Star Castle

It was the year of his lord 989 AD Knight Gerrit Van Gesterte leaned on his two hands that were resting on the recently finished top wall of Ster Kasteel. It had taken ten years to get the castle built to this point. He was looking down to the river that was crowded by the many merchant vessels going up and down the river. He planned on building a nest egg collecting taxes on those merchant vessels that would carry him and his family well into the future.

More than one thousand years later, , a Machiavellian realtor, Vajen de Vries leaned on her two hands resting on the same wall. She had killed the last owner of Star Castle so that she could take ownership. She looked down to the river and thought about the money she would make when she got final ownership.

Lisa Roberts rested her two hand on almost the same spot that Knight Gerrit Van Gesterte had rested his. She looked down at the river and the boat passing by and then lifted her eyes to take in the flat colorful farms that flowed seamlessly to the far horizon. She knew that she had found the place where she and her family could spend the rest of their lives as they revitalized Star Castle and brought it back to its former glory.

Lisa had searched far and wide for a project that her entire family could be engaged for the rest of their lives.

Her feeling of being overwhelmed by the hectic and stressful success of every member of the family and the wonderful memory of a much simpler life that she had experienced growing up had prompted her to find a family project that would free all of them up to focus on the joys of each day.

One small ad in the New York paper caught her eye. She convinced her family to take a vacation in the Netherlands and to visit the castle.

Once at the castle they encounter Vajen’s attempt to discourage the purchase to her.

The help of the young, enthusiastic and very helpful grounds keeper makes the decision to purchase easy.

The family embraces the idea of making Star Castle into a destination bed and breakfast.

Vajen directs a group of thugs to assault Lisa’s daughters and offers a reward for broken bones or disfiguring knife wounds.

The attack is foiled by the two daughters as they wield their Black belt capabilities and defeat the six thugs that attack them.

The family thrives. The daughters marry, the family grows, the castle is brought back to its former glory.

The entire family stands on the same wall as the ancient knight and take in the glorious sunset as the children run and play.

Feather-in-the-Wind

The leaves were off the trees and the cattails at the edge of the lake were bursting their tops and the wind was blowing the fluff bound seeds out across the water. Her wolf, Bold Walker was sitting at her feed as she absent mindedly scratched behind his ear.

Feather-in-the-Wind’s mind was slowly drifting across all the adventure and growth that she had experienced since being rescued from the cave of the Condor and joining Taelo and his team.

She had participated in establishing the Northern Elk Clan and in building the grand lodge and compound in what turned out to be the where original valley the Elk Clan had started.

She was now a permanent and accepted member of Taelo’s team. She had been on the Journey of discovery when they traveled east. It was on that trip that she had first observed the mount. The had traveled much of the journey riding on their mounts.

The team had just returned from their journey to the north and across the ice bridge to the world beyond.

She had faced the giant brown bear and had almost lost her life. The journey was her journey into her mature life.

The team had faced battle the sky eyes and had won. She had help save Taelo from almost certain death when his sled went into a fathomless crevasse in the ice.

The team had returned with more than one hundred people from that far land.

She had expressed her desire to lead the new sub-Elk clan that she had named the Eastern Elk Clan. She had Taelo and the team’s support but she did not think that would be enough.

She was young, she was an adopted member of the Elk Clan, she was the wrong gender and had the smallest stature of all the people in the Clan.

She had come to the realization that Running Stag, saved by Taelo from the cannibals was the soul mate she had always dreamt of meeting. He came out and sat with her as she waited to be summoned by Wise Owl the Elk Clan Council leader.

She held little hope that she would be selected leader of the new Eastern Elk Clan.

When she was called in to the council meeting she expected to hear rejection, Instead she was given the staff that signified her appointment to the position of Eastern Elk Clan leader.

She had tears in her eyes as she realized that her dreams of getting to lead a clan and finding her soul mate had both come true.