The Long-awaited Snippet and NaNo Post


Contrary to popular belief, no I have not fallen off the face of the earth into oblivion. Life just happened.

Anywho.



Many of y'all know that I participated in NaNoWriMo (for those who don't know: National Novel Writing Month) last November.

Although I did not finish, I still had a blast and thoroughly enjoyed myself!

I started at midnight, November 1st, with several other blogger friends all grouped on a google hangout. The goal that day was to write 5k words. I barely squeaked by, but felt very productive. Though, many others wrote more than me.

Then you know, life. School. Family. Thanksgiving. I fell behind. Lowered my personal goal to 25k. still only just made it past 15k. I wasn't happy with myself for not completing a full 50k for the second year. BUT, I was very pleased that I had written more than I ever had in one month.

But y'all are here for snippets, aren't you? No? Then leave. Or scroll down until you see a bunch of screenshots or something.

Here we go:

~
“What have we here?”
The curtain, her one link to her past, moved. Slowly it stilled again, and an image appeared. A man, her brother so she thought, held a small bundle. He looked happy. A lady was lying on a bed near him. A weary smile graced her face. The baby cried softly.
“Aria.” She heard the man say. “My little one. My princess.”
“Our.” The lady gently reminded him.
“Of course.”   
A shadow moved and disturbed the Queen.
“No! I will not lose this!” She cried. A coughing noise came from her left. She faced him. “What news, Uan?” She was rather annoyed that he had broken the pleasant scene before her.

“The celebratory banquet will be held in six months’ time.” The Shadow bowed. “Are… are you happy, milady?"

~

A few moments later, the bedroom door was flung open, and a rather bleary-eyed William made an appearance, followed by his equally tired looking steward, royal calligrapher, and painter. All had dark circles under their eyes- an occurrence that happened on a regular basis, considering the unpredictable sleeping habits of the king.

            “Darling! How good it is to see you awake.” William knelt at the bedside and planted a kiss on Aurora’s cheek. “I couldn’t sleep a wink last night, so I decided to put my time to good use and design the invitations. Tell me, what do you think?” He presented the small card to his wife.

~

“Are you certain you did not invite your sister?” Aurora asked. “Even dead relatives are invited to a child’s first banquet.”
“I know the tradition, but she is not dead and I have not heard from her in many a year. How could I send an invitation if she is nowhere to be found?” William shrugged. “I’m sure she will forgive us for an honest mistake.” He reassured.

~

“You, William! King of Doriar. The one who I once called my brother.” Her voice grew deeper.  “You have neglected an ancient tradition. You have renounced your last surviving family member. You have insulted me. By these crimes you have committed, I so take your kingdom and your crown. You shall live, but your daughter’s life I will take-”
            “No!” Aurora cried. “you cannot take my child!” She sobbed.
            “-then I will take you instead. Your child will live until she becomes of age, that I guarantee, but before the sun sets on her eighteenth birthday, harm will come to her.”

~

"So. You finally decided to bestow upon me your presence." Darkness glided out from the corner. He was not pleased, Millicent could see. "Your little escapade cost me dearly. But of course, you know that already, I'm sure." his voice was smooth as honey, but as sour as lemon. He swooped close to her. "Where is the child?" He hissed, clenching her arm. "And don't try to be noble and protect her. You know my power, whatever you try will not work."

Millicent shot daggers at him with her eyes, but said nothing.

"I see." Darkness stood straight. "I will have to find it for myself." He placed a heavy hand on her head and squeezed. "Tell me," Millicent grimaced, "or I will destroy more memories."

Millicent cried out at the thought of losing even the slightest of comforts. Darkness drew back once more, seeing that she was in the palm of his hand once more. "Tell me." he commanded.

~

"Pleased to make your acquaintance." He stuck out a paw, waiting for Aurora to take it. But she didn't, so he sniffed once more at her awful manners and put it back down with a huff.

"Now then, you are our personal guest, curtesy of yourself of course, so I expect to not be gawked at like a circus monkey, thank you very much. Such manners!" He declared, sniffing in her general direction.

