JuNoWriMo Update

            June is over and I did participate in JuNoWriMo (NaNoWriMo in June) and I did it really the same way I did my first couple attempts at NaNo, by just winging it.  I went into the month undecided on what I wanted to write, even in the first week of the month I changed my project three times.  Around the 8^th I finally settled on what I wanted to write…

            Directly inspired by one of my past Five Sentence Fiction entries (Hunger), I wrote the first two chapters before I forced myself to sit down and write out some sort of overview, planned plot for the story.  I ended up just shy of the 50 k goal for the month but did get a very (very) rough draft done that I can return to later. 

            A sneak peak from the story:

            Darwin rose from the cold floor, straw stuck to his face from the smelting heat in the bowels of the ship, instantly he realized the shackles were gone from his wrists and ankles.  He knocked the bedding from his face as he stood; the clang of the opened cell door brought a smile to his face as he stepped through the entrance and out into open room.  “You are a lost soul; much blood lays in your future Gladiator.”  Darwin had never heard her voice before, even though he had only seen her the once, he knew instantly it was her.  She stepped into the candle light of the cabin, her ghostly appearance even more apparent in the shadows and bleak darkness of his prison chamber.  “You will be the ruin of my mother’s house even though she sees you as a savior.” 

Her pale skin, solid white hair with matching slip of a dress, dark brown eyes were her most striking feature. “Whispers say you are a seer, tell me how am I the ruin of your house, I will do anything to make it untrue.”  

She was close enough to touch, Darwin reached his arm out and ran his hand down her soft cheek, eyes closed she leaned into the palm of his hand and smiled. “Our paths are one…she does not have my gift and I have kept this future to myself.  I have seen it many times over the years never did I know your face until two days past.”  She kissed the palm of his hand and he saw the wicked mischievous grin grace her thin lips. 

“Is this a dream?”

“It is what you want it to be.”

He ran his free hand through her silky straight white hair, “How is it you have seen me in your visions and not know my face.”

“Many times I have felt your hand over my mouth, the blade against my neck but never had I seen more than shadows.  Not until the day beneath the arena, when I touched you, I saw it clear.  Just as if it had been there all along staring down at me.  You are destined to take my life…”  She leaned into him, pushing the hand at her face away.

He placed his hand on the small of her back and pulled her even closer as he lowered his head to kiss her thin lips.  Her fingernails dug into his bare chest and the existing wounds from the arena forcing him to push her away before their lips met, still she smiled.  “When will this happen?”

“An enemy disguised as a friend will send you to me.  There will be no doubt when the time comes, it will be my blood you are asked to spill.”  She took a step back away from him and as suddenly as she had appeared she was now gone.  Darwin rushed to the door and out into the open air immediately met by the two guards with swords drawn and realized it was no dream.