NaNoWriMo Day 16

Wordcount: 42,185
Words Written Today: 1,199
Words I Still Need to Write Today: 0; I'm taking today as a light day.
Writing Music Obsession: Back to the Said the Sky Dubstep Mix

Yesterday was a very long writing day. I wrote a little over 5K, which makes it one of my most productive writing days ever. For that reason (and for other personal reasons) I'm taking today about half-off; I'm doing what I need to do for the Dice Quest crawl, and nothing more. Though I do have a Teenage Superhero Society post to write . . . I might not do that tonight, though, because my awesome parents bought me The King's Scrolls so now I need to reread Resistance to remind myself of characters and plot and such. And it would be really, really nice to read something.

Anyway! In celebration of being-past-40K and also of various other stuff, I'm posting snippets from Binding Destiny.

"Taika! The time has come!"

This is my first line. I'm fairly happy with it. It's not the best first line I've ever written, but it's not the worst either.

~~~

The door opened. Two guards dressed in green and brown emerged first, glanced around, and then stepped aside. Next emerged a young man a few years older than Mikkel, dark-skinned and dark-haired, dressed in a blue tunic and dark brown cloak. At his side was a lady about his same age. Tanned and red-haired, she was obviously not an Aralan native- though she wore the formal outfit of a lady Aralan soldier: green tunic, knee-length skirt over leggings, a short dark green cloak, and brown leather chestpiece, shoulder guards, and bracers. She carried herself with the grace of a Seeker or some other order used to walking unseen in shadows; used to swift, precise movements and unerring accuracy- yet she also seemed to shrink into herself as if nervous of something. The young man, on the other hand, walked with easy, quiet confidence- not pride, but certainty. Behind them followed two more guards, one looking serious as the first two, the other definitely smirking.

Mikkel's first impression of Katelyn, Aedon, and Jarek . . . who is definitely in this novel. But he's behaving and actually being more helpful than Aedon is, so I'm not complaining.

~~~

Katelyn did so, stroking the griffin almost as if she were stroking a cat. She grinned at Aedon. "Oh stars. I'm petting a griffin. Petting. A griffin. My life is made."

Aedon made a mock-disappointed face. "So . . . I suppose anything I ever do will pale in comparison with petting a griffin."

Katelyn laughed. "No. My life can be made more than once."

"Can it?" Aedon approached the griffin from the other side. "Or are you just saying that to make me feel better?"

"It can. I can think of three things you could do that would top this."

The griffin chose that moment to hiss and shake itself. Katelyn jerked back. "Oh- um. Sorry? I didn't mean offense?"

There are griffins in my novel! Finally! I've been wanting to write a novel with griffins for ages. So far, Taika has the most to do with griffins (she's had three griffin rides so far) but I had to put in this one mostly so Katelyn could express my griffin-excitement for me.

~~~

"We'll need to keep an eye on what she's doing, then," Sir Leod said. "Seeker Estijar? Can you assign a rotation of your Seekers to revisit Rushire and watch Eira? None are to outright attack her, whatever she does. If she sees and attacks them, they run like the hounds of midnight are after them- What?" He gave the Aralan girl a confused glance.

The girl seemed to find something highly amusing, and she struggled to force a straight face. "Nothing. Nothing at all. Carry on. You were saying."

In which we are reminded that Katelyn was a fangirl before she was a character, and in which Sir Leod unknowingly makes a reference to a certain book series which both Kate and I love.

~~~

"Lady Cavanaugh?" Pieces clicked together in Taika's mind from her father's descriptions of events in other worlds. "Wait. You're Katelyn Shadowwalker? The lost-girl-turned-[Shadowwalker]-turned-Hero?"

"My name is Katelyn Stevens," she said, with considerable force. "But . . . yes. That is me. I thought I didn't have a reputation here yet."

I have become more glad than ever that I decided to include Katelyn, Aedon, and Jarek in Binding Destiny. They're basically the only people who don't view everything Taika says and does with utmost suspicion simply because she's a Coradin. And Katelyn and Taika are rapidly becoming friends, and it's a lot of fun to write- they have quite a bit in common.

~~~

"I miss you, Da," Taika whispered. "You'd know what to do. How to handle all this. I miss your excitement, your passion . . . I miss how you'd listen when I was upset and then try to help- or just try to distract me and cheer me up, if the problem wasn't one you could solve. I miss knowing you were here for me. I miss waking up to your voice calling me to the day, and I miss you pulling me away from my books or my tinkering to tell me about your plans because you just had to share them with someone."

She rubbed the dark pommel stone of the sword with her sleeve. "I miss you, Da. I wish you were here; we could hide by ourselves here and be safe and happy like we were. Except . . . we couldn't. Because you'd still feel like you had to fix what had gone too far. So maybe we'd have allied with Rushire anyway- but we would have each other when they think it's fine to say and do whatever they want because we're usually enemies. Maybe that would be better."

I needed words and didn't know what to do . . . so Taika spent a scene being sad and missing her father. I think it turned out rather well.

~~~

The trip back passed slower than the trip there- perhaps the griffin was reluctant to return. Taika wouldn't blame him if he was. If she could fly on her own, soar freely through the endless blue sky, she didn't think she'd ever come to earth. She'd just fly and fly and fly, crossing mountains and ocean and whatever lay on the sea's other side, stopping only when exhaustion forced her to fold her wings and snatch a few hours' sleep.

More griffins. Taika and I both needed a break from arguments and angst.

How's your NaNo going? Any favorite bits that you've written recently? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)