Character Castle 2.0
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SO, funny story, that’s actually the age I pictured her XD Sahar just talks that way to everyone she’s comfortable with XD (Niarok, Qatar, and Yila kinda scare her, though she isn’t letting on XD) Even Liorah, who is a head taller than her and one minor inconvinience removed from arson at any given time XD (Even funnier, Liorah likes it when Sahar calls her sappy endearments XD)
LOL! That’s great! I was more talking to Rusted Knight since Leytera seemed to be like 10 in Klein’s mind. Although Leytera did appreciate the chocolate…
I do hope that Sahar and Yila can become friends…
Yila secretly admires Sahar’s knives! 🙂
Yila
Yila could hear Niarok talking to Leytera, see all the other people in the cave surrounding the obnoxiously pretty girl.
Yila hated her already. She had seen how Niarok reacted to her presence, how taken he was with her appearance.
But Yila couldn’t stand her. The entire cavern reeked of fear. Leytera’s fear. She wasn’t going to fit into this group. These were warriors stuck in an unexpected situation. Leytera was a child in a woman’s body.
Yila gripped her knife as tightly as she could. All she really wanted to do was throw Leytera on the floor and scream at her.
The anger, the frustration, the hatred choked her and she tore the knife out of its sheath. Now that she wasn’t sick anymore, she needed to shoot something. Throw her knife at something. She wanted it to be Leytera.
She had been called heartless before. So maybe she was. Whatever. Her parents had taken it from her years before, the same day they took Niarok and tried to turn him into an assassin.
So maybe it had been Yila that helped him through it. Just because she was three years younger didn’t make her any less of a fighter. Heck, they’d trained her to be a ninja. She could have taken any number of the people in this cave and won the fight.
So maybe Yila had been the one who stuck by Niarok’s side all these years.
But deep inside she knew she had done it out of duty, loyalty, not heart. Not love.
She was incapable of love.
She glared back at the group behind her. They were all just pawns. She was just a pawn. There was no hope for any of them.
This castle would be the death of them all.
And frankly, Yila could care less so long as she and her brother got out.
Survival.
Everything Yila had ever done was for survival.
Niarok wasn’t like her. He cared. He had somehow come through the torture and the pain and the darkness with compassion. Beneath his stony exterior he actually cared.
Yila couldn’t care. She was too broken.
Beneath the hatred and the bitterness, Yila was broken into so many pieces she would never be able to heal.
Her eye caught Lorcan’s and her chest burned.
Love.
Romance wasn’t love.
And yet Yila couldn’t stop admiring Lorcan.
Somewhere beneath his handsome face and his scars, he was just as broken as her.
And somewhere deep beneath Yila’s anger, her heart that she didn’t know she had connected with his. Something about him just gripped her.
Lorcan gave her a knowing glance and walked toward where Leytera had entered.
Yila grimaced. He’d seen. He knew.
She had never felt so alone.
So exposed.
Like every secret she had ever had was laid bare for the entire world to see and pounce on.
That was a way to not survive.
“Yila.”
Yila jumped. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Niarok standing behind her.
“Yila.”
She stared at her brother, not sure whether she wanted to attack him or hug him.
“Hit me.”
Yila stared at him, then slapped him as hard she could.
He withstood the force of her blow like a rock in a storm, which made her even angrier.
“Hit me again.”
She slapped him harder.
“Punch me.”
She did.
So began the weirdest fist-fight in the history of the world. Niarok just stood there while Yila punched him and slapped him and screamed at him until finally she was dry.
Then she noticed how everyone was staring at them.
She stopped to breathe, staring at the floor with something akin to shame burning in her face.
“Hey! Nothing to see here!” Niarok yelled. Everyone jumped and studiously stopped staring.
This couldn’t possibly get more awkward.
Niarok grabbed Yila’s arm and led her to the wall, making it clear that fighting ring time was over. He handed her a skin with purified water, and she guzzled it.
She drew one of her knives and gently ran her finger along the perfectly sharpened edge. She loved that knife.
“Yila.”
She looked at her brother.
“It wasn’t your fault.”
Yila’s mind broke open with memories. It was her fault.
All the pain that she and her brother had been through. It was all. her. fault.
There was nothing she could do. She could have made a real decision, but she’d just acted on instinct. And she’d hurt everyone she loved.
Everyone.
And now here they were, just Niarok and Yila, with a bunch of hoodlums staring at them like they were aliens.
