Why I Wrote The Tale of Two Beasts

Behind the Story of The Tale of Two Beasts
By Richard Scorpio

Every fantasy begins somewhere.

Sometimes it's an imaginary world waiting to be explored. Sometimes it's a character who refuses to leave an author's imagination. Sometimes it's a single question that grows into an entire story.

The Tale of Two Beasts began with several questions.

What does it mean to love someone unconditionally?

How far should we go to protect the people we care about?

And what happens when two people, both acting out of love, disagree about what protecting someone actually means?

I wanted to explore those questions through an epic fantasy filled with extraordinary magic, dangerous creatures, adventure, romance, and characters whose lives would become deeply connected.

But I wanted something more than another story about heroes defeating monsters.

I wanted the people to matter as much as the adventure.

Two Sisters, One Extraordinary Bond

At the heart of the novel are Tessa and Sera, twin sisters whose lives have been intertwined since childhood.

They share an extraordinary connection, but they are very different people.

Tessa is imaginative, spirited, independent, and gifted with remarkable magical abilities. Yet her magic comes with difficulties that sometimes place her at odds with the world around her.

Sera is disciplined, protective, and determined to keep those she loves safe. Her own magical abilities complement her sister's, and their childhood experiences establish a bond that few outsiders can fully understand.

I didn't want readers simply to be told that these sisters loved one another.

I wanted them to experience that relationship.

To witness their childhood, their achievements, their disagreements, and the small moments that make a family feel real.

Because a relationship that develops over a lifetime cannot always be understood through a few paragraphs of explanation.

And because even the strongest bonds can become complicated as people grow older.

A Hero Who Questions What Makes Something Evil

Alden brought another important dimension to the story.

As a Warden, he encounters dangerous creatures and situations that ordinary people would understandably fear.

But Alden doesn't believe every frightening creature deserves to be destroyed.

He wants to understand what he's confronting.

Why is it dangerous?

What caused it to behave that way?

Can the threat be resolved without unnecessary suffering?

One of the Warden principles captures that philosophy:

"KNOW THE THING BEFORE YOU NAME IT EVIL."

That idea became central to the novel.

I wanted a hero whose strength wasn't measured solely by how many enemies he could defeat, but also by his judgment, compassion, determination, and willingness to challenge assumptions.

Alden is certainly capable of confronting danger.

But his greatest challenges aren't always the ones that can be met with a sword.

The Romance Beneath the Adventure

I wanted The Tale of Two Beasts to contain a love story readers could believe in.

Not simply a romance built from grand declarations, but one that develops through companionship, humor, trust, attraction, disagreements, and the ordinary moments that bring two people closer.

Fantasy allows those experiences to unfold against an extraordinary backdrop.

A journey can become an adventure.

An act of protection can become heroic.

A moment of tenderness can exist amid danger and uncertainty.

But the emotions must remain recognizable.

I wanted readers to appreciate not only what the characters are willing to risk for one another, but also what makes their relationships worth protecting in the first place.

The laughter matters.

The friendships matter.

The quiet conversations matter.

And sometimes, a small expression of affection can reveal more about a relationship than an entire chapter of dramatic action.

Magic makes their world extraordinary. Love makes it human.

The Difference Between Protection and Control

One of the most important questions running through the novel concerns protection.

We naturally want to shield the people we love from danger.

Parents protect children. Sisters look after siblings. Partners worry about one another's safety.

Those instincts can be expressions of genuine devotion.

But what happens when protecting someone begins to conflict with that person's independence?

What happens when concern becomes certainty that we know what is best?

And what happens when the person being protected sees the situation differently?

I didn't want these questions to have easy answers.

Sera's protective instincts are rooted in her history with Tessa.

Alden approaches difficulties from a different perspective, shaped by his experience as a Warden and by the woman he comes to know.

Their understanding of danger, responsibility, and personal choice doesn't always come from the same place.

That difference interested me.

Because in real life, people can love someone deeply and still disagree about how best to help them.

And those disagreements can become particularly difficult when fear and uncertainty enter the picture.

When Magic Reflects Real-Life Struggles

Tessa's magical abilities are extraordinary, but her difficulties with controlling them create challenges that readers may recognize in a different form.

Sometimes people struggle with circumstances they never chose.

Sometimes their behavior or abilities are misunderstood.

And sometimes the people closest to them disagree about what is happening or what kind of help is needed.

I have personally experienced the uncertainty of watching someone I cared about struggle with serious illness.

That experience taught me how complicated love, responsibility, medical understanding, and personal choice can become when people are frightened and searching for answers.

It also taught me that good intentions don't automatically guarantee good decisions.

Those experiences influenced some of the questions explored in the novel.

But The Tale of Two Beasts is not a retelling of real events.

