Writing Projects

Right. So. Been having a tiny bit of trouble with the writing lately, as I have mentioned. Flash fiction challenges are going some way to getting me back into the swing of things, however, flash fiction is not my novels, and I probably should be working on those.

In the continuing interests of picking back up writing in a proper fashion, I am going to list (read: ramble on a bit) about my current writing projects, which are all my novel projects. I do this in the hope that actually listing out what I could be working on will help my brain to transition back onto working on them. That, and given that I have quite a few projects on the go, this isn’t a terrible thing to do from an organising point of view either.

 

Archmage

1st Draft – Completed.

Story has been split into 3 parts (It might turn out to be a trilogy, it is getting to that length)

2nd Draft – Part 1 Completed. Part 2 Started. Part 3 As yet untouched.

So, Archmage. It’s a beast of a thing at the moment, and I did a lot of work on it during the first couple of months of the year, but then I finished re-writing the first part, and sort of never got into the swing of re-writing the second. Well, there’s like 5,000 words in there. What I think I need is to find a suitable beta reader (or poke my beta reader into actually reading the first part) and then so some blocking out of what happens in scenes and then tweak them so rather than just editing each chapter as I come to it, I edit the higher level structures of the book. I’m pretty sure Part 1 is going to need another re-write, so that seems like the sensible idea. It’s just hard since I’m a pantser, not a planner, but the story will be better for it.

 

Black Dawn

1st Draft – So terrible it was abandoned

1st Draft (Take 2) – Started

So Black Dawn was the novel I wrote for my first ever NaNoWriMo. I’ve learnt a lot since then, and I can safely say that what I wrote back in, 2011 (man, old feeling) is a pile of crap. But, the characters were there, and the setting had something, so it went into the drawer for a while, and now I’ve got a shiny new plot and setting tweaks and I think it can work now, I just need to write it. I’m, let’s see, a couple of chapters into starting this. It’s been a very on off sort of project.

 

Eidetic

1st Draft – In Progress

This was last years (2015) NaNoWriMo project. And it was going well, I got to 75K words, it wasn’t too hard to write. Except, then November finished, and I haven’t even really looked at it since. Not entirely sure why, but, I think I started to see holes. I know what I want to happen in the second half/ending, but, there’s a few holes between where I got up to and that point, and I’m not sure if it’s a satisfying story, and I just seemed to lose the point of it a little. I’m certain that actually it’s not as bad as I think it is, and there is life in the novel, I probably just need to re-read it, and then think about the plot in a little more depth before I continue writing it.

 

Mechanica Awakening

1st Draft – Completed

1st Edit – In Progress

Another NaNoWriMo book. To be fair, I do a lot of writing in NaNo, it’s only this year that I have seriously started to concentrate on stuff outside of that month, from editing to new material. This one, I wrote the first draft and it’s the first one where I feel like the 1st draft isn’t going to be a million miles from the last draft. It felt complete, rounded, and sure it needs some editing, but the story is there. (Personally, I have a distinction: Re-writing is when there are still plot holes and major writing left to do; Editing is for when the story is there and only minor tweaks need to happen. Mostly at the moment I am re-writing rather than editing, but, that’s because I know most of my stories aren’t finished yet) I did start, was working on it last summer, but again, fallen on a back burner a little bit. I was also doing this editing by hand, which was probably a mistake. I think it’d be easy enough to pick up again.

 

Quiet Poison

1st Draft – In Progress

One of the few novels I have not written in NaNo. Actually, I only had the idea for this one at the start of the year, so it’s the newest idea that’s actually been written down. It’s going in scenes at the moment. So I find a bit of the book I want to write, write that particular scene, and then when I’ve got enough of them I’ll work out how to string them all together. It’s a very fun project, with intrigue, assassins, relationships, death, and an awesome setting I’ve been crafting with my sounding board. He’s great. This is the one I should be writing, or at least the one I feel I should be writing, because there’s a kickstarter I backed where you can have your words printed on a scarf and this is the project that might actually come in under the limit of 40K (I’m a fantasy writer, novels run long for me typically) but I do actually have to write it up to that much. It’s on about 25K at the moment.

