Littletown Breadmill

Littletown Breadmill is a novel by J. V. Marion Opeda. The story uses a metaphoric writing style and is mainly focused on the issues of life and how this can be translated into a wonderland that a child can marvel at. This story is inspired by the life of the author and is a symbolic representation of the events and places that he had been through in his time.

The novel was written on 1 November 2007 and was finished at around December 2007. This novel is also a winning entry for the 2007 contest winning the 50,000 word count on November 26, 2007 with the winning count of 50,423 words.

This is the author’s 5th novel following the last novel which was also a winning entry at the 2006 NaNoWriMo event .

Plot summary
In the town of Breadmill, news spread of the prince's disappearance. Mervin Gaust, a simple artist finds a Zellum, which he later realizes, held the seal of the royal kingdom. Messages flooded the Zellum as it served as a tracker for the royal guards.

Mervin's life will be more interesting as he tries to return the Zellum while trying not to be caught by the royal guards. Nobody believes him when he said he has nothing to do with the prince's disappearance only his friend Selena. Together they will try to bring back the Zellum to the castle while trying to run away from the very people they are to give the Zellum back to.

Novel Excerpt
The story starts in a grand and elaborate ball. It’s the prince’s annual ball and tonight he spends it with his fiancée, the sorceress of the Helvatican kingdom. Sadly though, he finds himself captured by a young lady whom he can’t resist but to ask her hand for a dance. She agreed and after that, the young lady left, leaving the poor price in the midst of two ladies-one waiting for him to come back to her, the other trying to clear her way from him.

The prince made a decision and dashed towards the front gate chasing after the young lady. He followed her all over town and alas, he finds her.

The next morning, the prince had gone missing and as Mervin Gaust had a visit at the local Zellum shop to get his Zellum repaired, he hears the door open and after a while he saw a Zellum beside his shoes. The Zellum shop owner tells him to take that Zellum instead since his will take more time. Yet the one he got is worthless since its eyes are turning around and is not functioning in any way.

That night he opens his window to see a CyclonePath over the outskirts of Breadmill. He then decided to check it out and hope it could revive the Zellum. He went down, took his Aquatorre and left town. As he stood beneath the large formation of the CyclonePath, he raised the Zellum to the air and a bright light consumes the entire area. When he regained his vision, the Zellum begins to wake up and a sleeve touches its face. He eats it and a message was received. Just then the thousands of sleeves that made up the CyclonePath rushed towards it. Mervin panicked and rushed to the river where his Aquatorre helped him back to town.

The next morning, a festival is held in town and as Mervin has his usual issues at work, a series of knocks changed everything as the voice of a royal guard colonel searches for a Mervin Gaust.

It was then that his boss, Mr. Waggernote, gave him a choice. He was to find the prince with this Zellum as his aid or he could stay here. Either way, the result is unclear. He could stay here and return the Zellum end of story or he could be thrown in jail. On the other hand if he accepts the journey, he could never return alive or he might just save the land from another destructive war. It’s his choice and as the door blasts wide open, Mr. Waggernote smiles as he asks the men what he can do for them.
A few hours later and Mervin surfaces from the streets of Sharada, his journey to bring back the prince now begins.

Characters
; Mervin Gaust :
He is the main character of the story. He will help find the prince throughout the storyline. In the end he will realize the world that he lives in is no longer the right world for him thus the closure of the story.

Mervin is an artist at the local advertising shop in Breadmill, he is a person that has great potential yet his decision on not wanting to become better at what he does pulls him down. A book given to him may help him out of his situation yet somehow, he just leaves it on one side to collect dust.

Mervin is somewhat of a quiet person. He often likes to spend time on his own and only wish to show his true enjoyable side when alone. He is a lover of arts and knowledge yet he does not enjoy acquiring them by reading.

; Selina Erenhoft :
She is the companion of Mervin throughout the story. Selina becomes Mervin's strength every time his moral goes down. She somewhat has this uncertainty towards Mervin and is unusually kind to him compared to other people yet it could just be because they have been friends since they were kids. She is the chief mechanic of Mr. Waggernote Prints responsible for making sure the large printer is always in top condition. Selina is the daughter of Breadmill's Zellum specialist and was supposed to be the next in line in their family's line of work when she discovered she wanted to repair bigger things and decided to set her father's dream aside.

Selina is a strong person who always wants to be looked at as an independent individual. She knows a lot of things in life and demands nothing more than perfection on the things she does. The most powerful side of her comes out when she visits the Zellum shop of the town of Michaselle, she is outraged by the fact she is not recognized as the daughter of the great Zellum researcher.

; Rigchket Sternfold/Prints :
A Zellum of great relevance to the people around him. Bearing the symbol of the royal family, he becomes both a curse and a blessing to Mervin as he shows him the world while running away from the royal guards.

