What is? The paperback edition of my book, Chronicles of Riss: Adventures in Sorcery, that’s what! After debating it for a while, I finally decided to have a paperback version of this short story collection. And now it’s here and Chronicles of Riss is no longer only available as an ebook. Now, those of you who prefer to hold an actual book in your hand to read instead of an e-reader can enjoy this book full of fun, fantastical adventures.
Confronting evil sorcerers. Fighting monsters. Dueling metal golems. Searching for a sea monster. Hunting lost treasure. Finding a missing show dog. Competing in talent contests. Helping lost children. These are just some of the widely varied exploits that the young mercenary sorceress Marissa “Riss” Cobalt shares in this second Adventures in Sorcery book. Riss reveals how she ended up as a mercenary and chronicles some of the many adventures, ranging from fun to serious, that she’s had prior to the events of Kismet and Tell.
Humphrey crouched between a couple of bushes, staring warily out at the crowded street. The small, young black cat watched as a group of noisy people walked up to a house with their children in tow and knocked on a door, then left after a moment to go to another house and do the same thing. At least he assumed they were children. They were wearing strange clothing, some of it scary. He didn’t know what was going on. And many of the houses looked different, too, with a lot of strange and frightening decorations.
The sound of soft footsteps in the grass startled him, and he nearly bolted from his hiding spot, but then he heard a familiar voice call his name, and he calmed down. He crept out of the bushes.
“Lily, Jasper,” he said to the two cats approaching him. “Am I glad to see you. It’s crazy out here and…” His yellow eyes grew large. “What are you wearing?” he asked. “And why are you wearing it?”
“Hi, Humphrey,” Jasper, a silver tabby cat said. “We finally managed to get away from our humans and were wondering where you were. It really is a crazy night. I still can’t believe our humans did this to us. Though I suppose they could have picked worse costumes for us.”
“Costumes?” Humphrey asked.
“Oh, yeah. I forgot. You’re still young and aren’t familiar with this. Ok, so, look. This usually happens this time of year. It’s something called Halloween. Humans will decorate their houses so they look scary. They also like to dress up in costumes to look like other people or monsters or whatever, and they dress up their children and take them door to door to get free candy and stuff. And some of them, like our humans, like to dress us cats up, too. We fight it as much as we can, though.”
“But sometimes, we will reluctantly go along with it,” Lily, the shorthaired calico, added. “Especially if the costume isn’t too embarrassing.”
“Like mine,” said Jasper. “The black cloak and blood-red medallion I’m wearing mean I’m dressed up as a vampire. That’s a respectable costume for a cat to wear, wouldn’t you say?”
“I suppose so,” Humphrey replied.
“Well, what about my costume?” Lily asked. “I’d say it’s rather respectable, too.”
“What is it?” Jasper asked.
“Well, I’m some sort of a warrior princess, obviously,” Lily said proudly. “Don’t you see my purple tiara? And the silver thing my human draped across my back? I think she called it a….cruper? It’s some sort of armor, I think. Anyway, I think it’s a rather great costume. I don’t know why she kept calling me Donut, though, as she was dressing me up. She knows my name is Lily. And I really don’t understand why she kept calling things outrageous.”
Jasper and Humphrey exchanged looks. “Sure. It’s a great costume, Lily.” Jasper said.
Lily sat proudly.
Just then, another black cat walked up to them. “Ah, here you all are,” he said, sitting down beside Lily. “Sorry I’m late. I just managed to get away from my silly human.”
“Hi, Salem,” Lily said. “We were just telling young Humphrey all about Halloween and our costumes.”
Salem looked at Jasper and Lily. “Well, you two are certainly lucky. Your vampire and princess costumes are great ones for cats to wear. My human decided to be funny this year. Just look at what he put on me!”
Jasper, Lily, and Humphrey laughed at the sight of the older black cat wearing a black spider costume.
This post is part of the Stream of Consciousness Saturday post, “costume’:
