NaNo 2013 Day6 part2

Current word count 7173, words needed to be on pace 10,000

Chapter 2 Part 1

In Which Things are Clearly Not Explained

Seok came awake slowly. He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the bright light flooding into the room from the open shutters on the small window. His groan alerted Larkin, who was sitting in a chair across the room reading, to his awakening. “You finally came to?” he asked. Seok only groaned again in reply, and covered his face with his hands. After a minute or two of Larkin watching him with suspicion, he suddenly bolted upright in bed, on full alert, “What happened to the loai?” his head was back in his hands again instantly, “And why am I hung over?”

            

“You really don’t remember?” Larkin asked. Seok shook his head. “The loai attacked the town and burned almost half of it down on the way to the inn. I guess it was their target. You got hit on the head by that loai that was talking to us here in our room and have been out of it for two days.”

            

“He knocked me out? Seok looked up at Larkin in anger. “Really? That’s so lame. I can’t believe I got knocked out that easily. I didn’t even get to fight!”

            

“Are you hurt?” Larkin asked, but instead of listening to the youth’s complaints about his head, he was thinking back to what Cain had told him and Zija the day before.

            

After the fighting had ended people from the town had been too busy trying to put out the fires to notice much of the fighting that had happened at the inn. Luckily the structure had escaped damage, save for the hole in the wall on the second floor and the bullet hole in the kitchen wall on the first floor. That particular wound would go unnoticed for months until the innkeeper’s wife would find a nice cool breeze coming into the kitchens one day when she was baking. Around dawn the townspeople began gathering in the common room of the inn to mourn loved ones lost in the fires, compare injuries, and speculate on what had happened to the loai whos corpses had been found in the courtyard. It was not long before the tragic murder scenes in the sleeping rooms on the first and second floors were revealed.  

            

Zija had regained consciousness and the doctor of the town who had miraculously survived the fire that destroyed his home was called to treat the injuries of those who were injured while fighting the loai, or running from them, and the masses of people burned in the fires. Larkin had stared at Cain with ice in his gaze, demanding answers, the whole time the doctor spent wrapping his, Cain’s and Zija’s bruised and broken ribs. After the doctor finished the three men left the room, Zija with his arm in a sling, and the questions had started. “What the hell happened back there? What in the names of The Three is he and why’d he go berserk like that?

            

They went back to their room on the second floor where Shula had dumped Seok’s body on the bed after the fight with the words, “Take care of this dead weight for a little longer. I’ll be back soon,” and left with no explanations.

           

“I may not know much about seals,” Zija continued, “but they don’t go making people act like that!”

           

Cain smacked his hand on the small table for silence. “How the hell am I gonna explain shit to you if you won’t close that shitty mouth of yours long enough for me to get a word in edgewise?” the priest growled. Zija raised his hands I surrender. He knew better than to keep going when Cain got annoyed or he would have whatever was near at hand flying toward his head. Zija was sure Cain would not be able to pick up the table with his two broken ribs, the man could barely walk a straight line, but he was not going to risk it.

            

“I found Seok about five years ago when I went up Shinsei-yama.”

            

“I thought that whoever went up there died. Isn’t that mountain like super sacred to The Three?”

            

“Yes, well, I was kind of pissed at them just then and thought that climbing their mountain might make them mad.”

            

“You weren’t worried at all that they’d strike you down with lightening or something?” Cain gave him a blank look, as if the answer should be obvious. “Right, being high priest and all puts you so far above the rest of us that you’re immune to death.”

            

Larkin smirked at that. “I think it probably had more to do with the fact that he was angry and didn’t even think of that possibility.” Zija barked a laugh and Larkin returned them to the original topic of the conversation by prompting, “About finding Seok?”

            

“Shinsei-yama isn’t exactly tall or rough, but the forest makes it hard to climb, I was pretty far up it when it started raining. There just happened to be a cave nearby that I noticed, but when I went inside I noticed something was off. First it wasn’t even damp from the humidity in the air, and it was bright. Like the rocks were glowing, but I couldn’t tell because of the light coming in from outside.

