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 87: She looked back to the wagon as her heart slowed it’s pounding.
She looked back to the wagon as her heart slowed its pounding. No one was coming. There was no sound of racing footsteps or calls of alarm. As her heartrate slowed Kasca listened to the soft shush as the grain poured out of the broken barrel used for transport.
She watched the grain spill out onto the ground. Some of the grains were slightly moldy but others were already sprouted and thee was a warm yeasty scent to the grain. Kasca stared at the grain piling up and wondered if the wind would take it, spreading the grains along the muddy road. Looking at it she suddenly had an image of the road becoming one long grain field.
She shook her head to dispel the image and took a deep breath. No one was coming. No one noticed her theft because there was no one here left to notice.
Kasca sat down on the ground and placed the box down. She cast a cleansing spell over the boxe, seeing the contagion burn off and evaporate. She stared at it knowing she would have to lower her shield to reach inside the box. Her shield was malleable enough to allow her to grab the large ish box, but she wouldn’t be able to open it.
Kasca braced herself and took one more look around. She lowered her shields and quickly opened the box. She cast another cleansing spell to remove contaminants from the coins and then transferred them to her own bag. There were not a lot.
‘Still there are plenty more collection wagons along the way,’ she thought.
Kasca tucked the bag of coins into her pack and raised her shields once again. She knew that if anyone were looking she would once more be invisible. No longer spotted and no longer able to track.
‘As she moved away Kasca thought stopping at the collection wagons might be good for her in ways more than simple monetary gain. Once she made it off the island and took passage elsewhere, she would have to interact with people again. She would have to be seen as she moved through the world. Here ware she was certain there were no people around, she was still jumpy.
Practice let her keep her shields up for longer and longer stretches of time. While she was grateful, Kasca knew that she now had to grow comfortable moving through the world with no shield. ‘Not yet though,’ she told herself. ‘I’ll practice at the wagons,’ she told herself.
Perhaps with practice she would not be so skittery when she lowered them. ‘It will also test the cure I took,’ Kasca thought. Despite her cleansing, she knew that she had to have come in contact with the contagion. The more wagons she checked the more chances for her to be contaminated. She lowered her shields to open the box and inside the box were coins carrying the contagion. She would have to monitor her health as she progressed to see if she was taking ill.
For now, the sun was shining and whether or not her theft from the collection wagon was noticed, she wanted to put some distance between it and her.
Kasca continued north. Those at the sanctuary became less of a concern as they hunkered down in their isolation. She read their books when she couldn’t sleep or couldn’t travel but otherwise looked forward instead of back. Soon the landscape changed and se was in more familiar territory. While she stopped at the collection wagons, each time collecting the few coins they held to add to her collection, Kasca avoided the towns.
She knew no one was there and had no desire to see the abandonment of the familiar places. She couldn’t decide if she was a coward or if she was in some way trying to preserve the memory. Regardless, she stayed away. In time, she reached the shore and the passage she planned to take.
Ten til Midnight 