Qurdish & Prime of Qurdish

Science fiction; 58,000 words

I wrote these two novels in middle and high school. The manuscript for Prime of Qurdish has been lost (I never queried it since it was a sequel), but my portfolio didn’t feel complete without them!

In the ruins of a broken world, Keli searches for answers—about her past, her identity, and the mysterious power stirring within her. When she crosses paths with an Erinyes and his student, she joins their journey, hoping they can help unlock the truth about who she is.

But Keli is being hunted.

The same person who murdered her parents is now after her, determined to finish what they started. As her healing powers begin to awaken, Keli must rely on her new companions and her own growing strength to survive.

This is the story of a girl who defies fate, uncovers the truth, and discovers that even in the darkest of times, healing can be its own kind of power.

A child wailed into the stillness of the night. From behind a cold grey tombstone, a woman cradled the toddler in her arms, trying frantically to quiet it. Stepping out from her hiding place, she treaded softly on the red dust, trying to reach her starship without being spotted by the evil man Dakari Grayboz.

“I know you are here, woman. It is no use trying to hide from me,” Dakari sneered softly from the middle of the cemetery. “Come out now and have a less painful death.” He started to creep to the grave where he had heard the baby cry, his senses on full alert to detect the woman and child.

Still holding the tiny toddler in her arms, the woman leaped swiftly over a low headstone, stumbling a little from hunger and fatigue. Dakari’s gray mouth twisted up into a smirk as he spotted the woman and child. Lifting his laser crossbow onto his shoulder, he pointed the tip of the arrow straight towards the woman and child.

Swearing softly underneath her breath, the woman ducked as an arrow whizzed over the top of her head. After the arrow passed, she jumped back up and fled to her once concealed starship. Pausing just inside the doorway to regain her breath, another arrow shot through the window, shattering the glass all over the metallic floor.

The woman rushed to the controls of the ship. Placing the child down in the arms of a robot maid, she pushed a button on the control panel, creating a window to replace the broken one. She took off, the endings roaring, as she glanced through the window at the red and dusty planet she had been born and raised on. The planet she had grown to love and must now leave. The planet Qurdish.

Cursing freely, Dakari raced into his own starship and chased after the woman, his ship shuddering from his fast takeoff.

Unknown to anyone else, a newborn baby still lay among the debris. Only after it remained alone on the planet did the baby start to cry.