Hi there! Welcome to WIPpet Wednesday –K.L. Schwengel’s weekly blog hop which encourages writers to move their WIPs (works-in-progress) to publication by posting excerpts related to the date.
It’s been a rough last couple of days – I’ve been more or less out of commission. Fortunately, I’m well on the mend today – but also very busy with catch-up – I’ve got unanswered comments from last week, plotting and revising, and, oh, the hometending that didn’t happen these last days…
That being said, I did attain my 60 hour goal for the month, and move a little beyond it!
Today, we have more of Chameleon’s Dish, (Trueborn Weft Series), companion volume to Bounded by a Nutshell (Trueborn Warp series Star Trek fan fiction):
Updated logline:
In the dangerously superstitious past of Shakespeare’s England, an amnesiac girl and a foundling boy must keep her strange nature hidden as they stalk the Bard’s words on the trail of her lost identity.
I’m still in the middle of the rewrite of Scene 8/60 (Nockatee’s Black Moment). Today’s offering will be rough and a little disheveled…but, trust me, it’s better than the rough draft of this scene, which delved deep into fanfic country, although this is intended to be original fantasy…
The setup:
Nockatee is hiding in the heavens, up under the thatched roof of the Globe Theatre. She and Henry have just avoided danger and detection outside the theatre, and now there is a new threat inside – Kirana, Tisira’s twin. With her here, Tisira rises within Nockatee, threatening her very self…for reference, these events occur shortly before those in my previous WIPpet,Burning Desperation.
And now, on to the WIPpeting!
WIPpet Math:
Today is March 26, 2014.
- Today’s math is a bit tricky…
- 26(for the date) -3 (for the month)=23; 23-7 (for the digits of the year, added)=17; 17+2 (for Tisira and Nockatee, sharing one body)=19
- Voila! 19 sentences!
The prologue went on, but I – I felt that first line echoing within me. Aye. This was as that. I must claim my own life, my own self. Tisira was near, and as fine a Huntress as I, mayhap better. She would take my life as her prey, if she were able, turn me again to her will, as though I had never been.
Nay, I would not allow it!
“I am Nockatee, and not your Tisira.” That was a certainty I could hold to, as solid as the ledge I crouched upon – a weapon against my twin; against that other piece of myself. My eyes scanned the crowd – it was a fine day, and all the town, it seemed, had come out to see the Kings’ Men. Too many hats, too many colors, too many faces…
I could feel her, with my mind, and, dimly, held cased like an ember within her – “Father!”
“Yes, sister. He is within me, and Mother, too – will you not remember, and return?”
Bait! Father made himself bait, to tempt me, to bring me to him, to keep me near him in his madness – but what of Henry? It was Tisira Father wanted; Tisira who was his companion. I, Nockatee, wife of Henry, knew him only thus – through dreams, and memories, and held within the mind of my – nay, Tisira’s – twin.
Only a foolish Huntress would walk into such a trap.
Will Tisira succeed in overtaking Nockatee? Will Father spring his trap? And what of Nockatee, and Henry? Will their love survive in spite of the escalating threats? Can Nockatee hang onto her self, even with this proof of her former life?
Stop by next week…I can’t promise answers to any of these questions, but I can promise new ones! =)
Want more WIPpets?
The play being performed when the Globe caught fire on 29 June 1613 was Henry VIII. A nifty detail – I married a man who looks remarkably like the randy old monarch…happily, our firstborn was a son, and I’m the faithful type…so my neck is safe.
Still, I can’t think of Henry without thinking, “Horrible Histories!”
Hi there! Welcome to WIPpet Wednesday –K.L. Schwengel’s weekly blog hop which encourages writers to move their WIPs (works-in-progress) to publication by posting excerpts related to the date.
