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 160: The light flickered off and Deran disappeared.
The light flickered off and Deran disappeared. Anya blinked realizing that as she talked with Deran the light had indeed faded and the space was shadowy as well as cold. She stepped carefully out of the ring where they light was, even though it faded and walked towards the door. Worried about what other surprises the other seemingly empty rooms might hold, Anya decided to stick to the corridors instead of investigating them.
By the time she returned to the room she was claiming as her own, the hallways were dark and there was only a glimmer from the banked coals of her fire. She knelt before the dim glow and built the fire back up. She noticed that while she was gone the box of firewood managed to refill itself. When the fire was strong enough Anya swung the filled kettle over the flames to heat the water for tea. While she would eat her meal of dried sausage, cheese and bread, the tea would help warm her thoroughly before she went to bed.
With the kettle on the flames, Anya went to the small table where she kept the stored foodstuffs she had at her disposal. The supplies were running low and soon she would have to risk another night time foray into the kitchen larder.
‘Still, there is enough for tonight,’ she thought. Anya sliced off a section of the dried sausage, cutting the portion into smaller rounds to make it appear to be more than it was. She did the same with the hard cheese and the bread. While she could eat all three by taking bites out of the portion she allotted herself for the night, Anya found the smaller pieces extended the time she ate and made her feel the meal was more substantial.
‘Although it is a more substantial meal than many I had at home,’ she reminded herself. The sausage, cheese and bread were all made from the finest of ingredients. There was no filler or skimping in their making. None of them had been stretched to go further. Such thoughts brought Anya back to her family and the family now spending more money on things than they ever had in the past. She saw her sister’s anger and understood it, but at the same time it was puzzling.
By scrimping and foraging the entire family gave off the notion there was no money, no extra funds. But at the same time all of them had to go without many things that they all would have liked. ‘It gave the illusion there was no dowry hidden away but it meant that Uncle and the rest had to suffer the lack as well. It seems they could have said they just spent it when times were tough and there was no more instead of hoarding it away.’
She found the behavior puzzling. As she ate she twisted it around in her mind. She always thought of the family as scrimping and barely getting by because she was one of the ones sent out to forage in the woods. When she was little she was taken out with her older cousins and sisters and they brought what they found back to the family, selling the items that could bring in money to buy the things they couldn’t get on their own and saving some to buy the apprenticeships for the boys. The money earned through those sales as well as the money later brought in by the work in the laundry was what paid for the apprenticeships and the dowers’ of her older sisters.
When the boys were settled in their apprenticeships it was only Anya and her sister who foraged.
Ten til Midnight 