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 128: She had also been restocking the apartment with all the necessities of daily living that were cleared out of the space when the previous owner passed.
She had also been restocking the apartment with all the necessities of daily living that were cleared out of the space when the previous owner passed. Kasca had a well stocked pantry for daily use and was starting to process items to store them for winter. She didn’t know what the markets were like here in the winter time. They could still have a limited amount of offerings, or items others processed, but she grew up in a small town where there were no winter markets. She bought extra when she went to market and made certain half would be usable when the snows arrived. Adding to her winter supply became part of her evening ritual and now she felt as though she could survie the winter once it arrived.
She had blankets now as well and an arrangement with several patrons to add to her woodpile. It had more cordage added to it when the woodsmen and their families came into her shop for their own winter supplies. They and others like them would not be able to come in from the areas out side of the city once the snows arrived. Like her they were preparing early.
The summer sun still beat down upon them and those in the city seemed to have no thoughts beyond the heat. It was those who knew the limitations of winter who prepared. By midsummer Kasca felt she was well prepared. By the time the sun started to faid and autumn began it’s approach, she was more than ready.
It gave her a certain satisfaction to know that she would make it through the winter on what she put by. She also had a cure that she was reasonably certain would work should the disease make it’s return in the colder months.
Other things were less satisfactory. When she checked in on the boy she helped, the boy who did not belong in the household, she found him gone, the master reinstated in his suite. She did not think it was a nefarious missing, merely that once healthy he was sent back to where he belonged. It was a mystery she could not solve unless she were to peep into every child’s bedroom to see where he had gone.
As the seasons started to turn, she had no time for that. While Kasca was confident the magistrate would turn up someone willing to serve as a clerk, even if they weren’t willing to apprentice with her, nothing came of the request. Periodically the clerk was sent by to tell her that the magistrate had not forgotten and was still looking, but as of yet there were no takers.
It took Kasca a few weeks to realize why he wasn’t having any better luck than she had. In the last round of diseases the healers and apotehcaries were hit hard. They were infected in the first wave. ‘The first wave of disease hitting as the weather turned,’ she thought recalling the past year.
‘They are scared.’
Kasca supposed she couldn’t blame them. Still she had her own small garden to harvest. All summer long she took clippings when she needed them and to encourage the plants to grow. As the summer faded, Kasca rose early to harvest and process some of the elements before her day would normally start and after the shop closed she repeated the process.
As more purchases were made in the shop, she did not have time during the day to complete the tasks. It made her days long and took up all of her available time. She was racing the seasons now and only just managed to get the last of her small harvest in before the weather truly turned.
