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 43: “But starving me to death makes no sense either.”
“But starving me to death makes no sense either.” Anya heard movement in the hallway and suspected the others were rising. She closed the book and put it away and moved to gather her basket containing her lace making supplies. All the while her thoughts kept turning. Anya placed what she needed in a basket and stepped into the hallway. She joined the others heading towards the dining area.
‘It makes no sense to go through the effort of kidnapping me and then just leave me in the tower to starve to death.’ She thought as she went downstairs. She stood in line, to receive her morning ration, her basket crooked over her arm to leave her hands free. She took her allotted food and offered a smile of thanks to the woman who handed it to her. Anya took it to one of the free benches and placed it down. Before she could sit, the other two joined her and Anya tried to push her thoughts away to be sorted later.
“Did the Matron help you with your map,” the younger girl asked almost immediately.
“Yes,” Anya said. “I took a wrong turn and went the long way round,” Anya said.
“Well now you know for when you go home,” the girl said. She seemed satisfied with the matter and tucked into her breakfast. The older woman looked less convinced, but also less likely to ask further questions. The matter seemed settled.
The three of them ate breakfast and placed their used items in the pile to be cleansed. Like Anya the other two bright work baskets with them and the three of them retired to the same comfortable and sunny spot to work.
The day was a repeat of the first and Anya found herself relaxing into the rhythm. Conversation was kept light and mostly held up by the youngest girl, usually in an attempt to draw attention away from a missed stitch. There were no deep and probing questions and Anya felt relieved. The relief extended to the other two who had more or less adopted her into their group. She noticed very few of the women working alone. Almost all the women and girls were in small clusters. Some seemed like groups of friends, their ages similar. Others showed familial resemblance marking them as family.
Anya could think of no questions to ask that would not point her out as an outsider. So she kept quiet and listened. Most of the conversational snippets she managed to overhear were as mundane as her own. Weather, agricultural concerns, being called by the Star and travel back were the most frequent topics. Peppered in were place names that were unfamiliar. She assumed they were places in Rulash. As she gave the country very little attention in her perusal of the maps, they were unfamiliar.
The day passed quietly and pleasantly. They returned to the dining hall for a mid-day meal and then went back to working on their various projects until it was time for supper. After supper all of them went their separate ways, each returning to their own rooms.
‘If the days are all like this it won’t be bad,’ Anya thought. Although what she was going to do after the two weeks waiting for a possible audience with the Star had passed she didn’t know. Despite the older woman’s assertion that she had the look of someone chosen, Anya hadn’t actually planned to come her and had no real desire to be chosen. She wasn’t even certain what being chosen would entail.
‘Probably best to avoid it,’ she decided.
Ten til Midnight 