I’m still treacherously close to the start of this year’s NaNoWriMo, and I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to write yet. \u00a0At all. \u00a0Bupkis.<\/p>\n
The lack of an entry idea is bad, yes. \u00a0But not knowing what I’m going to do once I go in is sort’ve par for the course for me. \u00a0In 2012, the year I actually won, I had a story in my mind about an asshole with a bow and arrows. \u00a0That was it. \u00a0As my story ideas go, it was fairly light, even for me. \u00a0But it sounded fun.<\/p>\n
I write voices. \u00a0Meaning, I write a lot of dialog heavy stuff. \u00a0But it gives me the entryway I need into finding out who I’m writing about. \u00a0And then I sort’ve pin story to that. \u00a0It doesn’t always, or even often, work. \u00a0But it’s my process.<\/p>\n
I haven’t looked at that story, Fwip!, since roughly the point when NaNo ended and I sent in my word count to get credit for the win. \u00a0It was, as I recalled, an ugly mess. \u00a0Some of it wasn’t even really writing so much as emails and messages to myself and two of my muses about how stuck I was, where do I need to go, just what the fuck was this whole mess supposed to amount to anyway. \u00a0I have carried that with me, even with the thoughts that, you know, I wouldn’t mind doing a sequel to that piece of garbage at some point. \u00a0Not because it’s worth it. \u00a0Just because I think I have a smidge of an idea and a title for book two.<\/p>\n
But that’s all factored on pure ignorance. \u00a0Because, if I don’t look at what I wrote, how do I know that there’s even anything there? \u00a0Oh, sure, the muses gave me words of encouragement (during). \u00a0But that’s how these things work. \u00a0Talk him down off the ledge before he actually climbs atop it and decides to jump. \u00a0That’s more helpful than you might realize.<\/p>\n
Point being, in a drawer (virtual though it might be), a story isn’t a story. \u00a0Or maybe it is. \u00a0Something, something Schrodinger’s Novel.<\/p>\n
Today, for no reason beyond me being lost for what else to do, I opened the drawer. \u00a0I jumped partway in because I was taken by my chapter title (and how I guess I decided to do all of them, a mix of two things for each title). \u00a0And then I read, again, what was basically dialog.<\/p>\n
And I’m maybe a little in love with it now.<\/p>\n
That doesn’t mean that there’s really anything else there. \u00a0Because it’s a small-ish part of a small-ish chapter of a small-ish incomplete book.<\/p>\n
But maybe there’s a small-ish bit of hope that it could be something. \u00a0Some day. \u00a0If and when I get off my ass. \u00a0Of which there’s almost no-ish hope at all.<\/p>\n
Anyway, because I like it enough, here’s the bit I read. \u00a0It made me smile. \u00a0It made me laugh. \u00a0It made me think, hmmm… \u00a0This seat of my pants thing may work this year too.<\/p>\n
Unedited because Fuck It All.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nobody likes surprises<\/strong><\/p>\n – They also don’t enjoy an arrow to the face.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “How many do you want me to kill, Brillo?” Doone offered.<\/p>\n The half-sized man glanced around the clearing.\u00a0 By his count, he’d come here with sixteen men, and, thanks to some spectacular zen archery bullshit his ex-partner had picked up in their absence from one another, he was now down by five.\u00a0 It was still a better number on his side than Doone’s, with just him and his traveling companion that Brillo didn’t recognize, but…<\/p>\n Five shots.\u00a0 All of them kills.\u00a0 Sick kills at that.<\/p>\n “Whatcha’ got there, Doone?\u00a0 That some kinda’ magics in yer hands.\u00a0 Like yer axe.”<\/p>\n Simon picked up on the fact that this guy knew about Doone’s hatchet.\u00a0 That meant, in his mind, that the two had a history, deeper than just the name exchange.\u00a0 Simon had been awoken by the sound of screams in the night, and had seen Doone standing over the few dying embers of their campfire, the godbow in his hands.\u00a0 He saw two of the arrows let fly, one in quick succession after the other, and heard the bodies of the men he’d aimed them at hit the ground somewhere out in the darkness.\u00a0 That’s when this small man, this Brillo, as Doone had called him, offer to talk peaceably.\u00a0 One of Brillo’s men hadn’t agreed to it, apparently, so Doone had to shoot him down as he came up from behind.<\/p>\n “Maybe I’m just a better shot than I was, Bril.\u00a0 Or maybe your men are just easier targets.”<\/p>\n Brillo didn’t believe either of those to be true, but didn’t like the alternative any better.\u00a0 Magic was nice enough, you could get your hands on it.\u00a0 But it was a shit-ton of cruel to the man on the wrong end of it.\u00a0 Bril wasn’t directly in Doone’s aim at this exact second, but he felt like it wouldn’t take much.