 

Supernatural

Draft – ???

Bit of an odd project this one. It’s the first novel I ever wrote, when I was 14. It was, complete trash, as might be expected of a first ever novel attempt, let alone one written at a young age. But, the main character never went away. There’s, well, there’s ideas and scenes, but nothing that I would call a solid plot, so it’s hard to count this as anything resembling an active project, but she’s always there, in the back of my brain.

 

And that’s it for active projects. Or, you know, projects on the backburner. I have a lot of other ideas for novels (Court of Ice, Firebird, Shapechangers) and other projects that keep me writing but aren’t novels (mainly fanfiction type things, or me fluff writing about my characters in various games. Werewolf, princess, D&D). It’s been good to remind myself of them. Maybe now I can actually go and write something on one of them.

86 – Seeing Red

The click of the door finally unlocking was so soft they almost missed it, blinking sleepy eyes open as a figure exited the room and closed the door behind them.

Their fiery red hair was obscuring their face, but her shoulders were hunched, tight muscles and dried rivers of blood down the arms betraying the pain that she was in.

“Is the prince…alright?”

“As well as he can be. Don’t worry, he survived the change.” Her voice was soft, low, but there was something behind her words. Something barely contained.

There was an awkward moment of silence, and then Willow turned away from the door, footsteps leaving bloody smears and drops as she went. The two wolves that had been on guard duty had to suddenly scramble up from the floor and make haste to keep up with her.

“Should you be moving? I can smell-”

“Don’t worry about me,” again, in her voice, was that barely contained emotion.

Flint gave his pack-brother a glance, but Rhys just shrugged at him.

Willow strode through the corridors, ascending the stairs until she reached the main level of the castle, and weaved through rooms, ignoring both people that fled her path, and the mixed looks she received. She didn’t even slow when she entered the throne room, startling the royal family.

“Willow, is Adam?” The queen half rose, fist clenched at her throat.

“He’s fine,” Willow said, closing in on the trio, “No thanks to you.”

Fast than the eye could see, she grabbed James by the throat, and tossed him onto the table, a heavy slam reverberating around the room.

His blue eyes looked shocked, but the wrong kind of shock. The shock of being found out. They met hers, and a little bit of fear crept in as he realised that her eyes weren’t green anymore, but were blossoming with the red of her fire element.

“Tell me why. Why would you change you own brother into a vampire?”

S – Supernatural

No, not the TV show. Although that is a great showcasing of many different types of supernatural creatures.

We’re going to talk about supernatural in the general sense. What’s the difference between fantasy and supernatural? Honesty, not a lot. the two terms are used interchangeable, and there really doesn’t seem to be any defined difference between the two. Supernatural tends to be a subcategory of fantasy, since fantasy is a broad term anyway, and from most of what I’ve seen, supernatural is a term applied to more realistic or modern works involving non-humans and magic. Elves and dragons in a fantasy kingdom? – Fantasy. Werewolves and Vampires in modern day London? – Either, but I’d tend to go for supernatural. I also find that supernatural covers the things that we believe could exist today, ghost, poltergeists, zombies, undead, those sorts of things.

And of course if you throw paranormal into the mix, it gets even more murky.

So what might you find if you look into the box labelled supernatural?

Ghosts: Think seances, ouija boards, mediums, all manners of things that we can use to talk to the spirits of the dead. This is one of the big questions – is there life after death? – and if you’re looking at ghosts then the answer is probably yes. Most people can’t see them, and they have trouble interacting with the real world, hence why you can either uses mediums, people who are attuned to the dead, or interfaces such as ouija boards to try and communicate with them. Also the start of many a horror film.

Spirits: Spirits are different from ghosts in that they were never alive. They might inhabit and work in similar ways, but a ghost is an echo of a dead person, whilst a spirit is a representation of something that was never alive, a tree, a rock, a stream, a car. Look to japan for a lot of interesting tales and mythology about spirits.