So they were.
Yila couldn’t even care.
The brokenness and guilt were too much.
She felt Niarok’s arms slowly wrap around her, and she froze rigid. He was trying to make her feel better.
No. He was trying to communicate that despite her anger and her brokenness, which he alone was allowed to know about, he still somehow loved her.
Yila relaxed slightly.
It was her fault. And yet Niarok wasn’t going to let that get in the way of the sacred bond of kinship between them.
Yila went limp and tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. For some reason this castle, this place, had brought all of her scars to the surface and torn them open all at once.
She buried her head in her brother’s chest, forgetting about the strangers in the cave with her, and cried.
Niarok stood there stoically like he always did, but she knew better. He had the biggest heart. That’s why he was a doctor, and honestly, she really didn’t mind right now if he was trying to heal her heart. He probably wouldn’t be able to do it, but why make him stop?
Finally she pulled away, wiped her eyes, picked up her bow, and walked to the darkest, most empty part of the cave, ignoring the others. She opened her pack and pulled out the collapsible target she carried with her. She set it up against the wall, backed up, and shot an arrow.
And another one.
And another one.
She looked at the target, admired her work. They were all nestled right next to each other.
I could get used to this.
I LITERALLY AM GOING TO SCREAM YILA TURNED INTO A PERSON OF HER OWN AND I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING AND AHHHHHHH WHAT JUST HAPPENED???????????
I was just calmly writing and all of a sudden Yila kind of just… turned into someone else and took over the keyboard and started typing a story and I don’t even know what just happened.
Okay byeeeee…
"The darkness is seldom complete, and even when it is, the pinprick of light is not long in coming."
I do hope that Sahar and Yila can become friends…
Yila secretly admires Sahar’s knives!
If it’s up to Sahar, that’s a yes! XD Let’s see how that works out…
I LITERALLY AM GOING TO SCREAM YILA TURNED INTO A PERSON OF HER OWN AND I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING AND AHHHHHHH WHAT JUST HAPPENED???????????
I was just calmly writing and all of a sudden Yila kind of just… turned into someone else and took over the keyboard and started typing a story and I don’t even know what just happened.
THAT WAS AWESOME!!! I LOVE WHEN THAT HAPPENS!!! IT’S THE BEST!!!!
Wow, Yila and Niarok kind of remind me of Gavril and Liorah! Calm, gentle older brother and fiery sister that are really close despite their different personalities? (Honestly the best dynamic if you ask me!)
She had been called heartless before. So maybe she was. Whatever. Her parents had taken it from her years before, the same day they took Niarok and tried to turn him into an assassin.
So maybe it had been Yila that helped him through it. Just because she was three years younger didn’t make her any less of a fighter. Heck, they’d trained her to be a ninja. She could have taken any number of the people in this cave and won the fight.
Wow, they’ll totally vibe with my new character over traumatic backstory!!! XD
I want to get him in here SO bad! Maybe I need to send Sahar and Acyn on a temporary detour so they’re offscreen and get them back in later? I need to develop the new character in a hurry, I’m writing ‘his’ book right after NaNo! (Not actually his, he just claimed it, wormed his way into my affections from a side character to a main character. XD))
Aw thanks!!! And I’ve been loving Sahar and Acyn!!
Thanks!! They’re just so much fun! 🙂
Yeah, characters just love surprising! Aaaaand you can test as a lot of different personality types depending on how suppressive you are, I’ve come out as an ENFJ when I’m overcompensating and an INFJ when I’m super depressed. The Phantom of the Opera is usually claimed to be a INTJ but he’s more an INFP and–XD I love personality types!
Funny story, when I’m feeling depressed I start acting like an INFP XD It’s really not dependable, but those tests are a lot of fun and I like messing around with them! They definitely help me with characters!
Ow yeah! Huh…I never related to Gav at all in his posts and that was really weird coz half his issues I thought I’d really relate to…
Yeah, see, that’s the problem! It isn’t you, I’ve gotten that feedback from other people. For SOME reason, nobody connects to Gavril. Everyone kinda likes him but nobody connects to him. (Except maybe Joelle Stone but that was because Gav ‘adopted’ Riure XD Let’s face it, that was adorable XD)
I have NO clue why but it just happens all the time?? People like ‘If I cannot find trouble I will create it’ Liorah who makes problems more than any other character more than ‘Practically perfect in every way and laboring under a heckton of imposter syndrome’ Gavril who makes sensible choices XD
It’s one of the issues I’ve been trying to fix during this rewrite. So far, I think it’s definitely better, but not perfect yet!
