Today was suppose to be PJ day. For those of you not familiar with the concept, it's a day where you um, stay in your PJ's. hehe We don't have them very often anymore since the kids have started school. But my mother in law invited us for dinner and I still haven't out grown that college habit of doing anything for free food (join the "Latin for Chinese Speaking Red Headed Twins" club? Free pizza at the meeting? Sure!). So we will get dressed and go out instead of being lazy and laying around the house in our jammies. Not that the kids ever really lay around. "Boy defined: Natures answer to that false belief that there is no such thing as perpetual motion." -Author Unknown These are also the kids that whine when I wake them up at 8am to get ready for school and then they wake me up at 7:00 this morning. Huh? I don't get it either.
12 days til NaNoWriMo begins! I have a great opening paragraph for my novel (Kierana's book 2), I can't wait to write it. I'm still plodding along with book 1. I had hopes of finishing it before starting 2 but unless a freakish amount of inspiration is delivered to my front door and the kids turn into statues for the next two weeks, it ain't happening. I'm kinda stuck in book 3, I need to wait until I write a couple of plot events in book 2 before continuing book 3. I'd rather let the events unfold as they want to instead of trying to squish them into how they will appear in the flashback in book 3. Course there will probably be some rewriting of book 3 after I write book 2 so I'm not sure why I'm saving myself the hassle over this plot idea. Maybe it comes back to procrastination. Doesn't everything?
This excerpt is from chapter something in Kierana book 1 (catchy title, I know). I haven't bothered to break it up into chapters yet. Kinda long but I find it amusing. Again could probably use some grammar help and editing but oh well...
Crawling through yet another dark, dank tunnel, Kierana was questioning Minolan's claim that ridding the village of skavens would be an easy task. She found out that the rat creatures like underground tunnels and had created an entire network of them between the village buildings. Ducking her head under another tree root, she grumpily thought, maybe it was easy for Minolan. He was too tall to travel through the tunnels. Thedoff, Quetear, Caiden and Kierana had been given the task of flushing out the skavens since they were the smallest of the group.
"Swords ready," Caiden said for the hundredth time since they had entered the tunnels an hour ago. Quetear carried a torch while the rest had been doing most of the fighting. Kierana had felt uneasy about killing the first skaven, they looked oddly human wearing their stolen jewels and clothing on their furry little bodies. But after one had tried to steal her dagger from her boot, she felt a little more vengeful.
"How many more do you think there are?" she asked as they rounded a corner.
"Hard to tell, we'll need to cover all of the tunnels. I guess we're two thirds through the village."
Kierana stifled a groan. Only Thedoff seemed comfortable in the dirt passages. She bet if Caiden hadn't warned them to keep their talking to a minimum, the dwarf would be explaining the structural faults of dirt walls and suggesting better tunnel building techniques...
"I think I see light up ahead," Quetear said hopefully.
Sure enough they were steadily rising towards the surface instead of traveling deeper underground. They exited the tunnel into a man made cellar. Caiden found a ladder leaning against the wall. Climbing it, he pushed open the trap door. "Come on up, we're in someone's house."
The group scrambled up the ladder, first Kierana, then Thedoff with some help from Quetear. They seemed to be in an abandoned kitchen of a bar. Kierana blinked several times trying to adjust to the bright daylight streaming in through the grimy window panes. Dust and cobwebs covered piles of dishes and mugs and the air smelled of stale beer.
"I'll report back to Lord Gitter. You guys check for more tunnels," Caiden ordered. He quickly found a door leading out of building and disappeared outside.
"I'll go look in the cellar again," offered Thedoff. He half climbed fell back down the ladder. "I'm okay!" he called after Quetear and Kierana heard a thud. "Q, come down with the torch!" Quetear shrugged at Kierana and climbed back down, leaving her alone.
