Excerpt from A Goddess Awakens

October 4, 2020 by jowensauthor 2 Comments

I haven’t been working on my WIP book for a good long while. I’ve been wanting to get back to it, but one thing or another has kept me from it – life in general, maybe some procrastination, …  

Anyway, I’m hoping to start getting back to working on it soon, and thought I’d share a small snippet from it, both for you all to enjoy and as a way to try to get me more motivated. So here’s the last bit that I’ve written on my WIP, A Goddess Awakens:

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Althea met Raven, Tarn, and Wren for breakfast in the dining area of the Golden Crown Inn. She had slept fitfully, her worry over Loren’s visit to the elves keeping her awake until the early hours and then invading her dreams. She was relieved, though, that her dreams had been free of Aerith for a change. 

The priest and two mages had secured a table at the far end of the dining room and had already ordered breakfast by the time she’d arrived. Althea tried to stifle a yawn as she took a seat across from Tarn and reached for a piece of toast and jam.

“Long night?” Tarn commented.

“I didn’t sleep well.”

“It wasn’t Aerith, was it?” he asked with concern, given the goddess’s growing attempts to take control of the swordswoman.

Althea shook her head and took a bite of toast. “No. She actually left me alone.”

“It was Loren, wasn’t it?” Raven said knowingly. “You were worried about him.”

“Yes. I can’t stop thinking about him going to visit the elves alone, after what he said about how they might react to him. I even had a nightmare about it.”

“At least Aerith wasn’t influencing you or anything, though,” said Wren. “That’s good, isn’t it?”

“It was a nice having a normal nightmare for a change and not having her even show up in a dream, let alone try to use a dream to control me.”

Tarn tried to hide a worried look by stuffing a piece of toast in his mouth, but Raven noticed and frowned slightly. Aerith’s influence on Althea had been steadily growing, and she reportedly had been appearing in her dreams, at the very least, almost nightly. Yet now she didn’t show up at all? That didn’t sound all that good to the mage, and apparently not to the priest either. The goddess may be up to something, possibly about to try something new to control Althea, Raven reasoned as she stared into her cup of hot tea with a small frown that went unnoticed by the others.

“I just hope Loren will be okay,” Althea said softly as she lifted her mug of tea to take a sip. “I wish I could have gone with him. We’ve been partners for so long and have been through so much together, it feels strange for me to be left behind while he goes off to do something potentially dangerous.”

“I’m sure Loren will be fine,” Wren said as she grabbed a piece of toast from the central plate on the table. “He’s an elf. He knows what to expect and what to do, and can take care of himself. And Anju is with him. Don’t worry so much. He’ll be back with us in no time.”

“You’re right, Wren,” Althea said with a small smile of gratitude as she took another piece of toast. “I guess I am worrying too much. Thanks.”

The sound of heavy footsteps running into the dining room and an anxious voice calling Althea’s name grabbed the group’s attention, as well as the attention of everyone else in the crowded room.