Weekend Writing Warriors: 7/29

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, moves in with him, and they make some progress on baby making. (I’ve skipped over several weeks of time since the last snippet.)

 

Rekka still didn’t feel like she knew much of Brenton—the basics of favorite foods, hobbies, and shows, yes. The bare statistics of his parents, siblings, and nieces and nephews, certainly.

But who he was as a person was a little more elusive. He was charming, and tender in the right moments, seemed honestly concerned with her happiness, funny, and sometimes a little awkward. She’d seen only the polished side of him, as if he wasn’t willing, yet, to show her his flaws. They hadn’t been living together long, she reminded herself, and put a smile on her face as she approached the apartment door.

When she opened the door, however, she heard Brenton’s voice, raised. The silences in his conversation meant he was on the phone.

She caught a snippet of conversation as he paced by his cracked open bedroom door, and worried she’d be eavesdropping if she let it go on much longer, she flipped on the screen.

Over the murmur of a talk show, she heard Brenton’s voice cut off, and then his door click shut.

*    *    *

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.