Hot Dam - Original Prologue · 3:54pm Sep 3rd, 2016
Thought I'd put this up for Posterity's sake, whoever Posterity is.
The forest was on fire and it wasn’t my fault.
No seriously it wasn’t my fault.
You have no idea how good it is to say that and not feel like I’m bending the truth into my own personal corkscrew for a change.
Okay so maybe running for my life from a fire-breathing behemoth of a reptile through the winter wastes had something to do with it but that wasn’t my fault, anyone would have run when the other option was to be char-broiled.
Maybe I should give some context here.
My Name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, and I’m a wizard. Don’t snort in disbelief, I’m being serious, I’m in the yellow pages and everything. When the things that go bump in the night decide that mortal-kind has gone on long enough without living in terror of the shadows (so every five seconds, give or take five seconds), I’m the one that gets called in to pick up the pieces, find the slimy bastard that thinks mortals are suitable hor-d’oeuvres, and remind them why that’s a bad idea.
It doesn’t help that Chicago, one of the world’s great crossroads, and the place where I keep my stuff, is home to enough nasties that they’re starting to spill out into the light.
And that’s before my job as the White Council’s Regional Warden Commander of the eastern United States.
Which was the reason I was here in the first place, what with the brainwashing of Luccio, and the events surrounding Morgan’s death every warden was being dragged to the Hidden Halls of the White Council to complete what I had taken to calling ‘Brain Training 101’, and despite my best efforts at resisting the call, even I had to give in to my master asking nicely.
A quiet word to Murphy to look after my apartment, and more importantly Mouse and Mister, the oversized dog and cat that I called pets while I was gone for the weeklong mental primer, a goodbye to Thomas, a quick beer with Michael, a check in on Billy and the other alphas to let them know I wasn’t gonna make this week’s session, and I was good to go, precisely when I meant to.
I had only just broken the borders of winter, maybe an hour out from headquarters when everything went wrong.
I could hear trees creaking and cracking as my pursuer followed me, blooms of heat wafting over my back as I sprinted through the densely packed thicket, dodging low hanging branches, vaulting fallen logs, and barrelling through foliage like a freight train made of adrenaline and terror.
“Little morsel, you cannot hope to escape” the rumbling voice of the whateveritwas that chasing me almost caused me to stumble as the earth shook beneath me and not for the first time I cursed my decision to pack lightly for this jaunt, all I had was my staff, blasting rod, force-rings, enchanted duster, .44 magnum, a half empty box of ammo, and my wits. Yeah sure to anyone else that’s packing for bear, but given the paths my life had been wandering down recently I was beginning to think I should just get myself a nice tank or a Rocket Launcher, something subtle.
The shaking of the earth dragged me out of my thoughts as I cannoned out of the thicket, the snow on the ground ending with the sort of immediacy that you could only see in the Nevernever, finding myself on an idyllic, sunlight hillside; the stark transition making me throw an arm over my eyes as I attempted to shield them from the sudden and drastic change in light.
Another rumbling footfall and the sound of more trees crashing to the ground brought my focus back almost immediately, and I pushed myself back into a sprint up the slope, throwing my senses out for a safe exit or failing that, any path back to earth. I didn’t want to escape this whateveritwas only to tumble headfirst into an even worse dilemma, regardless of what all my experience had taught me would happen anyway.
I barely crested the hill before the sound of trees being crushed underfoot ended and I heard the low, rumbling chuckle as another wave of heat broke against my back.
“Oh mortal wizard, you cannot run from me, your power shall make quite a snack”
“Stars and stones” I cursed softly as I scrambled down the other side of the hill, I could feel the skin on the back of my neck scorching slightly as my searching grew only more frantic as small groups of pebbles followed me in my barely controlled descent, spurred into motion by the footfalls of my hunter.
It was one of these pebbles, apparently incensed that I had made it leave it home of centuries, that was my undoing; as it rolled under my boot and sent me crashing to the ground. The rest of my descent was made in the same way as the small avalanche, rocky, uncontrolled and painful.
Luckily I was wearing my duster which protected me from getting a cracked rib, or a broken hip.
Pretty certain I still got a black eye from one particularly vindictive stone that landed straight on my face as I lay at the bottom of the hill, beaten, battered, and gasping for breath, staring up at the top of the hill as my lungs burned and my legs trembled from exertion.
I watched as oily black smoke cascaded over the top of the hill, broken only by a pair of eyes that looked down on me with the intensity of the desert sun.
“And so the chase ends little wizard” was the only warning I got before a bloom of fire raced down the hill towards me, heat scorching the ground black.
Anything was better than dying.
“Aparturum!” I screamed as I rolled to the side, tearing open a portal between the Nevernever and whatever lay on the other side, and hurled myself through it while Dragonfire licked at my heels.
You can see the tracing lines from Psychicscubadiver's Dresden Fillies: Strange Friends prologue, although Harry was going to pop out right on top of a mane 6 picnic in a burst of flame, rather than almost "burning" down Twilight's library.
Oh, good idea.
Yeah, the creepy fae version is better overall. Less cliche and more believable, imo.
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You, and my pre-readers agree, see the original notes for this had the creepy Fae who stopped Harry, tense standoff, BAM!!! dragon from nowhere, chase scene, escape to Equestria, into what was hinted to be the palace of Friendship, but that got way too long for a prologue. So I compressed it into what you see here.
Still, I miss a couple of lines from this version; the vengeful pebble, and Harry's desire for a subtle tank or rocket launcher.