Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    How to be a Hero
    How to be a Hero
    How to be a Hero
    Ebook60 pages51 minutes

    How to be a Hero

    By Geno Allen

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Eleven year old Jacob longs to be strong. He longs to be a hero, and living in service to one of Cairemia's mightiest knights you would think he'd have the chance. But alas, he is only a servant. That is, until danger strikes and he is the only one who can heed the call. His life endangered, his courage tested—he'll find out if he knows... How to Be a Hero.

    Set in the ancient land of Cairemia, How to Be a Hero is a short story that gives a glimpse into the exciting world of the upcoming Treasures of Darkness - Treasures of Light series as seen the through the eyes of one of book one's most beloved characters.

    Enter a medieval world of mystery and adventure.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGeno Allen
    Release dateJun 15, 2011
    ISBN9781452452845
    How to be a Hero
    Author

    Geno Allen

    An author with a keen heart for story, Geno Allen has been a writer and performer of skits, poems, songs, and radio plays for much of his life. Now, as he and his wife are preparing to start a family, he turns his hand to novel writing. This up and coming author crafts worlds that engage the reader and draw them into adventure—and into a landscape peopled with characters who work their way into your heart and stay with you long after the story has ended. Geno spent his formative years first in the rural outskirts of a small town in Oregon and then in a suburban desert of Southern California. The woods, hills, rivers, rocks, and pavement he explored served as fertile soil to his ever-growing imagination. When he wasn’t slaying fictitious dragons, crafting worlds all his own, or hamming it up with any number of character voices, he was busy playing bass guitar for his local church, and forging (from sticks) all manner of medieval weaponry—and a pair of nunchucks. Today he’s looking forward to his greatest adventure yet... novel-writing-husband-and-father. For more about Geno Allen visit www.genowrites.blogspot.com.

    Read more from Geno Allen

    Related to How to be a Hero

    Related ebooks

    YA Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      My Three Books Of A Lifetime

      Jul 13, 2022

      (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, published 2018) THIS coming-of-age novel kept me alternately on the edge of my seat and wiping many a tear. I defy any reader not to be completely beguiled by the mysteri-ous Kya and her relationship with Nature. As a side note—

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Fool Who Fished For A King

      May 1, 2020

      The Fool Who Fished For A King
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Elfin Knight

      Nov 2, 2022

      The Elfin Knight
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Wimblestone

      Oct 1, 2023

      The Wimblestone
      7 min read

    • Article

      New Titles

      Oct 10, 2018

      By George Keithley George Braziller, Inc. “The Donner Party is one of the three or four finest book-length American poems ever written.”—Poetry. “Out of the western migration of the 1840s…Keithley has made a lean, taut narrative poem that moves with

      9 min read

    • Article

      Trent Dalton On Heroes And Hope

      Sep 13, 2020

      THE HEROES NEVER changed form. Always flesh and blood; arms and legs and beating hearts as wide as this country. It was the villains who kept morphing on me. I once thought the bad guys all dressed like Darth Vader. Then I learned that the villains i

      8 min read

    • Article

      Left Behind

      Mar 1, 2019

      Left Behind
      6 min read

    • Article

      Ursula K. Le Guin

      Jun 15, 2018

      He was thinking of Lookfar, abandoned long ago, beached on the sands of Selidor. Little of her would be left by now, a plank or two down in the sand maybe, a bit of driftwood on the western sea. As he drifted near sleep he began to remember sailing t

      15 min read

    • Article

      The Dragon Of The North

      Sep 7, 2022

      The Dragon Of The North
      5 min read

    • Article

      Poetry

      Jul 6, 2021

      Poetry
      1 min read

    • Article

      A Close Encounter With A Lion

      May 25, 2023

      My Dear Baker Mrs Oswell and myself thoroughly enjoyed our stay with you and your charming wife in June. It was a true pleasure for us both to renew old times and friendship. We trust that your trip to India will be a pleasant one, and the ship you a

      6 min read

    • Article

      Temptation

      Dec 28, 2021

      Temptation
      6 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Jul 1, 2019

      She grazes in a meadow, sulphur blossoms spillingfrom her jaw.At this moment she seems so calm, she could be holyif what that means is something like beingwholly unaware of the good she gives,how even her rooting tills the soiland even her shitting f

      2 min read

    • Article

      How the West Was Logged

      Jul 2, 2019

      W.S. Merwin understood the fragility of forests. The poet, who died in March, lived on a conservancy on Maui that he and his wife, Paula, had founded decades earlier. There, they were surrounded by palm trees that the couple had planted as seedlings

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Wind Feels Loss

      Aug 8, 2019

      The Wind Feels Loss
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Two Goats

