Wyoming Bones 1- The start to the series.
Little known fact: I first came up for the idea of Wyoming Bones while looking at the barrel of a rocket that I was working on. It was break time, so the technicians were off, and I was letting my mind wander a bit. I have always appreciated how fun and action packed the Indiana Jones movies were, and I'd been playing a lot of Minecraft with my kids.
Naturally, I wondered: What if Indiana Jones were set in Minecraft? Change the name a bit, and suddenly he's a skeleton and off my mind went. I sat home that night and typed out the first few chapters, and finished the whole book in about a month.
I had a blast the whole time, as did my kids when I would read it to them at night. Having a personal audience that expects the next installment to be ready by bed time is great motivation to put words on paper, let me tell you!
What follows is the first few chapters in the series, as a bit of a teaser. Feel free to share it with your friends if you think they, or their kids, would be interested! You can get the full book in ebook, paperback, hardback, or audio at Amazon. Or take a look at the whole series!
Wyoming Bones And The Potion of Ever Life - Sample
Chapter 1
Wyoming Bones, archeologist and treasure hunter, stepped into the jungle temple. The place was a mess, but that is what he expected of an old, hidden ruin.
“Yuck!” he said, as he stepped into a spider web just inside the door. He wiped the web from his face and looked around. The green stone walls were cracked and there were skulls of skeletons sitting on the floor.
Even though Wyoming Bones was a skeleton himself, he didn’t like seeing the skeleton skulls. He hadn’t been a skeleton for long and hoped he could find the magic item needed to turn him back into a human in this temple. Soon he would have his beautiful hair again! Thinking about his hair, he pulled his explorer hat down on his blocky skull.
Wyoming tried hitting the stone with his iron pickaxe, but he couldn’t mine it. Just like he thought. This ruin was an Adventure Zone, like most temples and ancient places were.
He wouldn’t be able to break blocks here to find the treasure. He’d have to do this the hard way.
The first room only had one exit. It was a stone stairway in the center of the chamber. Trying to walk quietly with his bony feet, he crept down the stairs. As it got darker, Wyoming made sure to bring out a stack of torches, putting them on the wall every few blocks. He might be a skeleton, but he still needed to see where he was going!
As he entered the room at the bottom of the stairs, he saw a carving of a spider on the wall ahead. Was this temple made by spiders? Did the people who made it really like spiders? Distracted by the spider picture, Wyoming didn’t watch where he was putting his feet. When he heard the “click!” of a pressure plate, he froze and looked down.
“Oh no! A trap!” Wyoming said, quickly diving forward into the room. Just in time! An arrow from a dispenser whizzed over his head and clanged against the wall next to him. As he stood up, and dusted himself off, he heard another puff of air, and then another. More traps!
Wyoming sprinted forward, heading to the exit from the room. The arrows flew right behind him, barely missing him! One actually got stuck in his leather jacket, it was so close.
Finally, he was through the room, and in a long, dark, hallway. He put his hands on his knees and sighed a loud, “Whew!” That had been a close one. Hopefully that had been the only trap room. He winced as he realized that he had just jinxed himself. There were definitely going to be more traps now.
Chapter 2
Wyoming squinted forward, trying to see down the hallway, but it was too dark. He hit himself in the forehead- the torches! Quickly he placed one down, and then he could see forward. Well, he could have seen forward, if it weren’t for all the cobwebs! “I think I might have figured out what that spider carving was about,” Wyoming said to himself. “Spiders. Why did it have to be spiders?”
Wyoming pulled out his iron sword, and started swinging at the cobwebs, trying to hack his way through. He was several blocks into the mess, when he saw two glowing red eyes coming towards him through the webs. A spider! Just then he heard a chittering behind him. Make that two spiders! He didn’t know how the second spider had gotten behind him, but he was surrounded! He quickly shuddered—he really didn’t like spiders!
Wyoming thought fast. He didn’t want to get attacked by both mobs at once. He whirled around and raced back to the spider behind him, swinging at it with his sword. The spider leaped at him, green poison bubbles popping around its mouth. His sword swing hit it in midair, knocking it back. He swung again at it, making it flash red. Before he could hit it again and poof it away, he heard scurrying behind him and rolled to the side.
The other spider flew through the air where he had just been, hitting the first mob. While they were both getting back up, Wyoming lunged in with his sword, poofing the damaged creepy-crawly. With only one spider to face, he was quickly able to get rid of the last pest. As the last monster poofed away, it left a spider eye behind. He picked it up and put it in his bag. Elaina, the potions teacher, always asked him to bring her things like this from his trips.
