Greetings again.

We're wading deep into the story now, bringing converging characters into conflict, of course, but also adding suspense.

I am adding two new characters at this point.  One is human and one is a cat, but with a very enchanted and magical past.

As with the previous volumes, I add the human element to the teen's lives, so they become part of the war's impact on individuals.  I add the fantasy character to propel the reader into discovering yet another facet of the dragon's past history.

Let's start with the cat.  Ziggimoo is an all white kitty, who wears glasses, at least when he can find them.  He is scatterbrained, absent-minded, and a bit infuriating at times, but adorable too.  However, the piskie Idyllioop doesn't like Ziggimoo, but the reader won't find out until the climax of this book.

As you know, I've been hinting at the importance of cats throughout the series, as Thaddeus has discussed them before.  In this book, I will explain thoroughly the association between cats and dragons, with Ziggimoo at the center.

Now as to the human character, there will actually be 2, one a British Airborne soldier and one an American Ranger, both destined to be involved on D-Day, during the Normandy invasion of France.  This gives me the opportunity to include the landings as the central WWII historical event, but also gives me a wonderful tool to develop yet more friendships to Gavin, Bunty & Emily.  As the war went on, year-to-year, soldiers passed through many English villages and towns, but the relationships were brief and tinged with sadness.

This portion of the novel requires in-depth research.  First, I want the British Airborne soldier to be involved with the glider assault on the Orne River bridges.  Remember, I want the basic details of the mission, but I will write about this soldier's personal experience, what he sees, hears, feels, smells, etc.  This vital operation also gives a wonderful opportunity for Thaddeus to meddle in the outcome, assuring success.

The American will be thrown into the bloody Omaha Beach, right alongside Dog Green beach, where the movie Saving Private Ryan began.  The Rangers were part of the specialized assault and were almost wiped out from wicked German defenses.  Again, at the critical moment, Thaddeus will have an opportunity to make a difference.  Will he take it?

The Orne River assault is well documented, so I grabbed this historical account.  This is rough, because I haven't inserted my new character, nor fleshed out the actual glider trip.  I'll add that today.

It was a steel-girder bridge, painted gray, with a large water tower and superstructure.  At 0000 hours, June 5/6, 1944, the scudding clouds parted sufficiently to allow the nearly full moon to shine and reveal the bridge standing starkly visible above the shimmering water of the Caen Canal.

Halifax bombers, two groups of three, were each towing a Horsa glider.

Thornton was singing "Cow Cow Boogie and chain-smoking Players cigarettes.

With cast-off, there was a sudden jerk, then dead silence.  All the singing abruptly stopped.  The engine noise of the departing bomber faded away and there was a tomb-like silence, broken only by the swoosh of air over the Horsa's wings.

Three of the gliders landed within fifty meters of Pegasus at 16 minutes past midnight on June 6th. The first, Glider No.92, containing Major Howard and No.1 Platoon of the "coup de main" force, landed heavily and came to an abrupt halt when, as had been planned during the briefings, it pushed its nose through and penetrated the first belt of barbed wire around the bridge. The force of this sudden halt catapulted both glider pilots through the cockpit screen and rendered them, together with all of their passengers, unconscious.

Within a few seconds, however, the men had fully regained their senses and became aware that all around them was quiet. The noise of the crash had not alerted the Germans at the bridge, a mere 50 yards from where the glider had come to rest. If it had then the fate of the coup de main might have been decided in seconds. Fortunately, the guards had disregarded the noise that they heard as that of debris falling from a damaged Allied bomber.

No.1 Platoon were quickly out of the glider and instinctively went about the tasks for which they had been training for months. Several men knocked out a machine-gun position whilst the majority of the platoon, led by Lt. Den Brotheridge, rushed over the bridge to capture the other side, firing from the hip and lobbing grenades as they charged. Once across to the western side of the bridge, Brotheridge dropped a grenade into another machine-gun position but was shot through the neck in the next instant. Mortally wounded, Lieutenant Den Brotheridge was the first British soldier to die as a result of enemy action on D-Day.

This is the foundation I'll use to create the scene.  Can you guess where I'll insert Thaddeus?

Likewise, here's the start of the Omaha landing scene:

Able Company was riding the tide in seven Higgins boats, but still 5,000 yards from the beach when first taken under artillery fire. The shells fell short. At one thousand yards, Boat #5 was hit dead on and floundered. Six men drowned before help arrived. Second Lieutenant ?  and twenty others paddled around until picked up by naval craft, thereby missing the fight at the shore line. It's their lucky day. The other six boats ride unscathed to within one hundred yards of the shore, where a shell slammed into Boat #3 and killed two men. Another dozen drowned, taking to the water as the boat sank.

Five boats remaining.

Lieutenant ? in Boat #2 cried out, "My God, we're coming in at the right spot, but look at it! No shingle, no wall, no shell holes, no cover. Nothing!"

His men were at the sides of the boat, straining for a view of the target. They stared, but said nothing. At exactly 6:36, ramps dropped along the boat line and the men jumped off into water anywhere from waist deep to higher than a man's head. This is the signal awaited by the Germans atop the bluff. Already pounded by mortars, the floundering line is instantly swept by crossing machine-gun fires from both ends of the beach.

Able Company had planned to wade ashore in three files from each boat, center file going first, then flank files peeling off to right and left. The first men out tried to do it, but were ripped apart before they can make five yards. Even the lightly wounded die by drowning, doomed by the water logging of their overloaded packs. From Boat #1, all hands jumped off into water over their heads. Most of them sank to their deaths. Ten or so survivors got around the boat and clutch at its sides in an attempt to stay afloat. The same thing happened to the section in Boat #4. Half of the men were lost to the fire or tide before anyone made it ashore. All order vanished, before it has fired a shot.

Already the sea ran red. Even among some of the lightly wounded who jumped into shallow water. the hits prove fatal. Knocked down by a bullet in the arm or weakened by fear and shock, they are unable to rise again and are drowned by the onrushing tide. Other wounded men drag themselves ashore and, on finding the sands, lie quiet from total exhaustion, only to be overtaken and killed by the water. A few moved safely through the bullet swarm to the beach, then found that they cannot hold there. They returned to the water to use it for body cover. Faces turned upward, so that their nostrils are out of water, they creep toward the land at the same rate as the tide. That is how most of the survivors made it. The less rugged or less clever seek the cover of enemy obstacles moored along the upper half of the beach and are knocked off by machine-gun fire.

This is still very rough, but gives you an idea of the scene.  I will continue to edit and then throw in my character.  Right now there are no names for either addition, because I haven't thought of them yet.  That will come from the earlier introductions and descriptions.

From here I develop the action and events leading up to these climactic historical events, but I will leave this portion now and focus on the…..BAD GUYS!

Tomorrow we'll work on Himmler and Adicus.  Oh, and don't forget Rachel Heller.  She's pretty important too.