nanowrimo

NaNoWriMo 3

Still trucking along, have not abandoned this whole thing yet.  As of last night I was sitting at 8050 word count, so I managed to put a significant dent in this weekend.  That was my goal as I would really like to get to the point where I don’t have to write more than a chapter any given week night.  At this point I am five chapters in with a clear vision for the next three or so chapters, but past that everything is very fluid.  Once again… I am posting the next chapter completely unedited.  I figure December is a fine time for edits and rewrites.

Birthday Wishes

Jace awoke to the gentle rustling of the leaves blown up by a brief gust of wind.  He expected to open his eyes and see the low light of early morning, but instead was greeted with the high mid day light streaming blindingly in through his window.  He briefly wondered why exactly he had not been woken up by Uncle Benj to do his chores like he normally was, but then almost as a spark or recognition hit him he remembered.  Today was his birthday, and I guess Benj had let him sleep in for once.

How could he have forgotten, even if momentarily that today was his birthday?  This was the big one, sixteen, and finally he could turn the learners permit in his wallet into a real drivers license.  For the last several months Benj had been sneaking off to the old barn each night.  A few weeks back there was a loud peal as the old chargers engine roared to life.  Jace guessed the big secret was that Benj had planned to give it to him for his birthday.  He pictured himself roaring down the county roads and into town whenever he wanted.

Not that he disliked farm life, but he always felt so isolated from everyone else.  As a result he had a hard time forming ties to the other kids at school.  He was never able to attend the birthday parties growing up due to being so far out of town and the never ending string of chores needing to be done around this old farm.  After awhile the invites just stopped happening.  There was always a stream of family visiting, but never anyone his age.  As a result he spent a lot of time day dreaming about the day when he would get a car and his freedom.

He pushed himself over the edge of the bed and stood up stretching the afternoon light.  He was suddenly hit by a pang of hunger realizing that he was absolutely starving.  Jace wandered down the hall and flight of stairs leading to the kitchen below.  In the kitchen he rummaged around the cabinets for a bit before finally settling on a bowl of cereal.  On the door to the fridge was a short note.

Did your chores

Went to town for supplies

Benj

Jace wondered how long he had to himself before Uncle Benj would make it back from town.  No sooner than he had asked himself that did he hear the sound of the old farm truck rumbling down the dirt road towards the house.  He figured he at least had time to finish the bowl of cereal and run upstairs to put on some clothes before Benj would be walking through the door needing his help to carry in the supplies.  One of these supply runs normally meant Groceries, but since we were expecting company tonight for his birthday, he had no idea what all Benj might have picked up while in town.

Jace was only partly correct, about the time he had finished his bowl and walked over to the sink to rinse it, the front door creaked open.  He heard the gruff and familiar voice of Benj “Jace?  You up and dressed?”  Jace turned to face the voice, but before he could reply he saw his Uncle Benj standing in the door with someone extremely tall behind him.  Within a few moments the other stepped out from behind Benj and he could see that it was rather tall, but also rather lovely girl.  He felt a sudden wave of realization rush over him as he realized that he was now standing face to face with a stranger wearing nothing but his boxers.

She met his gaze and he could see her starting to blush slightly as well, eventually turning her head to be polite.  “Jace, get upstairs and get dressed, we have company” Benj scolded then turned to the girl and apologized “I’m sorry maam, I expected him to be up and dressed”.  Jace quickly darted back upstairs and rummaged through his room to find something to wear.  After a few minutes he had pulled on a pair of jeans and a red hot chilli peppers tee.  He stopped at the mirror and noticed he was still bright red from embarrassment.  He forced himself to breathe deeply and after a few moments he had calmed down and his cheeks were returning to their natural color.