Now that the spiders were gone, Wyoming quickly made his way through the rest of the spiderwebs, hacking at them with his sword. He collected the strings that dropped from the cobweb blocks, gathering around a dozen. He had found that having a stack of string could be surprisingly useful for a treasure hunter, so he always tried to grab them when he could.
Finally, he was through the webs, where he found a large iron door. In front of the door were ten levers, and several jungle wood signs. The signs read, “Choose the correct lever to pass through the door, but beware! Only one lever leads to the treasure!”
Wyoming was so close, but he needed to take a moment to think. “Let’s see . . . Based on the carvings, I am pretty sure this temple was made by the ancient People of The Spider. What do I know about them?” He tapped his chin, trying to remember everything he had learned as an archeologist about the old spider worshipers. “That’s right! They thought the perfect number was eight! The same number as a spider has legs!”
Quickly, he counted the levers from left to right. “Six . . . Seven . . . Eight! There it is!” He pulled the lever, already walking forward towards the door he knew was about to open. The door didn’t open. Instead, as he waited, the trap door under his feet swung down! Wyoming fell into the hole, but before he fell all the way in, he grabbed the edge of the pit with one bony hand. Slowly, he pulled himself up, breathing heavily. He looked down and saw a raging river at the bottom of the shaft. That would not have been a fun trip.
“That’s . . . right . . .” He panted out the words. “The . . . People of The Spider . . . Counted from right to left, not left to right!” He had chosen the wrong lever. Counting again, this time from the right, Wyoming found the real lever number eight, and slowly pulled it. He sighed in relief when the door rumbled open.
As he stepped inside, torches lit themselves in a circle around the room, one after the other. Soon the space was filled with torchlight, and he could see a treasure chest box on a pedestal in the center. This was it. If the rumors were true, this is where he could find the item that would turn him back into a human!
Walking carefully, looking for any more traps, Wyoming made his way to the treasure chest. Slowly he cracked it open. Inside, there was . . . Only a book? He pulled it out and opened it.
Inside it read, “Wyoming. I have beat you again. I knew you would come looking for this treasure, but I think I will keep it for my own, personal collection. It’s so much better, knowing you want it. Oh, by the way? Look down. — Dr. Edward Ville”.
Wyoming quickly glanced down, groaning as he realized he was standing on another pressure plate. He quickly put the book in his bag, as the room started to shake, and the walls started to crumble. He had to get out of here!
He darted back out of the room, trying to run down through the hallway. He passed by the shaft of the trap he had nearly fallen into earlier. Before he got more than a few steps into the hallway, the roof ahead of him started to collapse back towards him! Looking behind, he saw that the treasure room had already caved in. If he didn’t get out of here quick, he would be crushed!
Looking around desperately, Wyoming made a snap decision.
Holding onto his hat, Wyoming jumped straight down the shaft, plunging into the icy river below.
Chapter 3
Wyoming splashed into the cold water and was instantly pulled along by the current. It was dark down in the cave below the temple, so he didn’t see the roof of the tunnel getting lower until it hit him in the head.
“Ouch!” Wyoming cried out. He couldn’t get anything else out before he was completely under the water. The river kept pulling him along, moving faster now.
He started to panic. Air! He needed to breathe . . . Wait a second. He was a skeleton. He didn’t need to breathe. He was going to be fine!
It was then that Wyoming heard the gurgling groan behind him. He would recognize that sound anywhere. A drowned, and he couldn’t even see it! He knew the underwater zombie would be able to take his bones apart under the water, so he started swimming as fast as he could with the current.
Wyoming could see light ahead of him. He must be getting close to the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, the groaning behind him was getting closer as well. He didn’t know if he would make it in time!
As he burst from the tunnel, he saw light above him. Wyoming kicked his legs and swam for the surface. He looked behind him and saw the drowned stopping at the edge of the underground passage. As he watched, it turned around and swam back inside.
He was still wondering why the waterlogged zombie had stopped following him when his head broke through into the air. He heard a loud roar fill his ear-holes as water dripped out of them and looked around. He quickly figured it out. “Oh. Of course. A waterfall. That would do it.”
Wyoming screamed a manly shriek as he fell over the edge. In the confusion, he forgot to hold onto his explorer hat. “Nooooo! My hat! Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!” His scream cut off as he collided with the water.
The crash spun him around for a few seconds, but he quickly found the surface. As he swam for the air, he saw a shadow on the surface. A boat was waiting for him. Was this a friend? Or another enemy?