Wait…is that the…is it THAT character?!?!?!?!?! Am I gonna finally meet that character!!!!!!!!!
*triumphant trumpets in distance* The one and only!! THAT character!!!! I can’t WAIT to see what you think of him!!!
Lol thanks! And that’s why you get so many weird friends like us, darling, here to save you from soul-crushing boredom and normalcy
Exactly, what would I do without y’all? 🥰
Ohhh, cool!
Hear that Noah! You now have zero excuse for being ignoramus, even Netherlands-girl knows it!!! (It’s just coz girls are smarter than guys, right rose-colored-fancy? ;D)Of course!! Obviously!! jk XD
*(Waitwaitwait let’s do get into that!)*
Bless you for always asking me to elaborate, I dearly love elaborating XD
Okay, everyone else is going to have to suffer through this! (Or skip it, I won’t mind XD)
So, as far as I know (I never formally studied Afrikaans but it is my first language) there are two main ways to say “I love you”. The first is “Ek is lief vir jou”
(I might end up butchering the spelling because Afrikaans is spelled very illogically to me XD) That literally translates to “I love you”, but it implies romantic or familial love, generally.
Meanwhile, the other is “Ek hou van jou” which translates to… exactly the same thing in English but is more platonic.
And, funny story! This is exactly reversed in Dutch XD They use the latter phrase exactly, with minor spelling differences, but that’s almost always romantic or familial. (Actually, Americans express love verbally WAY more often than Dutch people, which I really like, tbh.)
While “lief” in Dutch (same word, same pronounciation) Translates most closely to ‘sweet’ as in kind and gentle. So… it’s exactly reversed. (This is EXACTLY as confusing as it sounds XD)
Soo… that was your lecture for today thank you for coming to my TED talk bye!
Without darkness, there is no light. If there was no nighttime, would the stars be as bright?
First of all, this entire exchange was HILARIOUS!! XD Y’all have the best senses of humor XD
Why thank you, Cathy does have quite the ability to take a conversation to the next level. 😄
Oooh, that’s odd! In fact, it isn’t particularly American. (Not arguing! Just adding my weird bits of knowledge 🙂 ) I’ve heard it often and I’m definitely not American, and it’s actually an expression in Dutch and Afrikaans too!
My ignorance is shown. 😏
So how is Dutch weather in the winter?
or you’ve never heard of StarWars!!!
Star Wars? Is that the one where that guy Gandalf kills Captain Kirk?
Hear that Noah! You now have zero excuse for being ignoramus, even Netherlands-girl knows it!!!
I am chastened.
(It’s just coz girls are smarter than guys, right @rose-colored-fancy? ;D)
I hope you continue having such glorious dreams. 😉
If it’s up to Sahar, that’s a yes! XD Let’s see how that works out…
Lol! I’m definitely imagining Yila having some really bad days and then one day just randomly deciding that she’d rather be friends with Sahar than be on her bad side as it would take wayyy less energy! 😊
Wow, Yila and Niarok kind of remind me of Gavril and Liorah! Calm, gentle older brother and fiery sister that are really close despite their different personalities? (Honestly the best dynamic if you ask me!)
I SO AGREE!!!!!! I mean honestly brother sister dynamics are always amazing no matter how you do it, but this one is my fav! And I really want to read about Gavril and Liorah… 😆
"The darkness is seldom complete, and even when it is, the pinprick of light is not long in coming."
So how is Dutch weather in the winter?
Dutch people are good at two things. Complaining about the weather and complaining about prices. I have apparently adopted the former talent.
Cold. Wet. Dark. In that order XD. I have endless amounts of adjectives (all of them negative) to ascribe to Dutch weather in any of its seasons. XD
We’re hovering somewhere between the fifties and forties right now (And they call that a warm autumn) but it can go down to ten degrees or so in January.) (Man, I hate farenheit. It makes no sense.)
Yesterday it rained, the sun shone, and we had gusts of wind, all at the exact same moment.
There are generally ten seasons: Spring, winter (reprise), second spring, one week of summer where it’s blindingly hot, wind, after-summer (the only decent time of the year), wet, pre-winter, leaves, and winter.
It’s either so dry that it doesn’t rain for weeks and a bunch of trees just straight-up die, or it’s so wet that full-sized tractors need to be towed out because they’re so deep in mud. (It literally left a four/five foot hole.)