Angels/Demons: Creatures that may look humanoid (or not) but are linked to the thought of heaven and hell. Typically, I know demons can be played around with a lot, and there are many different incarnations of them, but they started out as being from hell. They have powers, beneficial or harmful, and are very invested in humans and the world.

Werewolves: People who can shift into other forms, usually a wolf, or wolf man, but sometimes other animals. Usually tied to the phases of the moon, or the moon affects them in some way, they tend to be very physical, angry creatures. But, with everything, they have been tweaked in various places by various authors. Normally written as opposed to vampires, although I’ve never heard a good explanation as to why.

Vampires: Blood drinking, good-looking, fast, strong, and most importantly, overdone. Next!

Zombies: The walking dead, shamblers, connoisseurs of brains. For some reason (often plague) the human race gets infected, dies, but keeps on walking around and wanting to eat people, particularly their brains. This sub set of creatures has also had it’s fair share of limelight, but isn’t quite as overdone as vampires. Yet.

Other monsters: The boogeyman, yeti’s, the loch ness monster. There are loads of things with powers attributed to them that are just unique beings. Fun to play around with, since they is less rigid backstory to most of these and it’s great to play around with old myths.

Metaphysical phenomenon: Humans with something extra. Telekinetics, pyrokinetics, clairvoyants, mediums, all the powers that can be wielded by a human mind come under this category.

Witches and Wizards: More modern interpretations (drop the hats and the robes, and occasionally the wands) such as wiccans, pagans, druids and others can be considered supernatural forces as they harness the powers of nature and fate. I quite like this category personally, although it is hard to get some of the details right sometimes, not being a practitioner myself.

And into that you can add anything that cannot be explained by the natural laws of science, which makes it beyond, or super, natural. Which is probably quite a lot!

What would you add into my list?

47 – Creation

“Of course Creation wasn’t an accident.”

“And how would you know that.”

“I’ve talked to the Creator.”

Claire put her hand on her hips and looked down at Willow. “Seriously?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’re telling me that you know the most intimate secrets of the universe, and you’re doing so whilst half asleep on your sofa.”

“Of course I know. Why would you think I don’t know?”

“Because no one should know. You can’t just turn around and say that you know the meaning of life.”

“I won’t say it then.”

Claire threw up her hands. “I can’t believe you sometimes.”

“And yet I exist, and so does the knowledge I possess.”

She huffed and crossed her arms, looking down at her friend. “Go on then.”

“Go on then what?”

“Duh. Spill.”

“What would the point in that be? Humanity thrives on not knowing the answers to those sorts of questions.”

“Seriously?”

“You keep saying that.”

“Okay then, who’s the Creator?”

“God, P’an Ku, Brahma, Ymir, Izanami and Izanagi, The Rainbow Serpent, Nu, Amma, whatever you want to call them. Personally I tend to use Gaia.”

“Man or Women?”

“Neither. Both. Whichever they want to be at the time. They aren’t bound by the laws of the creation that they created you know.”

“Where did they come from then?”

Willow smiled.

“Chaos.”

24 – No Time

The voices slowed their chanting, and the summoning circle slowed faded and died, as the light moved off the central podium.

They had run out of time.

The five participants, the so called champions of the five races, looked at the podium in dismay, shock, even anger.

“You assured me this would work.” The accusations started.

“If you had an once of my intelligence you will know that I ran the calculations very carefully. This should have worked, we did everything right.”

“Clearly the hearts of lesser beings were not fully committed to the ritual.” The angel cast a side long glance at the demon, who flexed his muscles and slowly advanced.

The werewolf placed herself between the two of them, claws upraised. “Ripping each other to pieces is not going to solve anything. We did it wrong, we ran out of time.”

“But my calculations were perfect!”

“Because elves are never anything but perfect.”

They descended into bickering, as other members of the five races, and the humans looked on. Adam stood next to his mother, ready to step in if the fighting spread. His noticed that Willow was sitting on a wall, chin resting on one leg as she looked over at the so called five champions. She looked, amused almost. And then she started clapping. Slow, deliberate claps. Adam stared at her as people started to turn and look at her, spreading out until the clap had reached everyone except the five in the ritual circle.

