Wednesday, November 02, 2011

First NaNo snippet

(Nano snippets will be first and very rough drafts. Read at your own peril)

Coming of age in the village saw each child be apprenticed in some career. Many stayed on the family farm, a few would be chosen to apprentice to the village baker, miller, or blacksmith. Each of those was considered an honoured profession and one well worth growing into.

But Onxy caused some special issues. His talent for causing special weather grew stronger with age, but his control remained hopelessly inadequate.

“Onxy,” said the elder. “You need more than this village can give you. We have found a teacher for you, a weather mage. He lives in Skilopse.”

“Getting you to Skilopse is something that we’ve been deeply considering. It will do no one good if you fail to arrive.”

“So we have decided to purchase you a place on the mail coach, due in three days time. It will take another 4 days to arrive in Skilopse.”

“Once you are there, you must seek out the house of Dervin, he is the weather mage we have found. Dervin has already agreed to your apprenticeship assuming that you too are a weather mage.”

“But we don’t know that I am a weather mage, not at this point.”

“The wind and water answer your call, whether you desire it or not. And if you have no control over them.”

Onxy thought back to the summer. He had been terribly in love with Daisy, a nice girl on a neighbouring farm. One day, he found Daisy had a second boyfriend, and he wanted to lash out at his rival. In an instant, a bolt of lightning nearly struck the couple as they lie in the grass kissing.

Since that fateful Daisy had no boyfriends that Onxy had heard of. She also steadfastly refused to remain in his presence for more than a few moments. Onxy tried to approach her while she was chatting with some friends, but he could never get that close before one of them would exclaim, “Watch it, dunder thunderhead is here, let’s go.”

“Wait, I just wanted to…”

“Dunderhead, thunderhead, he’s such a blunderhead.” The girls would sing as they danced out of sight.

“I just wanted to say I was sorry. Why can’t they listen!” as Onxy’s temper rose, so did the wind. It tore nearly a half of the ripening fruit off the branches of a nearby apple tree. Daisy’s father, owner of the tree, rushed out.

2 comments:

  1. Great excerpt! (I read it before but did the mighty dash lol).

    I think Onyx would do well to get a bit of training and control over his "gift"!

    And I wanna know more!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Cami.

    I wanna see a snippet (or chapter) from your story.

    ReplyDelete