Sunday, March 29, 2026
Well, it's been a couple years since I updated this thing, huh?
The usual thing happened. I was in a schedule of writing a little bit every day, but then one day I was really tired, and I didn't want to do my daily writing, so I skipped a day. And then, once I had allowed myself to take a day's holiday, I thought why not take 2 days off? After all, I had already broken my streak of daily writing, what's another day? And then it was 3 days off. And then 4. Et cetera.
I was always meaning to get back into the habit of writing. Once my normal life had settled down, and once I got caught up on my to-do list, and I finally had time again. But of course, that time never comes. You just have to decide to make time for it. Now that a couple of years have gone by, I've decided I want to give this another try.
So that's the first update--that I'm going to try to get back in the habit of working on this story again.
The second update is about AI.
If you follow me over on my main blog, you'll know that I've been making a lot of use of the Google Gemini Storybook feature in my English lessons.
One day, out of curiosity, I decided to see if Gemini Storybook could illustrate chapters from this story. So I fed it chapter 1. My original hope was that Gemini Storybook would keep my text completely intact, and just create illustrations to go with it. (Gemini Storybook is a bit unpredictable. Sometimes when I feed it a prompt, it keeps my original text more or less intact. Sometimes it modifies the text a lot.)
In this case, Gemini Storybook modified my original text a lot. You can view the storybook at this link here, and the chat at this link.
Anyway, Gemini Storybook misunderstood a lot of the story--which is unsurprising. It is just AI after all.
But I couldn't help but notice that despite getting some of the story elements wrong, the prose that it did produce was better than my own prose. And there suddenly appeared a temptation to borrow some of the AI generated prose in order to improve my own writing.
I am, like most people of my generation, suspicious of AI, and worried of the impacts that the widespread use of AI will have on society. (A subject that I have touched on many times over on my main blog--for example HERE.) So I doubt that under normal circumstances I would ever have tried to modify my own writing with AI. But in this case, I had only intended for AI to create illustrations, and AI had modified my writing by itself. And now that this modified prose was sitting right in front of me, I thought it would be silly to discard it just because of... because of what? Ethical considerations? But what was the harm? I'm not a published author. I am writing this story simply as a hobby. As far as I know, no one else is even reading it instead of me. Who would be harmed if I used AI to improve some of my prose?
So, I've decided I'm going to experiment with using AI to modify my writing.
At the same time, because I don't want to give into AI brainrot, I'm not going to give over the reins to AI entirely. I will still write the first draft myself, and then only use AI to improve my writing once I've reached the limits of my own abilities. And just for the sake of transparency, I will make it clear on this blog which versions of the story are written entirely by me, and which ones include modification by AI.
We'll see how this goes.
Sunday, December 3, 2023
Chapter 28: Discarded Drafts
“Are you sure?” Catherine asked.
“Yes,” said Alfred. “I saw it clearly.”
“So who were those men with your father?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen them before. I don’t think they’re from the mountain.”
“What are we going to do?” asked Shawn.
“We’re going to have to move fast,” said Catherine. “Before they get a chance to hurt Carlyle or my mother.”
“Let’s not be too hasty,” said Shawn. “They could be setting a trap for you.”
“I’m not afraid of them,” said Catherine.
*********************************
“Well, this is all going wrong,” Risoart said.
“What do you mean?” asked Brian. “We got the mother with no problem. And we got the first twin.”
“The problem with twins, though, is that there are always two of them,” Risoart said. “It’s no good going to Ambrosia and presenting her with just one of the twins. She’s going to know that there’s another one still out there. It’s part of the definition of twins.”
“We’ll get the other one,” Brian said.
“How, though? We’ve lost the element of surprise now. Your boy ran off to warn her, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“And you yourself said that it’s very hard to find someone in the mountains who doesn’t want to be found.”
“But she’s not going to disappear. We’ve got her mother and we’ve got her brother here. She’s not going to just abandon them. She’ll come to rescue them.”
“How long do you think we’ll have to wait?”
“Well, she won’t come tonight. That’s for certain. No one goes out after dark in these mountains. After dark is when all the monsters come out.”
“Great.”
