Weekend Writing Warriors: 4/8

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 2016, currently called River, Tree, Mountain. It’s science fiction, set on a colony planet, six generations in–with about 10% of the population born “marvels,” who have special abilities like dowsing, healing, or creating fire. The protagonist, Rekka, is a spark (fire), signed a contract with Brenton to provide him a child, and traveled to be met with an empty apartment and a message saying he’s away on business–a few days later she’s at her first day of work, having met Johansen and Reyes, and while talking to Reyes in a smoking area outside, is interrupted by a woman asking if he has a light.

 

She turned, finding a middle-aged dark skinned woman with purple hair, who was holding a cigarette.

“I can light that for you,” she offered, summoning a spark with a flex of her power, and maintaining it so the pinprick of light grew into a small flame.

“A spark, are you?” the woman asked, leaning forward and lighting her cigarette on the flame, drawing in a breath and letting out smoke from her nose like a dragon.

Settling for a nod at such an obvious question, Rekka let the flame go out. “Nice to meet you,” she said to the woman, who smiled, waved the hand holding her cigarette, ember glowing at the end, and moved away.

“Derailed my train of thought,” Reyes complained, “Right–we’ll be working together, I figure. I saw your skills set on the database, and  you have experience with conferences, which is a lot of what I do.”

“You saw my skills set?” Rekka tipped her head to the side, watching him, and she was pretty sure a faint flush spread under his bronze skin across his impressive cheekbones.

“An hour ago,” Reyes waved the question away, “I was curious about the new face, is all.”

*    *    *

Life on the colony planet of Kaibou was going uneventfully until the second generation of colonists was born on the planet, at some, at a young age, began showing various psychic abilities. When those people, called marvels, grew up, many of them formed companies, building compounds to live in and raise their children.  Due to population diversity issues, many colonists have children using genetic bank material, or choose a succession of partners. Now on the seventh generation, marvels are born both within and without company walls, and all must work together to use their gifts and make a living on a still wild land. Some of these outsider marvels sign contracts with company marvels, agreeing to give them a child raised within the company, in return for a permanent home in the company compound, a stipend, and other concessions.