She didn’t stop that slow deliberate clap, as first the vampire notice, turned and looked at her, then the werewolf, elf, demon, and last angel.

“Such a performance.”

“This is no performance.” The vampire was scornful.

“Oh? So the five pinnacles of the five races are actually bickering like tiny children because something went wrong.”

“Something? Something! We were trying to raise Atlantis. The stars won’t align for another thousand years or more.”

“One thousand and twenty-two if I’m not mistaken, and I rarely am.”

“It should have worked.” The elf protested again.

“Oh stop going on about your damn calculations. It failed, that means you were wrong.” The demon roared the last word at him.

“No, his calculation were right. Not perfect, but right.” Willow said. The elf turned his head with a snap. “You were doomed from the start though.”

“You speak in riddles.”

“No. I don’t. But if you need to have it spelled out for you, blame the angel.”

The angel immediately became the focus of the groups attention. “Why?”

“Because he should know better. I am actually not sure if I’m surprised or not that his pride is so great that he would give up the entire chance at Atlantis just to satisfy it.”

The demon bellowed, his chest expanding. “Speak plainly women. Why is it the angel’s fault and how do you know what the smartest people of our races do not?”

“But the angel’s do know. Well, as you put it, the smartest angels.” Willow looked at the angel directly. “Lilitu.”

He flinched. She smirked.

“What is Lilitu?”

“Not what, who. Lilitu started life out as an angel, way back in the mists of history, before most of the races had formed. The story’s long, involved and very sordid, at least to the angel’s, but essentially Lilitu had a big falling out with the other angels, did some very bad things and was cast out. In response, she cut off her own wings, smashed her halo, and replaced them with horns and tail. She was the first demon.”

The angel tightened his grip on the sword that was strapped to his hip.

“Now demons are very good at keeping records, and tend to forget things, so I doubt that anyone in hell remembers where they came from, especially since Lilitu didn’t tell her offspring where she was from, but the angels. Well, the angels have this thing called pride. They remember. And they been trying to correct their ‘mistake’ even since.”

The demon looked at the angel. “But that would mean…”

“Demons and Angels? Yeah, you guys are the same race. Different forms, but the same race. You were doomed from the start.”

The elf was looking stricken, almost sick. “What is the fifth race then?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Humans. They might not have as much magic as the rest of you, but they are their own distinct race with their place in the verse.” Willow looked over at the Angel. “And you just couldn’t accept it.”

He was fast, but she was faster. The blur of light charged, and even the supernatural people had trouble seeing what she did, but suddenly the angel was on the floor, doubling over in pain, his sword stuck in the wall, and Willow standing on the ground brushing off her sleeve.

“Don’t attack me. It’s very rude.”

“What does it matter? We failed, the ritual was not complete. What does it matter why?”

“Curiosity. But you are right, your ritual failed. I did not come all this way to see this ritual fail.”

“Then why didn’t you step in earlier? If you knew that it was going to fail why just sit there and do nothing?”

“I wanted to see if you could do it. Isn’t that what nice people do? Give the little people a chance?”

“The time has passed. It will not come again for more than a thousand years.”

Willow looked up at the alignment of stars and planets. “A thousand years if you move forward in time. Or, we could just move ten short minute backwards.” She raised two fingers to point at the closets celestial body and spoke a word.

Everything shuddered, everything was still. The lights flickered and play as the universe seemed to scream out, screeching against the unnatural progression, as the star that Willow was pointing at slowly, but surely, moved backwards across the sky.

More than one person fell to their knees or covered their faces. Adam stared at the red haired women he thought he had come to know, but was frightening with the depths of the power she had kept hidden.

The stars aligned, but she pushed them back even further, until the time was once again back to when they had first gathered. She let her fingers drop and the concentration feel off her face.

“There. From no time, to lots of time.”

The elf looked down at her from the dias upon which they had attempted their ritual. “Who are you?”

“Someone impatient. Now, you’re in the way.”

