Working on a new story, this one for class (which is why I haven't worked much on the novel lately). It's a sort of Silmarillion-esque story, essentially a distantly-narrated version of an epic novel I plan on writing one day, that condenses maybe 600 pages into about 25.
Here's the beginning:
Here follows the tale of Ania, Princess of Estolle.
Ania Minerva was the niece of King Edvard III, who ruled Estolle from 571 A.A. to 599 A.A. Her parents having been killed in the Aurorian Invasion of 580 A.A., she was officially adopted by the King and his wife, Queen Paulette IV, and thusly became Princess of Estolle. She was not, however, the sole owner of this title, for Edvard and Paulettes biological daughter, Karine, had also held it for 22 years.
Karine was never fond of Ania, and her passive distaste of her cousin turned to contempt once Ania was also named of Princess. So fearful was she that Ania would one day supplant her in the royal line and the hearts of her parents that she took to at first denigrating her at every opportunity, then to ignoring her completely, as though she were worth less notice than a servant. She neednt have worried, however, because her parents had taken in their orphaned niece strictly as an act of symbolism, as a way to show their shaken subjects in the wake of the invasion that they would protect and nurture them all. They paid little more heed to Ania than their daughter did, and were quite content to turn her education and sustenance over to Leenie Wintour and her personal roster of handmaidens and servants.
Having little more to do after her daily education sessions had ended other than pose for official portraits or help Leenie with her cleaning duties (always over Leenies direct objections), Ania took a great liking to swimming in the pools and warm spring in the Selah Valley near her home of Calinon Castle. Calinon was inset in the rocky cliff face at the highest point in the northwest of the Valley, at the foot of which lied Estolles capital city of Erandia. A series of guard stations and concealed crossbow snipers lined the valley near the city, which was separated from the castles official grounds in the valley by a massive wall and gate, which had sealed the castle from the city for decades.
Selah Valley was home to numerous outcroppings of hills, many of which were covered with birch and pine trees, brief wheat fields, and fruit groves that were harvested by the Queens hand-picked farmers who lived in the castle. The great Kya River ran halfway up the valley, then coiled downhill and ended in the Kya Falls, which formed a wide pool at its base. The water retreated into the valleys earth, but rose to the surface in four smaller pools all across the valley and one warm spring in the Vecchio clearing on the valleys far eastern border. The springs heat was provided by the final echo of the sorcery of the Magi Vecchio, who had lived in the valley nearly four hundred years prior.
Ania enjoyed all five swimming spots, but her favorite was the expansive water body at the base of the falls. She particularly loved stripping naked (due to the wall, gate, and guards, no one aside from Leenie was ever around to see her) and diving from the rocky outcropping over which the force of the river fell down into the deep pool. Standing at the base of the pool one day when Ania was seven years old, Leenie caught sight of the sharp sunlight reflecting off the glistening water that lined Anias skin from an earlier swim. The light reflected brightly off the droplets, but seemed to be lit by Anias skin itself, creating a wince-inducing sheen of silver. From that point onward, Leenie affectionately called Ania the Silver Flame.
Unlike most waterfalls, the Kya Falls had no rocks in the pool below, save for one. Ania discovered it quite by accident one summer day when she was eight. Leenie had spotted a trespasser who had somehow managed to slip through the defenses climbing the valley and had very briefly left her watch over Ania to chase him away, and thusly didnt see Ania dive from the top of the falls and fail to emerge from the pool. Seeing Leenie move away, Ania dared a spin in the air after she jumped, which Leenie had always forbidden. Not having enough practice with the maneuver, she lost control of herself and landed sideways in the water. The back of her head struck the lone rock below and soon a murky stream of clouds conquered her vision. She tried to move, but her arms and legs were sluggish and barely responsive, as though she were caught in a giant spider web. She was only dimly aware of the burning in her lungs, and that her body was slowly sinking deeper toward the pools unknown bottom.
