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In which we ramble on.
And by we, I mean me.

Crimson Vault Deleted Scene - What Happened To The Bears?

9/14/2013

21 Comments

 
The bear charged through the Elysian Gate, answering the Traveler's call.

Alin's voice hung in the air, demanding and rich with power. Where his summons had previously sounded no more insistent than a polite request, now it rang with all the authority of a king. The call promised everything the bear wanted: strong prey, a challenge, and a chance to ride into battle beside his brothers. He was all but powerless to resist.

Even though this summons hardly sounded like it came from Alin at all.
The bear knew that something had happened to his Traveler, and he wondered if it could possibly be a good thing. Dimly he remembered his grandfather's tales of the old days, of the last Elysian Incarnations, and how their calls had demanded obedience instead of asking for loyalty. This voice sounded similar to what the ancient bear had described: as though Elysia itself was calling them to battle.

The bear knew he should be disgusted at the thought of following the will of a mad Incarnation, but in all honesty he didn't care. He was riding to glorious battle, and that was all that mattered to him. Finally, a real chance to show his valor.

The Gate emerged onto a city choked with flames and ash. The bear shook the falling ash from its white fur, its golden armor rattling. With all this fire and destruction around, surely there must be some...

Yes, there. A creature shaped like a yellow-striped lizard the size of a lion, but with a curving scorpion's tail. It hissed and clacked its mandibles at the bear, shuffling forward with its venomous tail poised to strike.

The bear ran forward to meet this monster, his heart singing with the challenge, but a gold-skinned Elysian warrior got there first. Whirling his staff over his head, the warrior shouted a battle-cry before he plunged his staff down, shattering the lizard-thing's carapace and splattering its insides all over the ground.

More Elysian soldiers, more residents of the Gold District, poured forth from the golden Gate, flowing around the bear like a tide. He allowed himself a moment of despair.

At this rate, there would be no Naraka creatures left for him to fight!

The bear ambled forward again, moving deeper and deeper into the burning village of Myria. He passed battle after battle: Gold soldiers locked in battle with hooded lizard-men, tentacled creatures of the Blue draining life from enormous flaming serpents. He had almost lost all hope when he rounded the ruins of a shattered house and found a challenge at last.

A heavily muscled titan of a lizard stood there. It was somewhat like a human, standing on two legs, but its hands and feet were clawed, and it was covered in pebbly red skin. A lizard's tail swished back and forth through piles of ash.

It moved its squat alligator face toward the bear and roared a challenge, the inside of its throat glowing like embers. The Narakan monster must weigh at least twice what the bear himself did.

Joy rose in the bear's heart and he roared in response, charging toward the enemy.

At last, a challenge.

The bear went up on his hind legs to attack, though he still wasn't as tall as the reptile. He brought both paws and the full weight of his body down on the enemy, slamming into its chest, intending to bring it down to the ground.

The monster's knees bent, but it resisted with sheer strength, its eyes blazing. It caught the bear's paws, one in each hand, and shoved him backwards.

He barely caught himself before he landed on his back, twisting to end up on all fours. If he had landed on his armor, he wouldn't have been able to right himself, kicking at the air like a helpless turtle.

The lizard would have immediately gutted him.

Even worse, the fight would have been over.

The bear charged his enemy again, slamming his shoulder into the creature's waist. It staggered backwards, but no more than that. It weighed far too much, and--as all bears knew--weight was one of the most important factors in a fight.

It was not the most important, though.

The bear roared, and his younger brothers answered.

They had followed him, waiting nearby to see if he would allow them to participate in this fight. This prey was large enough for all three of them, so he had generously decided to accept their help.

This monster of Naraka was stronger than a full-grown bear, but how about three?

The youngest brother nipped at the back of the lizard's legs like a wolf. The creature spun, roaring, sparks flying from behind its teeth.

The bear looked at his other brother, and they both nodded.

