ADVENTURE at the HORIZON
The Decaturs Sneak Preview Book Four ©2015 T.K. Naliaka All rights reserved
"He stood at the crest of the massive dune, gazing before him with the silver moonrise on the dunes to the east. The dull grey disk of the moon had a growing sharp bright edge of reflected light from the sun setting below the deep orange western horizon.
Which way to go? He clutched the smooth wood handle of the axe and looked towards the first stars of the evening, large and sparkling in the deepening blue eastern sky. He turned his head to the west and watched the fading light of the departed sun, shifting from orange to purple.
As the sky darkened, the stars of the celestial canopy arching overhead seemed to appear as if by magic, but they’d been there all along, just dazzled by the dominance of the sun during the day. The breeze tugged at his torn and ragged boubou as he stood, unable to decide. He lifted his hand to his head, for he wanted to pound his fist against his brain for not providing him with what he needed. Frustrated and lost, he closed his sun-scorched grey eyes as his clenched palm pressed against his temple and he felt a wetness against his cheeks. He wiped his tear-filled eyes and forced himself to look again. Which way?
He blinked and saw the moon again, but that way, east, was where Ba and his men had been taking them, against their wills. He glimpsed something and looked up as a shooting star blazed across the heavens. The light flashed as it burned towards the western horizon as if racing to catch the golden sun as it slipped behind the craggy stone ridges. He lowered his hand from his face and watched the sky shift from purple to black. He glanced at the rising moon once more and knew that even though the moon ruled the night, it could only follow the sun, east to west. With no light of its own, it could only reflect a gray illumination of only part of what existed; useful to reveal a somber path to entice the lost, yet without uncloaking the dangers lurking on each side that the searing brilliance of the sun could easily expose; a lifeless light too thin and cold that it could not sustain a single leaf for even one day. To the east for him had been darkness, deprivation and captivity; to the golden-hued west was where the day's life-giving light went and where he’d once been free.
His hand came to rest over his heart. He could feel the slow and steady beating of it under the hardness of his ribs. There was no softness there; his muscles were covered by so little flesh he could feel the cartilage which knit his bones together, but he knew it then. Somewhere in the west was his home, so west he would go. He gripped the iron head of the axe… heavy and hard in his hand, then he stepped off the edge of the dune and began his slow decent to the moonlit plain beyond."
The Decaturs (Book Four) © 2015 T.K. Naliaka, all rights reserved.
Which way to go? He clutched the smooth wood handle of the axe and looked towards the first stars of the evening, large and sparkling in the deepening blue eastern sky. He turned his head to the west and watched the fading light of the departed sun, shifting from orange to purple.
As the sky darkened, the stars of the celestial canopy arching overhead seemed to appear as if by magic, but they’d been there all along, just dazzled by the dominance of the sun during the day. The breeze tugged at his torn and ragged boubou as he stood, unable to decide. He lifted his hand to his head, for he wanted to pound his fist against his brain for not providing him with what he needed. Frustrated and lost, he closed his sun-scorched grey eyes as his clenched palm pressed against his temple and he felt a wetness against his cheeks. He wiped his tear-filled eyes and forced himself to look again. Which way?
He blinked and saw the moon again, but that way, east, was where Ba and his men had been taking them, against their wills. He glimpsed something and looked up as a shooting star blazed across the heavens. The light flashed as it burned towards the western horizon as if racing to catch the golden sun as it slipped behind the craggy stone ridges. He lowered his hand from his face and watched the sky shift from purple to black. He glanced at the rising moon once more and knew that even though the moon ruled the night, it could only follow the sun, east to west. With no light of its own, it could only reflect a gray illumination of only part of what existed; useful to reveal a somber path to entice the lost, yet without uncloaking the dangers lurking on each side that the searing brilliance of the sun could easily expose; a lifeless light too thin and cold that it could not sustain a single leaf for even one day. To the east for him had been darkness, deprivation and captivity; to the golden-hued west was where the day's life-giving light went and where he’d once been free.
His hand came to rest over his heart. He could feel the slow and steady beating of it under the hardness of his ribs. There was no softness there; his muscles were covered by so little flesh he could feel the cartilage which knit his bones together, but he knew it then. Somewhere in the west was his home, so west he would go. He gripped the iron head of the axe… heavy and hard in his hand, then he stepped off the edge of the dune and began his slow decent to the moonlit plain beyond."
The Decaturs (Book Four) © 2015 T.K. Naliaka, all rights reserved.
You are invited to roam with The Decaturs series starting with these three Kindle ebooks: In Time of Peril, A Difficult Damsel to Rescue and Between Dunes and Hard Places. Click on the menu bar above to browse through this website for these books, while enjoying a colorful peek at the world of The Decaturs and for updates on the next books to be soon available in this series of fresh and entertaining, new classic-style adventure romance fiction novels, for all ages.
"To witness the awe of human beings delighting in their own hands forming the written word was humbling and he understood it profoundly at that moment watching those two, with the ancient land around them, in their traditional robes and the resting camels, huddled by their campfire, intently regarding writing with such immense respect… that illiteracy meant subsistence, while literacy meant human advancement, the base on which higher achievements and accomplishments of great civilizations could be built.”
The Decaturs series by T.K. Naliaka ©2014-2015. All rights reserved.
The Decaturs series by T.K. Naliaka ©2014-2015. All rights reserved.
Ex Africa semper aliquid novi.
Pliny the Elder
Out of Africa, there is always something new!
Pliny the Elder
Out of Africa, there is always something new!
T.K. Naliaka's AMAZON.com page: Here/ici
T.K. Naliaka's page on GOODREADS: Here/ici
ALL photos, design, original quotes by T.K. Naliaka, ©2014-2015
all rights reserved. Merci!
"She had an unusual silver square hanging from her neck which stood out dramatically in contrast to the dark blue, A Tuareg hand-engraved medallion on a black and silver bead necklace, a gift from her brother." Excerpt from Book Four of The Decatur series, T.K. Naliaka, ©2015 all rights reserved.
An invitation to keep exploring! Click on the picture to go to T.K. Naliaka's fascinating photo galleries explaining everyday Africa at:
J'vois Nice Africa!