Page 1 of Dreaming of His Omega
Chapter One
Sunlight filtered through the trees as two men walked through the woods together. One paused and reached up a hand to cup a bud at the end of a tree branch.
“You can tell it’s nearly summer,” he said. Beneath his hand, the bud blossomed, opening into a beautiful flower.
“My favorite time of year,” said his companion. As he spoke, he gently lifted a fallen vine back into place. He waited patiently as it curled securely around a branch.
“Is it?”
“Of course. That’s when I met you, Elarian, my love.”
Elarian chuckled and playfully elbowed the taller man. “You’re just saying that because I mentioned making strawberry pie,” he teased.
Traviel shrugged innocently. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
At first glance, you wouldn’t know the pair were elves. They were, in fact, both wood elves; not much taller than the average human. Both kept their brown hair short. A closer look revealed an ethereal twinkle in their eyes – Elarian’s brown and Traviel’s blue – and a gradual point at the tips of their ears.
Of course, if you saw them using their innate abilities to control plant-life, you’d know right away what they were.
They lived in the little town of Elfwood
That’s a stupid name. Elfforest? Elforest with 1 f?
Possible Town Names:
Elfwood --- Elvenwood?
Forest ---
Mount
~~***~~~
As I sat, contemplating a good name for Traviel and Elarian’s home, my laptop went dark.
“Crap!” I tapped frantically on the keyboard, but knew the battery was dead. I was so absorbed in my latest chapter that I forgot to plug it in after dismissing the low battery warning.
I groaned and sat back, pissed, but with only myself to blame. When was the last time I saved? My bootleg program didn’t have a reliable auto-save, so it was possible that I just lost a ton of my book.
And, I realized with another groan, I had a couple of documents for work open too. “Work” was whatever crummy freelance writing I could find. Neither blog post I was drafting was particularly interesting, nor did they pay well. If I had to write both from scratch again it wouldn’t be worth my time. Then again, it wasn’t as if I didn’t need the money. Writing was my passion though, and I’d never make it as an author if I couldn’t build a portfolio. Maybe, someday, I’d publish my elf stories instead…
Once upon a time, Traviel was my Dungeons and Dragons character. I practiced my writing by making short stories out of his adventures after I played. I didn’t play anymore, but I couldn’t let Traviel go. As the years went by, he evolved into a fantasy version of me. After a bad breakup, I created Elarian so that at least one of us had a successful love life. Now, instead of raiding dungeons, Traviel lived a blissful domestic life with Elarian. Their adventures now were just silly escapades that I jotted down. And, admittedly, sometimes R-rated.
My latest, and now potentially lost, story was a tryst in the woods of… Well, I hadn’t named their home yet. Good thing I didn’t lose any good ideas. I dug around in my backpack until I found my charger. While my laptop chugged back to life, I made my way over to the counter.
“Hey Cam,” I said to the barista.
“Another coffee, Travis?” he asked. Without waiting for me to nod, he turned and started pouring me a fresh cup.
The shop was my home-away-from-home. Mainly because my home was a run-down apartment. My heat was on the fritz, not that my landlord could be bothered to fix it. I stayed because it was the only place I could afford, even then, it was because I cut my rent down by writing essays for the landlord’s son. Not my finest hour, but I needed the break. Even with that rent reduction, I couldn’t afford wi-fi. If I wanted to find any online freelance gigs, the little coffee shop was my best choice. They didn’t have a time limit on how long I could sit, and the coffee came with free refills, as long as it was just plain coffee.
Cambry added a couple squirts of vanilla and handed it to me with a wink. He owned the shop, so I didn’t argue. I just smiled at him in thanks and headed back to my table.
I wasn’t in the mood to see how much work was lost, so instead I opened a browser, intending to see if any new gigs were available to claim for some quick cash. I idly tapped my fingers on the keyboard.
“Hey, Eric!” Cambry said. “How’s Vale Valley?”
My ears perked up.Vale Valley!I mouthed the words. Oh, it was perfect! It rolled off the tongue and called to mind images of a somewhat mysterious – dare I say, magical? – place. I immediately typed it into Google to make sure it wasn’t already in a million books. To my surprise, hardly anything came up. Not even a map. Maybe I heard him wrong. Not that it mattered. As far as I was concerned, Traviel and Elarian’s town had a name now.
