Character Interview
Interviewer: So, what are your names?
Guine: “Guine!” Just “Guine.”
Kari: Kari Kasente.
Interviewer: And…you’re not from Earth, right?
Guine: I...walk on earth, if that's what you mean? The ground? Most people do.
Kari: What is earth? Like…the land we’re on? I mean…I don’t know.
Interviewer: Right…right…okay. Thank you both for being here! If it’s okay, I’d like to ask you both a few questions. Get to know you.
Guine: Sure, why not? KARI never asks.
Kari: You don’t tell me anything when I do ask!
Interviewer: Let’s start off! So, uh…you’re from…Taris? Okay. And what are you both?
Guine: Why do people always ask me that…? I'm HUMAN, okay?
Kari: Because you’re so weird it’s questionable. I’m a wolf demon.
Interviewer: Interesting… What was a favorite place of yours to go when you were a child?
Guine: Couldn't say! I don't really have memories of being a kid.
Kari: There’s a field of flowers I loved going to, but it’s been a long time now…
Interviewer: What is your biggest secret?
Guine: I once hired some guys to paint Kari's bedroom green with glow-in-the-dark paint while I was out of town.
Kari: I KNEW that was you! It took Ari HOURS to get that off the walls!
Guine: And I enjoy imagining every second of it!
Kari: *growling*
Interviewer: SO! Are you still in touch with your family?
Guine: If you mean blood relatives, then no. Definitely not. For...a multitude of reasons.
Kari: They’re dead.
Interviewer: …Oh. Let’s try for a lighter question! Who is your oldest friend?
Guine: Valid question. Kari, are you older than Ari?
Kari: No. He was born in the warmer months.
Guine: So…I guess Ari?
Kari: *shrugging* He’s mine, too.
Interviewer: He sounds like a nice guy! And who don’t you trust?
Guine: Most people. Trust is earned, not given.
Kari: Agreed.
Interviewer: What is your biggest fear?
Guine: Well, it WAS that Kari would find out about the bedroom thing.
Kari: You’re sleeping somewhere else for the next month.
Guine: Come on!
Interviewer: Well, this was a very enlightening conversation! Thank you both for being here. Maybe we can do this again sometime?
Guine: Sure, why not?
Kari: You’d be better off inviting Ari. I’m no good at this stuff.
Guine: You can say that again…
Demon Storm
Book Six
Valerie Storm
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher: Shadow Spark Publishing
Date of Publication: 7/13/2024
ISBN: 978-1-956883-22-0
Number of pages: 416
Word Count: 102,166
Cover Artist: @Ginkahederling
Tagline: Cast into the hands of enemies old and new, Kari is losing her grip. Will she fall?
Book Description:
Wolf and demon born…under storm the land is torn.
Tendrils of darkness reach from the depths of her mind and shadows flicker around every corner. Still reeling from Raven’s horrific display of power, Kari suffers in silence.
When Guine finally returns with stories of a mirror that could help him with his problems, Kari finds herself hoping that maybe, just maybe, it could help with hers as well.
With the promise of a relatively straightforward outing, Kari, Ari, and Guine set forth to find the mirror.
But what they find beyond the looking-glass threatens not only Kari and her sanity, but also the world she loves.
Excerpt:
Suddenly a hand shot out of the wall
ahead of her, giving her no time to react or slow her pace as it grabbed her
shoulder. Kari pulled at the fingers, tugging at their grasp, trying to hurry.
She had to escape the damn water!
Lightning
sparked along her claws. She raised her hand to attack again, intending to cut
the fingers right off of her.
A familiar voice growled, “Do it
and we’re dead.”
Kari
froze long enough for the hand to pull her straight into the wall. She stumbled
through and fell face-first on something hard and cool.
Groaning, she rolled onto her
back and looked up into the sweat-dotted, strained, and frowning face of Guine.
Above him hung a ceiling of some kind of jagged, translucent, blue rock.
“Why
did you stop?” he demanded rather angrily. “I said we had to keep moving,
didn’t I?”
For
a moment Kari thought she was still waiting for the water to overtake her. That
filthy, disgusting-smelling, murky water. Slowly she realized they had changed
locations again; now they were in some sort of cavern. Completely dry and
relatively safe, at least for the moment.
Kari jumped up and bared her
teeth at Guine. “You didn’t say if I stopped that would happen!”
“Why would I say, ‘don’t stop’ if
that wasn’t a vitally important thing to do?!”
“You’re often unclear and
exaggerate!” she snapped back.
They
glared at each other for a long time. He was mad, but she was madder. He had
not been very upfront with her about this wretched maze, and that enraged her.
She did not need the Catalyst to fuel her anger; her heart thrummed against her
ribs, taking all of her breath with it, and it had not stopped since that first
room.
The
danger here was real, and yet intangible. She had faced so many people who
wanted her dead, or worse. But this place would kill her at the slightest
mistake.
Finally,
Guine sighed, his face relaxing into exhaustion. He turned away from her.
“It
doesn’t matter now. It’s done. But now…now we face a problem.”
The
walls were just like the ceiling, seemingly made of something crystalline.
Ahead of her, she could see an opening in the circular room.
“What
problem? Besides being in this yutemi you’ve created, that is.”
Guine
chose to ignore her snappy tone. “We got off-track. Things will change now. I
can find the way since I did make this as an option, but now it will take us
longer.”
Kari’s
gaze slowly trailed back to him. He’d said…what? Two or three days? Without
food.
Now
it would take longer?
“Just
how much longer are you talking about, Guine?” Kari hissed.
He
shrugged, not quite nonchalant, but rather resigned. “Maybe tack on a week. At
the very least.”
Kari’s
mouth dried. Already her stomach rumbled; now that the adrenaline had passed
through her system, she was hungry. She wasn’t stupid. She knew her body would
be capable of going quite a long time without sustenance, but that long? And
what of their water supply?
She
felt for the bag, but her fingers were too numb to reach inside for the
waterskin. The cavern suddenly seemed very small.
“Guine…”
“Thirst
will not be a real issue,” Guine said as if he had read her mind. “When I
designed this way, I made a room for myself so that I could survive if I
slipped up. There will be a room ahead that provides fresh, drinkable water.
Hopefully, we can store enough to last us the rest of the time if we ration
it.”
“And
what about food?”
He
hesitated. “The room…also has a solution for that. For humans. There’s no way
we could know it would work for you, or at the very least not kill you.”
Kari
stared past him. The only exit out of the cavern they were in was a single
tunnel that turned sharply into darkness.
“I
will not die in here, Guine.”
“I
don’t intend for you to,” he said wearily. “But if things were serious at all
to you before, it’s worse now.” He walked to one of the walls and sat down. “We
should rest before we go on. Exhaustion and stress make the mind do stupid
things.”
Kari
didn’t move. She thought of a time long ago when she had left behind Snow
Shade. Then she had perhaps gone a day or so without a real meal. It was like
torture to her, weakening her body and senses until she had come across
something to eat.
She
could have adjusted to the idea of three days with no food. But more than a
week?
Valerie Storm was raised in Tucson, Arizona. Growing up, she fell in love with everything fantasy. When she wasn’t playing video games, she was writing. By age ten, she began to write her own stories as a way to escape reality. When these stories became a full-length series, she considered the path to sharing with other children & children-at/heart looking for a place to call home.
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