We get at least two windstorms a year, so bad some glass panels fly out of the greenhouse, and snow or ice. (Which are actually pretty fun, tbh. Last year it froze hard enough that we could skate. Same year we had snowdrifts up to my knees. Yep, that was a year.)
*Rereads the six paragraphs of complaints and nods, satisfied that nobody will ever raise the topic of weather because I can and will write six more paragraphs (That was a threat)*
In short, it’s a cold frog-country and burning rage at the weather is the only warm thing here.
Lol! I’m definitely imagining Yila having some really bad days and then one day just randomly deciding that she’d rather be friends with Sahar than be on her bad side as it would take wayyy less energy!
LOL, I think Sahar is just going to be consistently nice to her, but who knows! (I’ll try to write a post later today!)
I SO AGREE!!!!!! I mean honestly brother sister dynamics are always amazing no matter how you do it, but this one is my fav! And I really want to read about Gavril and Liorah…
Oh, they are. Sibling relationships are the BEST! LOL, I actually had Liorah in here for… almost a year XD I kicked her out because she was phsycologically torturing Lorcan. XD (Read: She was attacking his ego. It did not go down well XD)
Without darkness, there is no light. If there was no nighttime, would the stars be as bright?
Sahar
Acyn stared at me as though he had no idea what an inconsiderate fool he was being.
Yila was staring at Leytara as though she would be delighted to murder her.
I watched her, concerned. Her arm was healing fast, but there was still something off about her. Something that might have nothing to do with her arm.
Niarok stood in front of her, speaking to her quietly.
She hit him, hard. I winced in sympathy and scooped up my skirts, starting toward them, perhaps to say something to help.
He didn’t move, didn’t wince. She hit him again. He still didn’t respond.
Something else was going on here, that had nothing to do with me. I stepped back and watched.
Acyn stood right next to me, watching them with mounting concern, then took a step closer, as though determined to go help. Again.
I grabbed his arm and yanked him back.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said, quietly.
“Why not? She’s upset, I want to help.”
He looked puzzled, his eyebrows scrunched together like when he was trying to understand something new. My heart melted just a little.
“They don’t want or need your help. Sometimes people need sympathy more than help.”
Acyn still looked mildly confused and glanced over at them again. Niarok glared at all of us in general and I hurriedly turned away, as though we hadn’t noticed what had happened.
“Oh– Do you mean I was doing that earlier?” Acyn asked.
“Kind of. You were making it worse,” I admitted, honestly, then hurriedly added “With the best of intentions.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know. Was that why you were upset with me?” He asked.
“Not upset,” I said, pulling out one of my knives and absently toying with it. “Maybe a little annoyed.”
“I noticed.”
“You were supposed to.”
Acyn rolled his eyes and I smiled.
Yila seemed better now. She pulled out a bow and set up a target. I watched with interest.
“I hate bows,” Acyn said, quietly but with extreme disdain.
I almost doubled-up laughing.
“That was one time! How haven’t you forgotten that?”
“I will never forget,” he said, with extreme dignity.
The event in question was when Ferran had grown sick of Acyn’s endless questions about his war-bow and told him to try to shoot it. Acyn hadn’t been able to pull the string back more than a handsbreadth. Perhaps Ferran and Liorah had laughed a little too much.
I shook my head, then trailed over to Yila, who was shooting arrows into the target, each landing almost on top of the other. She had excellent aim. She paused and pulled out the arrows, then returned them to her quiver.
“Do you mind if I join?” I asked, showing the three blades in my hand. I didn’t have more on me.
She looked doubtful, then shrugged.
As soon as I was sure she was out of the way, I reared back my arm, the blade pressed along my palm, then released. The blade spun and hit the target squarely, just off center. I tilted my head, satisfied. It was slightly off, but close enough.
The second was further toward the edge, but the third struck dead center. I laughed in delight and retrieved my knives, then gestured for Yila to empty her quiver again.
“You’re a great shot,” I said, admiringly.
Without darkness, there is no light. If there was no nighttime, would the stars be as bright?
Yila
Yila walked up to the target to retrieve her arrows. She had pulled the last one when the talkative knife girl appeared beside her, her eyes sparkling.
“Do you mind if I join?” she asked, holding out a handful of pretty throwing knives.
Yila stared at her. Here she had been enjoying some quiet weapons time, and knife girl just had the audacity to show up and want to take over.