Then they charged.

Both bears slammed into the lizard-creature's chest, sending it stumbling backwards. It wasn't enough, though; the lizard caught itself against the roof of a nearby house, its tail braced against the ground. The bear and his brother raked at its pebbly skin with their claws, drawing lines of red-hot blood on its chest. They still, however, couldn't bring it to the ground.

Finally, the youngest brother wheeled around and charged. When he neared the wounded lizard, he leaped.

The oldest bear would have to talk with his brother about this later. Bears had to maintain some kind of dignity, not go hopping around like rabbits. A bear on the ground was a majestic force of nature, but in the air he was no more impressive than a flopping fish. They had their pride to think of, after all.

Powered by the strength of Elysia, the youngest brother practically flew, his armor shining unnaturally gold.

He landed on the lizard's bleeding chest with all four paws and his full weight, slamming the monster to the ground. The lizard's claws gouged a handful of tiles out of the nearby house as it fell.

Once their enemy was on the ground, the three brothers made short work of it, but they didn't stop to eat. Narakan creatures tasted notoriously foul, like char and black oil. They did roar their triumph together, their shouts cutting through the sounds of battle.

Nothing brought Elysian bears closer as a family than a good, clean fight.

The youngest brother barked his satisfaction, cleaning his muzzle off with a paw. The other two brothers growled in response. He shouldn't get too full of himself, flying through the air like a ridiculous bird. Their mother would have words with him about this.

The youngest brother rolled his blue eyes and ran off into the chaos in search of new prey.

Well, he had a point. There was still a battle here, after all.

The other two bears followed their brother, looking for a new opponent. They were no cowards, and they would fight and fight until their Traveler told them it was time to go home.

No matter what had become of Alin, he was still one of their own.
21 Comments
Roddan03
9/14/2013 01:20:19 am

Yeay Bears!!!

Reply
Will Wight link
9/14/2013 01:30:33 am

I thought it would be fun and funny to have a bear scene in Crimson Vault. Ultimately, though, it had no impact on the plot, so I didn't write it...until now.

Reply
Colin
9/14/2013 08:23:06 am

Just got TCV today. It was far and away better than the original. This one had the length it needed to tell a real story, and I look forward to the last one. Stellar job, Will.

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Will Wight link
9/16/2013 08:09:22 am

Thanks, Colin! I thought it was better than HoB, too.

Reply
bludvein
9/14/2013 08:54:10 am

Just picturing jumping bears trying to take that thing down gave me a chuckle. Its funny, but I think your right in that it wouldn't have fit in.

Reply
Will Wight link
9/16/2013 08:08:53 am

I include WAY too much just because it makes me chuckle. There were three or four scenes that certain people (Devin) made me cut because they didn't fit the characters, I just thought they were funny.

If I had written this scene before putting up Crimson Vault, it would have been deleted. And I did intend to write it. So I feel justified in calling it a deleted scene.

Reply
Brian S
9/14/2013 02:22:56 pm

What he really means is that someone noticed that the bears were missing from the set of The Golden Compass and he had to give them back ;)

Reply
Will Wight link
9/15/2013 12:51:41 am

Man, that movie sucked.

Reply
xyro
9/16/2013 04:59:46 am

Have you read the book?

Will Wight link
9/16/2013 08:07:25 am

Why do you think I hate the movie so much?

To be fair, while I liked The Golden Compass a lot, the rest of the trilogy got way too weird and analogy-ridden for me. Keep your philosophical rants out of my fantasy novels, please, Pullman.

I'm looking at you too, Goodkind.

roddan93
9/14/2013 02:48:13 pm

Just checked goodreads.com to see what kind of rating your books have.

House of blades is rated 4.31 of 5 with 308 ratings and The Crimson Vault is rated 4.49 of 5 with 117 ratings.