            

“I heard something inside,”

            

“And went to see what it was no doubt, what if it had been a bear?” Zija interrupted.

            

“Do you want to hear this or not?” Zija rolled his eyes and leaned back against the wall, winced and stood up straight again as his shoulder touched the wood. Larkin and Cain had seated themselves on the floor next to the table and were both leaning their elbows on it. Cain continued. “If I’d have thought it might be an animal I wouldn’t have gone farther in the cave, but the whole place was strange to begin with and I don’t think that any animals would have gone inside.”

            

“That makes them smarter than you.”

            

Cain ignored that comment. “There was a shrine gate set up in the cave.” On seeing the gate he had stopped short. Even those who did not adhere to temple customs knew it was not smart to go stepping through strange shrine gates, as the older ones could be dangerous doors into the spirit realm. This gate had been so old that the rope hanging from it was almost rotted out completely and the paint was gone. A boy who looked about sixteen or seventeen had been leaning against the cave wall just beyond it. He was just sitting there staring at nothing, banging his head on the rock behind him. He did not seem to notice Cain was there, even though he was standing right in front of him. Then Cain spoke and asked him what he was doing there. Did he know that this was a sacred place? Who was he?

            

The boy’s eyes seemed to clear and they focused on Cain standing on the other side of the gate. It was minutes before he spoke, and Cain stood transfixed looking at the boy. He noticed for the first time the matted brown hair that hung down the boy’s back and pooled on the floor beside where he sat. He was thin to the point of emaciation, and his hands were encased in silver cuffs connected to chains that disappeared into the mat of hair and merged with the wall behind him.

            

Finally he spoke. His voice was rough with disuse. “Who are you?” Cain replied with the same question and the boy, in his present state of mind seemed more than just confused, but distraught. Looking up at Cain through eyes that brimmed with tears he murmured, “I don’t know.” Cain made up his mind then and stepped through the portal, for that is what the gate clearly was. His sense of human decency, such as it was, was prompting him on. He did not stop to consider who or what this chained spirit might be, or what it could be capable of. The boy looked close to be on death’s doorstep and was chained to the wall, he would not hurt the only person who though to come close. The boy had not taken his eyes off Cain since he had noticed him, and he watched the priest coming closer without a hint of either fear or aggression. His expression was that of a child, full of a mixture of perplexity and wonder.

            

Cain stepped forward and knelt beside the boy. Taking the boy’s hands in his own he had meant to examine the engraving on the silver cuffs encircling the boy’s wrists, but as soon as the skin of their hands made contact the cuffs disappeared. With a slight clinking rattle, a quiet sound, even in the silence of the cave, the chains connected to the cuffs disappeared one by one until all that was left was the boy sitting there and the smooth stone wall behind him.

            

The boy’s eyes fell to his freed hands which he spread in front of him, reaching toward Cain. Just as the man was about to move back out of reach the boy flung his hands up in the air above his head and a smile broke out on his face, showing such unadulterated joy that Cain could not help but be glad of his choice to free the boy. From his looks it might be only hours until he died. Cain reasoned that he would not pass on so easily if he were some kind of spirit or god but the bonds that had held him could just as easily have been keeping him from dying, despite the shape his body was in.

NaNo 2013 Day 6

Today's current word count 5549. Word count needed to be on pace at the end of the day 10,000. *Sigh* I'm also writing a paper for sociology now...

About Content

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While I understand there is a certain danger of theft in posting anything online, please be aware of standard copyright laws. I own the stories and all rights to the original content I place on my blog.

Also, I do use a modicum of cursing in my writing so if you don't like it, don't complain, because I did warn you. Also most of my stories are written for young adult to adult audiences so expect them to contain violence and/or bloody deaths. Rest assured though, that while I may write romance I do not do erotica.  So no one has to worry about stumbling across erotic scenes at random intervals.

