Stepping Wild, an Introduction (Patreon)

It has been decades since Tibs attempted to destroy the guild, chose to save a friend, was captured, punished, rescued, and left Kragle Rock behind to regain what he’d lost.

It’s been decades of work and research, and some progress, but Tibs doesn’t have access to a dungeon, and he learned that the guild didn’t lie about this part. Without a dungeon, getting stronger takes much longer. So long, in fact, that while his body grew, and he no longer looks like a child, although he look nowhere near the decades that have passed, Tibs has yet to break through Rho, something he did in a few years running a dungeon…and with a bit of extra help.

It’s been decades of Tibs trying to run another dungeon, but while he can change the color of his eyes, and mask the brand from those still chasing him for the guild, the security around the dungeons is such that he has yet to get close without raising alarms. Even the transportation platform are off limit because of the brand.

So it’s been decades of Tibs traveling from city to city with caravans, doing research at the academies and libraries for anything that will help him use what he has access to better. And after decades of studies, Tibs is quite good.

Which is a good thing.

After decades of travel and not being able to get into a dungeon, things are about to change.

A stop at a village far between cities come with a mystery the puts the people there in danger, and Tibs’s investigation into it teaches him, again, that the guild doesn’t know everything. Those revelations open new venues for his training, but, as seems the case for Tibs, not without having to put a large amount of effort into getting to them. Effort that seems to have caught someone’s attention.

Does the bounty hunter work for the guild, or someone else? Is she smarter enough to put the pieces of what Tibs had been up to, using so many names he can’t always remember them, and stop him before he’s strong enough to get back to his goal of taking down the guild?

And how is it that essence doesn’t seem to want to get close to her?

Tibs doesn’t plan on letting her, or anyone stop him, because he’s no longer bound to Kragle Rock. Tibs is in the wilds now, and like the bards like to sing; anything can happen in the wilds.

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I didn’t know if I was going to write this introduction.

Actually, that’s not quite true, I thought I already had, then, deciding to check to make sure I hadn’t forgotten to mention something, realized I hadn’t written it, and questioned if I should.

And I should.

If not thing else, the ‘blurb’ is probably needed because of how much time passes between the end of Breaking Step and the start of Stepping Wild.

I also felt it was important that you be informed of some facts regarding this version of the story.

This is a first draft.

I’m a discovery writer.

What those two things, in combination, mean, is that while I don’t expect the overall sense of the story to change between draft one and two, details will. There is a better plan for this trilogy, because of my co-scripter’s help, but I am still figuring things out as I’m writing, and those discoveries will be addressed in the second draft.

Something else you’ll notice, with this being a first draft, is that the storytelling will be ‘clunkier’. I’m more focused on working out the events in the story than making the story flow well. Some event’s will also happen with little, or no, establishing setup since I won’t know they are needed until I’m at the point where I’m writing them.

In my first draft, things happen because I need them to happen. It’s in the second draft that I add the proper motivation to the characters so it will make sense that those events happen. Also, secondary characters might not have much personalities in this draft for the same reason.

If you are sticking around for this version, thank you. If you want to help(you are not required, you are already supporting me, so that is more than I can ask for) pointing out places where you feel information is missing can ensure it shows up in the second draft from the get-go. (I have a lot of information about this world in my head and often lost track of what I have or haven’t put on the page yet)

Finally, while I am aiming to make each book in this trilogy something that can be read on its own, at this time the sense of it I have will be more of one long story broken in three parts.

So…that’s about it.

Thank you for your support, I hope you enjoy this story, and as always, I welcome comments, suggestions and opinions.