Reply
Harlequin
9/16/2013 04:42:36 am

I found this little scene to be funny, but i am glad you left it out of the Crimson Vault. Seems too light-hearted to follow immediately after the scene when Alin losses control. Guess the bears can't read the mood, Lol.

Anyways, earlier i was looking through the posts on the blog (because I haven't check back since Crimson Vault was released) and I read through the Reddit Q&A session. You mentioned something happened when you wear the Nye cloak and use Nye Essence, and that the scene when it was shown got the axe in the final draft. Im curious, so Id figured Id ask if you were going to post that scene as well, or if indeed you are saving it for Book 3?

Thanks for hearing me out in any case. (Also curious if Simon is the wielder of Mithra after the end of Book 2, but I suppose I can wait until Book 3 to find out.)

Reply
Will Wight link
9/16/2013 08:05:37 am

Honestly, I call it a "deleted scene," but I never would have put it into the book as written. It's too light-hearted, as you say.

If I allowed myself to include every little off-topic and humorous scene that I considered adding, my books would be a hundred pages longer and way too weird.

Plus, every time I try to sneak a scene like this into a book, Devin steals it. He's like a gremlin.

Both of those questions will be answered in Book 3. I'd love to answer them now, but they may be too spoilery. Here's a hint, though, since I feel bad: lobster.*






*Not actually a hint.

Reply
Trevor
9/17/2013 07:47:49 am

Will!

This made me smile. Excellent snippet.

Just finished TCV 2 days ago and I already miss it! The Territory system to magic, in my opinion, is awesome. I hope book 3 contains more Valinhall and its tests. It reminds me of a combination of the traps from Home Alone the movie, Hogwarts, and an angry wasp's nest. Just don't break my morale and tell me I gotta wait 2 years to read the last installment. =(

Reply
Will Wight link
9/24/2013 01:31:29 am

I see you made it over from Twitter. Congratulations! It's a long, hard journey from Twitter Island all the way into the blogosphere.

Two years!? Preposterous! There's no way I could get a book done that quickly. Five years at least, maybe more if I decide to be snobbish about it.

I'm kidding, of course. If it takes another six months, I'll be surprised.

And you're not the only one who wants more Valinhall tests, but honestly I'm having trouble working THAT many tests into the story. If he's in Valinhall, he's distant from the conflict. If he's distant from the conflict, he's not involved, and he has very little motivation to continue trying to progress through Valinhall.

It's a challenge.

Reply
Leelo
10/1/2013 10:34:42 am

Okay, so Simon defeated the incarnation with just Nye essence, steel, and his advisor? Really?!?! He doesn't take one cut? The mask only amplifies your gifts, it doesn't give you new ones. I had a hard time accepting that battle.

Reply
Will Wight link
10/26/2013 09:25:08 am

If it helps, he did get injured, I just didn't draw attention to it.

Reply
Igor
10/21/2013 08:22:11 pm

hi Will, must admit, I had a really good chuckle at that, and I love your books in general, I hope you keep up the great work, and I will support your books. also let me know if you are interested in playing a few games of league:) (superiored)

Reply
Will Wight link
10/26/2013 09:24:12 am

Always interested in playing some League, even when I should perhaps be writing instead.

I'll send you a friend request. It has my last name in it, so you shouldn't be too surprised.

However, it looks from your profile like you will be way, way better than me. Don't get your hopes up too high. I'm Bronze I, and at some point I'm going to have to make an effort to reach Silver before November 11th.

Reply
Bann-Hammer
2/14/2014 03:53:16 am

hey I cant wait for the next book, I hope it will be out by this summer or even sooner and I really hope if you could explain how valin hall was created in the third book.

Reply
Will Wight link
2/20/2014 04:09:09 am

No, I won't go through Valinhall's creation in the third book, though you may learn a bit more about it. That'll be for a later book in a year or two, in which I tell the story of Valinhall.

On the good news front, though, it will be out before this summer. I'm aiming for next month.

Reply



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