NaNoWriMo 2013 Day 1

NaNoWriMo 2013 has officially begun! Here's my word count for day one 1945. Expect random updates of this story as well as NaNo commentary. The story is as of today unnamed, literally there isn't even a working title. It's saved under NaNo13. Feel free to suggest titles. I'll let you know when I pick one and I'll start tagging the postings with the chosen title.

Chapter 1 

The inn was crowded for such a small town, but at least it was a town. Even for the main road the size and frequency of towns was dwindling. With the mountains nearing, the party of four travelers needed to resupply and prepare for the cold mountain passes they would be taking. “I don’t get it anyway!” the youngest of the group, A shaggy haired, teenage boy named Seok, did not have to yell to be heard in the noisy common room. His companion, a tall, lanky man, shook his head in exasperation and all but shouted, “I've tried explaining it at least five times, it’s not that complicated.”

“All I'm saying is, why hide them in the first place? If they’re that dangerous to read, then why not just get rid of them, that’d work better than hiding them right?”

A blond man in the humble gray robes of a temple priest on pilgrimage entered the conversation for the first time since the group had sat down to eat. “Because the Three are annoying and can’t be bothered to do anything properly.”

           

The tall man replied to that with a sigh. “How did you ever manage to become the High Priest with an attitude like that, Cain?”

            

“Because the Three are freaks,” he replied, calmly sipping dark beer from the tankard in front of him. The fourth member of their party, the stockiest of the bunch, rubbed his hands together and smirked as he watched a barmaid with hair as shockingly orange as his own was blood red. “Well I don’t give a rat's ass about your stupid book, but there’s something over there I’d be happy to give something to. I’ll be seeing you later.” He stuck the cigarette he had just rolled into the flame of the lantern sitting in the middle of the table and sauntered off to accost the poor bar maid.

            

Rumors about him being loai or not, I don’t see how they could have banned him from the brothels back in Central. He probably paid to keep the places standing.”

            

“If he paid at all,” Seok put in around a mouthful of food.

            

“He had to do something with his money, after all he only ever loses to Cain at the tables. That’s probably the real reason they banned him from the gambling dens, not him being loai.”

            

Meanwhile, the subject of their conversation was busily maneuvering to trap barmaid with the wild orange curls against the bar as she refilled a picher of ale. Turning around as he approached, the young woman, in her late teens by the look of her, nearly spilled the pitcher down Zija’s shirt. When he did not make a move to get out of her way, the woman made an annoyed face tried to push past him; only to be blocked by his arm across her chest. “Trying to run away?” he asked.

            

“Trying to work,” she replied, looking up at him. “What do you want?”

“Your name, to start with.”

            

The woman pursed her lips. “Look, Red, I really don’t have time for your flirting so I’ll be nice and tell you my name, and you can just go back to that table with your boyfriends over there and leave me alone, okay?” Zija smirked and lowered his arm. “Full of shit and vinegar huh? Sounds fun.”

            

The woman reached up and pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and rubbed it out on the tough woolen vest Zija wore. “The name’s Shula and these things stink, like hell I’d ever kiss that smell. Just give it up.” She tossed this parting shot over her shoulder as she moved into the press of people seated in the room, pulling several hearty laughs from those near enough to have heard the conversation.

            

Zija went back to the table, not chastened in the least by Shula’s snub, but he did not see the way her eyes lingered on their table as she moved around the room the way that Cain and Seok could from their place across from him. Finally Seok could stand it no longer and asked who she was. Zija glanced her way and told him, “She said her name was Shula. Why the interest, think you’ve got a chance with me around do ya, brat?”

            

“What the hell? I didn’t say I liked her. I’m pretty sure we’ve seen her somewhere else before though. I thought she might’ve been like an old girlfriend or something.”

            

“Seen her before? I’d have remembered that hair. I’ve never seen her before.”

           

“I’m pretty sure I have, but I don’t remember where. A long time ago…” Zija reached over the table to smack him on the head. “Don’t think too hard, you’re face wrinkles up and you look like a monkey.”