      Jan 4, 2024

      The Two Goats
      2 min read

    • Article

      Walks

      Dec 7, 2021

      As soon as Farley’s collar was unhooked, he took the nearest, steepest slope down into the dell. By the time he reached the bottom, he was fishtailing a little, his looser back legs having descended slightly faster than his front ones. He fetched up

      26 min read

    • Article

      The Wisdom of Women Shines in Najla Jraissaty Khoury’s ‘Pearls on a Branch: Oral Tales’

      Oct 22, 2018

      Long, long ago These things happened or maybe no. Let’s start with the image on the cover. Three women sit in a courtyard. One holds a long-handled pan over a coal brazier; the other two, one of whom has her back to us, hold small cups. They wear ide

      7 min read

    • Article

      Reckoning Ball

      Feb 20, 2024

      Reckoning Ball
      7 min read

    • Article

      Midnight At The Oasis

      May 12, 2019

      Midnight At The Oasis
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for How to be a Hero

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      How to be a Hero - Geno Allen

      A BERWUNDLED BOOKS™ PUBLICATION

      Copyright © 2011 Geno Allen

      Published by Geno Allen at Smashwords

      ***

      Table of Contents

      A Note from the Author

      Prologue

      Battles Won for Glory Alone

      Epilogue

      Bonus Chapter One

      Bonus Chapter Two

      A Note from the Author

      The following short story is a tiny glimpse into the childhood of one of my favorite characters (to whom I could not devote as many pages as I would have liked) in my upcoming novel Through the Dark Wood which is first in a series entitled Treasures of Darkness ~ Treasures of Light.

      This short story owes its existence to my nephew Jake who thankfully had a birthday when I was particularly broke. I thought what will I get him? I’ve got no money… and then inspiration struck. I’ll write him a story! He likes to read. To my joy, he liked the tale—short though it was. Little did I know it would later serve as the back story for Galwen Dorria—Innkeeper of the River’s Edge. I hope you enjoy it as much as Jake and I have, and I hope you’ll look for my novel Through the Dark Wood (https://www.genowrites.blogspot.com/p/treasures-of-darkness-treasures-of.html) (available holiday season of 2012).

      For updates, the occasional deep thought, and a glimpse at some stellar illustrations by Zachery Kraft you can go to GenoWrites.blogspot.com. And... for your reading enjoyment (as well as to whet your appetite), I’ve tagged on chapters one and two of Through the Dark Wood directly after How to be a Hero.

      Before the curtain rises on the ancient land of Cairemia, I have a humble request: if you enjoy what you read in the pages that follow, please review this book on the website where it was purchased. It would be a great help to me.

      Now, clear the modern world from your mind, turn the page, and listen to the wizened voice of Graffeon—royal recorder to Elyon—as he begins the tale.

      Many thanks,

      Geno

      ***

      Prologue:

      Several decades before Zam’s tale began, his friend and teacher Jacob Galwen Dorria—called Galwen in his latter days—was granted his chance to learn the warrior’s way. It is his tale that I, Graffeon—royal recorder and messenger—present to you now.

      When King Tursidan passed from life, Targanon his twelve year old son took the throne. He was a cruel boy who taxed the people greatly to fund his revelry and sport. It was in this era that eleven year old Jacob and his mother were taken to Slave Towne east of Valkiliar and sold as payment for taxes. Jacob watched helplessly as his mother was purchased and taken away by a Coriaeran trader before he too was sold.

      The Cairemian knight Rorithet Maldan became his master. Jacob served as his page for a short while, until he was lost in tournament to Alanak of Kirisong—a blustery but kind-hearted knight. Alanak treated him well—almost like a son—but spent no time training him. Jacob watched Alanak win many victories, and he longed to learn the ways of knighthood so he could right wrongs and protect others from the fate he and his mother had faced. Little did Jacob know how soon he would be tested.

      It was midsummer…

      ***

      Battles Won for Glory Alone:

      It was midsummer, and only now—as the sun was sinking behind the hills and great towering trees—did the travelers stop for their evening meal. Afterward, they would push on through the night in hopes of reaching Tarnanis by mid-morning.

      As Alanak took the larger portion of meat from the spit, Jacob asked him, Alanak, how can you be so heroic?

      His master smiled, and answered in his usual bluster, It is my place in life. I am called to the glories of heroism. as Alanak spoke, light from the fire glinted off of his well-polished armor and danced throughout their little camp as if some heavenly agreement with his statement were taking place. Moreover, someone must champion the innocent. If not I, then who? I know of no one more brave or strong.

      He is strong. His armor alone would weary most horses. He

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1