Ariel Slick writes original fiction including short stories, novels, and memoirs to spread the joy of imagination and creativity. She also helps clients achieve their fiction writing goals with her ghostwriting skills on Upwork.com and Guru.com. Although she has  worked as a freelancer for three years, she has been dedicated to the craft all her life. Her fiction focuses on themes of love, justice, and magic, and her most popular works include romance and fantasy romance. 

What would make a girl, terrified of everything, go into the woods? Knights chasing after her, for starters. All Elaine wants is to stay in her small village forever, baking bread with her family. All that changes when she discovers that she is one of seven girls with the gift of magic. Elaine must leave behind her family and flee into the deep, dark woods where anything and everything can happen. Only guided by a talking fox, who may not be who he says on the surface, Elaine battles thieves, murderous plants, and magical creatures of all sorts. She will discover her powers and why they matter: to dethrone the evil king.  Will she be brave enough to embrace her powers?

Valient

Elaine stared at the small frog in front of her. It was rather large, more like a toad the size of her fist, with dark green and brown markings to its skin. She looked around and saw her house standing to one side, and she could hear the familiar babble of the river. The air was hot, and the sun strong, shining down on top of her head, beating at her. The frog only stared back at her, its eyes like two tiny black pebbles in its face. 


It croaked, and Elaine jumped back, for it was far louder than anything a normal frog might emit. She took a step back, feeling the soft, springy grass beneath her bare feet. Everything seemed a little too sharp: the sun was just a little too hot, the light reflecting off the river too bright, and each blade of grass and each leaf stood in stark relief to everything else around it. 


Chapter 33