinking that maybe we could use a horse or some other large animal, I asked, So, how big an animal could you possess for a fairly long time?

Tug thought about it