Yila checked herself. After the embarrassing show she had given these people earlier, she might as well not make a second show of hiding in a corner like the local mopey toddler.
She shrugged, trying not to let her discomfort show. She’d rather keep this girl at a distance.
She backed up to the starting line, slipping the arrows into her quiver. Sahar took her place at the starting line and threw the knives. She lacked a great deal of precision, but Yila didn’t feel like showing off with her knives just now.
The third knife hit dead center and Sahar laughed. Apparently she hadn’t ever had to throw the knife and suffer the consequences of missing a target enough that it could kill a family member instead of the enemy.
Yila shoved the memories back. Right now she had arrows to shoot, not thoughts to think. She could contemplate those faults of hers in the dead of night when no one would hear her crying quietly.
Yila waited for Sahar to retrieve her knives, then shot an arrow. It hit the bullseye and Yila allowed for a small smile before she drew a second arrow.
“You’re a great shot,” Sahar said while Yila was setting her anchor. She shot the arrow and waited for it to hit center before turning to look at the innocent girl beside her.
“I have to be,” she murmured. “Otherwise people will die.”
She nocked another arrow and shot it, and another one. Then for good measure she drew a knife and threw it so that it hit immediately above the bundle of arrows.
This was the only thing that could satisfy her anymore.
She walked to the target and removed her various weapons.
“I need to talk to my brother,” she snapped. “Use my target, but don’t break it.”
She walked away, trying to suppress the guilt for leaving Sahar behind.
She found Niarok leaning against a wall, fixing the fletching on one of his own arrows.
“What are we going to do about this?” She motioned around the cavern.
Niarok glanced at her, his eyes distant. He was thinking.
“Stay awhile,” he said after a moment. “We don’t know how to get out, and I’m pretty sure that this castle won’t want us to leave in a hurry.”
Yila stared at him, somewhere between shock and relief. She didn’t want to be stuck with these people much longer, but the thought of facing the world right now made her cringe.
Yila shivered. Memories cut deep into her heart and she shivered again. She’d lived through more pain in seventeen years than most people experienced in seventy.
Her body felt cold, and for a moment she thought her fever might be coming back, but when she looked around, everyone had stopped moving and were glancing at each other doubtfully.
Then a booming metallic voice cackled maniacally.
“Thought I’d forgotten about you, did you?”
Thought I’d just make everyone’s life hard again! (Good idea Rose)
"The darkness is seldom complete, and even when it is, the pinprick of light is not long in coming."
Quin
“Like it? I heard siblings can be a pest sometimes,” Acyn smiled, rather wryly.
like it… a year ago Quin would have told him that siblings were the best relationships in the world; that his brother was his best friend; that they could tell what the other was thinking without ever saying it.
But now?
Quin shrugged. “It’s not…always easy to get along with siblings, I guess. But I had great childhood–we did everything together.”
“And you–you’re an only child? Er, I mean to say, where did you grow up? What’s it like?”
Acyn nodded, apparently unbothered by the question.
“No, I don’t have siblings. I don’t know if I should be grateful or sorry. As for that, where didn’t I grow up? The most specific I can be is the eastern half of the country, most of the time.”
He got a far off look in his eyes as he searched for a way to describe the past years.
“As for what it was like… We traveled around a lot. I’ve seen a lot of the country, but I’m glad I can stay in one place now. It’s a lot less–” I gestured vaguely. “Unstable.”
He stopped, and a look that wasn’t altogether happy crossed his face.
Maybe it wasn’t any easier to be separated from you family. then perhaps it would be better if that family never existed at all…one look at Acyn’s face gave him the answer. Neither was better.
Acyn shook my head as if something were in it he was trying to shake out.
Quin frowned. That bad, huh?
“And you? I thought you said you were a farmer?”
Quin’s eyes shifted away. Just like Pa’s…
“That’s right–or, I guess you could say I was.” he fell silent. The words seemed too heavy to say; and the memories hurt too much to stir. But he could feel Acyn sinking again, thinking he had messed everything up. Quin struggled to say something–anything. For a few moments nothing happened, and Acyn seemed to be loosing interest, staring off across the stream where Sahar was flying by like a streak of sunlight.
“I mean, my family still farms.” There. It was out. Acyn turned back to him. Now I’ve got to go on. “I can’t do much with the crops anymore. I help Grace…in the house.”
It hurt just as much to say it as he thought it would, but Acyn didn’t react, which made it a little more bearable.