22 – Mother Nature

The bark was rough beneath her hand, the gnarled knots and breaks forming unique patterns and she moved her hand, slowly brushing over the surface of the magnificent tree.

Willow jumped down, landing on the branch below, but looked up, keeping her hand on the bark the whole while. The sky wasn’t visible through his branches, as the huge tree towered over the city, shading everything with it’s green leaves.

There was a flash of blonde, and then the figure straightened, standing very close to her, trying to tower over her but not quite tall enough to manage it.

“You shouldn’t be out here.” Illithor said.

“I can be wherever I want to be.” She replied, enjoying the sound that Illithor made as he grit his teeth.

“Perched on a branch is no place for the princess to be.”

She laughed, a little chiming laugh that was sure to aggravate him further. “Perched on a branch is exactly where the princess wants to be.” She turned, her eyes sparkling as she leaned against the tree, both hands splaying over the rough bark.

“Come back inside princess.”

“I’m listening.”

Illithor cocked his head, and strained his ears. “I hear the birds and the people, and the wind in the trees. The sound of the animals moving on the paths, and the insect buzzing to their jobs. All of these things you can here just as well inside.”

“I’m not listening to that.”

“There is nothing else to hear.”

Willow cocked her head at him, her green eyes inquisitive. “You really can’t hear it can you?”

“I can hear everything I just listed.”

Willow held out her hand to him. “Take my hand, and listen.”

Illithor looked at her, and then her hand, and suppressed a sigh. “After this, we need to go inside.” He reached out and took her hand.

At first, he could only hear the sounds he had heard before, but then, there was something. Right on the edge of hearing, like a low throbbing, almost drum like. He concentrated, listening to that note. There were other things, hidden in there, as he listened, a rolling, crashing, repeating rhythm, a soft sighing whisper, and there, almost too quiet to hear, light quick notes in tinkling succession.

He let go of Willow’s hand and looked at her. “What is that sound?”

“The sound of nature herself.”

1 – Introduction

Knocking softly on the door, Adam received a low “Come in.” from inside the room.

Making as little noise as possible, he opened and closed the door, entering the room, a calm atmosphere prevailing.

The fair haired elven was sitting up in bed, holding a bundle in her arms, smiling down at it. The sun glinted of the chestnut haired human who stood up from where he had been perched on the edge of the bed and smiled up at the Adam as he padded over the thick carpet to the pair on the bed.

“I had heard, and now see, that congratulations are in order.”

Phillip smiled the proud smile that all new fathers seem to share. “Adam, I would like you to meet our daughter.”

Celestyn re-arranged the blankets and then carefully handed the baby up to Adam, who cradled it in the crook of his arm. She squirmed a little, finding a more comfortable spot in the new position, and then squeaked up at the new person, her tiny bright green eyes interested in him. At first her hair looked as dark as her fathers, but as he bounced her a little, the light caught the already thick locks and the true auburn colour glistened at him.

“May I introduce you to the heir of the Elven Throne, Willow.” Celestyn beamed as her daughter.

Adam tickled the baby’s chin and was set upon by the babe’s green-eyed gaze as they studied him, and then she gurgled contentedly, as is satisfied that he was okay to hold her.

“Welcome and hail, Willow.” Adam said gravely, but broke into a smile when the baby attempted to suck on his fingers as they danced in front of her face.

Daily Writing Exercise – Day 5

Day five is all about characters. The exercise today focuses on items that the character might possess. The things that one possess tell you a lot about the person. For instance, walk into my bedroom and my posters will immediately show you a love of fantasy and dragons, my desk with it’s completely collections of stationary will tell you that I like sets and stationary, even if I do most of my work on the computer these days, and my wardrobe with all it’s jeans a few skirts shows you I favour a casual look most of the time. Whereas someone else with band posters and a large CD collections will portray their love of music immediately.

So today’s exercise comes in three parts. Part 1 – Write a list of 25 things that one of your characters might own. For this exercise I will focus on Willow, the very first character that I created.

