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 89: At the door each of the woman paused and gave her a hug as though they were lifelong friends parting instead of recent acquaintances.
At the door each of the woman paused and gave her a hug as though they were lifelong friends parting instead of recent acquaintances. The gesture brought a tear to Anya’s eyes. She stepped back and the two turned away quickly joining the group heading down the road to Rulash. As Anya watched she realized it was in the opposite direction from the one she used to get here.
‘Which makes sense with the maps, I suppose.’
“Not leaving with the others then?” a male voice said. Anya turned and saw a man only a few years older than herself standing there. He glanced at her and then looked after the group of women leaving. He appeared to study them a moment before turning back to her. Anya thought he might have been the person she saw skulking in the shadows a while back when she woke up on the early edge of dawn bit she wasn’t entirely sure.
“Not at the moment,” Anya replied, figuring it was a safe enough answer.
“I don’t suppose there’s anyone else as not leaving?” he asked. His gaze slid past her.
“I don’t know,” Anya said. “Do you want me to ask after anyone?”
The man started and blinked taking a step back as though shocked by the thought. “No,” he said. “No, if she’s not here now then she’s off somewhere else.” He looked back to the departing group. “She’s not with them which means she took what was offered.” He sighed and then seemed to recall Anya’s presence. He squared his shoulders and nodded, he turned away.
“She already left Tobias,” a voice said. Both he and Anya turned at the sound and found the Matron standing slightly behind Anya. Anya stepped to the side thinking the Matron might want to move forward to talk to the man.
“She was made to go,” Tobias said. “Her father’s said.”
“She made her own decision,” the Matron said. “We don’t pressure anyone, and certainly not on Old Denham’s request.”
Tobias flashed a smile. “No there is that,” he said. “So she isn’t with me but she isn’t heading with that lot back to Rulash to marry that fella her da’s got picked out so there’s that to I suppose.” Tobias gave them both a bit of a grin. “I think I’ll stop by on my way and see how he feels about that, let em know there’s no hard feelings and such.”
The matron sighed. “You ought to leave well enough alone, Tobias.”
Tobias favored her with a rogues grin. “No where’s the fun in that, Matron?” He executed a parody of a courtly bow and headed off in the direction of Rulash. His melancholy vanished beneath his jaunty steps.
“Our own little drama,” the matron said. “Your friends are off then?” The Matron said.
“Yes, they left just now.”
“Excellent. Then perhaps we can get you moved into the winter quarters. These sections are far too hard to keep warm all year round.”
“Of course,” Anya replied. She glanced back after a departing Tobias.
Ten til Midnight 