Shepherd's Quest: The Broken Key #1

Longing for adventure is one thing, but when it becomes reality...Four comrades set out to recover the segments of a key which they believe will unlock the King's Hoard, rumored to hold great wealth. Written in the style of an RPG game, with spells, scrolls, potions, Guilds, and dungeon exploration fraught with traps and other dangers.Jack sells his soul to Devil. Through a chain of incidents, he gains eternal youth, and becomes the ‘spiritual leader of Halloween’ alias ‘pumpkin king’. Now with the noose around his neck, he is resisting the takeover of his Halloween world by Devil.Meanwhile, Christmas world is torn apart by territorial conflict between ‘Santa Claus’ and ‘Ded Moroz’, the Russian counterpart and arch-rival of Santa. ‘Ded Moroz’ is convinced that two tigers can’t share a forest, nor can two swords coexist peacefully in the same sheathe; hence he must knock out Santa from the Christmas arena forever.Things turn worse for Jack when Devil decides to fan the Christmas rivalry for personal gains, and rule Halloween world through proxy by exploiting Jack as a puppet.Jack soon finds out that he must pull the strings for Devil like a mere slave, and his position is no different from the day when Devil almost flogged him to death. He risks an excruciating death by burning in the embers of hell if he resists. Jack, the supposed bad guy, has to rise from an underdog as a ‘dark hero’ to thwart Devil’s nefarious desire. But will Jack’s intellect, cunning, and ‘hook or by crook’ policy be enough against the impossible odds?[ About: This is the first (and only) novel which seamlessly knits together the ‘Halloween legend’ and Christmas characters (like Krampus, henpecked Santa Claus & bullying Mrs. Santa, ogress Gryla-the mother of Yule lads, et al). This is an action packed, fast-paced, globetrotting novel, with a taste of cold war era spy thrillers and enriched with flavors of popular folklore & exotic legends. Written in Harry Potter style, this Y.A. eBook is a perfect Christmas/Halloween gift!]