1. Motorbike
2. Keys to her own mansion
3. Occult Texts
4. MP3 Player
5. Ji
6. Coronet
7. Top of the line phone
8. Catsuit
9. Maps of the World, varying ages
10. Blueprints of buildings
11. Lock picks
12. Ceremonial Robe
13. Woven bark and leaf jewellery
14. Military grade secret files
15. Framed Sketches
16. Pair of short swords
17. Laptop
18. Sapling tree
19. Satchel bag
20. Ornate hairbrush
21. Floor length mirror
22. Handwoven blankets
23. Large coffee mugs
24. Candles
25. Mounds of cushions

This is turning out harder than I thought. The interesting thing about Willow is not what she had, but what she lacks. She resorts to using magic for a bunch of stuff, so quite a lot of everyday items that you would expect to see round her house, just aren’t there because she uses magic instead. For instances there are no matches of lighters in the house. She has a mansion not because she needed the space, but because she could buy one. She has a room packed out with the latest games and consoles, which she never uses. She only has two pairs of shoes because she likes to be bare feet so that she can feel the pulse of the earth better. There is no clock in the house because why would you need one when you intrinsically know the time. She’s an interesting person.

Part 2 – Choose five of those items and write down how your character came by them.

1. Coronet: A half elf, half human, she’s also the heir apparent to the elven kingdom. Her grandfather is the current King, but her mother, the former heir apparent, was banished. Unfortunately for the elven empire, they got the wording of the banishment a bit wrong, so only Willow’s mother was taken out of the line of succession, not any children she might have. The coronet appeared on her head when she made her claim to be the heir apparent. Now she leaves it manifested most of the time, otherwise it’s slung over a corner of her full length mirror.
2. Mounds of cushion: They don’t match, and they come in a variety of colours. Willow buys one whenever she finds one that she likes the look of and is soft and they comes from all corners of the world (she’s a frequent flyer). She has mounds of them all over her house, in windows alcoves, chairs, and sometimes just stacked in a handy corner. She has the habit of picking up something to read and then stopping on the nearest pile of cushion to read it. Being comfortable is of the utmost importance.
3. Woven bark and leaf jewellery: The palace of the elves is inside of massive tree, referred to the elves as the mother and father of all trees. When Willow visited for the first time to make her mark as the heir apparent, the tree itself accepted her by gifting her some of it’s own bark and leaves, woven together through magic into wearable form.
4. Military grade secret files: Willow likes to know what is happening around the world, in all areas. She has many friends in many places, including the military and politic circles. Several of these have high levels of security clearance and access to these files. Willow pops in and makes copies of the files. Without them knowing, obviously. She takes great pleasure in going through mission briefings with a red pen and highlighting which bits of information are wrong and then returning them. The mortals can only do so much with their limited powers, bless them.
5. Motorbike: A fast, loud racing machines, when asked Willow will say that she won it as part of a gamble, although the person that she won it from will change from day to day. Sometimes it’s simply a bunch of mobsters who thought they could outsmart the little lady, other times it was vampires, werewolves or even demons. But it definitely appeared out of the blue one day.

Willow’s come a long way since I first thought of her. She’s basically got ultimate power and knows everything (or thinks she does anyway) but by gods is she egotisical, egocentric, and full of herself. But when the universe whispers in your ear constantly, wouldn’t you be as well?

Part 3 – Choose one object your character might prize and write a short scene describing what might happen when that object goes missing.

Willow pursed her lips and looked the mess that she had made of her room. Her bedding was in disarray, the drawers had been pulled out of her dresser, and there was stuff on the floor everywhere. All in the name of a lost item.

She sent her senses pulsing out, searching for any electrical current that might be around, but all she got a response from was her phone. That either meant her MP3 was out of battery, or it wasn’t in the room.

With a huff, she waved her hand across the room and everything rose at her command and settled back down into it’s proper place, the wardrobe filing itself into colour order, the drawers slid back into the dresser and the bed made itself as she stalked out of the bedroom and into her study.

She repeated the process in there, and huffed when she found the same result, nothing but her laptop in there, even when she threw everything out of the drawers and searched round her bookshelves.