           

Cain sighed and put down his empty beer with a bang. “I don’t care who you spend the night with, Zija, but if you wake me up, banging around drunk, trying to find your bed like last time, I’ll beat the crap out of you. I’m going to bed.”

            

Zija waved him off with a “Yeah, whatever,” and went back to his argument with Seok while Lakin finished his drink and said he was going to bed as well. It was getting late and the taproom was beginning to empty as the locals and travelers alike drifted off to home and bed. As the room emptied Shula studiously ignored the two remaining men at the table, though her attention was tuned to their conversation until they too prepared to go up to their rooms for bed. Zija, unable to give up on his prospects with her approached as she tried to wake a drunk who had fallen off his chair and was sprawled across the floor.

            

“Do me a favor, will ya, Red?” she asked as he came close. “Cart this guy out back for me before he pukes so he doesn’t make a mess I’ll have to clean up.” When he was about to protest she looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes. “Someone with muscles as nice as those shouldn’t have a problem helping out a slip of a girl like me, surely?” Zija said nothing to her sarcasm, only sighed forbearingly and lifted the drunken man’s arm over his shoulder. As he dumped the man in the courtyard between the inn and the shabby adjoining stables, Shula said goodbye and made to leave, but she was stopped by his annoyed question. “Why do you keep calling me Red?”

           

She barked a laugh. “I figured I’d better start calling you that before you called me it. Besides your hair is a hell of a lot more red than mine is anyway. ‘Night then.” She turned and went into the inn leaving Zijo standing in the empty courtyard with the sleeping drunk. “Shit,” he muttered. “Guess I’ve gotta go sleep on the floor after all.” He went in the building to the room he was sharing with Cain on the fourth and top floor of the inn.

            

The rest of the night didn’t last long though. As the common room at the inn, and then the streets of the town emptied, a loai raiding party was preparing to strike. This group was a gruella unit that had been traveling from one human village to another around the base of the mountains for months. The war between the species had been going for nearly a century, but in recent years the violence had escalated exponentially. People all over were aware of the change and nearly everywhere the streets emptied soon after sunset. Only the largest cities and those places far removed from the borders of loai land did not feel the fear of their attack.

           

Loai were similar to humans in many ways, perhaps making the centuries old war between the species all the more bitter. Physically they were bigger boned and more muscular than most humans, though, the difference might go completely unnoticed due to the range of similar characteristics both species had. The most striking differences were the hair color and the way loai ears pointed out away from their heads. On this side of the nearly impassible mountain range nearly all humans had black hair and dark eyes. The occasional brown head was usually regarded as a beauty. Contrary to the popular belief among their enemies, loai did not in fact have pointed teeth, or at least not naturally. It had become customary among soldiers, especially near the borderlands, to file their teeth into the pointed fangs that humans feared in a way similar to the teeth of the wolves that lived feral in the mountains.

         

This raiding party waited in the fringes of the forest surrounding the town. The talk among them was hushed, but the excitement in the group was palpable. They lived for the rush of battle, the panic and speed and adrenaline caused by their early morning raids. Their leader, a large heavy loai with his auburn hair cropped close to his head drew out a long knife and polished it on his leather jerkin. “Almost time boys,” he announced. “Give ‘em another twenty minutes or so to sleep, then we’ll be on ‘em like ticks.” One of his men laughed quietly at the prospect, and the others stood and stretched, eager to be off.

            Slipping out of the tree cover and into the dark streets of the town was easy work, and the buildings lining the streets that shaded the inhabitants from the sun so nicely in the day created dark shadows for the fifteen loai to follow deeper into the city. Two carried torches and touched them to the occasional thatched roves of houses they passed. Fires sprang up from the dry grass and spread to the wooden structure beneath and beside it. Orange light from the flames followed the raiding party towards the center of the city.

            

As the fires spread, the humans woke and streamed out of houses. Agonized screams issued from those homes that held members trapped within. Darting through the shadows the loai ignored the panicking humans in their wake and made for the biggest structure in the town.

