Queen Isabella of the Spanish Empire
Table of Contents
Prologue - The Beach
Part 1
Chapter 1 - The Beach House
Chapter 2 - Spanish Ruins
Chapter 3 - Anton's Birth Certificate
Chapter 4 - Antonio's Lab Notes
Chapter 5 - Rubin Filaro
Chapter 6 - Ancient Madrid
Chapter 7 - Isabella I
Chapter 8 - Antonio’s Lab Notes, Continued
Chapter 9 - Welcome to Spain
Interlude and a Small Update
Author's Disclaimer: Some of the concepts and definitely some of the motivation for my story comes from Stephen King's
The Dark Tower books. I take no shame in giving Mr. King all the rights and in a way this could be considered "fan fiction". The underlying story arc fits in well with his story and I take no credit for thinking of it. Please, if my story interests you, pick up The Dark Tower series (7 books!) and read it, its well worth the read and guaranteed will blow any story I can come up with out of the water!
Prologue – The Beach
Anton opens his eyes. Sand.
Where am I?
He lay there contemplating his fate for about 10 seconds, but it felt like an eternity.
Then it hit him. The experiment. Did it work?
With a sudden shock he gets up and looks at himself. Whew, he thinks, not naked… my clothes made it with me. And his gun? He the safety to the off position. I guess we will find out.
He takes the time to look around. A beach? He looks out over the water… some sort of beach. Maybe a lake. Doesn’t matter. He starts to walk. To his left is a gigantic forest, one bigger than he has ever seen in his lifetime. These trees make the ones at the preserve look like seedlings. He must have gone wwaaayyyy back.
Anton walks… and walks, and walks some more. The beach seems endless. His surroundings are the same. No sign of life other than an occasional rustling from the underbrush of the woods. He ain’t going in there, that’s for sure. He has his gun, but he isn’t exactly a trained KGB agent. And who knows what things lurk in there in god knows what time he is in.
For hours Anton walks. Not in a hurry, just… going nowhere. This wasn’t what he expected at all. He was supposed to arrive at least somewhere near some event of importance. Do humans event exist yet? He wonders if he will run into a Neanderthal with a club anytime soon.
In fact something had better happen, and soon. The sun is getting lower. He doesn’t know when he is supposed to go back, but he sure as hell doesn’t want to spend the night out here. When am I?
Just then a girl runs out of the woods ahead of him and runs to the water. She is beautiful all over… and only wearing a few hides over the important parts. Can’t be more than 13, Anton thinks. Guess that answers the question about when, it’s a long time ago. She doesn’t notice the strange man on the beach and runs into the shallow water, falling to her knees and crying, praying.
Before Anton can even process all this new information another gruff man runs out of the woods towards the girl. He also has only a few hides on him and is holding… yes a wooden club. There he is, Anton thinks, smiling to himself. Now if our history books are true he will whack her over the head and drag her by the hair back to his cave. He can’t help but laugh to himself, and continues walking slowly towards them.
Except upon further inspection this guy isn’t just your normal meathead at the gym. He is pure muscle, head to toe, and is faster than Anton realizes. He runs to the girl and doesn’t grab her by the hair to take to his cave, instead he grabs her and throws her down in the water right there. She screams and struggles, but this Neanderthal would overpower anyone from his time, man or woman. This girl doesn’t stand a chance. Anton breaks to a sprint… he isn’t taking her to his cave, he’s going to have his way with her right here, he thinks.
As Anton approaches, the Neanderthal notices when he runs into the water. He quickly turns and raises his club, yelling a battle cry. Anton his pistol and has a quick thought, I don’t even know if this is going to work! This could be trouble…
The Neanderthal charges, Anton draws. When he is about 6 feet away (man this guy is quick, Anton thinks) Anton pulls the trigger. Click. His face goes slack and like a deer in headlights he just stands there… suddenly facing death.
The girl has gotten up and is running after the Neanderthal. She yells her own battle cry, throwing shells at the gruff man. This is enough to give him slight pause and just enough time for Anton to snap out of it. He shakes the gun, smacks it against his hand and pulls the trigger. This time it fires, right into the water. The blast isn’t all that loud, but it’s completely foreign and shocking to the ancient people, who both stop in their tracks.
Anton raises the pistol once more. “Seems like it’s working now you .” Another blast and the Neanderthal falls into the water. “The bigger they are the harder they fall.”
The girl screams again and turns to run. Anton moves much quicker this time and grabs her arm. “It’s ok, it’s ok, please don’t run. I’m not going to hurt you.”
The girl fights him at first but quickly starts to understand. He lets go of her arm. “Please, its ok. I’m here to help. What’s your name?”
The girl looks at this strange man. He is clad in furs of a different kind she has never seen before. And what is that thing that killed her pursuer. The questions come faster than she can process them and she just stands there. Suddenly he begins to shimmer as he asks her name.
Anton suddenly feels sick. He looks at his hands and they are shimmering, then he can see through them. He asks himself, is this it? He looks at his hand again and then disappears.
The girl is shocked. She stands there looking at where the strange man used to be. Then finally she has an answer to his question. She finally speaks.
“My name is Isabella.”