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 30: “I believe the matron has several maps in the library,” she said. “Perhaps she will let you look. We can ask her after supper.”
“I believe the matron has several maps in the library,” she said. “Perhaps she will let you look. We can ask her after supper.”
Anya nodded. “That would be nice. And hopefully when I leave I can take a more direct route for wherever it is that I go.”
“Always a good plan,” The older woman said. They all returned to their work and spent a companionable afternoon, working and chatting about nothing. In truth Anya was mostly quiet as she listened to the others. Most of the talk was of the older woman gently correcting the stich work of the younger. Inside Anya felt tremors of worry about both the laundry and the maps. She knew that at this point she could do nothing to prevent the women seeing the differences in her garments, but she didn’t want to point out Tyrin to the others if she didn’t have to.
It was a sign that pointed her out to those who might come looking. ‘We’re looking for a girl from Tyrin,’ seemed like a plausible way to start a search.
She kept the worry locked in her belly and as a result didn’t feel at all hungry when the others told her it was time for dinner. She gathered her things and put them in her basket. They each returned to their separate spaces to drop off their work before going down to dinner. As Anya went up to the room she was assigned, she ran into one of the women she recognized from the laundry. Her heard nearly did somersaults when she saw the cloth draped over the woman’s arm.
“Hello, I was about to go looking for you,” she said. “The matron had a good look at your clothes and decided that it would soon be too cold here for them and suggested we bring something warmer from storage. So I have your things, cleaned and repaired of course and something a bit warmer for when the weather turns.”
“Right,” Anya said. She took the garments that the woman handed her, draping them over her arm so she could continue to carry her basket as well as leave a hand free to open the door. “I forgot the weather change,” Anya said. “Thank you and thank the Matron for me.”
The woman nodded and turned heading back to wherever she was going now that her task to find Anya was complete. Anya continued towards her assigned room and let herself in. The space was as she left it, nothing out of place. She set her basket down beside the bed and stretched out both of the garments she was given. The dress she wore, which had taken quite a beating from both her escape from the tower and her time spent sleeping in the woods, was clean and all the small tears that occurred on her journey were neatly patched.
It looked very much the same as when she left Tyrin. The other garment was made up in the same style as the one she was currently wearing. It blended in with the others here waiting for the Star’s guidance. It was of thicker material and looked like it would be warmer than the dress she currently wore. It looked a great deal warmer than the garment she wore in Tyrin. There the dress she had on now would be considered winter wear and the warmer dress the Matron saw fit to give her would have been far too heavy for all but the coldest of winter days.
‘I did take the road north,’ Anya thought as she studied the dresses. She remembered the northern cities had a cooler climate. ‘Maybe that’s it. It is colder in the north.’
Ten til Midnight 