The fifteen minute novel writing experiment is an 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 200: The other man Anya couldn’t identify.
The other man Anya couldn’t identify. His clothing looked fine but paired down for a hunting excursion. Still the more practical riding leathers couldn’t hid the quality of the cloth or the still costly embellishments. The fact that the man riding with Lord Mathis seemed to be dressed finer led Anya to guess that he outranked the lord hunting her.
For a while the two men road in silence, the sound of the horses movements were the only ones. There seemed like more sound came from the horses than the two they were riding could provide and it was only when the unknown man stopped and snapped his fingers, that Anya realized there were others with the pair. Anya widened her view and saw several riders following. Many of them wore livery and armor. They were on horseback. Their horses’ movement accounting for the extra noise. There were also a few men on foot. While they were clean and dressed well, they were clearly servants and not extra nobility. Their mode of dress was more like the women she saw visiting the House of the Star than it was like Lord Mathis and his companion.
With the man’s snap, a hunting hawk was brought forward. The man on foot retreated as the hawk was passed to the lord and the party once again began moving forward. Another couple of men were beckoned forward and they went running ahead of the horses. They men running forward split into two groups, one pair running to the far right of the hunting party and the other running to the far left. They entered the woods and used sticks to beat the growth around them as they worked back towards the center where the riders waited.
The actions of the men on foot cause several birds to fly from their hiding places and rabbits to jump out of the underbrush. The unknown man with Lord Mathis let the hawk fly. The bird took to the sky, circling once and then diving towards the pray. It took down a rabbit and the man who held it before the man on horseback called for the bird, raced forward, took the bird off of the now dead rabbit and handed the bird a morsel to eat as for his efforts while securing the rabbit for the rider.
“An excellent catch Your majesty,” Lord Mathis said.
“Yes,” the man replied. “His training is coming along well. This is the first time he hasn’t torn the rabbit to shreds.”
“Well I imagine it is difficult to release your pray once t is actually in your clutches. I am sure I would have an equally difficult time doing so were I in the bird’s position, your majesty,” Mathis replied.
Having once been in Lord Mathis’ clutches Anya shivered.
“Indeed,” the King replied.
Ten til Midnight 