Noisy in more sense than one, this is the liveliest Zellum in the entire story. While most Zellums are like robots, this Zellum has a character of its own.
He was found by Mervin and was then used as a replacement for his damaged Zellum. He later finds out he is actually the Zellum of the prince after talking to Mr. Waggernote. He was also once Mr. Waggernote’s Zellum until the old man became ill and old that he decided to send Rigchket as a gift for the prince.
He helps guide Mervin through the adventure and later on becomes his friend.

; Kurdle Flamewhisp :
Pilot of the Shemron, he is a happy go lucky type of guy. Kurdle is usually a chin-up guy and knows what he’s doing. He is brave and vigilant and several times he shows off to protect Selina from danger although his liking for her is somewhat blurred when they met Amihan.

Later in the story, he becomes Macom, the real identity of Kurdle. Macom is the leader of a group of mercenaries that rides a fleet of Goosestaff (flying vehicle). Their main goal is to maintain the current living status of the people by preventing an all out peace agreement across the four kingdoms. Along their toils, they find Luna, and legend tells she holds a gem of heart that is of a price no one could conceive.

He helps Mervin and Selina through their travels and pilots the great Class-E model type RX187-22i Shemron, the fastest model alive. He initially assumes the role of a hero topping off Mervin and somehow appearing as a third party in the lives of Mervin and Selina.

Later he becomes Macom and sought to kill Luna in order to get the treasure deep within her. Along with his team of mercenaries, they changed their motive from assassinating the prince to getting rich.

; Waggernote Prints :
Waggernote is a large printing press. His face is that of an old man and the details around him is like a very old printer much like that of what’s used in newspaper printing presses.
In order to check Mervin’s designs, he would eat the design proposal and after a few chews, he will give out the verdict. Swallow it then creates a print plate ejected on his side or spit it back on Mervin’s face.

He is originally colored red but after a major makeover by Selina, he turns into a shiny mocha brown printer with much hi-tech gadgets yet still, with all the upgrades, he is old and his inner parts and his core unit is slowly coming to its final run.
He serves as the noisy hot-headed boss of Mervin who keeps on rejecting most of his designs. Waggernote is not always such a bad guy and later on helps Mervin find the entryway to the great journey. He serves as Mervin’s second father and protects the boy whenever he can. In the end part he gains the honor of being the best printing press and leaves everything for Mervin then fades away. Nobody knows what happened to him or how he even got out of his office. He was gone for a month when Mervin got back from the journey.

; Amihan Ell :
A timid girl that has so much insecurity in her she could not even speak up her true feelings. She is bounded by a pact made, somewhat a curse, to their family. Amihan could never leave town without conceiving a baby girl, this was the town's rule. Funny thing is that the town only has one occupant.

She dreamt of one day being able to void the family curse but she does not know how. She was later convinced by Selina to join them in their quest and hopefully end their family’s curse.
Amihan then becomes the second love interest of Kurdle and later finds a very deep and dark secret to their curse. Amihan becomes the life of the forest as she becomes the symbol of hope.

Technology
; Zellum :
A communication device capable of sending and receiving messages burned into a sleeve much like that of a post-it. These massages can be sent as paper airplanes or walking sleeves. In the real world, this is what we call a cellphone .

; Sleeve :
A piece of paper used to transport messages from one Zellum to another. There are many variances of sleeves depending on the need. There are flying, walking, tracking and many more.

; CyclonePath :
A rally point for unsent flying messages. This formation is also capable of powering up a Zellum and there are even rumors of it being capable of reviving a dead Zellum.

; Aquatorre :
A special hooded jacket that wraps the user into a fish-like entity when it senses an intersection or impact to a body of water.

; Shemron :
A large wooden vehicle much like a carriage but whose wheels acts like limbs rather than actual wheels. These Shemrons have different sizes and are used for a number of things, from transporting large containers to delivering people from one city to another. Since the creation of Darkwood Forest, the wood that is used to make these Shemrons are no longer accessible thus only a handful of Shemrons can be seen nowadays.

; Core Unit :
A crystal ball that has a liquid fire inside. Usually colored red, these core units give life to most of the non-human entities in the world of Littetown Breadmill. Among some of the characters whose core units are given emphasis are Mr. Waggernote, Rigchket, and Kurdle's Shemron.

When a core unit is taken out of its host, the host dies and the core unit is transported to a citadel where it is processed into the database server. Once a number of core units are collected, they will be repowered to create a new one.

A Taro core unit is later discovered where the liquid flame inside is colored violet and is somewhat cold. These core units are unclassified and are being researched for its origins and more importantly its maker.

Awards and nominations
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See Also

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