He answered hurriedly before the conversation by the stream caught both our interests.
The pretty new girl seemed to be getting a little more comfortable. A man in armour Quin hadn’t seen before had handed her something that obviously tasted delicious, and Sahar had already introduced herself.
“So what’s going on?” Leytara asked.
“We’re all doomed to die horribly and now you’ve joined us.” Acyn spoke up from beside Quin. “I’m Acyn,” he added, a little too late to be any good.
So that’s what’s going on. In all the confusion and fear, and after that the memories, Quin had forgotten wonder at the strangeness of the whole situation.
Sahar glared at Acyn.
“Was that necessary?”
“It’s the truth. ” He sounded surprised.
“Nobody has actually gotten hurt besides Yila and we’ll probably be fine.” Sahar ignored him and spoke to Leytara.
Acyn snorted.
Quin raised his eyebrows. what’s up with those two?
“Something wrong? You seem annoyed.” Acyn was talking to Sahar, but Quin stopped listening. He was looking at Leytara instead. Someone I can finally look in the eyes without looking up…
“I’m Quin. You said you were Leytara?” He almost gulped in surprise. He hadn’t meant to say anything until he could watch her awhile longer and get comfortable.
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore!"
https://silverpenstrokes.wordpress.com*Rereads the six paragraphs of complaints and nods, satisfied that nobody will ever raise the topic of weather because I can and will write six more paragraphs (That was a threat)*
Ooooh, if you don’t want to talk about weather, you’re barking up the wrong tree, lol. I love the topic of weather. 🙂 And your winters are damp, as well as being cold! (Damp is the worst in wintertime. Thankfully we don’t have too much of it here.) It gets down to -28.89 C/-20 F where I live, usually at least once a winter. Do you get a lot of windchill where you live? also, in the middle of the winter, just how much daylight do you have? I’m guessing you have less than us…darkness and cold (and wet, for you) combined is rather depressing…
Yup… you have wild weather, but it does sound fun…at least sometimes. XD
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Quoth the raven, "Nevermore!"
https://silverpenstrokes.wordpress.comQatar
Sahar bounded away to go and talk to the new girl. Qatar stayed in the shadows. He could hear Sahar’s bracelets jingling as she hurried away, and he couldn’t tell if he thought it was disgusting or pretty. He shrugged.
there it was again. The quiet splash, followed by the murmur of stones. Only this time the splash hadn’t been so quiet.
It’s coming closer.
He looked around, wondering if anyone else had heard it. A knot of people, including Quin was standing around the new girl. Quin had stars in his eyes.
I can see right through you, Little Brother.
Qatar turned away in disgust and started along the wall, toward the noise.
For an instant he paused, wondering if he should tell anyone. It was an instinct their mother had instilled in them from children–tell someone where you’re going.
He glanced toward Niarok, but he and his sister were having an altercation in the middle of the cave. He shook his head.
his torch would have been helpful.
As he went farther back, the wall began to slope down and the floor to slant up, making an uneven walking surface.
little pebbles and pieces of shale tumbled down, clattering against each other and the floor.
This could be what the noise was. But if that’s the case, there’s something hiding back here.
for an instant he paused, peering into the dark. He felt his belt. There was the knife he wore for farm work, hard and reassuring in it’s sheath.
He glanced back to make sure Quin hadn’t tried to follow him. It’s no place for you, Little Brother, he thought, as his feet scrabbled at the loose stones.
He could feel the ground rising under him, and the air was colder. he gripped the cave wall for balance as his footing shifted constantly underneath him. He looked up–ahead of him the loose rock ended in a solid shelf, but he had to angle away from the wall if he wanted to reach it. He glanced behind him. he had already climbed ten feet, and it that distance again to the ledge. If he fell he would cause a miniature avalanche. He bent low an made a dash for it.
His feet slid beneath him, and he almost fell, but in the end he gained the ledge. The gap between himself and the wall had widened, and between lay a sloping rabble of loose stones that continued to rise into the darkness above him.
he paused to listen. A splash, followed by the tumbling stones, just to the left along the ledge. He gripped his knife.
~~~
I better not make this too long or nobody will read it, lol. So…”To be continued.”
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore!"
https://silverpenstrokes.wordpress.comOoooh, if you don’t want to talk about weather, you’re barking up the wrong tree, lol. I love the topic of weather. And your winters are damp, as well as being cold! (Damp is the worst in wintertime. Thankfully we don’t have too much of it here.) It gets down to -28.89 C/-20 F where I live, usually at least once a winter.