By the time Jace had gotten back downstairs, the girl had taken his place at the kitchen table and was viciously devouring a plate of cold chicken and a few biscuits that Benj had apparently fixed for her.  He saw his Uncle out on the porch, and rather than risk further embarrassment he decided to join him out there.  Questioningly Jace gave his uncle a look that was quickly translated by the elder Waxwood.  “I met her in town, and she looked like she had not eaten in days.  Based on the way she took to that plate of food I guessed my assumption was right.  She needed a safe place to be…  and we could use another hand around here” Benj said in a rather plain and matter of fact way.

“Her names, Kale.  Something special about her… but she’s a bit twitchy.”  he said looking down the hall from the porch to the sight of her decimating the food. Changing the subject Jace asked “When is the family getting here?  I expected for someone to be here by now.”  Almost on queue Benj nodded to the lane, and coming into view was a group of figures walking down the lane.  Jace always wondered why none of his family seemed to drive cars, especially since most of them lived so far away.  Benj never really would explain much of anything to him, he would just clam up and get real quiet anytime he asked.

He outright refused to say anything about his parents, other than they died when Jace was really young.  He certainly had no shortage of family growing up, and one of them always seemed to be lurking around in the background.  As the figures came into view he could make out Aunt Morrow, Uncle Oaks, Uncle Bemel, Uncle Josah, and trailing behind the pack his favorite… Aunt Beth.  While he loved all of us Aunts and Uncles, there was just something special about Bethilda.  Whenever he was having a hard time, or feeling lonely, she knew exactly what to say to make him feel better.  Jace had never been able to figure out why exactly they walked like this, it seemed like it would be easier if we just met them at the bus depot in town.

By this time Uncle Bemel had pulled ahead of the group slightly and was walking down the path to the porch from the front gate.  With his great red beard wrinkling into a smile he yelled up at Jace with arms stretched out “Happy New Year Jace!”  Jace of course went out to meet him and returned with a big hug.  He never really understood why his family seemed to call a birthday a “new year” but he had gotten used to it.  He remembered the embarrassment the first time one of the town kids had a party at school and he wished them “Happy New Year”.  To tell you the truth there was a lot of things his family did that never really synced with the rest of the world.

The rest of his relatives had now made their way up the path as well and similarly wished him a happy new year and gave him a big hug.  Leading up the pack was Beth, she lingered extra long giving him a tight squeeze against his ribs.  “You are looking handsome as ever Jace, did you have a good year?”  It just hit him that sure enough… the last time he had seen Beth was on his birthday last year.  “Yeah it was, looking forward to finally getting my drivers license so I can leave the farm when I want to.” Jace replied.  Bethilda made a slight grimace when he talked about leaving the farm, but she quickly shrugged that away.

“Jace go in and gather up some drinks, I am sure they are thirsty after their walk” Uncle Benj bellowed from behind him.  With that Jace turned and wandered into the house, by now he had all but forgotten about Kale, so when he saw her again now sitting against the back of her chair slowly sipping a coke he jumped slightly.  “I’m sorry about earlier… I” Jace started to stammer but was cut off abruptly with a reply from the other “It’s fine…  you didn’t know” muttered Kale, to be truthful she didn’t even know she would be there.

She was surprised at the turn of events herself.  She had finally gotten up the nerve and saw that old farm truck sitting outside the feed store, loaded down with packages. She had only just begun rummaging through the bags, found a banana and cracked it open when she felt a huge hand on her back. “Can I help you with that miss?” grumbled a gruff voice of the hands owner.  She thought about shifting, leaping back into the shadow to get away, but something kept her from doing it this time.  She turned to face the man, sheepishly chewing on the stolen banana, surprised to find that he did not seem angry in the least.

“I’m sorry mister…  I haven’t…  it’s been days since.”  Kale stammered breaking down into tears still holding the banana loosely.  Benj wrapped his arms around the girl saying gently “It’s okay, we’ve all done things we aint proud of.  Tell ya what, I got a big farm not too far from here.  I could use some help preparing for winter.  We’ll give you a warm bed and warm meals for as long as you need them.”  With this Kale allowed herself to completely break down, despite everything she had been through the big man felt safe.  She needed work, she needed a place to stay, and it had to be better than the foster system had been.