I’ve taken a bit of a breather from the revision process, the last couple of days – because I’m learning how to use my brand-new computer! I haven’t added Scrivener yet – Eden Mabee bought me the program as a gift a few years back, and there was a bit of a licensing tangle-up. I hope to get it set up later tonight or tomorrow; I’m eager to get back to it, and finish up on my fancy new machine…I’m thinking that the tablet and touchscreen features may really help in the process…I’ll let you know, after I play a little…
For now, let’s get back to Chameleon’s Dish, (Trueborn Weft Series), companion volume to Bounded by a Nutshell (Trueborn Warp series Star Trek fan fiction):
In the dangerously superstitious past of Shakespeare’s England, an amnesiac girl and a foundling boy must keep her strange nature hidden as they stalk her lost identity.
I’m moving through the novel in a non-linear fashion, for this pass, so my WIPpets are bouncing around. This week, I’m offering a snippet from Tisira’s point-of-view. This is a new scene, and takes place just before the accident that causes her amnesia, which I’ve shared in these previous posts:
A note:
As the revision progresses, Tisira and Henry seem to be telling me they’re older than they were in the rough draft. I’ll be paying attention as I move through this first revision pass –
And you can help!
Do you have a sense of these two characters’ ages? How old do they seem?
There will be some variance – for different cultural norms, and taking into account that Tisira isn’t human; but it will be very helpful to know what age impressions others are getting from the story…any and all input, so long as it’s considerate, is valued!
And now, on to the WIPpeting!
WIPpet Math:
Today is March 19, 2014.
- Today’s math is a bit tricky…
- 19 (for the date) -3 (for the month)=16; 2+0+1 (the first three digits of the year) = 3; 4(the last digit of the year)-3 (the previous total)=1; (16 (first total)+1 (the third total)=17
- Voila! 17 sentences!
I reached up on my toes, pressing into him, ever more tightly. He tensed, as if to pull back, as if to hide his body from me, in shame –
“Don’t,” I whispered. “Let me feel you.”
“We are too young- it be a sin – ”
“For bodies to do what they will, Henry? How can that be wrong, or we too young, if we feel it?”
He seemed to have no answer, and our wanting was a live thing, between us, binding us. I wanted all – he wanted to resist, but could not. His lips pressed into mine, and my mouth opened for him, sharing breath, sharing life…
It felt as nothing we had known, as though we could drown in one another – and, within me, there was another awakening – one of heat and minerals, reminding me of the desert, and of Father…
But I wanted Father not, now.
All was Henry, his eyes wide and surprised, but also bright with wanting and dawning joy.
Our hands were like wild birds, now, upon one another, greedy to taste the first shoots of spring. Every touch awoke new flamelets, and sharpened breath, until we moved to a single rhythm, breathed as one, and the dancing held us in thrall –
“What be you about?!”
A woman’s shrieking voice, piercing the weaving of our dancing, shearing through our sharing –
What led up to this moment? Who is the shrieking woman? What will happen next?
Stop by next week…I can’t promise answers, but I can promise more questions! =)
For this week, I offer a sweetly evocative song that may well have inspired this scene…I had never seen this video before, but it feels perfect!
Hi there! Welcome to WIPpet Wednesday –K.L. Schwengel’s weekly blog hop which encourages writers to move their WIPs (works-in-progress) to publication by posting excerpts related to the date.
Winter Storm Vulcan is blowing outside, and, perhaps illogically, making me smile. Yes, I love the name.
Well, here we are – in the midst of my own personal March (Editing) Madness! It’s a whole new adventure – revising a completely pantsed WIP – with a plan!
I’m getting a better idea of how long this first revision pass will take. I think I’ll need about 3 months, in total, to complete the sixty scenes. Thus far, new scenes are taking about 5-6 days, and existing scenes 2-3 days.
So, it’ll be a while, as I chisel and carve and excavate and reconstruct – and I’m very excited to see how it all turns out!
Here’s the cool part:
You can help!
Every comment and insight has the potential to allow me to see this story as a reader, and not a writer. So, when you’re done reading, please take a minute to let me know what worked or didn’t, for you. I’ll be doing at least three revision passes, and possibly more, so your opinions could lead to something wonderful…but only if you share them!
