Of Wizards and Norns

This is a brief prologue to the novella, The Mantis King. The prologue gives background information that, though not essential to the novella, provides details for the interested reader. We learn some of the history of Wizards and Norns, as well as that of Nivian, the Lady of the Lake. We also learn of the creation of the invincible army of the Green Warrior Women.Flora Richmond announced to the school her pending retirement as a grade six teacher. On her way home that Friday, she made her usual stop at a local 7-Eleven to buy her weekly lotto 649 ticket. She used the same numbers each week, bought them from the same ticket seller, and on her way to her car she gave ten dollars to the same homeless man she had done so for the past year. She arrived home expecting the same Friday night ritual of pizza, some wine and movie with her husband. Between the time he arrived home with his own retirement plans, until ten days latter when she survived a gangland style shootout at an abandoned farm in Northern Ontario, her retirement life was permanently altered. After her car—and a winning lottery ticket— is stolen, Flora, the ticket seller and the homeless man chase two car thieves from Toronto to North Bay. The thieves have complications of their own. And the homeless man and the ticket sellers have secrets of their own. Together they find adventure, friendship and even love.