Morning all and welcome to the Fifteen Minute Novel. Here I take the start of a story idea and work on it for fifteen minutes a day. I started with an old writing prompt that interested me, cleaned it up a bit to fit the basic outline of the story I want to write and then set aside fifteen minutes each week day to see it grow. Each morning’s writing starts with the last sentence of the day before. And so now we have the story of Kasca…
Day 5: Light seeped in around the edges.
Light seeped in around the edges. It was brighter than she expected it to be. ‘I must have been off with my timing,’ she thought. She shrugged knowing there was nothing she could do about it. Kasca took a bracing breath and pushed the door open slightly. She needed to gauge the time. Peering out through the gap in the door, Kasca judged it was close to mid day.
She pulled herself back inside the tunnel and once again sealed the door. As a precaution, Kasca let her eyes adjust to the darkness, broken only by the lantern and moved down one of the side tunnels. While it was collapsed further in and unusable, there was a rock shelf that was created by the rockslide. She could easily scramble up and use the shelf as a hidden place to rest.
Kasca knew she would have to wait out the sun and didn’t want to do so near the door. She knew in theory it was safe, but she didn’t like to take chances. Kasca climbed up the fallen rock face and dipped into the hidden shelf. It was secluded and hidden from view. Unless someone knew it was there, they would not be able to see it.
She slipped off her pack and used it to cushion her head. Kasca then blew out her lantern setting it close to hand as she rested. As she closed her eyes she thought about the timing. She was tired when she entered the tunnels and so might have started off her first day of walking slower to make up for it. It had been a hard journey even before reaching the Overlord’s territory. Patrols were increased and formerly safe passageways were no longer usable. She had to back track a number of times. It lengthened her journey and wore her out.
‘And I did take that alternate path.’ It was slightly longer than the path she avoided due to rockfall. Kasca thought the combination might have been the reason her internal gauge was off. ‘Acceptable change,’ she thought settling in to rest.
Kasca liked when changes had logical reasons. It was always the ones that seemed to have no reasoning behind them that were the danger. Given she saw no signs of the other runners along the way before she got to the Overlords territory and no sign of anyone in the tunnels, she was a bit more on edge than before. She hadn’t really expected any signs in the tunnels, but she had been expecting them along the way. Yet, those markers weren’t there. The first and second lengths of the journey had the markers, but nothing beyond.
It was strange. ‘No one thought they could be caught that far north of the Overlord’s territory.’ There should have been safe houses and areas to stop. Not seeing the markers, Kasca made her pass through the territory stealthily, avoiding all the traditional hospitality sites. She was also rushed and didn’t think stopping was a good idea. Towns where she would normally restock and spend the night, she avoided.
‘On the way back,’ she told herself. She would stop then and see if she could find traces of the others. She frowned in the darkness. One of the reasons she wanted to take this run was to find traces of the others, to see where they went off course. She was told to complete her mission first and then search. It was what she was doing, but it was hard. ‘Spead and stealth now,’ she reminded herself. ‘Curiosity later.’ Kasca let herself drift into sleep.
Ten til Midnight 