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 25: The storm lasted two full days.
The storm lasted two full days. When it past there was over a foot of snow left behind. It was damp wet stuff that slowly began to sing under it’s own wait. Kasca cleared a path to the outhouse but other than that stayed in the cottage. She walked around the cottage when she needed to move, but didn’t leave.
It took several days before the snow melted and Kasca didn’t find the soggy ground any more appealing. The temperatures only rose just enough during the day to melt but then refroze over night. Her morning walk to the outhouse was a treacherous crunching walk over ice.
The night before her two weeks’ isolation was through another storm rolled in. This one carried wind as well as snow and the snow was not as damp and drifting. It fell hard and fast swallowing the world in a wave of white. She went to bed with it snowing and woke up with it still coming down. As she couldn’t see more than a foot Infront of her when she made her morning journey to relieve herself, she suspected that whoever was going to come to check on her would put it off until the storm ended.
By nightfall it was still snowing and Kasca went to sleep wondering how her time line would be affected. In the morning the snow was falling in lazy flakes. Still accumulating but the wind that whipped the flakes around seemed to have abated. The snow kept piling up.
Kasca made certain the cottage was tidy and that anything she brought with her was rounded up and easily returned to her pack, even if she kept it out for use. When someone checked on her she wanted to be ready to go.
The snow stopped.
No one arrived.
“The snow is pretty deep,” Kasca told herself.
The snow remained deep for a few days. The sun hiding behind clouds and the temperature remaining low.
Three more days passed. Kasca cleared the path to the outhouse and looked nervously towards the gate of the palisade. There was no change. Two more days and the sun emerged. It sparkled over the snow but was not warm enough to melt. Kasca looked towards the gate as she returned from the outhouse. At first she thought it was snow sparkle, then she realized it was light of a different shade and it was in an more or less circular form. She opened the front door and the circle floated in. The ball of light hovered in front of Kasca and she found she could look into it. Inside she saw a face.
The face belonged to an older man and he looked exhausted.
“Greetings, traveler,” the man said. “I am Hedar of the Sanctuary and I am pleased to find you well.”
“Greetings Hedar,” she replied. “I am Kasca a runner of Dera.”
“Dera?” he said sounding surprised. “You are a long way from home.”
“Indeed.”
He sighed. “When you arrived, we had word of contagion spreading through the land. We sent someone to investigate and while we did quarantine you to insure you did not bring anything to the Sanctuary it seems we had already been infected.” He ran a hand through his hair.
Ten til Midnight 