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 67: Relieved, if only temporarily of the burden, Kasca began looking over the area.
Relieved, if only temporarily of the burden, Kasca began looking over the area. Many of the supplies looked older. The preservation spell kept them fresh so there was no spoilage, but it was clear from the dust over the preservation spell that it had been a while since they were touched.
‘Explains the location of the contamination,’ she thought. She recalled seeing the spots of contamination burn off. They were only towards the front and the newer supplies. While she knew they were all cleansed now, Kasca moved to the back of the cavern and dipped into the older supplies.
She restocked her food and water and resealed the preservation spell. Her actions displace some of the dust that shifted down onto the top of the spell showing where the supplies were disturbed. Kasca didn’t worry much over it as she planned to sign her mark to let anyone coming after her know she was the one who took them.
She set the supplies to the side and decided that she might as well do so now. She found the spot others would expect to look and added her mark to the end of the list. When she was done she looked at the marks and saw the last one had a notation under it. She read the signs and translated the shorthand of the symbols into meaning. She nodded to herself as she stepped away.
The last of the supplies were added about the time the disease first started appearing in the area. The last person to drop off supplies thought they were uncontaminated and signed that no more would be dropped off until they were certain the disease was contained.
‘Not quite quick enough,’ she thought.
She took out her bedroll and took it and her pack down one of the smaller mining shafts instead of staying in the main area. It was a precaution she always took and Kasca saw no reason to change. She settled herself for the night, ate her rations and tried to rest. Her body was weary but her mind was active. She thought about her journey.
It had been easy thus far and she managed to keep herself safe. She had not seen a sign of any other people moving in the land. While her route took her away from some of the settled areas, she scanned the sky for woodsmoke, looked out over the distance for movement, listened for animals and birds.
She heard nothing. No sign of anything living beyond the plants in the ground. While she appreciated her own safety, the travel through such an empty land had an oppressive feel to it. She hadn’t realized until she reached here and the relative safety of the mine how heavy a weight it was.
Eventually Kasca’s exhaustion overtook her. Her mind stilled and her body relaxed. She slept. When she woke, she lay there in the darkness. The quiet of the mines was somehow not as weighty as it might have been before.
‘It is an empty place that is supposed to be empty,’ she thought. It made it expected and oddly comforting.
She knew she needed to head into more familiar territory soon. She knew that the disease had not spared her home, nor any of the route leading to it.
‘Perhaps now is the time to look and see what lies ahead,’ she thought.
She was already in the Central zone and near enough to the Overlord’s keep. Seeing the state of it and what her path ahead might show could help her determine the course she took. Kasca decided it was a good idea.
Ten til Midnight 