I won’t be moving through the novel in a linear fashion, for this pass, so the WIPpets will be bouncing around.
Chameleon’s Dish is the companion volume to Bounded by a Nutshell (Trueborn Warp series Star Trek fan fiction):
In the dangerously superstitious past of Shakespeare’s England, an amnesiac girl and a foundling boy must keep her strange nature hidden as they stalk her lost identity.
And now, on to the WIPpeting!
WIPpet Math:
Today is March 12, 2014.
- Today’s math is simple: There isn’t any! Why, you ask? Well, as my kids are fond of saying lately, “Because reasons.” Maybe I’m a little loopy from this Vulcan storm! =)
- Today’s WIPpet is 24 sentences. I
- I won’t be offended if you want to say I took the date and multiplied by 2; or some other reason. Could be I just wanted to share these!
Today’s WIPpet is told from Nockatee’s POV – just after she is “born” as a result of Tisira’s fall and resulting amnesia. She’s just awoken, naked beneath a tree, seriously wounded and helpless – and then someone finds her.
But even that thought brought the fangs of pain, and I cried out, again, the one word I had as mine. “Father!”
“I am not thy father; but I will help thee, if I may.”
I tried to follow the voice, untangle the words. At the same time, I scrabbled away; an agonized rolling more than a flight, but I could manage no more; all I could do was to whimper, “Father?”
“I know not who thy father is, nor where to find him. But I will take thee to my cottage, where thee may heal, and, mayhap, we can find him together.”
Words that meant nothing. A voice that drew me, even while instinct said I must escape. I could not trust. I must have help. I burned, and froze, in the same instant.
My eyes jumped where they willed, and I could stop them not. My mind, too, leapt, as though at some prey I could not know. The boy came closer, and I scrabbled off a little more, the pain bringing a cry – “These are the wrong stars!”
The boy was reaching to me. A snarl came to my lips, broke loose. I couldn’t see clearly, but I could feel him. Was he danger, or safety?
“Be at ease. I will not harm thee.”
But could I believe, or trust? Ought I?
A wave of feverheat seared me; the fangs crushed and tore, and I was helpless to do anything but shake and snarl as the boy knelt and touched my face…
Will the girl remember who and what she is? Is this boy to be trusted? Can she recover?
If you’ve been with us a while, you know some of these answers – but do any of us know them all?
Stop by next week…I can’t promise answers, but I can promise more questions! =)
For this week, I’ll leave you with an oldie that reminds me of Nockatee. And this totally random tibit: my older brother bears a truly eerie resemblance to Mick Jagger!
)
It’s #WIPpet Wednesday –K.L. Schwengel’s brainchild which encourages writers to move their WIPs (works-in-progress) to publication by posting excerpts related to the date.
Well, here we are – welcome to my own personal March (Editing) Madness! This month, I began a whole new adventure – revising a completely pantsed WIP – with a plan!
So far, I am relishing this new challenge. It’s taking longer than I thought it might, especially when I need to create a new scene – and there will be plenty of those, as I weave in new characters and subplots. Of course, even the existing scenes are getting a deep-tissue massage. I wrote the first draft of this story in 2009; let’s just say I have learned a great deal along the way, and that this story will benefit from all that learning.
I have no idea how long it will take to finish this first revision pass. But I know I am going to have a far better novel at the end of it! =)
And here’s the cool part:
You can help!
Every comment and insight has the potential to allow me to see this story as a reader, and not a writer. So, when you’re done reading, please consider letting me know what worked or didn’t, for you. I’ll be doing at least three revision passes, and possibly more, so your opinions could lead to something wonderful…but only if you share them!
As I write this, I am in the final stages of drafting Henry’s first plot point. I won’t be moving through the novel in a linear fashion, for this pass, so the WIPpets will be bouncing around.
