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 105: She smiled and then found her smile stretching into a yawn.
She smiled and then found her smile stretching into a yawn. Kasca was forced to concede she was too tired to do much of anything else today. She slipped off the extra cloak she purchased in the market place. She opened the door of the wardrobe and hung the cloak on the peg. Kasca then slipped off her pack and removed the cloak she wore all the way from the sanctuary. It was just different enough that she was glad she purchased a different one in the market.
She hung the second cloak up and closed the door to the wardrobe. She then retrieved her bedroll from the pack and lay it on the floor beside the bedframe. The ropes of the bedframe might have been good but until she had a mattress to go on it, the floor would be more comfortable.
‘Still it isn’t rock or dirt,’ she thought. ‘And I don’t have to maintain my shielding spell.’
Not keeping it in place made her sleep far more restful than she had at any point since she left the security of the caves. Despite the strange place and the newness of the satiation, Kasca fell easily into a deep sleep and remained at peace until the morning.
Kasca woke early. The sun was barely risen, but not only had her mornings started early for a while now, but they generally started off in dark and secure places. The apartment over the shop may have been secure, but it certainly wasn’t dark. There were strange shadows as she wasn’t yet accustomed to the space, but the windows let in the weak early morning light. Kasca took a deep breath and began her day.
As she got ready to face her first day in the building, she could smell the scent of bread wafting through the air. ‘The bake ovens of the city are working at least,’ Kasca thought. The scent was tempting, but she wasn’t quite ready to face the neighborhood yet. She remembered the whispers and the gleam of excitement.
As she dressed for the day, Kasca wondered how many healers, magical or otherwise, were left in the city. When she looked for a place she expected there to be vacancies. Even if she hadn’t found a shop like this one to purchase, she was certain there would have been enough absences that finding a position wouldn’t be too difficult.
She saw many empty spaces in all strata of society but some how it still hadn’t processed exactly how few would be around. ‘No help for it now,” she told herself. She was here and the neighbors knew it. ‘I just hope I can get through inventory to see what I am working with before someone shows up on my door step.’
With that thought in mind, Kasca adjusted her clothing. The travel clothes were set aside and she made a note to halve all of her travel clothing laundered in the near future. In the depths, wrapped in a water proof cloth was clothing that was more useful in town. There were a few elements that might seem strange locally, so she removed them and adjusted the rest of the clothing.
When she was dressed Kasca decided she didn’t look too different from many she had seen moving around outside. ‘The cloak will cover a lot,’ she reminded herself. She set her travel worn garments aside.
Ten til Midnight 