<\/p>\n “How’s bout we talk then.\u00a0 We work out what we got to say, you and me, and my men and you don’t have to kill each other no more.”<\/p>\n Doone nearly pointed out that there hadn’t been an ‘each other’ so far, but decided that talking could keep that from even being a near possibility if done right.\u00a0 He aimed the bow lower to the ground, but didn’t put it away.\u00a0 “Talk’s fine.”<\/p>\n Brillo moved slowly, carefully, closer to Simon’s fire from earlier.\u00a0 It was near completely out.\u00a0 He clicked at one of his men.\u00a0 “Irv… get some wood and get this going again.\u00a0 It’s cold, and I want to see our guests.”<\/p>\n Doone moved closer to the hallowed-out pit Simon had dug as well.\u00a0 He didn’t sit, just shifted in his standing position.\u00a0 His arm stayed tense on the bow’s string, the arrow remained knocked.\u00a0 Irv came back before they’d said anything else and started stoking the fire with the wood he added to it.\u00a0 Simon just waited, as still as he could, and equally quiet.\u00a0 He wanted to keep all attention off of himself, but it wasn’t meant to be.<\/p>\n “Who’s yer friend,” Brillo asked.<\/p>\n Doone never took his eyes off of him.\u00a0 “This is Simon,” he said simply.<\/p>\n “Simon,” Brillo repeated.\u00a0 Then, looking to the novice himself, “And what are you and Doone doing in these parts, Simon?”<\/p>\n Simon started to answer, but Doone cut him off.\u00a0 “No.\u00a0 You don’t speak to him,” he spat.\u00a0 “You and I… we do the talking here.”<\/p>\n Brillo pulled off his woolen cap, and scratched his head in the fire’s warmth.\u00a0 His black, curly hair that seemed to run from his head down to cover his chin and cheeks absorbed the light, so his face that showed was nearly as dark.\u00a0 The only things shining were his teeth and a couple flickers of metal in his ears.\u00a0 “Well, see, Doone, I’m just assuming Simon here has more to say on the subject, since I can’t imagine you would’ve ever chosen to come round these parts again.”\u00a0 Simon’s face must’ve expressed some confusion, so he offered, “Doone’s not popular with some of the locals in this land.”<\/p>\n And that is different than anywhere else how<\/em>, Simon thought to himself, but kept his mouth shut.<\/p>\n “We’re just passing through, Bril.\u00a0 On our way out of this land, won’t even be staying in the next.\u00a0 Be a long time gone before anyone even knows we’re here.”<\/p>\n “I already know though, don’t I?\u00a0 Me and the boys, we’ve been made awares, haven’t we?”\u00a0 He lifted his arms up, signaling his men.\u00a0 “Haven’t we, boys?” he called out, and they all answered with a “yip.”<\/p>\n Doone didn’t look up at anyone else, didn’t follow the voices.\u00a0 He just kept trained on Brillo.<\/p>\n “And what kind of cost would it be to treat things as you\u2019re being unaware.\u00a0 How much would that be?”<\/p>\n Brillo chuckled.\u00a0 “Well, I think that might be pretty expensive, friend.”\u00a0 He looked around for Doone, indicating the presence that they both knew were out there.\u00a0 Only Brillo and Irv were in the light with Simon and Doone.\u00a0 The others had melted into the wood, but were obviously within ear shot.\u00a0 So close.\u00a0 “I don’t mean for me, of course.\u00a0 Naw…\u00a0 I’m as happy to cut a fair deal as the next man.\u00a0 But the boys…\u00a0 They have something worth more than money in mind.”<\/p>\n Doone let him keep going.\u00a0 “And that would be?” he said, knowing where this would lead them.<\/p>\n “T’would be yer ass, Doone.\u00a0 They each want their piece of it.”<\/p>\n “Tired of riding yours then, Bril?”<\/p>\n Brillo’s smile darkened at that, disappearing into the blackness of his beard.<\/p>\n “You know what you took from my boys, Doone.\u00a0 Hell, they were our<\/em> boys, up till you turned on us.\u00a0 You betrayed the whole lot of us.\u00a0 Not just me.”<\/p>\n Doone looked over at Irv.\u00a0 “That true, Irv?\u00a0 You got a mad on for me like Brillo here does?”<\/p>\n Irv was a much bigger man than his leader.\u00a0 He was a bigger man than Doone, or Simon, or than most men Simon had seen.\u00a0 Broader than the young king Gerard, and possibly a head or two taller as well.\u00a0 When Brillo had sent him to gather more wood, Simon half-expected him to come back with an entire pine.\u00a0 But to say Irv was a quick man, that was something else entirely.<\/p>\n “You took ’em,” Irv said, in a long, drown out squeak that belied his form entirely.<\/p>\n Doone actually looked puzzled for a second.\u00a0 “Took what?”<\/p>\n “You took my stones!”<\/p>\n Simon assumed he meant some other magic items, some enchanted rocks or something that Doone stole to use as one of his multiple advantages on his quest to steal the bow of Kalmus.\u00a0 It seemed typical enough.<\/p>\n “Your stones?\u00a0 What do yo–\u00a0 Oh!\u00a0 Oh wait!” Doone actually began to smile himself.