“Don’t worry, we’re safe enough in here. The ogres might try to break down the door, but we can fight off the ogres if we have to. You and your men are professional soldiers, after all.”
“We’ve never fought ogres before.”
“No, of course not. No ogres in the forest, huh? Well I’ve fought Ogres. Lots of times. I can show you how it’s done, if it comes to it.
Need to happen:
Carlyle down the mountain alone
Catherine stays
Attack during the day time?
Thursday, November 30, 2023
Discarded Drafts: Chapter 27: Carlyle is Captured
After a few hours, there was a knock on the door. “That’ll be the twins,” Brian whispered. “Dusk is coming, so they want to make sure their mother is safe.”
Risoart nodded knowingly. He made hand motions to his men to stand on either side of the door.
“It’s me,” Carlyle’s voice called out. “I’m back.”
Brian went to open the door. He lifted up the bar, and pulled the door back. Once the door was opened, Brian stepped to the side of the cave so Carlyle couldn't see him.
Carlyle noticed that the door had opened, but he couldn’t see anyone. “Mother, are you there? Where is--.”
Carlyle stepped in, and was instantly grabbed by the two men standing behind him. They bound him with ropes, while Brian and Risoart put a bag over Carlyle’s head. Carlyle struggled, but the four men quickly overpowered him. Carlyle never even got a chance to draw his sword. The soldiers were professionals, and within a couple minutes, Carlyle was bound and gagged.
Then, Brian saw something that he had not noticed before. There was another boy who was standing in the doorway--another boy who had come along with Carlyle. Brian recognized his son, Alfred.
Alfred stood in shock as he watched what his father had done to Carlyle. then, he turned and ran.
“Wait, Alfred, stop you fool!” Brian called out after him. “It’s almost dark. Don’t run away. Come inside where it’s safe.”
But Alfred was already disappearing into the dusk.
Monday, November 27, 2023
Discarded Drafts: Chapter 26: Risoart Meets Margaret
There was a knock on the door. “Who is it?” Margaret asked.
“Margaret, tt’s me, Brian,” came the answer.
“Brian? Where have you been?”
“Let me in and I’ll tell you all about it,” Brian said.
Margaret undid the bolt on the door, and saw Brian. There was a man with Brian she didn’t recognize.
“May we come in?” asked Brian.
Margaret motioned them inside, and sat them down at the table.
“Who is your friend?” she asked. “I don’t recognize him. Is he new to the mountain?”
“What if I was?” the man asked.
The man’s tone was inquiring, not hostile. Margaret suspected he might be a new refugee from the forest, so Margaret answered him in a friendly manner. “If you’re new, then I welcome you to the mountain,” she said. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you did in the forest. If you’ve come to the mountain, then you’re one of the mountain folk now. And we welcome you.”
Margaret sat down at the table across from the two men. “Can I get you anything to drink?” she asked.
“Take another look,” the man said. “Are you sure you don’t recognize me?”
Margaret studied his face for a minute. “Should I recognize you?” she asked.
“I guess I wouldn’t expect you to recognize me. It was a long time ago, and we didn’t interact much. But we both served at Castle Tauna about fifteen years ago.”
Margaret’s heart skipped a beat. She looked at Brian quickly for help, but then she saw that Brian was grinning at her maliciously.
“Those twin babies were supposed to be killed,” the man continued. “Keeping them alive was treason.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Margaret said. But her face betrayed her panic.
“I think you do, Margaret,” the man said. “Or should I say, Larentia.”
Margaret recognized the man now. This was Risoart. But she didn’t say anything.
“Where are the twins?” asked Risoart.
“Didn’t Brian tell you?” asked Margaret. “They’ve developed an independent streak as of late. They are out forming armies and fighting monsters. They never come by and visit me anymore.”
Risoart looked at Brian. “That’s only partly true,” said Brian. “They may be off having adventures during the day. But they’d never abandon their mother at night. The nights on these mountains can be quite…,” Brian paused while he searched for the right word, “...unpredictable.”
“So, we wait until evening,” Risoart said. “Very well.” He put his feet up on the table. “Have you got anything to drink around here, Larentia?”
Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Chapter 1: The Attack in the Night
It was the sounds of snarling and growling that woke them up.