Today’s WIPpet is a new one, told from Nockatee’s POV. It happens a few days after Henry has rescued her and brought her to his cottage. She’s injured and has lost her sense of who and what she is, but she has some fragmented memories…
And now, on to the WIPpeting!
Chameleon’s Dish is the companion volume to Bounded by a Nutshell (Trueborn Warp series Star Trek fan fiction):
In the dangerously superstitious past of Shakespeare’s England, an amnesiac girl and a foundling boy must keep her strange nature hidden as they stalk her lost identity.
WIPpet Math:
Today is March 5, 2014.
- Today’s math is simple: I added the month and the date (3+5 =8.)
- Today’s WIPpet is 8 sentences.
Henry took my hands, and I opened my eyes, to see him watching me, worry scrambling through his scent.
“I prithee, leave off, Nockatee. It would be a simple matter to suffer some deeper hurt. Why take a chance of it, when remembering causes thee such pain, and thee only finds more sorrow in it?”
“Thee has the sound of my father on thy tongue.” I still could not fix my eyes upon what I chose, but I could bring his hand to my cheek, and rub against it; a way to share my pleasure with him.
Henry drew a quick, sharp breath, and his scent was of someone with a hidden bone that wanted gnawing. “Hast thee remembered, then, Nockatee?”
Has Nockatee remembered? If so, what? Will she take an injury, with her efforts to remember her life, before Henry found her? And is she right in thinking that Henry has some secret knowing he isn’t sharing? If so, will it come between them, or draw them closer together?
Stop by next week…I can’t promise answers, but I can promise more questions! =)
For this week, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite songs from 1988 – and one that seems to resonate with Nockatee’s current circumstances…
It’s #WIPpet Wednesday –K.L. Schwengel’s brainchild which encourages writers to move their WIPs (works-in-progress) to publication by posting excerpts related to the date.
Welcome to the final snippet before March, when I will be revising CD, and offering you even better passages! Yes, March will be an editing month, and then April and May will be creating months, with the 2014 A to Z April Challenge , CampNaNoWriMo, and Story-a-Day May.
Lots of busy happiness ahead, and I’ll be sharing more details on these in the coming weeks.
For now, though, it’s getting late, and I still have things to do before midnight….so on to the WIPpeting!
WIPpet Math:
Today is February 26, 2014.
- Today’s math is 26-14 =12. 26, for the date, 14, for the year, to make 12.
- Today’s WIPpet is 12 words, from just after the previous scene, in last week’s WIPpet, Burning Desperation. In actual timelines, this snippet is set on 29 June 1613 – the day of the Globe Theatre fire.
In the dangerously superstitious past of Shakespeare’s England, an amnesiac girl and a foundling boy must keep her strange nature hidden as they stalk her lost identity.
Chameleon’s Dish is the companion volume to Bounded by a Nutshell (Trueborn Warp series Star Trek fan fiction).
Perhaps, she was already too late to reach him, to save him.
Will Tisira get the trapdoor open, and save Henry? Will they survive the fire? And what comes next, now that Tisira has remembered herself?
I know, I know -those are the same questions I asked last week. And the answer’s just about the same – for that, you might just need to read the entire book…! Of course, I’m going to need to revise it first…my business for next month.
Here’s a fitting song for the moment…recorded live exactly 400 years after the Globe fire!
It’s #WIPpet Wednesday –K.L. Schwengel’s brainchild which encourages writers to move their WIPs (works-in-progress) to publication by posting excerpts related to the date.
We’re getting close to the final snippets before March, when I will be revising CD for NaNoEdMo, and you get even better passages!
March will be an editing month, and then April and May will be creating months, with the 2014 A to Z April Challenge , CampNaNoWriMo, and Story-a-Day May.
Lots of busy happiness ahead, and I’ll be sharing more details on these in the coming weeks.
And now, on to the WIPpeting!
WIPpet Math:
Today is February 19, 2014.
- Today’s math is – all about tomorrow. Tomorrow, you see, my husband turns 50. We also celebrate the 17th anniversary of the day we met.