Suddenly a light broke through the deep haze; through narrowed eyes, Ania beheld the figure of a man, barrel-chested and muscular, with hair that stretched down his back and stopped short of the nondescript conglomeration of flesh where his legs should have been. She wasnt sure, but she thought he was smiling. Distantly, music filled the world, music she didnt hear so much as feel all around and inside her. Even though the mans curled lips were closed, she knew it was coming from him. A great pair of arms fixed her hips in a strong grip, and next she knew she was floating upward, toward the light of the sun. Her next memory was of lying in the marshy ground next to the pool, wet dirt creeping under her fingernails. Her head hurt, and when she gingerly touched the back of it with her muddy fingertips, they came away with crimson mixed with brown.
Ania! Leenie exclaimed, rushing to her side after seeing her on the ground.
Im all right, she tried to say, but Leenie smothered her mouth with the generous girth of her midsection as she wrapped her arms about her. Leenie rushed her back to the castle and delivered her straight to the hospital. One of the nurses affixed a small cloth to her wound and wrapped a band of cloth around her head to keep it in place. Ania protested the treatment on the grounds that it looked rather foolish for a princess to walk around with such an unsightly contraption on her head (though she knew that, had Karine been forced to don such an accessory, it would instantly be hailed as the latest fashion), but the nurse assured her that she could remove it in the morning.
That night, as Leenie prepared her for bed, Ania told her about the man in the water. It was one of the Mer, she said. Im certain of it, as much as I am that the sun still exists behind clouds or that I will never be queen.
Come now, Ania, Leenie said soothingly, fluffing one of her pillows. You were down there for quite some time; your thoughts deceive you during such times. The Mer are myths, and even if this were not so, why would one simply be waiting at the base of the Kya Falls?
It was one, Ania insisted. Im as certain of it as I am that the king saved Daventer from an attack of wild Vespers in his youth. I shall look for him again tomorrow.
You will not, Leenie said sternly, pressing her rolled knuckles into her hips. After today, you wont be diving or swimming any more for the rest of the season.
Unlike her sister, Ania had never been one to use her authority as Princess to get her way with her handmaidens (Karine was known to go through a new set every few months, whereas Leenie had tended to Ania ever since her adoption). However, upon hearing such an intolerable restriction, she threw up her arms and declared that, as Princess, she would be going back to the falls and pool tomorrow, and that would be that.
She felt bad about using her authority in such a way, though, and did consent to Leenies plea not to do any diving that day and restrict her actions to swimming. As she pressed her bare toes into the mud on the bank of the pool, a great ululation brought her eyes up to the sky, where a flock of heavy, broad-winged Vespers soared over the Valley. Their massive bodies, nearly as large as the whales in the ocean, were supported in the air by incredibly long, feather-covered wings that combined with their vocal calls to create a gurgling, faintly melodic song.
Fie upon you! a scratchy voice shouted. This was Din Freber, Calinons game master, who was shaking his fist at the great sky creatures and cursing them loud enough for Ania to hear him from his perch up on the castles walls, far removed from the waterfall. He immediately ran to a mounted harpoon device he had constructed along many of the castles ramparts, and snapped off a single shot that failed to make it even halfway to the flying Vespers. Their songs were a constant ache to the Kings ears (indeed, to the ears of many human beings), and he had tasked Freber with eradicating the Vesper nuisance from the skies around his kingdom, but so far Freber had yet to build a weapon that could even come close to reaching the heights necessary to shoot them out of the sky.
For the first time in her life, Ania heard the Vespers songs as something other than the vaguely grotesque, guttural calls; something in it recalled in her the very same feeling she had when she heard the song of the Mer in the water the previous day. Once again, it was not what she heard, but what the sound made her feel, and she beheld the Vespers now in a new, wondrous light.
She immediately leapt into the water, took a deep breath, and ducked down, keeping her eyes open despite the soft sting. She swam strongly all throughout the pool, diving as deep as she possibly could, only surfacing when her lungs begged for mercy, but never once saw any sign of the man who had saved her or of any such creature as a Mer.