They were all trained to be light sleepers. In the mountains, you had to be. You never knew when an attack would come at night.
They lay still, hoping the noises would go away. But then suddenly, there was a loud thud as some creature struck their door. “I smell humans inside,” it yelled. The creature pounded on the door several more times.
The door stood. It was made of strong wood. Behind the wood were several steel beams that reinforced the wood. The beams ran across the door frame horizontally. They were about an inch wide, and they were separated from each other by about one foot. And behind the door were two large boulders that they pushed into place every night before bed. The door would hold, at least for a while. And then…
They were all looking at each other. Finn put his finger to his lips to motion everyone to stay quiet. Then, as quietly as possible, Finn climbed out of bed. The others followed his example.
Finn grabbed his sword from where it hung on the wall. He took it out of its sheath. Carlyle took one of the axes from the wall. Margaret took one of the knives. Catherine took the crossbow, and pulled back the strings, and fitted an arrow.
The pounding on the door stopped. For a moment it was quiet.
“They’re looking for rocks,” Finn said quietly. “Stay ready.”
A couple minutes later, there was a crash of something colliding with the door. The wood cracked. The steel beams held. The two boulders kept the door in place.
Another crash as another huge rock collided with the door. Then another crash.
Pretty soon, the wood began to crack and break. And then, monstrous hands began to tear the broken wood away.
Then, one of the ogres stuck his face through a gap in the steel beams.
“Now,” Finn said. Catherine pressed the trigger on the crossbow, firing an arrow right into the ogre’s right eye. The ogre screamed in pain and immediately pulled his head back outside..
Catherine hurried to fit another arrow into the crossbow.
Another ogre put his arm in through the door. Finn raised his sword high and swung it down. The ogre’s arm came clean off.
There was a cry of rage from outside. “Now they’re really angry,” Margaret warned.
There was a pause, and then they could hear one of the ogres running towards the door at full speed. He crashed into the door, forcing the door from its hinges completely. The two boulders were now the only things holding the broken door in place, but they also wobbled from the force of the impact.
“The next one will be it,” said Finn. His voice was tense.
The ogre smashed into the door again. The door completely fell apart, and the boulders were knocked back.
The ogre stepped into the house and roared like a lion.
Catherine’s heart was pounding fast. She could feel the adrenaline flowing through her. She raised the crossbow and fired an arrow at the ogre. The arrow hit the ogre in the neck, but as soon as Catherine had fired it off, the crossbow suddenly burst into flames while it was still in her hands. Catherine screamed out and dropped the crossbow on the ground in shock. Margaret quickly threw a blanket over the crossbow and smothered the flames. Catherine looked over at Margaret. Margaret looked back at Catherine. Margaret could see that there was a question in Catherine’s eyes. “Not now,” Margaret said. “We need to deal with the ogres first.”
Meanwhile, the ogre screamed out in pain as the arrow pierced his neck. Flinn swung his sword and sliced the ogre’s head out.
“Quick, out into the open,” Flinn said. “If we have to fight them, then let’s do it where we have room to swing our weapons.”
Flinn dashed out the door. Carlyle followed him. Fortunately, it was a full moon, so they could see the ogres clearly. There were five more ogres standing outside. They were big ugly things, covered in grayish blue skin.
One of them roared, and charged towards Finn. Finn thrust his sword right into the ogre’s chest, killing it instantly.
Another ogre charged at Carlyle. Carlyle hacked at the ogre with his ax to try to keep it at bay. Flinn quickly came to Carlyle’s aid, swung his sword and with one stroke cut the ogre’s head clean off.
Margaret and Catherine followed them outside. Margaret carried the crossbow now. It was a little bit singed, but still functioning. Margaret fitted an arrow into the crossbow and fired it at one of the ogres. It went right into the ogre’s chest, but didn’t go deep enough to kill it. (Ogre’s have very tough skin.) But it still caused the ogre to cry out in pain. The ogre charged towards Margaret, but once again, Finn swung his sword quickly, and cut off the ogre’s head.
It was at this point that the remaining two ogres decided to flee.
Finn collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.
“It’s over,” said Margaret.
“For now,” Finn said, panting.
“I don’t think they’ll be back tonight,” Margaret said.