She finished her banana as the big man finished loading the truck.  When he finally got in the truck he look at the girl with a sideways glance.  “You got a name?” questioned the big man.  “Kale” she replied rather simply “Just Kale”.  Benj looked her over for a bit before responding “and I’m Benjanatos Waxwood, but most folk just call me Benj or Uncle Benj.  You’re gonna be fine now.”  And with that they pulled out of the town and onto the long series of winding roads eventually leading to the farm.  Against her better judgement she felt a bit of hope creep into her… you know she thought maybe she would be fine.

Nanowrimo Day Two

Well day two was equally successful to the first one.  I am still not sure if anything I am writing is pure shit or not, but I am making progress.  At the end of last night my official word count was 4986 with three chapters written.  Goal is to try and write another couple today to give myself a good boost into the work week.  As per yesterday I am posting the next chapter as my daily blog post here.

Little Giant Girl

Kale had never exactly had an easy lot in life, but as she sat shivering in the corner of this abandoned building she thought “Surely this has to be rock bottom… right?”  The last foster home seemed promising until that bastard tried to stick his hands down her pants.  That had happened one time too many and more than that it was the fact that she had instinctively bashed his skull in as a muscle reflex.  Something was changing in her and it was not the summers eve commercial bullshit… there was a deep hatred growing and it honestly scared her at times.  She had killed a guy with her bare fist without really thinking about it.

“No sense dwelling on it, I can’t undo it” she thought to herself as she gathered her things thinking that getting up and around would get her warm.  She was not really sure the last time she had eaten, but in order to do that she needed to find work.  She could not go back to the system, especially after what she had done, but every moment she was out on the streets was another moment for the snatchers to find her.  She had always been a bit different, I mean a 6’10” fourteen year old girl stands out in a crowd… but the fact that her skin had a slightly greyish tint made things even worse.

When Kale turned twelve she had two major shocks, the first of which was to be expected with “becoming a woman”, the second was that when she got angry she was powerful.  It was only a little while later that she first encountered the snatchers.  She was walking on her way home from school and this man jumped out of the shadows grabbed her and did something.  The world changed colors around her, a swirling vortex of purple, and then finally it was night time around her.  All the while she was struggling to break free of the mans hold.  He was significantly less capable of defending himself than she was… but wherever he had brought her he had friends.

They had decided to grab the wrong girl because what should have caused fear only invoked cold hatred in Kale.  She bucked out of his hold throwing him across the open ground, stretching her arms she appeared to almost gain mass as she flexed.  This was also the first time she noticed her skin darkening and becoming more greyish blue than anything resembling flesh.  She met the nearest snatcher with her fist collapsing his skull like it were a rotten pumpkin.  Apparently the sight of this caused the other two snatchers and the one she had sent flying across the opening to rethink their actions.

Within a few minutes she was standing alone in an open field with nothing remaining of the city around her.  What she had taken for night time while she was struggling with the snatchers, she realized was more of a early morning twilight.  She could see almost as well as if it were daytime, but there was no sign of anything she remembered.  Confused and frightened she sat down leaning up against a large oak tree.  She broke down and sobbed, it was the first time in years she had done so and it felt better than she could ever imagine.  Oddly enough though she was really not that scared, being here alone was preferable to being picked on and called names like “giant” and “freak”.

She had been there what felt like hours when off to her left she saw a green glimmer.  She turned to look and it was what seemed like a parade of fireflies.  As they drew closer she could see that they were not fireflies at all but instead little people with a green halo surrounding their backs, that upon closer inspection appeared to be immensely rapid beating wings.  As she sat there, they surrounding the tree upon which she was leaning, making a neat ring around her.  When they all got in place they drew spears from their backs and began pointing them at her.  She knew she should likely be frightened but the entire sight was so fantastical that she just could not react in any other way than amusement.