Oh, goodness!!! That’s SO cold!! That’s horrid!
Yeah, it’s usually damp unless it’s freezing or snowing. Then it’s that kind of dry, crackling cold that makes your fingers go numb and everything you touch shocks you and the static! It isn’t fun XD
Also, all the animals’ water buckets freeze over so you have to constantly defrost it and the pipes freeze outside so you have to stomp inside in barn boots to get hot water to slightly defrost everythingXD Very fun XD
Do you get a lot of ice where you live? Can you skate? We can usually skate every few years. We had great skating ice last year! Unfortunately, I hadn’t learned to skate before that, so I managed to fall no less than seven times within about two hours but it was very fun! (and I picked it up!)
Do you get a lot of windchill where you live? also, in the middle of the winter, just how much daylight do you have? I’m guessing you have less than us…darkness and cold (and wet, for you) combined is rather depressing…
Depressing is right XD It’s miserable XD We have about eight hours of light on the shortest day, in December. The weeks before and after are generally referred to as “The Dark Days” accurately, since the sun sets at like 4:30 pm. It’s awful XD
And the windchill is awful XD The Netherlands is incredibly flat (Whenever I need to describe it, I usually say imagine the flattest place you’ve ever been. It’s flatter than that.) And we live in an agricultural area with a lot of open plains, so the wind is something terrible.
It’s always slightly windy, and in the autumn and winter we have almost constant wind. In winter, that’s horrible XD
Yup… you have wild weather, but it does sound fun…at least sometimes. XD
Well, it gives you plenty to talk about XD All you have to say to start a conversation with Dutch people is “Aren’t we having terrible weather?” XD
Without darkness, there is no light. If there was no nighttime, would the stars be as bright?
Paraphrase: Rose rants about dutch weather
I must have a sadistic streak to me, because I was smiling the whole way through reading that. 🙂 I especially liked the ten seasons part.😄
Have you lived in the Netherlands your whole life?
how was the Ark and Museum? They were both fabulous when I went. 🙂
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore!"
https://silverpenstrokes.wordpress.comOh, goodness!!! That’s SO cold!! That’s horrid!
but it gets the “we’re survivors” feeling going very strong! (Which is so FUN, b/c you can brag about it to others.) The coldest I remember is -40 C/F. I think there was a windchill. When you have even a breath of wind at that temperature, it feels like sandpaper on your cheeks. It’s too cold even to snow at that temperature.
Also, all the animals’ water buckets freeze over so you have to constantly defrost it and the pipes freeze outside so you have to stomp inside in barn boots to get hot water to slightly defrost everythingXD Very fun XD
Yep yep! Well…we don’t defrost it, we just get rubber dishes for the animals so that we can break the ice out by sheer force. (It doesn’t frost over. It freezes solid). I wonder if in some ways, being so cold makes things almost easier…we don’t have much of a freeze/thaw-never-really-frozen-never-really-thawed cycle. Do you? Do you get a lot of snow?
Also…warm water to defrost stuff? *Shudders* You need like, water heaters or something. It isn’t that fun when the pump ceases working, and we have to track inside to get water for everything. 🙂
Do you get a lot of ice where you live? Can you skate? We can usually skate every few years.
I don’t know if we have much natural skating. Cities pour skating rinks outside in the town square or wherever and let the cold weather keep them frozen all winter. I’m sure I could find a pond or something to skate on some years, but I never got into skating much. It’s super fun, but I just…don’t have skates and can’t keep my feet. Every year I think I should try it though. 🙂 Do you get to do “natural skating”–as in, skate on some frozen lake or whatever, or do people have to make skating rinks for you to skate on? (DID ANY OF THAT MAKE ANY SENSE?!)
the sun sets at like 4:30 pm. It’s awful XD And the windchill is awful XD The Netherlands is incredibly flat (Whenever I need to describe it, I usually say imagine the flattest place you’ve ever been. It’s flatter than that.) And we live in an agricultural area with a lot of open plains, so the wind is something terrible.
Yes, yes, yes! GIRL, you could be describing where I live!!! I looked up pictures of the Netherlands flatlands, and it looks like home! I didn’t know that anywhere else was as flat as we are. I describe it like a table-top, or the bottom of a pan.
