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 182: ‘Which was sort of the point,’ Anya thought remembering the conversation she overheard.
Which was sort of the point,’ Anya thought remembering the conversation she overheard. Marta intended the pack to be seen. She intended others to see the food and supplies gathered so that it would look as though Anya had been hiding but was taking advantage of a break in the weather to leave. The supplies were supposed to get her far away before she needed to restock.
Anya untied the fastenings of her cloak and shook her head. The icy wind had been bitter and even being out in it for a few minutes had been enough to numb the parts of her that were exposed. Anya sild the cloak from her shoulders and hung it on a hook, letting the pits of snow sticking to the fur dry off. She rubbed her ears.
The few minutes she needed to be outside to pick up the pack were bad enough. She couldn’t imagine having to travel outside in this weather for any length of time. ‘But I suppose others must do it if they are used to it.’
She thought of Lord Mathis’ man, even now traveling to the house of the Star. ‘Maybe they are used to it.’
Thankful she didn’t need to go out any further and would not even need to visit the stone basin for at least a month’s time, Anya turned her attention to the pack, wondering what was tucked inside. Deciding to find out, she moved forward. The pack had a single main portion with many pockets on the side. There were also ties on the side of the pack were things could be added. On one side was tied what looked like a bed roll. When Anya untied it , she saw that it was a thick blanket.
‘You can never have enough of those,’ she thought setting it aside. Another of the ties contained a stoppered gourd jug filled with fresh water. ‘I suppose the guard is less breakable than glass for travel.’
She set it aside as well. The final set of straps on the outside fastened a long length of cord to the bag. She supposed that too would be useful for travel. Deciding to leave the smaller pockets for later, Anya opened the main portion of the bag.
Inside there was, as expected, food. There were several large sausages, a couple of wheels of cheese, and several jars of preserved fruit. The jars were insulated with cloth and as Anya set them aside, she opened up the cloth and realized they were warm garments. As she had a limited supply of clothing, Anya was pleased to have a second set.
‘And I can more effectively wash what I have if I have something else to put on while they dry,’ she thought. While the garments were nice to have, Anya was more pleased by the ability to do a thorough washing of her clothing without resorting to sitting wrapped only in the blankets from her bed while the clothes dried by the fire. In Tyrin not only was bathing a priority, but maintaining clean garments was also considered a necessity and Anya felt she might have been falling down on that aspect of her cleanliness.
Beneath the clothing was a wrapped parcel that, when unwrapped proved to be a type of flat bread rather than the loaves Marta previously sent to Anya.
‘For travel, I guess,’ Anya thought. She had never really chosen items for travel, merely putting what she had into the only pack she could find when making her escape. ‘But I suppose if they are already flat they won’t squish flat during travel.’
She set the flat bread aside with the other food stuff.
Ten til Midnight 