From within the ranks of the circle emerged a little man decked in what appeared to be bark armor.  “What is an Ort girl doing in Wilder lands?  Tell us now or we make dinner of you.”  said the little man with barken armor and tiny spear.  She could tell he was being serious, but she had no clue at all what he was talking about.  “What is an Ort?” bumbled Kale, not really knowing what else to say.  The small man paused confused for a moment before recovering “I know you are Trogkin, I can smell it.  Are you with an army?  How did you get here?”

Kale looked down at the ground and replied with utter honesty “I don’t know how I got her, a man grabbed hold of me… and then I was just here.”  The little man nodded and motioned to the circle and one by one they lowered their tiny pikes.  “You were snatched, but that means you are a halfkin.  Do you not know what this means?”  Kale found herself tearing up a bit and sniffled slightly as she said “No… I don’t know what any of this means.”  The tiny man glowered slightly and said “Silly Ort, you can go back at any time you want… you halfkin can move freely between the worlds.  Why did none of your own kin tell you this?  Is dangerous not to know.  Snatchers snatch the unknowing and sell them as slaves  Your kin should have trained you better.”  The little man nodded furiously upon that last statement.

Kale found herself getting angry again “I have no “kin” okay?  I am was abandoned as a baby, so I don’t HAVE anyone to teach me anything.”  She stared viciously at the little man for reminding her that she was always going to be alone no matter how bad she wanted someone else. The little man shook his head slightly “I am Dobin, and we are Wildfae.  We can’t shift like you can, but I’ve heard it explained by a wilderkin.  They picture a long tunnel in their mind, with a light at the end of it.  Then they picture themselves walking down it…  then the shift just happens.”  Dobin shrugged as he delivered the advice.  “You need to leave now, before more wilder arrive.  We have been kind, but others will not be.  Wildfae don’t like the Trogkin, and would have likely killed you on sight.”

Kale tried as hard as she could to imagine a long tunnel in her mind.  At first she found it hard to push out the other thoughts, like the kids who teased her and the string of foster families.  But with effort she built a long bricked tunnel in her mind, much like the walls of her school.  As she imagined herself walking down the tunnel she began to feel a fluttering feeling in her stomach, almost like butterflies.  As she got closer and closer to the end of the tunnel she began to feel it more.  There was a sudden wave of warmth over her body as she pictured herself entering the light.  She felt what she was certain was sunlight on her skin, and when she finally allowed herself to open her eyes she was sitting down in a alleyway a few blocks from her school.

That had been the first time Kale had shifted, and since then she had been forced to do it a few times.  She learned that she could sneak into places by shifting over into the other world briefly to bypass locked doors.  She did it last night to get inside this locked abandoned building.  She had done it also to get away from that foster home after killing that bastard.  Over the years she had developed a relationship with the Wildfae and as such Dobin had given her a silver coin, that she suddenly felt her pockets to make sure it was there.  The coin had a very delicate leaf pattern made by hands far smaller than her own.  Dobin had explained that this was the waypass of the “Wild Court”, and that it would grant her safe passage if she ever ran into a wilder warband again.

She had thought many times about just shifting over to the other world and living there.  Here there is sunlight, but over there is nothing but various kinds of night.  She also did not like the way she changed when she entered that realm.  She became colder, more brutal…  she became more like her Ort heritage as she had learned from the fae.  No she thought… “I like the sun, and no matter how bad it gets here… there will always be that.”  She mused as she stretched, picking up her backpack and preparing to do a short shift out into the alleyway that she could see from the window.  She had learned that she could do these short leaps without ever really transitioning into the other world.  As much as she detested stealing… she was afraid she might have to do some more of these leaps… at least until she could find some kind of work.

