Raven lifted his hand and moved his queen a few squares forward on the chess board, beaming. “Checkmate again!” he crowed, standing up and using his foot to kick away the walnut stool, hands resting on the birch chess table as he soaked in the disappointed and crestfallen look on his best friend’s, Lithium’s, face. Raven always thought about how he and Lithium couldn’t look more different, even though they were both seven years old. Lithium had the tall, lean build of a hunter, with blond curly hair and sharp blue eyes. His pale face almost looked eerie when he and Raven explored caves, like a ghost in a graveyard. Raven on the other hand was shorter, and everyone constantly suggested blacksmithing as his profession, even though Raven couldn’t care less about metalwork, and he personally thought they just didn’t know what else he could do. His hair was inky black, and he had pale brown eyes. His skin was warm and brown like wood. His brother, Crow, looked exactly like him, just taller and scarred from the hours working in the fields, with horses or cows or whatever animals they happened to have. Dove, Raven’s sister, could almost have passed for Lithium’s sister with her blond hair but brown skin and eyes, her wiry build and delicate hands distinguished from most of the other kids. Raven focus went back to Lithium when Lithium stood up as well, grinning. “One day, I’m going to checkmate /you/. When you have nowhere to run.” Something about his smile unsettled Raven. “You mean when my king has nowhere to run, right?” Raven said slowly, his smile turning nervous. Lithium just laughed, walking past and tapping him on the shoulder. “You know what I mean, Bird Boy.” Raven watched him walk away, each of his footprints being left behind in the dusty dirt floor outside. But Lithium was right; he did know what he meant. And that’s what scared him.
So.......I'm making a book. This will eventually be a trilogy, and an actual book series (I'm planning on publishing this one too). Enjoy! It'll eventually have a cover, just not yet bc I need priorities and my mental state is going WHEE. Anyways, enjoy! Characters: Writing/plot/story: This December: Ricky Montgomery (not me)