- So, you get 67 words from the beginning of the climactic scenes.
Henry, Nockatee, and Tisira have a bit of a fan club amongst the#WIPpeteers, so we’ll stay withTrueborn Weft series fantasy WIP, Chameleon’s Dish– at least until we get to a place where sharing might give too much away.
Chameleon’s Dish is the companion volume to Bounded by a Nutshell (Trueborn Warp series Star Trek fan fiction).
In the dangerously superstitious past of Shakespeare’s England, an amnesiac girl and a foundling boy must keep her strange nature hidden as they stalk her lost identity.
This snippet occurs a bit after my last WIPpet. In actual timelines, this snippet is set on 29 June 1613 – the day of the Globe Theatre fire.
Tisira tugged and grunted; the trapdoor was meant to be lifted by a grown man, and not a girlchild. But Henry was on the other side, maybe still not knowing there was a fire, and his life in danger. She couldn’t feel him now; too many other minds clamored and twisted in the mass chaos of flight.
She had to reach him. She set herself, and heaved…
Will Tisira get the trapdoor open, and save Henry? Will they survive the fire? And what comes next, now that Tisira has remembered herself?
Well, now – for that, you might just need to read the entire book…! Of course, I’m going to need to revise it first…my business for next month.
Here’s a fitting song for the moment… and a hearkening back to my own childhood, with a father who has a passion for “The Man in Black.”
It’s #WIPpet Wednesday –K.L. Schwengel’s brainchild which encourages writers to move their WIPs (works-in-progress) to publication by posting excerpts related to the date.
We’re getting close to the final snippets before March, when I will be revising CD for NaNoEdMo.
I’m still not quite sure what to offer in March. I will be writing many new scenes and tweaking and rewriting much of what’s here – there are serious issues to deal with, subplots and characters and conflict and disasters to add…it will still have the charm of Henry and Tisira, with a much more cohesive, rich storyline. Right now, I’m inclined to share edited bits, perhaps of newly-written scenes, even though they’ll be out of sequence.
That’s because March will be an editing month, and then April and May will be creating months, with the 2014 A to Z April Challenge , CampNaNoWriMo, and Story-a-Day May.
Lots of busy happiness ahead, and I’ll be sharing more details on these in the coming weeks.
And now, on to the WIPpeting!
WIPpet Math:
Today is February 12, 2014
- Today’s math: 2. That’s right. I’m being a date rebel, today, and sharing two apropos sentences in honor of Valentine’s Day, which is, as I write this, two days hence.
Henry and Tisira have a bit of a fan club amongst the#WIPpeteers, so we’ll stay with Trueborn Weft series fantasy WIP, Chameleon’s Dish– at least until we get to a place where sharing might give too much away.
Chameleon’s Dish is the companion volume to Bounded by a Nutshell (Trueborn Warp series Star Trek fan fiction).
In the dangerously superstitious past of Shakespeare’s England, an amnesiac girl and a foundling boy must keep her strange nature hidden as they stalk her lost identity.
This snippet occurs a bit after my last WIPpet, The Stars are Fire.
They awoke together, their minds joined in dancing play,and their smiles were radiant as they began to tickle each other in delight…..tickles that turned into hugs, and kisses that held a strange new intensity that flushed them with odd sensations, making skin sing with life and bodies press together with some unspoken yearning…
They broke free, and laughed, a stange new shyness between them. “Not yet”, they said, together, although they weren’t certain sure what it was that they were setting aside.
What’s next for Tisira and Henry ? More canoodling? Answers to the many questions that might tear them away from one another, in many ways?
Come back next week to find out…!
Here’s a song for the young newlyweds, as they ponder new explorations, and grow closer in delightful new ways … and for all lovers, everywhere!
It’s #WIPpet Wednesday –K.L. Schwengel’s brainchild which encourages writers to move their WIPs (works-in-progress) to publication by posting excerpts related to the date.