Here's the beginning:
Here follows the tale of Ania, Princess of Estolle.
Ania Minerva was the niece of King Edvard III, who ruled Estolle from 571 A.A. to 599 A.A. Her parents having been killed in the Aurorian Invasion of 580 A.A., she was officially adopted by the King and his wife, Queen Paulette IV, and thusly became Princess of Estolle. She was not, however, the sole owner of this title, for Edvard and Paulettes biological daughter, Karine, had also held it for 22 years.
Karine was never fond of Ania, and her passive distaste of her cousin turned to contempt once Ania was also named of Princess. So fearful was she that Ania would one day supplant her in the royal line and the hearts of her parents that she took to at first denigrating her at every opportunity, then to ignoring her completely, as though she were worth less notice than a servant. She neednt have worried, however, because her parents had taken in their orphaned niece strictly as an act of symbolism, as a way to show their shaken subjects in the wake of the invasion that they would protect and nurture them all. They paid little more heed to Ania than their daughter did, and were quite content to turn her education and sustenance over to Leenie Wintour and her personal roster of handmaidens and servants.
Having little more to do after her daily education sessions had ended other than pose for official portraits or help Leenie with her cleaning duties (always over Leenies direct objections), Ania took a great liking to swimming in the pools and warm spring in the Selah Valley near her home of Calinon Castle. Calinon was inset in the rocky cliff face at the highest point in the northwest of the Valley, at the foot of which lied Estolles capital city of Erandia. A series of guard stations and concealed crossbow snipers lined the valley near the city, which was separated from the castles official grounds in the valley by a massive wall and gate, which had sealed the castle from the city for decades.
Selah Valley was home to numerous outcroppings of hills, many of which were covered with birch and pine trees, brief wheat fields, and fruit groves that were harvested by the Queens hand-picked farmers who lived in the castle. The great Kya River ran halfway up the valley, then coiled downhill and ended in the Kya Falls, which formed a wide pool at its base. The water retreated into the valleys earth, but rose to the surface in four smaller pools all across the valley and one warm spring in the Vecchio clearing on the valleys far eastern border. The springs heat was provided by the final echo of the sorcery of the Magi Vecchio, who had lived in the valley nearly four hundred years prior.
Ania enjoyed all five swimming spots, but her favorite was the expansive water body at the base of the falls. She particularly loved stripping naked (due to the wall, gate, and guards, no one aside from Leenie was ever around to see her) and diving from the rocky outcropping over which the force of the river fell down into the deep pool. Standing at the base of the pool one day when Ania was seven years old, Leenie caught sight of the sharp sunlight reflecting off the glistening water that lined Anias skin from an earlier swim. The light reflected brightly off the droplets, but seemed to be lit by Anias skin itself, creating a wince-inducing sheen of silver. From that point onward, Leenie affectionately called Ania the Silver Flame.
Unlike most waterfalls, the Kya Falls had no rocks in the pool below, save for one. Ania discovered it quite by accident one summer day when she was eight. Leenie had spotted a trespasser who had somehow managed to slip through the defenses climbing the valley and had very briefly left her watch over Ania to chase him away, and thusly didnt see Ania dive from the top of the falls and fail to emerge from the pool. Seeing Leenie move away, Ania dared a spin in the air after she jumped, which Leenie had always forbidden. Not having enough practice with the maneuver, she lost control of herself and landed sideways in the water. The back of her head struck the lone rock below and soon a murky stream of clouds conquered her vision. She tried to move, but her arms and legs were sluggish and barely responsive, as though she were caught in a giant spider web. She was only dimly aware of the burning in her lungs, and that her body was slowly sinking deeper toward the pools unknown bottom.