Its characters have their own lives, personalities, motivations, and choices. Their magical world operates according to its own rules.

I used fantasy to explore recognizable human experiences without attempting to recreate particular people or circumstances.

The inspiration was real.

The story belongs to its characters.

Why the Fantasy Had to Be Grand

If I wanted to explore relationships and difficult choices, why surround them with magic, dangerous creatures, mysterious forces, and an expansive imaginary world?

Because I love fantasy.

I love the freedom it gives an author to imagine extraordinary possibilities.

A Warden can face creatures unlike anything in our world.

A mage can create wonders that defy nature.

An ordinary journey can become an adventure filled with unexpected discoveries.

And characters can demonstrate courage and devotion through acts that would be impossible in everyday life.

I wanted all of that in The Tale of Two Beasts.

The adventure wasn't simply decoration around a serious subject.

It was an essential part of the experience I wanted readers to enjoy.

I wanted mysterious creatures, magical discoveries, compelling characters, danger, humor, friendship, and romance.

I wanted readers to become absorbed in the world of Dunmere and the Hill District.

And I wanted the extraordinary events to have consequences that mattered to the people experiencing them.

The story needed both spectacle and substance.

Why I Allowed the Characters Time to Grow

I deliberately gave the characters room to develop.

Tessa and Sera's relationship begins long before the main adventure.

Alden enters the story with his own principles, experience, and understanding of the world.

Crystal brings friendship, observation, independence, and a perspective that is distinctly her own.

I didn't want these characters to exist merely to move the plot forward.

I wanted them to have histories, personalities, disagreements, humor, responsibilities, and lives beyond whatever danger confronted them.

That means the story sometimes slows down.

Not because nothing important is happening, but because understanding the characters is part of understanding the adventure.

A childhood promise can matter years later.

A quiet disagreement can reveal something important about a relationship.

A seemingly ordinary conversation can become meaningful in ways the reader doesn't immediately recognize.

I wanted readers to carry those moments with them as the story progressed.

The Choices That Shape a Life

One of the things that fascinates me most about storytelling is how small choices can eventually produce extraordinary consequences.

A person makes a promise.

Someone decides to help.

Another person chooses to trust an explanation.

A difficult decision is made with the best intentions.

At the time, none of these moments may seem especially remarkable.

But our lives are shaped by decisions whose significance we often recognize only afterward.

I wanted that sense of consequence woven throughout The Tale of Two Beasts.

Not every problem can be solved through strength.

Not every misunderstanding disappears when someone explains themselves.

And not every choice offers a perfect outcome.

That's part of what makes the characters human, even when their circumstances are fantastical.

A Story That Doesn't Follow Every Expectation

Fantasy readers often recognize familiar storytelling patterns.

We understand the role of the hero, the nature of the quest, and the possibility of a dangerous final confrontation.

Those traditions are part of what makes fantasy enjoyable.

But I didn't want readers to feel they could predict every important development simply because they understood the genre.

I wanted the story to follow its characters and the consequences of their decisions.

Sometimes that means events unfold differently from what readers might anticipate.

I won't reveal where the journey leads or what awaits its characters.

Those discoveries belong to the reader.

But I will say that the emotional journey is every bit as important as the physical adventure.

And the meaning of the title may not be quite as straightforward as it first appears.

What I Hope Readers Experience

Above everything else, I wanted The Tale of Two Beasts to be a story readers could become emotionally invested in.

I hope they enjoy the magic and adventure.

I hope they find humor in the characters' conversations and appreciate the friendships that develop throughout the novel.

I hope they experience the romance rather than merely being told it exists.

And I hope the difficult questions remain worth considering after the final page.

What makes someone heroic?

What makes something monstrous?

Can protecting another person become a way of limiting them?

And how do we recognize the difference between what we believe is happening and what is actually true?

There may not always be simple answers.

That's one reason stories matter.

They allow us to explore complicated situations through the experiences of people whose lives are different from our own.

More Than a Fantasy Adventure

I wrote The Tale of Two Beasts because I wanted to combine the things I enjoy most about fantasy with the human experiences that make stories memorable.

Magic and mystery.

Adventure and heroism.

Friendship and romance.

Love, independence, sacrifice, and the difficult choices people sometimes face.

Personal experience helped give those themes emotional weight, but imagination gave them an entirely new world in which to unfold.

And that is what I hope readers discover.

Not simply a fantasy about unusual powers and dangerous creatures.

But a story about people—people who love, laugh, disagree, make mistakes, face extraordinary challenges, and try to do what they believe is right.

I wanted readers to come for the fantasy, stay for the characters, and finish with something more than they expected.

— Richard Scorpio

---

The Tale of Two Beasts is available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback editions.