Nanowrimo Time

Well it is time for me to focus on Nanowrimo rather than on the blog for a bit.  I need to write around 1700 words a day to keep the pace of 50,000 by the end of the month.  Right now the first two chapters are weighing in at just over 1500 words, so I am a bit off pace.  Hoping to bang out an extra chapter or two on the weekends to keep my head above water and take some pressure off during the work week.

One of the things that will likely suffer is my blog itself.  I really want to make it through an entire year of daily posts.  So as a result you guys are going to start seeing me posting my chapters as I finish them.  The big caveat is that I have not even attempted to edit anything yet.  I figure December is for edits and re-writes.  I am roughly 3500 words into the project so far and I plan on writing this evening as well.  Now for the first chapter.

Shadowed Stone

“The capital quarter is rather lovely when completely empty” he thought to himself as he wandered among the buildings, very obviously on a scale that was neither human nor elfenmade.  The monumental works of stone, with arches twenty or thirty feet tall to allow for the easy passage of the trogish owners.  This old part of the town is such a contrast to the new and modern sprawl, with its spriteglass signs painting everything in a garish magelight glow.  Yes Baigan thought, this is precisely where he would live given the chance.

The wispy elf picked his way up the long stone stair leading to the house he had been plotting his steady course towards.  Wrapped in a thick black woolen cloak, he moved like a flitting shadow against the ancient stone sentinels guarding every stone passageway.  Moving cautiously as not to alert anyone to his presence.  While travelling with all the proper paperwork as required by the bureaucracy, he also wanted as little trouble as possible while he was in Tjorba.  While he himself was a shade and widely accepted, the Trogkin and Elfenkind were never known for being the best of friends.

Transitioning from a narrow passageway to a much larger courtyard, Baigan could finally spy his destination.  Rising up some five stories into the sky rested the keep of Morgo Bain the particular lord he can come to pay a visit this evening.  It had to be around high shadow when he finally began ascending the stone steps that lead into the main entrance of what would have normally be the second floor.  Expecting to see more stone sentinals, he was rather surprised to find a pair of stone-plate bedeckled guardsmen startling to attention and narrowing their wet yellow eyes on the cloaked figure.

Baigan slowed his pace and peeled back his hood to reveal to the pair his dark silver skin.  The closest of the guards spat something at him in Troglish that loosely translated meant “Stop now or I bleed you”.  Which is of course a fitting thing to say in a language that most resembles Russian if it were spoken by a throttled toad.  To which Baigan produced ever so carefully a stack of papers bearing the blue and silver emblem of House Bain.

“Relax men, I am here at your lords request… there is no need to ‘bleed’ anyone tonight.” The elfen pronounced as confidently as he was capable of mustering while offering up his stack of papers.  His own master had taught him many times that when dealing with Trogkin there are two simple rules.  Never show them disrespect, as they are extremely quick to anger and woefully capable of backing up those threats.  Secondly never show them any weakness, because like the barely civilized brutes they are, they respect only force.

The guard who had spoken before grasped the documents with his gigantic blue fist, and while trying to hide what he suspected with an inability to read, proceeded to pantomime reviewing the papers.  Baigan for a moment sifted through all the things he might have given them instead of an actual passage leave.  A smile must have crossed his lips, because the guard jabbed the paperwork back at him in a frustrated motion uttering what is loosely “Go in, its your head” before blowing a giant bone horn to signal the guests arrival. Which I guess seemed to indicate that the Lord of the keep was not at all in the habit of entertaining guests… or at the very least not a pointy eared elfen.

Upon entering the inner courtyard of the keep entrance he could hear a rapid shuffling of feet off to his left from a darkened passage.  As it drew closer a red robed figure, considerably shorter in stature than the Orts guarding the entryway.  In fact as he drew nearer, Baigan could see that the new figure was smaller even than himself.  His immediate suspicion that this was one of the gobbley turned out to be the case as the small man began to speak.  Unlike the gutteral Troglish, he always found Gobb to be a stark comparison, with its long yammering sentences.  He was glad he had brushed up on all the varied languages spoken within the Trogjan Empire, because he was certainly getting a workout trying to translate all of this on the fly.

