This 8-10 sentence blog hop is hosted by The Weekend Writing Warriors. (Click the link for the list of participants, or rules if you want to join!)
This is a WIP, NaNoWriMo 2015, Forest Wed. Adann and Kaie (who was engaged), are married as symbols of their gods, and 2 weeks into their marriage, the gods’ blessing and the town are suffering, so they are sent on a hunting trip with two experienced hunters (Rui and Corliss). On the third day, Kaie and Adann (mostly Adann) are setting up traps again.
Finally, Adann chose a likely looking spot, and knelt down to set up this trap, too.
“I can do that,” Kaie sulked, leaning against a nearby tree, “I’m just a little out of practice with the heavier traps.”
“Do you really want to lose a hand while you’re relearning?”
“That depends,” Kaie said, “Will it make me look tough?”
“Only if you come up with a good story,” Adann paused as she finessed a particularly fiddly bit. “No, an excellent story.”
“How do you define excellent?”
“Punching a shark… during a flood … to save an orphan. No, three orphans!’
Kaie laughed, straightening from his slouch, “If I ever lose my hand then, that will be the story I will tell.”
* * *
Beikife is a small town in something like the Amazon rain forest, protected by a pair of married gods. The gods are represented by human avatars, two young people chosen and married by divine power. The strength of the marriage represents the bond between the gods’ blessing, so the new forest wed must find a way to connect to each other, or the crops will fail, the rivers will flood, and the cursed monsters that live in the forest will claim many lives.
Excellent dialogue, Caitlin.
I am enjoying how Kaie is starting to thaw in his interactions with Adann.
He is warming up to her, but still has his moments. Such a difficult man!
Great exchange, with more and more humor between them. They do seem to be warming up to each other.
The plan is working! 🙂
Ah, her imagination appeals to him. That’s a positive sign.
It is, indeed. 🙂
Having a bit of fun as they set traps. I like it.
Got to whistle while you work, right?
I like their easy dialogue.
Glad to hear it!
Love her humor here!
😀
She’s so relentlessly cheerful in this situation, which I appreciate. He seems so pouty. I understand he’s not happy but still…so it was nice to see him join in on the humor a bit! Great snippet.
Mostly, Adann is cheerful, but she does lose her temper at times. Kaie is working on being less pouty, but he’s not quite there yet.
Great dialogue. Their easy banter is adorable.
Glad you like it!
Nice that they’re developing a friendship, if not love, although the talk of losing limbs adds a touch of foreboding (from the ever suspicious reader in me!)
Got to start somewhere, right?
I really enjoy seeing them become more comfortable with each other. I look forward to reading excerpts from this story each week. 🙂
Thanks!
Well I’d personally prefer keeping my hand as opposed to having a story to tell. Great dialogue!
But if you did lose a hand… you might as well have the story, right?
Adann is very wise to keep things light
You have to balance the serious discussions, I think, or everyone gets depressed.
Adann is such a great character. You’ve really got your work cut out for you –bring Kaie around and having him get over his earlier engagement.
I’m inclined to agree with Frank’s comment, too. 🙂
He’s already making progress, now that he’s finally revealed what he was thinking. But Kaie is a slow one, indeed!
That’s an excellent story, though I’m not sure many people will be inclined to believe it!
No, probably not. 🙂
Super dialogue.I agree with Teresa. Adann is a nice character. I guess it would be normal for Kale to grieve over his first engagement, but I think he’ll come around.
He already is, in bits and pieces–he has an unhelpful tendency to backslide, though.
Well at least a sense of humor is helping! That’s good.
Yep! 🙂
Intriguing! I’m very interested to see where this enforced marriage leads…it looks like they are settling into a belated “getting-to-know-you” place, and that’s good.
Yep, they’re making progress, though their big worry is if it will be fast enough.