She remembered having it the other day, blasting out some new songs from her speakers, but as she checked the speakers in the lounge, communal area, second lounge, kitchen, they were all empty.

What had she done that day? Her hands were on her hips and she blew a strand of hair out of her face and narrowed her eyes at the cooker. Gotten up, visited France for a lunchtime meeting with a client, come back home, danced around, sent some letters, then in the evening…of course! she’d gone down to Hell for their night club.

Two fingers in the mouth and she blew a piercing whistle that would have been strangely silent in any mortal ears. Within a minute, she could smell sulphur in her nose as something materialised in front of her.

“Tremble, O Mortal-”

“Skip the crap, it’s me.”

“Uh-” The imp look startled as he realised quite who’s kitchen he was hovering in. “How may I aid you, oh marvellous-”

“My MP3, did I leave it down in hell?”

“I shall undertake this task for you in the speediest and most efficient manner, oh great-”

“You’d be quicker if you stopped talking, mush!”

The imp disappeared in another cloud of sulphuric gas and with a flippant hand Willow sent a hearty breeze through the kitchen, causes the pots and pans hanging on their hooks to rattle.

Her tapping foot echoed throughout the hall as she counted the seconds that the imp took. Fifty two of them later and it popped back into her kitchen.

“My lady, I have found your desired device.” he extended his small clawed hands, and in them sat her MP3, thankfully not covered in Hell dust.

“Awesome. Just for that, I’m going to let you make your own way back to Hell. Go on, scoot.”

The imp bowed towards her, muttered something that made her flick a finger at it, setting it’s forked tail on fire and sending it spinning back into it’s own realm. Still in high humour, she snapped the headphones over her ears and hummed along to the tune that had managed to stick itself in her head.

90. Number

“Pick me up, pick me up!” A five year old Willow demanded, grabbing Adam’s trouser leg and pulling on it.

Adam smiled at the young girl, and obliged by picking her up. He threw her into the air as if she weighed nothing, and she shrieked in delight.

“Again, again!” She giggled.

“Again, huh?” He threw her higher this time, and was rewarded with an even louder shriek of joy.

“Again!”

“No princess, I’ll make you sick. Now, what did you want?”

“How old are you?”

Adam raised an eyebrow. “And why do you want to know that?”

“Because I said that you were younger than Dad, but he says you’re older, and I think he’s lying.”

“How old is your dad?”

“He’s thirty two. There’s no way your older than thirty two.”

Adam smiled and tickled her tummy. “I’m afraid he’s right, I am older than him.”

“No way! He looks older than you. How old are you?”

“I’m six hundred and twenty four.”

Willow’s eyes widened as she looked at him. Then she crossed her arms and huffed. “This is one of those vampire thing, isn’t it?”

“Age is just a number princess. You live in a world where age really doesn’t matter.”

81. Indestructible

Willow sat on the wall, with one amused eyebrow cocked as the gathering exploded around her.

There were those who were obviously guards, they had a uniform and matching spears and everything. Of course they were the one trying to form a perimeter around the wall.

The civilians were being herded back, and there was an armed guard forming around a central knot of people. That was incredibly dumb, she thought. If she was here to kill people, then getting all of the important people into one location was just about the worst thing that they could do.

A second row of elves had formed behind the first, and in unison, they chanted the same spell.
The same flash of power erupted from each of their right hands, and gracefully curled round to home in on her.

How amusing, she thought, as five of them hit her at the same time. The flash of light blinded the elves, but Willow, merely smiled. That had almost tickled.

She sighed. If this was the best that the elves had to offer, then she was disappointed. And she had so been looking forward to actually being challenged by her brethren’s abilities.

The elves had their sight back now, and were definitely surprised to see her still standing,
“Again!” One of them shouted.

Willow audible sighed this time and hopped down off the wall. “Oh, don’t bother. I’m basically indestructible.” She flicked her hair back over her shoulder and then crossed her arms.

“I’m here to talk to Le’valle. Now, are you going to be civil about this or do we need to do it the hard way?”