The Uncooperative Warrior
Snippet #2 for Book 2 in the Unstoppable Liv Beaufont Series
I have heard that not everyone’s heard of this series yet! It’s unimaginable that some people don’t know who Liv Beaufont is, yet!. Well, here’s your chance. Liv is a royal who gave up her claim to her lineage awhile ago. In book 1, The Rebellious Sister, she’s called back by her family to take on a special role as a warrior! If you a haven’t read this urban fantasy series yet, now’s the time to start! It’s so hot, it’s on fire. Literally. Naw, but it is figuratively on fire.
Then, this past Tuesday, I posted the first Chapter of book 2. So, read book 1 first – The Rebellious Sister. Then come back to the blog for snippets from book 2, The Uncooperative Warrior. You won’t be sorry. In fact, you’ll be thanking me. Trust me on this one.
And now, here’s the snippet – Chapter 2 from book 2, The Uncooperative Warrior:
Chapter Two
Liv Beaufont crossed her arms over her chest, looking down at the chaos below her. On the jungle floor, a dozen or more goblins fought over piles of jewelry, electronics, clothes, handbags and other things they’d stolen from the tourists in Bali, Indonesia.
Tracking the little monsters hadn’t been hard since they had yelped and snorted as they’d scurried through the jungle. Liv slapped her arm as a mosquito landed, about to bite her.
The damn bugs had been the problem, she thought bitterly. Oh, and the monkeys who kept following her, making it harder for her to stay unseen.
The goblins weren’t paying attention to her now, too busy biting and kicking and thrashing each other to get the best prizes.
Liv slid the hood onto her head, keeping her eyes low. She could have stopped the thieves a time or two as she watched them steal and disappear through different resorts.
However, these two-foot-tall green creatures weren’t the ones she needed to stop. It was their master who was the problem.
From the largest hut in the camp, a goblin, bigger and uglier than the rest, exited. Trock wore entirely too few clothes and would have benefited from a large mask to cover his pock-marked face. From his long ears, rows of silver rings hung, and on his back was a short sword, its tip still covered in fresh blood. As he progressed closer to the mayhem, the other goblins began to shout more wildly.
Looking down at the feline who stood next to her, Liv pursed her lips. “This would be a perfect chance to throw some fireballs.”
“Next time you’ll have to have the gnomes teach you how to create them,” Plato said, sitting casually on the thatched roof they occupied and looking down at the goblins. “It is gnome magic, after all.”
Liv agreed with a nod. “Yes, that would have been good to know before I pissed off a slew of them and sullied my name with the lot of them. Now they won’t give me a minute to apologize.”
Plato lifted his pink nose in the air. “You don’t need the gnomes.”
“Well, I’d like to know how to make fireballs, so I think I do,” Liv stated. “And we all need each other. We are supposed to be sharing this planet.”
Plato’s green eyes swiveled to the goblin fights. A larger goblin had pulled a stolen laptop away from a smaller one and bonked him on the head with it. The assault cracked the machine, making the first goblin shriek with frustration. “I think the creatures below need a refresher course on how sharing works.”
Liv sighed heavily. “Yes, and also to be taught that stealing is wrong.” She lifted both her hands and the trees began to rustle like a great storm was about to rip through the island. Dirt and leaves flew up from the ground, covering many of the thrashing creatures. Palm trees bent almost double, looking dangerously close to toppling.
Liv might not have the ability to create fire, but she could harness elements that already existed—in this case, wind. When the camp below was in complete chaos, goblins diving and covering their misshapen faces to escape the debris and others holding onto large plants to anchor themselves to the ground, Liv sprang off the roof of the hut.
She landed in the middle of the clearing, her head down and one hand barely grazing the ground.
The wind stopped at once.
The whimpering of the goblins faded as they realized the wind that had been trying to pull them from the ground was gone. It was replaced by silence as they turned to find the Warrior rising to a standing position in the middle of the open area.
“Magician! How dare you enter our camp?” the chief goblin yelled, charging toward Liv, his head nearly even with her waist. Despite his stature, his jagged teeth and stocky build meant he was a force to be reckoned with. That was why Liv raised her hand at once. A set of ropes on the ground by a nearby tree rose and flew through the air, wrapping around the goblin and tying him into a neat little bundle. He fell over on his side, looking like a candy bar with his head poking out of one end of the wrapper and his gnarly feet out the other.
“I agree,” Liv began, turning in a circle as the other goblins unsheathed their weapons and bared their yellow teeth at her. “The agreement with the House of Seven states that magicians aren’t to enter your territory without your permission. But it also says that you aren’t to pillage from mortals, does it not?”
The chief had rolled over so that half his mouth was in the dirt. He started making garbled, unintelligible noises.
Liv rolled her eyes, keeping her awareness on the other goblins that were inching closer. She flicked her wrist and the closest one went flying, knocking into a tree trunk. It slid down to the ground with a loud squeak. “Oops. Sorry. Meant to throw you in the pond over there,” she said, indicating a disgusting pit of swamp water—a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
A goblin at Liv’s back raced toward her and she spun around and held out her hand, lifting the goblin into the air. When he was hovering at her eye level, she clicked her tongue. “Now, I’d rethink this whole attacking idea because I’m still working on this aiming thing. It’s going to take some practice.”