"Well, it's not like I know the proper protocol of talking to a wolf!" Aurora tried to defend herself. "And I'll thank you not to sniff at me. OR in my general direction." She clarified as Uan started to sniff again. "You don't have a runny nose, so stop acting like you do."

~

“Well, what do you want to do?” He asked, trying his best to be friendly, for he knew his father would ask for a report as soon as the day was done, or at the dinner table, he was never certain when he would ask.
“I’m fine right here, thank you very much.” Aria answered primly, sticking her nose in the air.
“Fine then. Be that way. I don’t care a wit.” Doran turned his back on her and went to go sit under an apple tree a little ways away.
“Well, if you can think of something for us to do, I’d be willing to hear it.” Aria called. “But I mean, if you can’t,” she shrugged, “then that’d be just like you.”

She hit home with that jab. Doran glared at her. He knew she was just trying to get him to fight. Really, her stance and the expression on her face were just asking for it. Doran sat on his hands, attempting to keep his mind occupied elsewhere. Anywhere but on Aria. His father would be so disappointed in him if they fought yet again.

~

A series of angry yells met their ears, and both Abrom and William jumped to their feet, but then each remembered that this was a regular occurrence whenever they visited and sat back down.

~

Mr. Gaerry chuckled. "I feel that it's high time you learned to stand up for yourself."
"But I can, I do." Doran protested.
"Obviously." Mr. Gaerry gestured to Doran's bruised hand. "You need to learn. I know what needs to be taught. Therefore, I will teach and you will learn. Go get some old clothes on and meet me at the stables. You will most certainly not want to ruin what you have on now."

Try as Doran might, Mr. Gaerry would neither let him talk his way or bargain his way out of learning archery and so, it was a rather very sullen version of Doran who met his tutor at the stables midmorning on a beautiful day in the middle of autumn.

~

"Master." Millicent sensed Darkness' presence.
"Hello, my pet, my little ray of pitch black, my darling." his voice was a smooth as honey, low and sweet, but Millicent hated the way that he drew out 'darling' whenever he called her thus. He flashed a pointy grin. "I'm sure you know why I'm here, you're smart like that, of course."

~

“Why are you here?”
            “To give you your instructions.”
            “As you wish, Master.” She bowed her head, waiting to receive her orders.
            “You will go to Doriar, not to worry I will show you the way, and you will rule the people there as I command.”
            “And how would that be?” She looked up expectantly.
            “With an iron fist. If they do not follow your commands, you will make them bend to your wishes. You will be their Queen. I give you,” he held out his hand, “mind-reading. Do with it as you will. Amarth.” He flashed his pointed teeth.
            A flickering of memory stirred in the back of her mind. Then she knew what he wished her to do. A smile spread across her face.
            “With pleasure.” She hissed.

~

“See that she is well taken care of.” William reminded.
“Of course.” Fauna replied. “But unfortunately, we’ve encountered another issue. Her memories. Millicent, or rather, Amarth now, can read memories.”
“Yes. She has mindreading.” Florence announced. “It is not safe for any of us if Aria knows that she is your daughter, that she is a princess.”
“What are you suggesting?” William gripped Florence’s shoulder.
“We must erase some of her memories. She must not know about you, or Abrom, or even Doran. I’m sorry.”

~

“That ship… the ship Contessa, has not been sighted since leaving that town three months ago with full crew, a heavy hold, and your father on board.”
            “What are you saying?” Doran took the rider by the collar. “What are you telling us?”
                “That… That…” he stuttered. “I’m afraid sir, that your father, sir, is presumed to be either lost at sea or drowned.” He bowed his head. “We have heard no messages from the Contessa, nor has she been sighted at any of the ports on her schedule.” Doran sat down on the ground. “I, I’m sorry sir, truly. There’s, there’s really… We’ve done all in our power to… Oh hang it all! My deepest condolences, and all that my lord. Your father has disappeared without a trace.” The rider stopped his prattle.

~

“No! I tell you, you must stay here!” Mr. Gaerry insisted. “All the paperwork must be put in order and the funeral ceremony arranged for, that will take a month’s time at the very least, and that will put you right in the middle of the winter storms. No captain in his right mind would risk putting out to sea for an uncertain amount of time with no solid destination in the dead of winter. I will not allow it. Even if I am forced to lock you in your chambers and post a guard at every door from there to the main gate, I will keep you in Locksley Hall!” Mr. Gaerry figuratively put his foot down.