            

The guests at the inn slept peacefully, still far enough away from the panic on the borders that they had no warning of the loai who approached. They came bursting in through the front gates, breaking the locks that attempted to keep the inn’s patrons safe from thieves, but were not up to the task of keeping out the militant loai. They came in, kicking down random doors and attacking the startled travelers in their beds. This was the loai’s goal. The body count did not need to be high, only the terror. They would let the rest of the town burn but the inn, the largest and most well-known structure in the town would remain, it’s customers never rising from their beds to leave the city.

           

Zija and Cain’s room was on the fourth floor, but Zija, a light sleeper at the best of times was woken by the slams and screams issuing from the floors below. He rose from his bed roll on the floor and kicked the bed Cain lay asleep in. “Hey get up. Something’s going on downstairs.” Cain muttered something unintelligible as Zija pulled on his vest and grabbed the seemingly innocent walking stick that served as a weapon. Suddenly there was a scream and a resounding BAM that shook the walls of the whole building. Zija grinned, “Sounds like whoever it is just found out how much Seok likes being woke up in the morning.”

Cutting the Thread Chapter 1

          “The mosquitoes have been bad this year my lady.” A young woman looked up from where she sat on the woven grass mats on the floor. She had been writing something on a small desk that sat in front of her.

            “Yuuka,” the corners of her mouth pulled up in an ironic smile. “Truly,” She rubbed her hands over her red spotted forearms loosely covered in large bell shaped sleeves, “much worse than I have any recollection of. Your mother’s cream does help with the itch.”

            The woman who had initiated the conversation smiled, careful not to show teeth, as that was not done among the upper classes. The priestess was not of an upper class, but she has the bearing of a princess. It was hard to believe that she could have been an orphan before dedicating herself to the temple. She was a tall young woman, with skin paler than that of anyone else in the city and hair the color of ripe wheat. Though the priestess was not ugly, neither was she a striking beauty; her strangeness made her beautiful in a city full of olive skinned, black haired women.

            There were whispers that she was not human at all, but a halfblooded loai. Yuuka knew better though; she had been the one to find the priestess washed up on the beach, half drowned, among the ship’s debris and dead sailors. The shipwrecked orphan girl who had been taken in by the High Priest of Maduve had grown into an impressive young woman.

            “I will tell Mother you are grateful, Priestess.” Yuuka presented the young priestess with a ceramic jar corked with wax.

            “I will always be grateful to you and your mother.” These seemed like simple words of thanks, but Yuuka heard the weight behind them.

            “It was years ago, Priestess, no need to go reminding everyone of it. Besides it is my mother’s job to save people’s lives. She says she has a duty to war with Lord Death.”

She stood and turned to leave, stopping just before reaching the door. “Is it too forward of me to ask if you’re still getting flowers?”

            The priestess frowned. “I do not mind you asking, you are my friend, Yuuka.” She sighed then answered, “My nighttime visitor prays on my mind.” While Yuuka was glad to be called a friend by the priestess, she wondered if the woman had any real friends, or only persons like herself who respected her but were too intimidated by her to claim a relationship.

            “It has been innocent until now has it not? You’ve been getting them since spring, so maybe it’s nothing to trouble yourself about. Has your father said anything?” She asked referring to the high priest of Maduve who adopted the priestess almost ten years ago.

            “He believes it to be one of the novices, perhaps a girl I was kind to. Only those on official business, novices, and priests are allowed in this part of the temple.”

            “The high priest is probably right. Don’t worry too much, you’ll make yourself sick and get wrinkles.” Yuuka bowed humbly to the priestess before leaving and slid the door closed behind her. Despite Yuuka’s words the priestess was concerned about her nighttime visitor. Even if the intent was innocent, what type of person would creep into a woman’s room under cover of darkness? She felt as if her privacy had been invaded, and surely if it was a grateful novice as her father had proposed, the flowers would have stopped appearing after a week or more, it was now high summer and the blossoms were still beside her pillow every morning.