Finn stood up slowly. His joints ached. “I’m getting too old for this,” he said.
“Just a few more years,” Margaret said. “You did good tonight, Finn.”
“The door is completely shattered,” Finn moaned.
“We can fix it,” Margaret said. “We’ve got plenty of extra wood planks still in the cave. And the iron bars are still in good condition. But we should get inside soon. Aefar and the other vampires hunt at night.”
“Yes,” Finn agreed. “Let’s get back inside, before anything else shows up.”
“We can barricade the entrance with the table,” Margaret said. “The wood is strong, and if we turn it on its side, it’ll more than cover the doorway. And we still have those two boulders we can use to reinforce it.”
“Good idea,” said Finn. “I don’t think the ogres will be back tonight anyway, but that table will stop anything else that might want to get inside.”
A howling sound pierced the cold night air. They all looked at each other.
“The wolves!” Carlyle said.
“They’re still a ways off,” said Finn. “Come on, hurry. Let’s get that table in place!”
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Chapter 25: Brian Makes a Plan
“I trust you’ve been enjoying our hospitality?” Risoart said sarcastically.
“You have no idea how good it feels to be back in the forest,” Brian said, biting into a ripe apple. “It’s so hard to find good food in the mountains.”
“Yes, I’m sure,” said Risoart. “No wonder everyone turns into a carnivore in the mountains.”
“Yes, you can’t blame them really,” Brian said. “Food is so scarce up there. It’s not like in the forest where there is so much delicious food just hanging from the trees.”
“It is a little paradise down here, isn’t it?” Risoart said flatly. “I’m sure a man would say anything to get back here.”
Brian stopped chewing, and put the apple down. “Now, what’s that supposed to mean? Surely you know everything I’ve told you is true.”
“I don’t trust anything as a matter of principle,” Risoart said. “So when something sounds unbelievable, I’m inclined not to believe it.”
There was a small silence. Then Brian prompted Risoart. “But?”
Risoart sighed. “But, the man talked. It took a couple of days’ work. He didn’t want to say anything until we forced it out of him. But everything he said confirms your story. He told us about the twins on the mountain. ”
Brian picked up his apple again and took another bite. “I know how you feel. You don’t like having to trust me.”
“I don’t,” Risoart said.
“But here we are,” Brian said gleefully.
“Here we are,” Risoart admitted.
“Risoart, don’t be so glum. This is your golden opportunity. It’s not every day a chance like this just drops into your lap. Ambrosia will reward you amply for his.”
“You’re right. I wish it was someone else who delivered this news, but, well, here we are. I’ve assembled a troop of soldiers…”
Brian shook his head. “No. No. No troop of soldiers. Just you and me, and maybe one or two other men that you trust.”
“I’m not going into the mountains unprotected,” Risoart insisted.
“What do you mean unprotected? I’ll be there to guide you. I know a thing or two about surviving in the mountains. I’ve survived for over ten years.”
Risoart looked unconvinced. “Thank you, but I’d prefer to have my men with me.”
“No, look, you can’t. If we came up the mountain with a whole troop of soldiers, they’d know we were coming before we even got there. The girl, you see, she has this special bond with the ravens. They bring her information.”
“So what? Do you think she has a chance against my troop of soldiers?”
“Well, I wouldn’t underestimate her. Remember she’s got Ambrosia’s blood in her veins.”
“Even Ambrosia couldn’t defeat a whole troop of soldiers on her own.”
“They’re not on their own. They’ve got a lot of friends in the mountains. But it’s not even a fight I’m worried about. What I’m worried about is that they’ll hear we are coming, and they’ll disappear into the mountains. It’s very hard to find someone in the mountains who doesn’t want to be found. Now, if I go back up into the mountains, that won’t surprise anyone. I live up there. They know me. And if you come back with me, they’ll just assume you’re one of my friends. And I think we can take a couple more of your men if you’re worried. But any more than four of us, and we’ll start to raise suspicions. The key is going to be to catch them off-guard. We get in the house, we grab them, we get out, and we take them back down to the forest before anyone can stop us.”
“And how are we going to get into their house?”
Brian smiled. “Ah, that you can leave to me. I’m a family friend.”
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