;;Excerpt: Broken Spectrum;;

The sea lapped up, slowly but steadily eating away at the shoreline, gently edging it's way up the sloping sands towards the grassy bank. The sand gradually petered out as you move away from the sea, grass spreading for miles and miles before you. Valleys slowly open up before you, mountains rising up on either side of them, a blue river meandering it's way through the valley, white crowns sitting atop the peaks looking down at the fast flowing river.

As you follow the river further inland cities and town begin to spring up on it's shores and the shores of it's tributaries. The hustle and bustle of the market, the rise and fall of the architecture, the mighty spires of the many churches and cathedrals. Mirrored by low domes of the many community buildings that lined the streets of cities.

In the heart of the city a spire rose up and up, an endless spiral up to the point at the top, a railing running all the way up the spiral, at the level below the top, a balcony juts out from it, a lone man stand at the balcony staring out across the city, he stared and stared, taking in the sights and sounds of the city.

Small eddies of breeze gently picked at his tunic as he stood upon the balcony, he shivered, partly from cold and partly from anticipation, he smiled and unclenched his fist from his side, gently lifting it, as he lifted a small amount of flame leapt from it, a ball of fire gently sitting in his hand, warming and comforting him. He stared down at the ball of fire, a smile spreading across his face. Soon it would be over, soon all the hard work would pay of, it had been worth it, hadn't it?

He sighed and extinguished the flame by clenching his fist, he sighed again and turned away from the balcony retreating into his own chamber.

Down on the streets there was nothing but hustle and bustle, women and men haggling and bartering, selling their wares for the best price possible. Various threats of intimidation and bribes passed from one person to another. The flicker of flames, a slight gust of wind, all used to people's advantage in their trading. This in itself was what made the city so special, a gathering of people from all of the seven tribes.

The land had always been split into the seven tribes, the land of fire, the land of air, the land of water, the land of metal, the land of lightning, the land of water and the land of flesh. Each tribe possessing power over the element that gave name to their respective land. Only when all these tribes co-existed could there be harmony, yet there would always be conflict, as it was conflict that kept the seven tribes separate, and formed the peace and prosperity of the whole land.

Yet there were those who sought to conquer all the lands, to stop the equality and harmony that the combined elements could bring and sought only to conquer and control.

At the time of this tales beginning there was a boy to whom all of this was not special, nor meaningful, it simply was. The facts of life, something merely to be lived with. Nor did he realise that that the simple power of water that he controlled would lead him to have as many adventures as he did. No he realised none of this as he sat with a pile of arrow shafts, slowly and steadily working through the pile attaching heads and feathers to them.

Jason wrote:Sounding good bren,

You posting mabye a whole chapter soon?

Brendan wrote:This is the start of something I'm writing, it isn't that great but I'm fairly happy with it for a first draft.

The sea lapped up, slowly but steadily eating away at the shoreline, gently edging it's way up the sloping sands towards the grassy bank. The sand graddually peetered out as you move away from the sea, grass spreading for miles and miles before you. Valleys slowly open up before you, mountains rising up on either side of them, a blue river meandering it's way through the valley, white crowns sitting atop the peaks looking down at the fast flowing river.

As you follow the river further inland cities and town begin to spring up on it's shores and the shores of it's tributaries. The hustle and bustle of the market, the rise and fall of the architecture, the mighty spires of the many churches and cathedrals. Mirrored by low domes of the many community buildings that lined the streets of cities.

Here's a little bit more you greedy people

In the heart of the city a spire rose up and up, an endless spiral up to the point at the top, a railling running all the way up the spiral, at the level below the top a balcony juts out from it, a lone man stand at the balcony staring out across the city, he stared and stared, taking in the sights and sounds of the city.

Small eddies of breeze gently picked at his tunic as he stood upon the balcony, he shivered, partly from cold and partly from anticipation, he smiled and unclenched his fist from his side, gently lifting it, as he lifted a small amount of flame lept from it, a ball of fire gently sitting in his hand, warming and comforting him. He stared down at the balle of fire, a smile spreading across his face. Soon it would be over, soon all the hard work would pay of, it had been worth it, hadn't it?

Tell me what you think and how I could improve it.