Before I get to the WIPpet, I want to announce that I’m getting close to the point where sharing would involve spoilers. I think I have enough snippets left to last until March, when I will be revising CD for NaNoEdMo.
I’m not quite sure what to offer in March. I will be writing many new scenes and tweaking and rewriting much of what’s here – there are serious issues to deal with, subplots and characters and conflict and disasters to add…it will still have the charm of Henry and Tisira, with a much more cohesive, rich storyline. I might.…
- Offer bits as I go – this could get confusing, as the new scenes will be woven in throughout the novel, and I will be going back to the beginning.
- Offer revised versions of snippets already shared, for comparison and comment.
- Offer something else…I’ve been making pre-editing notes aplenty for Bounded by a Nutshell, the companion fanfic for this WIP. I could share those, or something else.
I’m open to suggestions or preferences, and will decide for sure before the last post of the month.
And now, on to the WIPpeting!
WIPpet Math:
Today is February 5, 2014.
- Today’s math: (14-5+2=11). I subtracted the date, the 5th, from the last two digits of the year, 14. Then I added 2 for the month.
- Today’s WIPpet is 11 sentences.
Henry and Tisira have a bit of a fan club amongst the #WIPpeteers, so we’ll stay with my Trueborn Weft series fantasy WIP, Chameleon’s Dish– at least until we get to a place where sharing might give too much away.
In the dangerously superstitious past of Shakespeare’s England, an amnesiac girl and a foundling boy must keep her strange nature hidden as they stalk her lost identity.
We rejoin Tisira as she is, once again, up in the air…
This snippet occurs several hours after my last WIPpet, In the Heavens .Chameleon’s Dish is the companion volume to Bounded by a Nutshell (Trueborn Warp series Star Trek fan fiction).
Tisira slipped carefully, hairsbreadth by hairsbreadth, from beneath Henry’s outflung arm, loathe to wake him and feel the sharp bite of his fears – a bone he could not give up gnawing. Just as she could not give up the Hunt for the meaning of the words,or the wrongness of the stars.He said nothing of it, ever; nor did she, anymore. And yet it was ever there between them, this gnawing, a live thing eating at their easiness in one another.
She stood watching him for a twentybreath – not her purposeful breaths, already wanting to be out and away, but his slow, sleeping comforting breath. She let it flow through her, binding them, setting a part of herself to his rhythm, to keep him with her as she Hunted, and mayhap to be a part of his dreaming.
But then the gnawing grew too much, and she Changed, slipping out the open window, and up to the thatched roof. It was a middling stifling night, with thick full air, but at least the scents she read from this far up were spiced with the river, and the temptation of the woodlands.
“The stars are fire,” said Father’s voice, in her mind, as she looked to the stars, their wrongness still gnawing, gnawing. Was it imagining that she heard, too, not only the voice of the actor who had spoken the line in the courtyard below, but another, a singing voice like a man too far gone into his drinking bowl, as she sometimes saw at Osiraan?
Osiraan?
Will Tisira unravel this riddle? Will Henry be the one wakening alone? Are there other dangers lurking, as yet undetected? And what or where is Osiraan?
Come back next week to find out…!
And, one more thing before I go…
Here’s a song for the girl who Hunts answers and gnaws at bones, while the world sleeps and spins around her. It also happens to be one of my personal favorite bits of musical loveliness.
It’s #WIPpet Wednesday –K.L. Schwengel’s brainchild which encourages writers to move their WIPs (works-in-progress) to publication by posting excerpts related to the date.
WIPpet Math:
Today is January 29, 2014.
- Today’s math: (9-2=7). I took the date, the 29th, and subtracted the 2 from the 9.
- Today’s WIPpet is 7 sentences.
Henry and Tisira have a bit of a fan club amongst the #WIPpeteers, so we’ll stay withTrueborn Weft series fantasy WIP, Chameleon’s Dish– at least until we get to a place where sharing might give too much away.
In the dangerously superstitious past of Shakespeare’s England, an amnesiac girl and a foundling boy must keep her strange nature hidden as they stalk her lost identity.
