Genre: Upper-Middle-Grade Fantasy
Title: Valkia's Gift
Word Count: 48,000
Hero: Wolverine, Dean is a loner who only learns to make and keep lasting friendships during the course of the novel.
Pitch: In the skies, WW2 fighter planes duel dragons. On the ground, Dean and friends must rescue the dragon eggs to prevent all-out war. But if Dean returns with the eggs, he’ll be imprisoned forever.
250:
Hunger
A wide range of odors clashed violently inside Dean Emry’s nose as he peered out from behind a wall of garbage cans. A faint whiff of hot sausages brought a flood of saliva to his mouth in spite of the stench.
The dwarf with the food cart took his flat cap off and gave his balding scalp a scratch. He kept a keen eye for thieves and one hand on a baseball bat whenever he wasn’t serving a customer. “Get yer red-hot frankfurters here! Only five cents!” He twisted sharply to glare in Dean’s direction as though he could see the boy’s hungry eyes peeping between the cans.
Dean froze and waited until the dwarf returned to business.
Animated neon signs, blue, pink, and green bathed the busy New York street casting multi-hued shadows that danced to a wild, unearthly rhythm.
It was going on midnight, but a steady flow of pedestrians still filtered by, mostly bound for the nearby Canal Street subway station. Many were human, but not all.
Dean’s muscles cramped as he crouched and waited for a good distraction.
A massive ogress trundled toward them, singing drunkenly to herself. Seven dwarves headed the other way nervously clustered together, as if numbers would make up for size. She laughed uproariously and sang out, “Heigh ho li’l dwarfies, off to work you go!”
The lead dwarf wagged his finger as they wove around her. “That film is not an accurate representation of my people!
The Trio
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