"Fighting tears, she grabbed onto the nearest branch..."
I've been doing these 5-minute prompts, and they've been going pretty well, but I realized that I should probably try an exercise that requires a little more endurance. I'll definitely be needing endurance during NaNoWriMo. So I stirred up the sentence prompt exercises that someone else was doing on the NaNo forums, and tried for 10 minutes.
Fighting tears, she grabbed onto the nearest branch and pulled herself up weakly. The bark scraped her skin as she climbed up further into the tree, taking shelter in the leaves. She stopped for a moment, gasping for breath, hoping that her blood wouldn't mark the tree she was hiding in... She wanted to be able to just stop running, to sit and let herself cry and not have to keep seeing her mother's head falling off as the raider took his axe away and headed for her... It was her birthday, things like this weren't supposed to happen on her birthday! It was her day, the day when the gods had granted her life, and now they'd granted the rest of her family death... She gasped a couple more times, before pulling herself further into the tree. The raiders were all large and heavy, with bulky armor that restricted their movement. She doubted they would be able to climb up this high into a slender tree. And hopefully they wouldn't realize that she could climb, either. It was uncommon amongst the daughters of the Flame to resign themselves to such a common, mundane, peasant's occupation, but her parents had always let her run free... She choked back another sob. She was safe enough here, at least for a while, at least for long enough to sleep for a bit and catch her breath. And grieve. Just enough that she could keep running from them.
She woke with a start, not realizing for a moment where she was. She had tied herself to the tree branch with the remains of her shirt, knowing that she might well fall off and give alarm. Below, she saw the raiders walking around, searching for stragglers. She wanted to run out and scream at them and beat them up, but she knew she was far too small to do anything of the sort. And although she was a Daughter of the Flame, she was too young to know any but the most elementary of the Flame's teachings, much less harness those powers... "I will have my revenge," she murmured softly to herself. "One day, I will return here, and you will see what it means to murder those of the Flame."
But that was small comfort as she watched the raiders. One of them passed by with a necklace that she recognized -- her mother had worn it, and had promised it to her when she reached adulthood. Now it decorated the neck of some brute of a raider, blood stains on the gold. She wanted to cry again at the outrage, but she could not afford to make a noise. It was all she could do to stay silent as the raiders passed.
...
It was much later when she finally came down from the tree. She had to perform some necessary business; luckily there was a stream nearby that she could use. But after she had performed her ablutions, she didn't know what to do. Where could she go? Her aunts and uncles all hated her family, her mother, for marrying outside the clans... She was still a Daughter of Flame by blood, but the rest of her family would not acknowledge her. And she had no idea where her father's lineage lay. Whenever she'd asked, he'd laughed and said he'd tell her when she grew up, and then tell her some fanciful story about his childhood. She wished that she could hear his voice again, listen to those stories, hug him and say "I love you, Papa."
She never would be able to. But she remembered that he'd come from the East. And that was as good a direction as any for her to go, now. But first... she returned to the village to see what the raiders had left behind.
The houses were in cinders; the raiders had burned as well as plundered. The earth was blackened from the ash. The smoke hung heavy in the air.
665 words, 10 minutes. It was hard keeping up the pace for 10 minutes rather than 5. However, if I can keep this pace consistently, that means I can do three or four 10-minute sessions every day to fill my word quota. Which isn't too bad...
Fighting tears, she grabbed onto the nearest branch and pulled herself up weakly. The bark scraped her skin as she climbed up further into the tree, taking shelter in the leaves. She stopped for a moment, gasping for breath, hoping that her blood wouldn't mark the tree she was hiding in... She wanted to be able to just stop running, to sit and let herself cry and not have to keep seeing her mother's head falling off as the raider took his axe away and headed for her... It was her birthday, things like this weren't supposed to happen on her birthday! It was her day, the day when the gods had granted her life, and now they'd granted the rest of her family death... She gasped a couple more times, before pulling herself further into the tree. The raiders were all large and heavy, with bulky armor that restricted their movement. She doubted they would be able to climb up this high into a slender tree. And hopefully they wouldn't realize that she could climb, either. It was uncommon amongst the daughters of the Flame to resign themselves to such a common, mundane, peasant's occupation, but her parents had always let her run free... She choked back another sob. She was safe enough here, at least for a while, at least for long enough to sleep for a bit and catch her breath. And grieve. Just enough that she could keep running from them.
She woke with a start, not realizing for a moment where she was. She had tied herself to the tree branch with the remains of her shirt, knowing that she might well fall off and give alarm. Below, she saw the raiders walking around, searching for stragglers. She wanted to run out and scream at them and beat them up, but she knew she was far too small to do anything of the sort. And although she was a Daughter of the Flame, she was too young to know any but the most elementary of the Flame's teachings, much less harness those powers... "I will have my revenge," she murmured softly to herself. "One day, I will return here, and you will see what it means to murder those of the Flame."
But that was small comfort as she watched the raiders. One of them passed by with a necklace that she recognized -- her mother had worn it, and had promised it to her when she reached adulthood. Now it decorated the neck of some brute of a raider, blood stains on the gold. She wanted to cry again at the outrage, but she could not afford to make a noise. It was all she could do to stay silent as the raiders passed.
...
It was much later when she finally came down from the tree. She had to perform some necessary business; luckily there was a stream nearby that she could use. But after she had performed her ablutions, she didn't know what to do. Where could she go? Her aunts and uncles all hated her family, her mother, for marrying outside the clans... She was still a Daughter of Flame by blood, but the rest of her family would not acknowledge her. And she had no idea where her father's lineage lay. Whenever she'd asked, he'd laughed and said he'd tell her when she grew up, and then tell her some fanciful story about his childhood. She wished that she could hear his voice again, listen to those stories, hug him and say "I love you, Papa."
She never would be able to. But she remembered that he'd come from the East. And that was as good a direction as any for her to go, now. But first... she returned to the village to see what the raiders had left behind.
The houses were in cinders; the raiders had burned as well as plundered. The earth was blackened from the ash. The smoke hung heavy in the air.
665 words, 10 minutes. It was hard keeping up the pace for 10 minutes rather than 5. However, if I can keep this pace consistently, that means I can do three or four 10-minute sessions every day to fill my word quota. Which isn't too bad...
posted by Selene at 11:57 PM
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