We rejoin Tisira in the heavens – yes, literally!
This snippet occurs two months after my last WIPpet,Upon Awakening Chameleon’s Dish is the companion volume to Bounded by a Nutshell (Trueborn Warp series Star Trek fan fiction).
Nockatee leapt and caught at the riggings, delighted that Henry had found them these jobs as errand-boys at the Globe – Shakespeare’s own theatre. She had become a part of the heavens, and now hung upside down, in Lynxform. No one below would see more than a shadow up under the thatched roofing,and talons and tail provided better purchase on the hemp ropes.
Henry peered up past the three tiers of seating, frowning at her being so far up, although he’d seen her do it every day for the last two months.In his mind, each time he knew she was in the heavens,was the memory of having found her crumpled and broken on the forest floor,terrified that the fall had killed her.
His face was worry-pinched as he squinted against the light, and his mind was full of all the things that might happen, the terror that she would fall again, and what the hard-packed earth of the floor would do to her body.
Sighing, she Changed, then slipped and dropped until she landed lightly beside him, her heart giving a little thrilled hop as his hand darted out to catch at hers.
Nockatee is finding her place in this new life – but will Henry be able to accept it? Will she be able to balance her nature and her young husband’s fears for her? And are those fears justified?
Come back next week to find out…!
Here’s a song (hopefully not prophetic) for the girl who loves the heavens, and the boy who loves her.
It’s #WIPpet Wednesday –K.L. Schwengel’s brainchild which encourages writers to move their WIPs (works-in-progress) to publication by posting excerpts related to the date.
WIPpet Math:
Today is January 22, 2014.
- Today’s math: (22-1-7=14). I began with the date (22), then subtracted the month (1), and then the digits of the year (2+0+1+4=7).
- Today’s WIPpet is 14 sentences.
Henry and Tisira have a bit of a fan club amongst the #WIPpeteers, so we’ll stay withTrueborn Weft series fantasy WIP, Chameleon’s Dish– at least until we get to a place where sharing might give too much away.
In the dangerously superstitious past of Shakespeare’s England, an amnesiac girl and a foundling boy must keep her strange nature hidden as they stalk her lost identity.
We find Tisira awakening alone at the cottage, and confused…
This snippet occurs immediately after my last WIPpet, At the Cottage Chameleon’s Dish is the companion volume to Bounded by a Nutshell (Trueborn Warp series Star Trek fan fiction).
Nockatee half-awoke, and for a thirtybreath,she hovered between worlds, Burning with Father’s soulfires, chilled through to the marrow. Then, a nightbird’s sharp trill roused her, and she was awake,huddled and shivering on cold, damp earth.
A tenbreath later, she recognized the scent, and knew that she was on the floor of the cottage, lengthening shadows her only covering, for she was naked. She did not remember coming here. Had she not been Hunting?
But Henry was not here, and hadn’t been, since they left, by the scent. In the bond, she could feel him -all worry for her that he tried to cover – that she would find where she belonged, and leave him behind; that she had come to some terrible harm in the woodlands.His fears tangled with her own – the words, that were old, heard in Father’s deep, calm voice as she fell asleep in the cupboard in his office, but new-writ in the book Henry had given her. And the stars – the wrong stars, she knew, without knowing how the stars could be wrong, or what was wrong about them.
She lay, without moving except for her body’s trembling, and waited for the answers to come, for another hundredbreath
Sima garo will provide. There are always possibilities.
So whispered the voices of her parents in her soul. Perhaps they were true whispers; for memory began to form around her presence here, in the cottage she and Henry had shared. She had come to these Huntlands, alone,with herself her quarry.
Nockatee is finding answers, but each seems only to bring more questions. Will these prove the same, or will she finally be able to put the pieces together, and puzzle out an answer?
And here’s a song that might offer Nockatee some hope, as she wrestles with all she remembers, and all she doesn’t know…
Trueborn Jottings 