Azure Rocks - 2024 Version

Note: this intro/prologue will probably not make sense for people that haven’t read any of my stories over the years I’ve been at Chyoa, but I hope you can enjoy it just the same.

PROLOGUE

“Champ, let me tell you the story of our family and our town, it’s a very fun one,” an adult Zack Bishop told his 12-year-old son while reclining in a comfortable armchair in the living room of his house. His old black cat, Orion, purred as he cuddled up to his longtime partner.

“Aww, again, Dad?” Logan Bishop retorted, cocking his head to the left as his icy-blue eyes, identical to his father’s, rolled with the typical impatience of a preteen. “Every time you tell a different story! I don’t even know what’s true anymore!”

“Your Dad loves his stories, sweetie,” a teasing voice came from another room, followed by some giggles. ”Just indulge him!”

“See?” The wide-eyed boy told his father while pointing at the source of the voice. “Aunt Taylor knows what’s up!”

“Stop turning my son against me, thank you!” Zack called out to his older sister and then turned back to his son. “No, son, this time I’m gonna tell you the true story.”

Logan sighed. “But you say that every time too,” the child whined. “Should we remember you even put me in your place once in one of your stories?”

“I have an overactive imagination, so what?” Zack retorted, already getting a little impatient himself. “So, the story starts…”

“Not on an island like the last time, right?” Logan interrupted again. “I know we have that weird one almost on our doorstep, but you get inspiration from the worst places, Dad!”

“No! No islands,” Zack waved his arms before an eyebrow raised. “Although, except for that one time…, or that other occasion when…”

“Is he mumbling again?” An insanely stunning woman tall with long, wavy dark hair and icy-blue eyes strolled into the room, a cup of coffee in her hands and a cute 13-year-old girl that looked like her copy walking by her side. “Aria, go sit with your cousin,” she told her own daughter, who nodded and sauntered over to where Logan was sitting on the floor before plopping herself down.

“Yeah, he’s on the island again,” Logan replied.

Taylor let out a chuckle. “Oh, yeah, the island! He thought it was such a clever idea the last time he tried to tell you this story,” she said, tossing an old magazine into her brother’s lap to snap him out of it. “Just don’t let him get to the cabin, or he’ll never finish the story.”

“Hey, the cabin was a witness to several important moments in our family’s history!” Zack protested.

Aria huffed and fixed her uncle with a stare. “I can’t keep track anymore,” she said. “Your stories get more confusing every time, Uncle Zack.”

“Shush!” Logan softly elbowed his cousin with a grin. “My dad wasn’t a good storyteller the first few times.”

“Well, sounds like he still isn’t,” Aria shot back.

“Just stop!” Logan tried to end the argument. “Besides, everything he tells us, I can check with Grace later.”

“If she even talked to you…,” the little girl mumbled.

“Okay, kids, enough,” Zack gently tried to get his son and niece to stop the bickering. “Like I said, I’m gonna tell you the real story this time.”

“Really?” Taylor inquired, feigning surprise. “No giving the resort’s name to the town? Strange places? Switched up relationships?”

“No, dammit! None of those!” Zack finally lost his patience, and then remembered he was in front of his son and niece, causing the man to awkwardly clear his throat. “I mean, well, I’ve been trying to perfect this tale for almost ten years, and I finally reached the conclusion that the true story is the best one I could tell.”

A silence followed that declaration, with the kids staring at him curiously while Taylor regarded her little brother as if he had grown another head.

“What?”

“Oh, shit, you’re actually serious,” the tall woman said, shock written all over her beautiful features.

“Yes!” Zack pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Let me get the others, then,” Taylor quickly stood up. “Kids, where are your siblings?”

“Upstairs with Grandma and Grandpa, I think,” Logan responded and pointed at the stairwell in the adjacent room. “Mom and the others are there too.”

“They need to be here for this!” Taylor said and quickly ran up the stairs.

Zachary let out a sigh, he hadn’t anticipated that a recounting of the true story of their lives would cause such a hassle. He then looked at his son and niece to find them staring expectantly at him, causing him to smile. In a way, they reminded him a lot of himself and Taylor at a similar age, besides, of course, looking almost the same as well. It suddenly made him quite nostalgic about the old times.

“Will I finally find out how you got together with Mom?” Logan inquired with an excited grin.

“You most definitely will, Champ,” Zack chuckled. “Now, our story starts here, in Azure Rocks, around the time my senior year of high school began, give or take. Me and my friends had just celebrated our eighteenth birthdays…”

Author’s Note: like Zack’s family, I know you must be thinking, “Another version, Duskford?”. Yep, sadly, I felt I had to do this, to try and perfect my canon one more time. This time, I returned many details to their original names and setups, while keeping other newer ones that I enjoyed more from later versions, hence why I played with the inconsistency in Zack’s storytelling in this prologue. In September of 2024, it will be 10 years since I published “At the Cabin”, the first version of my story and characters, and it got me thinking about legacy and what were the best versions of these characters. The result was this story, named simply “Azure Rocks”, where I hope you’ll have the patience of embarking in this tale one more time with me, to find out, as Zack said, the true story of him, his family, and friends. Thank you to my friends, both readers and fellow writers, for those amazing 10 years. If you never read any of my stories and found yourself here, thanks for checking it out, and I hope you can enjoy these characters for the first time.