\u00a0 “You don’t mean…”<\/p>\n “Yer took his manhood, Doone!” Brillo accused.\u00a0 “You know yer did.”<\/p>\n Simon gasped.\u00a0 “Doone!\u00a0 You didn’t!\u00a0 You… castrated…”<\/p>\n “No!” he laughed.\u00a0 It was a hard, surprised laugh, but it made Irv shake just the same.\u00a0 “I mean, well, I didn’t.\u00a0 Not personally, not take them myself.”<\/p>\n “No, you had that wench take ’em fer you.\u00a0 Irv here thought you were being nice, setting him up to… well, making him a man.\u00a0 But yer did the opposite!\u00a0 And I mean, the exact opposite!”<\/p>\n Doone had actually loosened his grip on the bow now, had his hand, still holding the arrow, pressed up to his face, trying to contain himself.\u00a0 “No…\u00a0 Well, okay.\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 I did pay her.”<\/p>\n Irv was more than shaking now.\u00a0 He stepped forward, stomping through the fire as he came, ignoring it completely.\u00a0 Before he got much closer, though, Doone had gotten the arrow back into the bow and had it up, very up, to Irv’s face level.\u00a0 This stopped the lumbering man in his tracks, but just barely.<\/p>\n “I don’t want to shoot you, Irv.”\u00a0 He then called around to Brillo.\u00a0 “Call him back, Bril.\u00a0 I don’t have many options left of where I can fire this arrow into him without killing him.”<\/p>\n “Come on back, Irv,” Brillo called.<\/p>\n “But… my stones,” he whimpered.<\/p>\n Brillo clicked again, and Irv slowly turned around and went back to his leader.\u00a0 There were some chuckles Simon could pick up in the woods from the other men.<\/p>\n “Why would you do that, Doone?” Brillo asked, patting Irv on the back (his lower back) to console him.<\/p>\n Doone shrugged, but kept vigilant hold of the bow this time.\u00a0 “You know why.\u00a0 We needed a virgin.\u00a0 You know what we were after.”<\/p>\n “That wench’s sister was yer virgin!”<\/p>\n Doone shook his head.\u00a0 “No.\u00a0 Turned out she wasn’t.”<\/p>\n “Wasn’t once you had gotten on with her, no.”<\/p>\n This was true.\u00a0 “Irv was all we had,” Doone continued.\u00a0 “I was just protecting our asset.”<\/p>\n “Weren’t protecting his assets very kindly, were yer?” Brillo pointed out.\u00a0 “And the worst of it, the damned thing…\u00a0 It didn’t even matter.\u00a0 That horse took right at Irv the moment he came up to him.\u00a0 Gored out his stomach, took six months ta heal.”<\/p>\n “It wasn’t a horse,” Doone stated.\u00a0 “And besides, you were as hopeful as I was we’d get those hooves.\u00a0 The score we had lined up!\u00a0 And look at Irv.\u00a0 He’s fine now.\u00a0 No worse for the wear.”<\/p>\n “No worse..?\u00a0 Look at him!\u00a0 He’s practically skin and bones compared to what he once were!\u00a0 Barely half the man…”<\/p>\n “Or less,” Doone countered.<\/p>\n Simon couldn’t help himself, “That’s<\/em> skin and bones?”<\/p>\n Brillo just kept on him.\u00a0 “And that’s just one of us, Doone.\u00a0 But we each got a story like it.\u00a0 We each got a reason to want to see you stuck, inside-out, on a pike somewhere under a bright sun.\u00a0 You done never shoulda’ come back where the boys and I could get at you.\u00a0 You shoulda…”<\/p>\n And a quick movement from Simon’s left leapt past him, straight at Doone.\u00a0 Doone didn’t even release the knocked arrow, he just pressed the bow forward, the arrow’s tip puncturing the would-be assassin’s larynx.\u00a0 The man began to fall, but Doone kept hold of the arrow between his fingers on the string, pulling it with him as he pivoted and turned round to a second man, coming up behind him.\u00a0 He let it fly then, and that one took the shot to his cheek, going straight through the other side of his face into yet a third man, hitting that one square in the chest.\u00a0 That one fell into the fire at Brillo and Irv’s feet.\u00a0 Irv stomped on the burning corpse before it ignited further, kicking it out of the flames.\u00a0 “I hate the smell of burning flesh,” Irv said.<\/p>\n “We know, Irv,” Brillo agreed.\u00a0 “Since we were boys.”<\/p>\n Brillo himself didn’t make any overt movements.\u00a0 He and Irv just waited for the heat, both literally and figuratively, to die down again.\u00a0 He didn’t signal to his men to hold back, but they knew better now.\u00a0 They weren’t going to get the drop on Doone tonight.<\/p>\n Eight men down.\u00a0 Half their number.\u00a0 Doone’s quiver wasn’t even empty.<\/p>\n “What are yer doing here, Doone?” Brillo asked again, directly this time.<\/p>\n “Like I said.\u00a0 We’re passing through.\u00a0 Be gone soon enough.\u00a0 Didn’t come looking for a fight.”<\/p>\n “But a fight’s all yer ever finding, ain’t it?”<\/p>\n Doone kicked at the man who was bleeding out of two holes in his face.\u00a0 “Guess so.\u00a0 Didn’t say I’d look away from one if I saw it coming at me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"