Fallon Excerpt

Hi folks!! As I've mentioned, I will occasionally post excerpts from my fantasy novel, Fallon.

This excerpt comes from chapter 4, so it's still fairly early in the book.

I hope you all enjoy!! And please feel free to ask questions in the comments 🖤
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Ianthe had never been particularly angry at the prince, even when he’d hurled some rather choice insults at her the last night they spoke. She’d learned at a very young age growing up with six brothers that reacting harshly in return only ended up worse for her. And if anything, she was surprised that he had enough backbone to attempt standing up to her and was grateful he didn’t have quite enough to realize her threats were close to empty.

But she’d let him think she was angry to keep him from doing anything too rash, and so far, it seemed to be working. It was a risk to let him go into the forest so often, she knew he’d figure out the tricks sooner or later, but it kept him busy, and allowed her time to talk to Cassian more as well as begin to set her plan in motion back in the human realm. Unfortunately, aside from casual conversation, her brother didn’t want to talk about her questions much these days. He just kept smiling serenely and telling her to read the book he’d already given her.

So far, she hadn’t. And her motivation to do so was hardly existent. But with the prince so quiet these days, and her thoughts about the book and what exactly she was looking to accomplish by kidnapping Prince Kieran as loud as an ocean storm, she had to find something to occupy her time.

About two weeks after their little disagreement, on a day warm and pleasant, the water of the lake lulling softly back and forth, Ianthe pulled out the red tome, plopped herself down by the lakeshore, and began to leaf through the stories her father used to read to her and her siblings as a child. Nothing much caught her attention, it all seemed uninterestingly familiar. There was the story of the White Horn fighting a mountain troll, and the story of the first ball held between the humans and the dragons during the time of peace. There were fables about being honest, and parables about humbling oneself, but for all the skimming Ianthe was doing, nothing seemed relevant to revealing why her family had this extra bit of magic in their blood.

Towards the end of the book, there was one story Ianthe didn’t recall. She read through the first few lines, but nothing shook loose from her memory. It seemed to be another short story, but this one seemed…specific. They called the White Horn by name, Coatl, which was highly unusual for a White Horn story. White Horn was a title, it could be applied to anyone who was chosen for the position. To name a specific White Horn meant that they were incredibly important to dragon society as a whole – and yet Ianthe had never heard the name anywhere else.

Ianthe’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by someone clearing his throat, and she startled a bit, slamming the book closed before looking up at the prince’s sheepish expression. “What do you want?”

She watched him stumble over his words a bit, his deep voice catching in a rather amusing, high-pitched way, before he cleared his throat again. “I…think we got off on the wrong foot.”

Ianthe raised a scaly brow. “Oh?”

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Fallon was sure it didn’t seem upset, that was a good sign. Yet for all the time he’d spent rehearsing what he’d say in his head, his nerves were eating away at every word. “Uhm. Yes. Yes. I…said some things that were rather unpleasant as well. I just—”

“Are all humans like this?” he watched the dragon’s gaze fill with something not wholly unpleasant.

Fallon couldn’t help but let out a small, nervous chuckle. “Like what?”

“Terrible at conversation?”

The prince sighed more in relief than in exasperation. “I guess that depends on who you ask.”

This time he watched the dragon make a noise quite like a chuckle, and the prince felt the boulder of awkwardness begin to roll off his shoulders.

But they said nothing else for several moments, Fallon’s nerves once against scratching at the back of his throat. He cleared it again, but the dragon didn’t give him a chance to speak. “You have questions,” it remarked.

“So many,” he admitted in a rush. When he heard it say nothing more, he went on. “I…don’t know where to begin. I don’t know what I’m allowed to ask, or what you’re allowed to answer. I don’t…know.”

“Well, you can ask me about anything you want. That does not mean I will answer.”

Fallon drew his lips together in a tight line and nodded. “Okay. Well,” he took a seat in front of the dragon by the lakeside. “I suppose my first question is that dragons read.”

“That’s not a question.”

“Uh no,” he laughed awkwardly. “I mean…do all dragons read?”
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Let me know what you lovelies think in the comments!! Thanks for reading if you did 🥰🖤