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 205: She read, had her lessons with Deran and took her independent lessons on the workings of Rulash.
She read, had her lessons with Deran and took her independent lessons on the workings of Rulash. Anya learned the basics of magic and how the energy to create things would come from her. She understood that was why she was so tired and hungry after activating the rings for the first time and why, even with repeated use she was hungry after her time spent with Deran.
As the winter deepened and then began finally to seem like it was starting to fade, Anya read through the books she found, the practical having to wait until more supplies could be located. Marta still provided her with stores of food and she still watched the huntsman Perov in his fruitless search. After a time he reached not only Dovish but Tyrin.
Through the orb Anya watched him stroll through town and ask casual questions, finding no answers. While relieved that there were no incidents in Tyrin and he left her sisters unharmed, it was with some trepidation that she saw him leave the town. To Anya’s surprise he did not go back to Rulash as she expected, but through the orb she followed him as he pressed further into Dovish.
Curious, Anya spent more time studying him. He did not seem to be studying the undergrowth as much as before, but even though she was no tracker, Anya could see why.
‘Too much time,’ she thought. ‘And many more people.’
The pathways between The house of the star and the towns further south were little traveled, even in the spring when she used them. In the winter they had been a barren wasteland and any disturbance could have been put down to her passage. Here where there were so many more people Perov would never be certain that she was the one who made the movements.
‘But why isn’t he coming back,’ She wondered. ‘Not that I want him back here.’
She wasn’t sure what would happen if he returned to the house of the Star having found no traces of her flight back to Dovish.
The road he was traveling on branched into several towns. Anya expected him to search each one along the way as he had the other towns he passed. He didn’t. Instead he left them behind and made his way to one in particular as though having a goal.
‘What is in Ranad?’ Anya wondered. She watched as he arrived in the much larger town. It was far larger than Tyrin and in fact large enough to have the sorts of manor houses where Anya was supposed to be sent when she left Tyrin.
‘Maybe he thought I was going to find the position I planned to try for when I left with the caravan,’ Anaya guessed. She shook her head dismissing the thought.
‘But the caravan was heading to Farano,’ she reminded herself. As she followed along with the questing Perov she realized that the town of Ranad was somewhat familiar. She didn’t know it well, but she could have sworn she had seen it before, even though she knew she hadn’t actually been there.
Ten til Midnight 