Hey, Readerland! Back again for the halfway point! Today is Day 16 and it's time to get this train a rollin'.
We're getting closer to the deadline for the streampunk anthology and I just sent my story off to my writing group for what will most likely be the final editing before submission. Kinda scary, to be honest.
But enough of that. What was today's topic?
1. Write a scene in which something normal is utterly terrifying -- a lamp, a sleeping dog, a simple apple tree in autumn. Then reverse it -- write a scene in which something normally frightening is somehow comforting or reassuring.
Ah, yes. Should be fun, Let's get started.
Scene 1:
Cammy lay in her bed and shivered. She was wearing thick socks, a pair of flannel sleep pants, a long-sleeved shirt, a sweatshirt and a hat. She had an electric heating pad tucked into her belly. It was below freezing out side and dark, but she didn't want to pull up the blanket.
Ever since she was a little girl, she had been afraid of blankets. She had been convinced they were trying to suffocate her. Now that she was grown, she didn't think that any more, but every now and then, she could swear a blanket would move a little out of the corner of her eye. She figured that it was because there was a draft or that the blanket was near a heat vent, but sometimes, there would be no draft and the heat would be turned off and she'd still see movement.
On nights like this, she was tempted to pull up the covers for the warmth, but she was afraid. What if she was right? What if the blankets and sheets were in cahoots?
Even in all her clothing and with the heating pad, her body hurt from being curled so tight. She was trying to conserve body heat, but without something heavier, she wouldn't be able to. Sighing, she grabbed the edge of the blanket with a trembling hand and pulled it up to her waist.
She managed to uncurl her legs after a few minutes, her muscles slowly relaxing. A part of her wanted to pull the blanket the rest of the way up so that all of her would be warm, but she was still scared. Eventually, she fell asleep half under the blanket, the heating pad keeping the rest of her warm.
Cammy had dreams of being in Hell and found it hard to breathe. She thrashed around, finally waking up. She found her blanket covering the lower have of her face. She screamed and threw the blanket off. It fluttered to the floor. It did not move, but she turned the light on anyway.
In the brief instant that room turned from dark to light, she could swear the blanket had a face and that face was leering at her.
Scene 2:
As the only Darkling child in the village, Miranda was used to the insults and torments. She was various accused of being a witch or a demon or the child of one of those two. She was outcast among her own people. The other children never played with her and their parents made sure to teach them to accept others as they would their own family. Except for Miranda.
Her parents had been driven out of the village right after Miranda was born. The elders had said that they were witches and had entered into a pact with the Dark Ones in order to create a monster like Miranda. They only spared Miranda because she was just a baby and hadn't made the decision to be born a monster. They thought she might 'grow out of it.'
Her village, Nyistia, was near the equator of the planet, a planet which orbited two suns, which orbited each other. In Nyistia, there was almost no darkness. The Suns were the Almighty and darkness was the enemy. Evil hid in the shadows. Darkling children were a bad omen, because they had darker skin than everyone else in the village, they were thought to have some connection to the darkness. They were evil. If the Darklings had their way, the elders said, they and their ancient, malevolent masters would bring darkness to everything, like in the Beginning.
But Miranda wasn't evil. She was just a child of twelve seasons. She wanted to work in the fields with the other children and play games with the other children, but they wouldn't let her. She might corrupt the crops or cheat at bone throwing.
In order to stave off boredom, she would often follow the boys and Master Sayong our to the clearing south of the village and watch them learn to fight. She would practice these same moves by herself, as females were not warriors. As a female and a Darkling, Miranda held no place in the tribe. No one would teach her to fight or cook or sew or raise children and no man of the tribe would give her children of her own.
One day, she was out in the field practicing her low kicks, as the boys learned that day, when she heard noises from over the hill that lead to the Valley of the Elders. Even though she wasn't supposed to ever see the valley, she climbed the hill and looked down.
She couldn't count how many people were in the valley. Men and women, all of them rough looking, were walking or on horses, coming up the other side of the hill. She had heard stories of what the raiders did to the villages they attacked. There were rarely survivors. Miranda turned and ran as fast as she could back to the village. She spotted Master Sayong speaking with Elder Elani.
"Elder! Master!" Miranda yelled, leaning over to catch her breath. She ignored both men stepping back from her. "Raiders! Coming from the Valley of the Elders! Hundreds of them!"
"Please, shadow child." Elder Elani said. "Raiders haven't come this way in seasons. Your dark mind is playing tricks on you. Run along."
"No! Master Sayong!" She cried. "You have to believe me! There are raiders coming!"
Master Sayong took another step away from her. "Shadow child, you have heard the words of the Elder. You are seeing things that aren't there. Now, go bother someone else." He turned back to Elder Elani and the resumed talking as if she didn't exist.
Given that two of the most important members of the tribe didn't believe her, Miranda knew no one else in the tribe would either. She ran back to her 'house,' which consisted of a small enclosure with a leaky roof, a blanket and some straw for a pillow. She had one change of clothes. She gathered these clothes and what little food she had and put them into a dark rag and ran.
She sprinted by others of the tribe, who spared her no notice. She knew of a place on the other side of the fields where she might be safe. She almost hated leaving the village without telling everyone what was going to happen. Almost.
She quickly found the spot she wanted: a large cluster of thick, dense bushes. She pushed her way in and felt the coolness of the only shade she knew of. "Please, Almighty," she whispered. "Protect my soul from the darkness."
Not long after, she heard the bandits reach Nyistia. The sounds were horrible but they didn't last long. No one in the village, aside from Master Sayong, was a fighter. The bandits rode by her soon after. They had kept a dozen or so women of the tribe alive, but there was non one else.
The bandits stopped as there was a stream nearby, which they used for their horses. Even though they were within just a few feet of her and had looked directly at her, Miranda went unseen. Her skin blended in with the shadows. A few hours later, the bandits mounted their horses and rode off with their prisoners.
Miranda waited until she was sure there were no more raiders and hurried back to Nysitia. There were bodies everywhere. She found the body of Elder Elani and muttered a quick 'I told you so' before hurrying to the sewing hut.
She found some new clothes in her size and a few pieces that were larger that she could grow in to. From there, she went to the food hut. Grabbing what she could easily carry and a few water skins, Miranda hurried in the direction of the Valley of the Elders. She figured that if the raiders had come from that direction, they most likely wouldn't be coming back that way.
The shadows had saved her life and she wanted to live that life the best she could.
Yeah, that second scene kind of got away from me and had a lot more description than the first. Ah well. Such is life. I liked it, though. It has potential.
Now, let's see what we have going on tomorrow, shall we? MY lovely assistant has drawn:
24. Create tension by writing a scene where a character you adore does something you hate.
I know I had trouble with this one last time. It took me a while to figure out a character to use. Definitely worth doing again.
By the way, my friend Mary is trying to play catchup, as she's been really busy. Here are her two latest entries:
Day 3
Day 4
Remember, if you want to join in, feel free. Leave your content as a comment or leave a link to your own blog/website/piece of Internet Heaven as a comment and I'll get them posted as soon as I can.
Tomorrow's entry will be coming earlier than usual, as I have a gaming session tomorrow evening. So, I'll see you earlier tomorrow. Until then, take care and be awesome to each other.
#WWWYKI
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