The Return – New Beginnings
Fiction
Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic
The world, as we knew it, ended in the blink of an eye when they returned, bringing with them destruction, chaos, and magic. What would you do if you were given magic with no instructions? Could you keep your humanity? With the help of old friends and new, can this group of average and now not-so-average people use their newfound gifts to save not only themselves but also some of the new beings that are popping up all over the place like, well, like magic? And save humanity as a whole? Can this group impress them enough to save everyone while learning as they go, knowing that the deck is stacked against them?
About L.M. Morse
I live and work in Fort Smith, surrounded by friends and family that think I'm just a little crazy. They all support me anyway. I'm very grateful to them for it.
Excerpt from The Return – New Beginnings
He says, "State your business." in a very demanding tone.
Now as we had been standing there waiting for someone to come out and either make demands or just ask us what we wanted, A large number of local wildlife had come up and joined us, then they started milling around us. The skunks made everyone back away from me. The G I Joe dude stares at me and all of the deer, squirrels, raccoons, skunks, possums and birds that are milling around, he seems unimpressed and he has a sneer going on, but I can tell that he is also very calculating as he stares.
I still haven't said a word, but when I was just about to open my mouth, A very gruff voice calls out from behind the buses, "Howard! What seems to be the problem?"
Howard, never taking his eyes off me, calls back, "This group seems to have at least one mute with them."
Mutie?
"Howard! What have we told you about your crude nicknames?" the gruff voice demands.
The owner of that gruff voice comes from between the buses and he appears from behind the bus on the left. He is human tall with a graying beard that touches his collar bone, A man bun of dark brown hair and two small horns that decorate his forehead. Lots of tattoos cover his arms and chest, and he has goat legs beneath his towel that is barely wrapped around his waist.
He's a faun? I hope he doesn't call himself Pan because if he does, I might get us all killed when I laugh!
He looks at me and the critters surrounding me, and then he looks behind me to the rest of our small group. It was when that he got a good look at Ginger, Hank, Darrell, Jones, Tammy and Ken that his eyebrows climb up to ride between his horns.
I manage to muffle my snort. I had not realized that Hank, Darrell and Jones, along with Ginger were standing so close to me. That's weird! It looks almost like they are trying to cover me, and it would be really easy to cover everyone else with just a turn of their shoulders.
The faun guy stares at us and then smiles. He says his name is Casey, and he welcomes us to Y City. After that, the buses part enough that we can walk in, and we get our first look at something new, maybe something we can do ourselves when we get to wherever it is that we're going. The buses moved, but were not started and driven. They seem to be on gigantic coasters.
Casey waves for us to follow him as Howard gives us all a really strange look before moving aside. We leave the vehicles where they are for the time being and follow Casey on foot. Behind the buses, we can see that Casey is not the only fan or even the only changed. We see men and women with butterfly wings, dragonfly wings, bee wings, and bird wings. I just can't stop myself and ask a man we were passing if he can fly.
Inspiration for The Return – New Beginnings
It all started with an email. He sent me a short story then I sent him one. But my story seemed to keep going and going. Some of the things we talked about magically made its way into my stories.
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