Suddenly a light broke through the deep haze; through narrowed eyes, Ania beheld the figure of a man, barrel-chested and muscular, with hair that stretched down his back and stopped short of the nondescript conglomeration of flesh where his legs should have been. She wasnt sure, but she thought he was smiling. Distantly, music filled the world, music she didnt hear so much as feel all around and inside her. Even though the mans curled lips were closed, she knew it was coming from him. A great pair of arms fixed her hips in a strong grip, and next she knew she was floating upward, toward the light of the sun. Her next memory was of lying in the marshy ground next to the pool, wet dirt creeping under her fingernails. Her head hurt, and when she gingerly touched the back of it with her muddy fingertips, they came away with crimson mixed with brown.
Ania! Leenie exclaimed, rushing to her side after seeing her on the ground.
Im all right, she tried to say, but Leenie smothered her mouth with the generous girth of her midsection as she wrapped her arms about her. Leenie rushed her back to the castle and delivered her straight to the hospital. One of the nurses affixed a small cloth to her wound and wrapped a band of cloth around her head to keep it in place. Ania protested the treatment on the grounds that it looked rather foolish for a princess to walk around with such an unsightly contraption on her head (though she knew that, had Karine been forced to don such an accessory, it would instantly be hailed as the latest fashion), but the nurse assured her that she could remove it in the morning.
That night, as Leenie prepared her for bed, Ania told her about the man in the water. It was one of the Mer, she said. Im certain of it, as much as I am that the sun still exists behind clouds or that I will never be queen.
Come now, Ania, Leenie said soothingly, fluffing one of her pillows. You were down there for quite some time; your thoughts deceive you during such times. The Mer are myths, and even if this were not so, why would one simply be waiting at the base of the Kya Falls?
It was one, Ania insisted. Im as certain of it as I am that the king saved Daventer from an attack of wild Vespers in his youth. I shall look for him again tomorrow.
You will not, Leenie said sternly, pressing her rolled knuckles into her hips. After today, you wont be diving or swimming any more for the rest of the season.
Unlike her sister, Ania had never been one to use her authority as Princess to get her way with her handmaidens (Karine was known to go through a new set every few months, whereas Leenie had tended to Ania ever since her adoption). However, upon hearing such an intolerable restriction, she threw up her arms and declared that, as Princess, she would be going back to the falls and pool tomorrow, and that would be that.
She felt bad about using her authority in such a way, though, and did consent to Leenies plea not to do any diving that day and restrict her actions to swimming. As she pressed her bare toes into the mud on the bank of the pool, a great ululation brought her eyes up to the sky, where a flock of heavy, broad-winged Vespers soared over the Valley. Their massive bodies, nearly as large as the whales in the ocean, were supported in the air by incredibly long, feather-covered wings that combined with their vocal calls to create a gurgling, faintly melodic song.
Fie upon you! a scratchy voice shouted. This was Din Freber, Calinons game master, who was shaking his fist at the great sky creatures and cursing them loud enough for Ania to hear him from his perch up on the castles walls, far removed from the waterfall. He immediately ran to a mounted harpoon device he had constructed along many of the castles ramparts, and snapped off a single shot that failed to make it even halfway to the flying Vespers. Their songs were a constant ache to the Kings ears (indeed, to the ears of many human beings), and he had tasked Freber with eradicating the Vesper nuisance from the skies around his kingdom, but so far Freber had yet to build a weapon that could even come close to reaching the heights necessary to shoot them out of the sky.
For the first time in her life, Ania heard the Vespers songs as something other than the vaguely grotesque, guttural calls; something in it recalled in her the very same feeling she had when she heard the song of the Mer in the water the previous day. Once again, it was not what she heard, but what the sound made her feel, and she beheld the Vespers now in a new, wondrous light.
She immediately leapt into the water, took a deep breath, and ducked down, keeping her eyes open despite the soft sting. She swam strongly all throughout the pool, diving as deep as she possibly could, only surfacing when her lungs begged for mercy, but never once saw any sign of the man who had saved her or of any such creature as a Mer.
Thank you, though for what you said.
It means a lot right now.
As always, I appreciate your support and gladly offer mine.