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 63: The river moved fast and the buildings were soon lost to sight.
The river moved fast and the buildings were soon lost to sight. Kasca turned away all of her attention focused on the river. Those at the Sanctuary wither saw her depart or they didn’t she would check later to see if she could find out but for now, the river demanded her attention. This was not the slow moving river she traveled on in the late fall.
Then there were swift currents that she could use, but they were manageable. She had the strength of arm to pull the boat out of the current if need be.
This river was a different beast. With the snow melt running into the river, it was deep and reached nearly to the top of the banks on wither side. It was fast and once her boat reached the current, Kasca knew she was just going to have to ride the current out until it slowed. She suspected it would shoot her into the ocean like a stone from a slingshot and that she would only be able to escape when the water was deep enough for the current not to have as much pull on the surface.
She also suspected she would have to paddle back to shore from wherever the current left her. For the moment all she could do was let the current take her small boat and use her oar to keep herself from capsizing as she came across debris.
The depth of the water helped her as it buried stones and other obstacles that might normally impede her. However it also washed loose limbs and sometimes entire trees into the water. This was more of a danger towards the banks and the current kept her more or less in the center, but she needed to be vigilant. She knew that to capsize here would be to drown. She could swim, but there was the possibility the current would pull her under or she could be knocked unconscious by one of the obstacles.
All else faded away as Kasca focused on keeping herself safe and secure in the little bot as it shot down the river. ‘At least I don’t have to worry about getting away from the Sanctuary,’ she thought. If no one spotted her, then she would be far away by the time they thought to look.
The day started to lengthen and Kasca worried about still being on the water in the dark. From the maps she expected the coast wouldn’t be too far away. As the sun moved through the sky she began to worry that she would not escape the river before dark. The noon hour past and even though she was hungry, Kasca couldn’t divert her attention away from the river long enough to open her pack to retrieve her rations. Her eyes studied the shore.
Two hours after the sun passed it’s zenith, Kasca saw the shore line change. She could see the water fan out before it reached the sea, becoming coastal marshland. She might not be able to go ashore, but she might be able to secure the boat for the night. The current held even though the water began slowing and the levels began to drop. The shore line t wither side became a vast sea of marshy reeds. The boat slowed but there were more obstacles.
Ten til Midnight 