The fifteen minute novel writing experiment is a attempt to write a complete (and very rough) draft of a novel by writing for fifteen minutes each day. I have taken a timed writing from one of the daily prompts done in 2021, cleaned it up a little and used it as my jumping off point into a story. Each day I will take the last line of the story written the day before and use it as my sentence starter and write for fifteen minutes, growing the story as the year progresses.
Day 20: Anya was used to having two dresses that she alternated between so that she could wear one and clean the other.
Anya was used to having two dresses that she alternated between so that she could wear one and clean the other. Once she entered the tower, she had only the one outfit and her guard wasn’t about to let her go down to the sheltered spot by the lake to bathe each morning.
‘For one thing there was no lake,’ Anya thought. A pitcher of water was provided for her to bathe, and a screen was placed so that she would have some privacy when she did so, but it wasn’t the same. It felt strange to bathe without the other girls from families who couldn’t afford the bathhouses. As her guard was surprised by her daily washing, she suspected that it wasn’t routine where he was from.
Anya frowned as she moved to the wash basin and began to bathe. While each house kept a wash basin and pitcher in a stand similar to this one, it was not considered a supplement for daily bathing. Skipping daily bathing was an invitation to disease. Dire were the stories where plaque was carried through the filth of unwashed bodies. On the needed, booth church and council agreed. It was why there were shelters built around the lakes edge so even the poorest of the village would be able to bath without risk to their modesty.
Such concerns had not troubled her jailer. ‘But then he wasn’t troubled by locking me in a tower either.’
Anya bathed as thoroughly, but as quickly as she could, pleased to finally be clean. Even when she bathed in the tower, she was always aware of her guard standing on the other side of the door, only a flimsy screen between her and him. Here at least she was alone.
Finally clean and feeling both better and more exhausted, Anya slipped on the provided night gown. The cloth was of acceptable quality. While she was certain the wealthy of Tyrin would have turned their noses up at it, the cloth was a slightly higher quality than what she wore at home. She was grateful to have it and set the other clothes to the side for the morning. She kept them well away from her well-worn garments.
Unable to stifle her yawns any further, Anya crossed the shadowed room and pulled back the cover. The mattress was filled with fresh straw and the ropes supporting it were tightly bound. Anya slid between the covers. The material of the mattress was thick enough that no straw poked through and much softer than the ground she curled up on for the past week. She took a deep breath and inhaled the scent of fresh straw and lavender. Even as she wondered if they mixed the lavender in with the straw, Anya felt her eyes slipped closed. She fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.
When Anya woke, she felt stiff and sore. As she stretched she was certain that she hadn’t moved at all in the night. The gray edges of dawn were just beginning to creep into the gaps between the curtains and Anya was surprised to find she slept the night completely though. She stood up and crossed to the window.
Ten til Midnight 