“I am Sork the house steward of Morgo Bain the Lord of Winter, we have been expecting you” yammered the the gobbley.  Baigan found himself visibly wincing when Sork pronounced Morog the “Lord of Winter”.  What right did he have to that title.  He is not even bound to the elements, nor does he have any claim to them.  These Orts know nothing of the subtle grace of winter, the only know war and brutality.  He quickly found himself overcome with anger, but just as quickly as it had come he forced it away with the techniques his master had shown him forcing the same calm smile back to his lips.

“Well then Sork, if your master is expecting me, that I suggest you take me to him”, he said making a gracious waving motion with his arm towards the gobbley steward.  The other grunted slightly and nodded an agreement, and together they were off towards the center of the keep, up several flights of stone stairs walking for the most part in silence other than a few quirky utterances from the steward.  Baigan was fine with this, as the Trog races were not known for their conversational skills.

Within a few minutes they had passed through several more cooridors and finally arrived at what appeared to be a throne room.  At the center back of the room, atop a bluish stone pedastel sat what he could only assume was Morgo.  Baigan was not sure exactly what he expected as he had never seen a Gorund.  He had learned in his books that they were the ruling race of the Trogjan Empire, but up until now all he had actually seen were the skitterish gobbley and the brutish Ort.  The Gorund were something entirely different it seemed.

Morgo standing would have measured roughly 8 feet, and unlike the bulbous mass of meat that the Ort tended to be, he was something more sinewy but no less powerful.  While the guards outside were blunt enforcers, the Gorund looked every bit the artisans of battle that they had become known to be.  He wore a rather stately looking robe, that left parts of his chest and arms bare showing off his whitish green fur.  His ears formed horn like spires jutting out from either side of his head.  Morgo managed to look both deadly and wise at the same time, Baigan was admittedly nervous.

“Lord Morgo, I bid you greeting on behalf of the court of shade.” Baigan said with as much pomp as he could muster, making a open arms gesture while locking eye contact on the large gorund.  “It was gracious of you to grant us an audience with such short notice.”  When the other spoke it was with slow and deliberate words, and non customarily in archelfen, the old tongue.  “I assume you are Baigan Derrow, the Prince of Shades?  If that is in fact the case…  you don’t need to waste my time with the customary gestures.  You’ve come here for a reason, and it should be a good one for coming all this way”  as he spoke the words Morgo narrowed his gaze on the elfen messenger.

“We shades hear the battle at the summerwall is not going in your favor.  The forces of the summer court are pushing forward into your realm, and not even the might of your Ortan backbreakers can halt them.  But we bring you good news.”  with this Morgo raised an eye, the elf had obviously peaked his interests.  He spoke more quickly this time without the deliberate pace.  “What news would an Elf have that my spies could not gather for me.  The lord of crows keeps me informed of all things that matter to the realm.”

I long smile passed across Baigans face as he relayed his payload.  “The summer queen is leaving Avalon to travel to the human realms.  During this time she will be relatively unprotected, only having the Woodsblade to keep her safe.  We do not know why she is travelling there, but we know how and when and most importantly where.”  He arched his back slightly as a shiver of enjoyment ran down it after delivering the information to the “Lord of Winter”.  “We will provide you all of this for a price, and with this knowledge you can turn the battle”.  He could not help but beam as he watched the realization ripple across the face of the elder gorund.

Letting the statement sink in for a moment, the wizened whitetuft cautiously eyed the elfen messenger.  “If you can deliver everything you just said, what would be your price?”  To his left Baigan could hear the gobbley steward fidgeting nerviously waiting for his answer.  “You know that we have no love of the summer court.  Our price is that Avalon burn, and when it does its remains are ours and ours alone to control.  If you do this for us, the shades will give you the Queens head on a pike.”