~

“Good work, Mr. Stutely, your message had the reaction we were looking for.” Mr. Stutely chuckled, tucking away the coin in his pocket.
            “Abrom, you old hoot owl!” Mr. Gaerry laughed outright, “your son is determined to find you.” He shook his head, still chuckling, “our plan is succeeding. He will turn out to be quite the man when he grows up.”
            The rider mounted his horse and departed at an easy trot through the gate and down the lane, quite pleased with his act. Mr. Gaerry gathered up both the bows and the quivers of arrows and, finding the stable boy handy, left them in his care to be put back in their proper places. That done, he walked back to the house to again deal with his young master, who at this point, Mr. Gaerry was certain, was devising a clever plan of escape, despite what he had been instructed to do. Mr. Gaerry chucked again, then composed himself before opening the door. Slowly and quietly, he crept up the stairs and put his ear to the door. He could hear Doran pacing back and forth. Smiling, he turned away and walked softly down the hall to his own rooms. Once he had located a pen, a bottle of ink, and a piece of paper, he composed a letter to his master. Not the master furiously pacing all over his room, the master who had designed the plan to make Doran grow into manhood. Abrom.

~

Thus concludes that. You have no idea how long it took me to decide which ones to share!

Now comes the part where I have to wade through 800+ screenshots from the chat. Because of the large amount I have accumulated, I have been dubbed "The Screenshot Queen" (a worthy title to be sure). *cracks knuckles*

*finally finishes sorting them all* 

*has over a hundred screenshots to show*

I'm sorry y'all, there is no way I'm uploading that many pictures. Not only would it take hours, but it would make this the longest beast of a blogpost ever. 

*uploads to google drive instead*


These are only the screenshots from November. The chat is still alive, so I have quite a few screenshots since November ended. However, now that school has started back up for all (if not, then most) of us, the chat is quiet.

(Edit)

Despite all being friends, we actually had quite a few disagreements between several of us on the chat. Of course, they were all resolved and dismissed. I kept a list. The universal term we decided to call the disagreements ended up being 'war.' We had 18 of them. They are hilarious to remember.

Look, picture proof!
Throughout this entire experience, I feel like I've gotten closer to the fabulous bloggers in the group, and despite us stretching across four different timezones, someone is almost always there if you have a question or a prayer request.

So thank you, *pulls up the chat*

Abbie
Abigayle
Anika
Brianna
Chloe W.
Emily McConnel
Emily Miller
Hann
Hannah M
Jesseca
Jonathan
Julia
Kaitlyn
Katie
Mary
Rebekah
Soleil
Sarah
Savannah

It's been a blast, and I can't wait until Camp NaNo when the craziness starts back up again!

Comments

  1. ...*cough* ju never was in the ailen war *smirks* *runs away*

    p.s. i was in 18 of those wars *cough*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Alien war- sare/ju etc" I wanted to remember that you had used Julia's profile. XD

      Mhm. Quite the little trouble maker you are, yes indeed. XP

      Delete
  2. #imonlyinfivewars lol XD

    But omw the screenshots crack me up every time I read them *dies*

    Also great snippets *thumbs up*

    ReplyDelete
  3. WOW YOUR DIALOGUE IS ON POINT. And your writing is fabulous and atmospheric, like whoa. xD *goes to stalk the screenshots*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My goodness, thanks a bunch!

      (Side note) we've missed your presence on the chat.

      Delete
  4. Cool post! sounds like your stories are coming along nicely!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ahhh, the group chat. I mostly stalk it. I can't keep up with all the messages since I'm at work or doing school or at Church for most of the time. xD BUT I'M GLAD YOU RECAPPED THINGS FOR PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO MISSED EVERYTHING. :P

    Eep, you're so brave for sharing your snippets! Go you. :D

    katie grace
    a writer's faith

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah. It's been pretty quiet lately. No wars to speak of.

      Pfft. I don't mind sharing snippets, but if I had to hand over my documents to someone else I'd probably have a minor panic attack or something.

      Delete

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