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 235: ‘Well comfortable with clothes on,’ she thought a she reached for her clean underthings and began to dress.
‘Well comfortable with clothes on,’ she thought a she reached for her clean underthings and began to dress. Anya put her cleanest clothes on, careful to keep her hair bundled on top of her head so it wouldn’t soak the cloth of her dress. Once clothed she hung her wet towels across the sides of the tub to dry and took an extra one to wrap around her shoulders.
Once she had her dress protected by a cloth, she took her comb to the reading chair by the fire. Anya set down and let her still wet hair down out of its bundle. She carefully combed it out, working free every knot and tangle. When her wet hair lay smooth against the towel she set the comb aside and let her hair dry in the warmth of the fire.
Her muscles felt warm and loose after her hot soak and she felt more relaxed than she had in a long time. While she knew that the hot water was partially responsible, Anya also knew that part of her relief was from simply bathing properly. In Tyrin the priests and healers advocated regular bathing as a means of keeping disease at bay. The priests also claiming a clean body created a clean mind, thus helping to keep sin away. Stories of old times of plague and pestilence caused the city officials to enforce the ruling of the church and healers and regular bathing was a requirement of all Tyrin’s citizens and indeed of all of the Kingdom of Dovish. The need for regular bathing had been so ingrained in her that even though she cleaned herself the lack had troubled her somewhere deep inside. With the matter taken care of Anya felt more settled.
As she settled in front of the fire, Anya thought about picking up one of the books to read or of going to look into the orb to see if she could answer any of her multitude of questions or even just look in on the others she was watching to see if there was anything going on she might need to know about.
She couldn’t bring herself to rise. The warmth of the bath, the comfort of being fully clean and the relief that her move, such as it was had been completed all made her want to stay in the chair. Anya looked at the log on the fire. It was a fat on and the flames were only beginning to lick the underside. It would burn for a while. Anya leaned back and rested her head against the back of the chair. It felt good to simply relax for a moment.
Anya yawned and found her eyes slowly slipping closed. ‘Maybe just a short nap,’ she decided. Anya reached over and pulled one of the extra blankets from the stack. She wrapped it around herself and settled deeper into the chair. The fire crackled behind the grate and Anya slipped slowly into sleep.
In her dreams she opened her eyes. Anya blinked and looked around, recognizing the snowy mountain, the woods filling the world on one side, the rocky mountain platform beneath her feet and the stone temple behind her. Somehow she was not surprised.
‘And I do need to offer my thanks,’ Anya said. She was certain the Lady wanted to be thanked as every time Anya found herself in the temple she was asked how she liked what the Lady offered her. ‘And I did like the bath.’
Ten til Midnight 