Noah's Quest

By Sev Emanuel Pretila

In a strange land where magic is found everywhere, peace and balance prevail until a king and a queen become corrupted by their thirst for power and begin to threaten it all. This leads a young boy to a quest.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ALPJ and Sons
• Release date: Aug 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9780645272703

Sev Emanuel Pretila

Sev Emanuel Pretila was only eleven when he wrote the original version of this book, which he initially called "Nandi's Quest." The manuscript would have remained hidden until his baby brother - Noah, the namesake of the piece's main character - was born, and inspired everyone in the family to finally share it to the world.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

Under the scorching heat of the sun, a dry blade of grass lies on the earth. It seems highly insignificant, although it is the only thing that is not real dirt on that spot in the light-brown path. It remains unnoticed for quite a while. The animals and insects around seem to not mind it at all. It blends in with the green grass and the splash of white, yellow, and purple flowers that line up the sides of the trail it is in.

Each time the soft breeze blows, the blade flutters a bit. Still, it goes back flat again thereafter. It remains untouched.

In fact, the grass blade has always stayed there on that same spot. The last time it has been anywhere else was when it was still part of a sturdy grass, and now it no longer is for a mysterious reason. It is unbothered by that, though. It is right where it should be.

The afternoon seems like any other normal sunny one since the summer started. Until suddenly, a wren appears from nowhere. The bird’s feathers were blue, but they have become brown.

What has happened? Faerie, the wren, mutters to herself. This isn’t right. Where am I? Wherever I am and whatever has just happened, I should do what I’m really here for.

She then hops towards the middle of the path where the lighter-coloured grass blade is.

Oops! That was quite hot! She exclaims as her claws touched the ground. I still need to do this. I can do this. As quickly as she can, she then picks up the grass blade and examines it. Hmmm… This looks good enough for our nest. My husband will be so proud of me when I bring this home.

Looking at the horizon, she thinks about the people who have been using that trail each and every day. Today, just like any other hot day, nobody from the nearby village looks interested in being burnt though.

She also knows that there is an enchanted place at the other end of the trail. There have been some points in time that she didn’t believe those stories before. However, seeing how her wings turn from blue into brown as she goes down the path, she is now more inclined to believe that the tales are all so true.

She has lived in that huge tree in the southern end of the prairie for a long while now. She has always been there all her life. She has seen the trees transformed from green into different shades of yellow, red, and purple in autumn. She has already survived eight winters – something that she is proud of but could really perplex even the most well-read avian scholars. Spring is her favourite season. Now that it is summer, the smell of fresh grass fills the pure air while bees and blue butterflies seek the sweet-scented honeysuckles and wild thymes. Who wouldn’t want that?

She and her brood are not alone. Her fellow small birds and other creatures have always found her place comfortable to live in, too. Some flocks even come from the north during winter, and then they just go back to their usual homes to breed right after.

In those encounters with visiting birds, she has learned a lot. From the larger ones that migrate across oceans and continents, she has heard so many interesting stories. The completely different environments that the other birds come from never fail to amaze her.

However, that doesn’t mean she has no tales of her own to tell. She has every reason to be thankful to be in this land she is in. There are some things that she still can’t explain about it all, but there’s one thing she is sure of. Hers is an extraordinary land – one that isn’t like any other.

Her sense of pride is not because of that nearby peculiar village’s market where all sorts of food and craft get sold. People there also tend to be too loud for her and her fellow creatures of the prairie. The good thing is that, for thousands of years, humans, gnomes, elves, and other magical beings have always lived