Yes the WIND. (OK, I love wind. Even when it’s cold and it feels like it’s slicing straight through you like a knife, you got to admire it for its power, even if it does hurt big time.)
We should seriously consider taking this conversation to our emails or somewhere where we can rant about weather without boring others. XD I’m just so thrilled that somewhere else is flat, too.
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore!"
https://silverpenstrokes.wordpress.comI must have a sadistic streak to me, because I was smiling the whole way through reading that. I especially liked the ten seasons part.
Of course you do! You’re a writer, we all do XD
Have you lived in the Netherlands your whole life?
Something like that. We moved here when I was about two, so yeah, the majority. My entire family is South-African though, and we still speak Afrikaans at home, though we haven’t been back in over ten years. (It makes the question “Where are you from?” very hard to answer XD It usually goes into some convoluted explanation instead of a straightforward answer XD)
It’s… weird. XD I’m too South-African to ever be Dutch, and so Dutch I can’t consider myself South-African. I don’t belong with either and I feel like an outsider no matter who I’m with. It’s very isolating.
I still really want to explore all that complicatedness in a novel, and I’am actually about halfway through plotting it. (That’s the Edwardian Pirates one for everyone who’s heard about it.)
but it gets the “we’re survivors” feeling going very strong! (Which is so FUN, b/c you can brag about it to others.) The coldest I remember is -40 C/F. I think there was a windchill. When you have even a breath of wind at that temperature, it feels like sandpaper on your cheeks. It’s too cold even to snow at that temperature.
LOL, I usually get bragging rights for worst weather, but you win in this case XD WOW, that’s awful XD
(It doesn’t frost over. It freezes solid). I wonder if in some ways, being so cold makes things almost easier…we don’t have much of a freeze/thaw-never-really-frozen-never-really-thawed cycle. Do you? Do you get a lot of snow?
Yeah, there was a noticable occasion where the full ten-gallon bucket froze solid in one night XD That was last year too XD
It’s pretty much constantly freeze-thaw-rain-snow-cold and every other kind of weather condition XD Nothing is constant, it doesn’t stay the same for more than a day or two. (Though we do have spells where it stays really cold for up to two weeks at a time)
We never get snow consistently enough to have it stay for longer than a day or two, and it’s usually powdery snow. It takes perfect conditions to get nice packy snow, and we seldom have a lot of that.
But powdery snow is fun! We had knee-high drifts last year and you could just fall over into it without getting hurt. Our small dog literally vanished without touching ground and we practically had to dig her out XD
The highlight of that occasion was when we were at the neighbors and we jumped from their ten-foot pile of sand (for a construction project) into like four feet of snow XD That was fun but very cold XD
Also…warm water to defrost stuff? *Shudders* You need like, water heaters or something. It isn’t that fun when the pump ceases working, and we have to track inside to get water for everything.
Yep! We have outside taps, but they freeze over when it gets too cold. And considering that that’s only about 4 weeks a year (spread out) it isn’t really worth getting an outside boiler.
Do you get to do “natural skating”–as in, skate on some frozen lake or whatever, or do people have to make skating rinks for you to skate on? (DID ANY OF THAT MAKE ANY SENSE?!)
It made sense XD
Half this country is a glorified ditch, there’s always enough natural ice XD
As far as I know you only get indoor rinks in the cities, because most cities have some variation of vaart (canal/large glorified ditch) that sometimes freezes over. Our neighbors (same ones as the aforementioned sand pile) have a large pond that’s perfect for skating. But I don’t think it ever freezes enough for you to skate on any kind of lake. It usually rains before that XD
Yes, yes, yes! GIRL, you could be describing where I live!!! I looked up pictures of the Netherlands flatlands, and it looks like home! I didn’t know that anywhere else was as flat as we are. I describe it like a table-top, or the bottom of a pan.
LOL, bottom of a pan XD That’s accurate XD Whenever we go to Germany I can’t help staring because there’s hills?? Like these big rises sticking out of the ground?? It’s so weird?? The roads go up and down??!!
Yes the WIND. (OK, I love wind. Even when it’s cold and it feels like it’s slicing straight through you like a knife, you got to admire it for its power, even if it does hurt big time.)
I don’t like it XD It’s colder than anything else and it’s kind of freaky when you hear it trying to rip off the chimney XD It’s sometimes so bad our parents used to tell us not to go outside because there might be flying debris.
Without darkness, there is no light. If there was no nighttime, would the stars be as bright?
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