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 99: Nowhere was mentioned the travel passes some of the smaller towns and villages required.
Nowhere was mentioned the travel passes some of the smaller towns and villages required. It was both a relief and a concern. At the smaller towns she saw the travelers present passes to the guard before being allowed in. At the city, there was no such checking of permits. The guards opened the gates at sunup and allowed whoever was waiting in line into the city.
‘I suppose as most have wagons with them it is pretty clear why they are venturing into the city,’ she thought. As she planned to slip into the city with her shield on she wasn’t worried about not having a wagon. She was worried about not having the proper permit once she was in the city. No one checked anything and she wondered about that until she looked back at one of the towns. Pulling in close as one of the merchants presented their permit she realized that it claimed the merchant was from the town and simply returning to it after visiting the city.
‘So I would need a permit to get into the smaller towns which I can’t get unless I live there.’
Kasca knew this would ruin her plans to let people believe she was from one of the smaller towns and villages nearby. ‘I wouldn’t have a permit. Unless I ran away and plan never to go back.’
Deciding that required too much of a back story, Kasca let the thought go. ‘But at least I don’t need to show that I passed the guard with a permit.’
It was one hurdle down. There were wagons coming in but this early in the spring the road wasn’t heavily enough trafficked for it to be a problem. She could slip in without being trampled.
‘So what do I do once I am inside,’ she thought. Kasca let her sight take her through the market place. The goods were less than she would expect in a large city market but she had to concede it was early spring and the goods there were the sorts that were gathered in the first of the spring before the planted crops came ripe.
The city was not as crowded as she expected and people quietly went about their business. Large sections of the city seemed to be unoccupied, or at least sparsely occupied. She guessed that the disease had taken many of the residents.
Looking through the city several options came to mind. She saw several locked and abandoned apothecaries. Thinking of the coinage in her bag she knew there were options. It took away some of her guilt over stealing it from the collection wagons.
She saw rooming houses if she wanted to find something smaller and less visible while she settled in. There were also inns where healers were usually welcomed.
‘It would make me look new to the city I suppose if I took a place there.’ She suspected it would also come with inquiries and possibly suspicion.
As the apothecaries seemed like the safest place, especially as she had the coinage now, Kasca began to look at the options. She went through the neighborhoods, studying them and the people there. She decided that the more visible and wealthy looking shops weren’t for her. She did not need to become the healer to the aristocracy. ‘I also don’t need a massive place where I’d have to think about hiring staff just to run it.’
On one of the side streets, Kasca found what she thought might be suitable.
Ten til Midnight 