Excerpt: Wanderer, Warrior, Wizard

Chapter 4
Intercession

Tim was walking down the road through the woods with finches fluttering around his head anxious for the chance to be near him, and squirrels and chipmunks scampering ahead of him to assure that his way was clear before turning around and graciously granting him passage. He walked with a self-assured lilt in his step and a lighthearted smile on his face, knowing his awesomeness was beyond contest.
And then, suddenly, the woodland creatures paying him homage stopped in midstep or midair (repsectively) in fear as a growl in the woods around them rumbled and grew into an echoing roar that resonated. Tim's jaunty smile began to falter, but didn't fade entirely as the animals scampered and flew (respectively) away, and he was left alone in the quickly growing darkness and the quickening wind. In a moment, the roar's originator stepped out of the trees and into the road in front of Tim: an immense spectral apelike grinning flash-eyed mystery beast. For a moment Tim and the monster grinned at each other, and then Tim made the first move.
"Hello!" he said, stepping forward and holding his hand out to the monster, who looked at it briefly before returning its gaze to Tim's head, which looked particularly tasty to it; big and juicy. Perhaps it would make a good snack? "I'm Tim," Tim continued, possibly oblivious to what was going on in the monster's mind. "You may have heard of me from the NaNoWriMo forums; I'm the one who is inviting everyone to include me in their novels." He was still smiling and holding his hand out to the monster.
"Grah?" said the monster, tilting its head slightly in response to the speech.
"Are you participating this year?" Tim continued. "It's not too late to join, and trust me, it's great fun," he laughed.
"Ergugha?"said the monster, no doubt wondering what sort of novel it should try to write.
"I'll tell you what," said Tim, pulling a scrap of paper out of his pocket. "I'll write down the website – that's nanowrimo.org – and my username, so you can friend me once you join. Then we can be writing buddies, how's that?"
Apparently the monster didn't think they would make very great writing buddies, because it responded by making good on its earlier impulse to eat Tim's head. For a moment, Tim's headless corpse stood where it was, pen and paper still in hand, poised to write down the information. Then, it collapsed in a bloody heap in the dust.
The monster stood and thoughtfully chewed up its snack, enjoying the crunch, then swallowed, smacking its lips, then turned around and galloped off into the trees again.
As it left, the clouds parted, the light returned, and soon the chirps of birds and rustlings of wildlife were heard again in the forest. As night fell, though, Tim's corpse remained and began to decompose, attracting a different sort of woodland wildlife to him than before – namely, flies, worms, beetles, crows, and vultures.