"I'll check here, I suppose," she said to no one in particular. She felt filthy and rubbed at the dirt on her arms, only causing it to streak down her skin. She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to pull out the sticky cobwebs. Along the wall she noticed a collection of discarded clothing, she picked through it until she found a small hat. Quickly braiding her tresses, she tucked her hair up in the hat. If they had to do more tunnel hunting, at least her hair wouldn't get caught in the little roots that stuck out from the walls.
Unsure exactly what to do, Kierana wandered through a doorway to another dusty room. She picked up a rag and began wiping skaven blood off her sword. They must have killed ten of the creatures and ran another twenty down the tunnels to where Jalask, Minolan, Butu and Lord Gitter were waiting. They had also come across a couple of large spaces filled with stolen loot, silver candlesticks, gold watches, and other trinkets. Caiden had made notes of the rooms on the hasty map he had been drawing along the way so the townspeople could find their possessions again.
She heard floor boards creak behind her and turned expectantly to see Quetear or Thedoff. Instead a large mess of rags was flying at her with a broomstick over its head. Taken completely off guard, Kierana was hit hard on the head with the broomstick and dropped her sword. The woman under the rags began screaming at her. "Git out of me house, ya dirty boy! Don't ya dare steal my thangs! I got ya, I did!" Each accusation was punctuated with another swing of the broom. Kierana put up her hands to defend herself and tried to back away.
"I'm not a boy! I'm with Lord Gitter to get rid of the skavens. They must have been stealing from you!" Kierana tried to explain. She gasped for air as the old hag hit her squarely in the chest with the broom handle.
"Ya lie! Ya dirty boy!"
Kierana tried to control her anger as she avoided the woman's swings. "I am not a boy!" she repeated loudly, stepping back out of reach.
"Miss Phelps!" called a man from the doorway. Kierana glanced over her shoulder to see a well dressed man enter the room with Lord Gitter and the other warriors behind him. Miss Phelps took Kierana's distraction as a chance to hit her solidly over the head with her broom again. Kierana sunk to the ground, little white stars clouding her vision.
"Miss Phelps, stop! It's okay, we're here to help."
"I got da thief!" she said triumphantly. She stood guard over Kierana with the broom threatening to swat her again if she moved. Kierana groaned, her head smarting and the stars still dancing in and out of her sight.
"The mayor and I will handle it from here, Miss Phelps," Lord Gitter said.
Kierana felt a small surge of magic flow through the room. Miss Phelps dropped her broom and stepped away from Kierana. The woman looked at them all with a confused expression on her face but continued mumbling, "I got da thief, I did!"
"We cannot thank you enough, Lord Gitter," the mayor gushed to Lord Gitter. "Please accept this as a token of our gratitude." Lord Gitter nodded and accepted a sack of jingling coins. "I can't imagine what we would have done if you hadn't come to our rescue."
Miss Phelps stumbled up to the mayor, grasping the man's fine coat, "I got da thief, I did!" She pointed to Kierana. Lord Gitter made a small motion with his hand and Minolan and Jalask came around him to Kierana. The warriors helped her to her feet, practically picking up the little wood elf. Quetear picked up her discarded sword.
"Lord Gitter's men will take care of him, err her now," assured the mayor. He grimaced as he gently pried the woman's dirty hands from his clothing.
"I got da thief, I did!" she said again proudly as the mayor forcefully steered the crazed woman out the door away from the warriors.
When the door closed behind the humans, Minolan and Jalask burst out laughing. "Ow," Kierana moaned at their noisy outburst. Her head was throbbing, she just wanted to curl up in a tree and go to sleep.
"I'm sorry, Kier," Minolan said between chuckles. "But that was too funny."
Kierana glanced up and caught even Lord Gitter smiling. She hurt too much to even glare at them, instead she let her bruised head drop again. With Minolan's and Jalasks's strong arms under hers, she let them carry her weight, her feet barely touching the ground.
"Who knew a broomstick was such a forceful weapon?" asked Quetear as he opened the door for them, her sword tucked into his belt.
"You'll have to do a lesson on it, Jalask," Kierana grumbled as they helped her walk out into the street. Kierana winced as her comment sent the lot of them howling in laughter again.
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