The goblin kicked his feet angrily, holding a giant fork over his head and calling her names, or at least that was what it sounded like.
She shrugged and sent him toward the pond, but he landed next to a neighboring tree. “See, I told you. I was never good at sports. I throw like an elf.” Liv laughed at her own joke. “Get it? Because they are so lanky and all. Their arms get tangled up if they try to pitch a ball.”
She continued to laugh. The goblins regarded her with contempt.
“Okay, fine,” Liv said, her laughter fading. “You are a tough crowd.”
Turning around to face the chief, Liv smoothed her black hooded cape. “Trock Swaliswan, how many times have you been politely warned not to steal from the mortals on this island?”
The goblin struggled in his bindings, making him roll more into the mud and eat a mouthful of dirt.
“Oops, sorry.” Liv lifted her hand, and the goblin rose and stood upright. “That’s better.”
Trock spat out a mouthful of mud, splattering Liv’s boots. She eyed it and gave the goblin a disgusted look. “I’m going to allow that to pass this one time. The next time, you lose an ear.”
The goblin laughed, showing a mouthful of missing or blackened teeth. “You’re a joke if the House of Seven sent you to deal with us. They know we can’t be stopped.”
Liv tipped her finger to the side and the goblin’s face flew forward, his feet still connected to the Earth. She stood him back up after drenching his face in mud once more. “The thing is, I’m new to the House, and darn it if I know how to play by the rules.” She spun, and her cape swirled around her. With the movement, the closest small huts crumbled to the ground.
When she faced the chief again, Liv slapped her hand to her forehead. “Oops. Did I do that? Sorry.”
The goblin shook his head, mud spraying in all directions but missing Liv. “You’re not to damage our property when enforcing rules.”
“Right, I’m supposed to cite you for your injustices,” Liv agreed in a bored voice. “Tell you that this is a warning, and if you do it again, you’ll have to answer to the Council and possibly have your magic locked.” Liv yawned loudly. “Here’s the thing: you don’t care about those punishments. You’re going to keep doing this until someone teaches you not to, so I figured I’d save everyone the trouble and be that person.”
“This is not how the rules work!” Trock yelled.
Liv dared take a step forward, her hand in front of her, and pointed at the chief’s chest with a murderous look in her eyes. “You dare to speak of rules when you don’t follow them?”
“We’re protected by the agreement set by the House of Seven,” Trock argued. “You can’t harm me! That was the agreement when we submitted to having our magic governed by the House.”
Liv looked around casually. “Thing is, I don’t see anyone here to stop me.” She twitched one finger to the side and the ropes around the goblin tightened, making his face instantly grow a shade darker. The goblins around them shrank back from the sight. Liv took another step forward. “Now, this is how it’s going to go under my law. You’re going to stop stealing from mortals; no more taking their possessions. As stated in the agreement, you can have that which is lost or discarded, but under no circumstances are you to steal anymore. Do you understand?”
The goblin sneered at her, his large eyes bulging.
“Look, I get that words are hard, so a simple yes will suffice,” Liv said, still pointing her finger in Trock’s direction.
His expression didn’t change.
She nodded calmly. “Very well.” Liv swept her free hand at a row of squatty huts, sending them straight to the ground. Around her many of the goblins screamed with grief, running for the rubble of their houses.
Liv held her hand out to another row of huts, probably filled with innocent people’s stolen goods. “Tell me, Trock, how long will it take you all to rebuild if I destroy everything?”
“Don’t!” the chief yelled, hopping forward in his bindings. “We will stop! I promise!”
Liv gave him a skeptical stare. “Are you sure? I know how hard it is for you goblins to behave yourselves.”
Furiously the chief shook his head. “We will follow the agreement. You have my word. And we’ll return the goods we stole. Just leave here without doing any more damage.”
Liv nodded. “I’ll do you one better.” She swept her arm through the air, and the huts she’d destroyed rose back into place as if they’d never been demolished.
Scratchy whispers issued from the goblins as they marveled at the magic. Goblins’ magic was restricted to finding spells like the ones that helped them locate the riches they’d stolen that day, and those fireballs they could throw. They didn’t have powers close to those of the magicians, and rebuilding their houses would have taken a long time.
Liv rounded on the chief, giving him a serious look. She nodded once and the ropes binding him fell away. “Now, do as you promised, and return the items you stole.”
Trock shook out his stumpy limbs and cracked his neck. “It’s getting late, magician. We’ll do it tomorrow.”
Liv sighed, rolling her eyes. “That’s not what we agreed upon. I guess I’ll have to unleash my kitty on you.”
From the darkened jungle on the other side of the closest hut, the sound of a furious lion roaring echoed through the camp, jolting the ground and making the leaves quake.
The goblins all hopped from their places, grabbing the various stolen objects and hurrying off to return them as if they had fireballs chasing them.
It’s not fire, but it will do, Liv thought as she watched them scurrying around.
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Don’t forget, this book goes live on Friday, February 15th. You can pre-order it now and it will automatically download on your Kindle late Thursday night, or early Friday morning.
Here’s the link again, in case you missed it: https://books2read.com/u/bpjjy6
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