Time for another Weekend Writing Warriors snippet. Every Sunday, I join a bunch of writers through a blog hop and post an 8-sentence snippet of my current project. You can click on the link to see what everyone else is up to.
This is the beginning of a lovely two-for-one reading! Travis is done for the semester and is joining me this weekend as an official warrior of the weekend. We’re going to start of with his snippet first—coming from The Ancients Stirred.
TRAVIS: This scene takes place after the protagonists have followed an archaeological trail to Mexico in hopes of understanding why they are being hunted by parties unknown, and they discover yet another clue that leads them further into the web of mystery.
“So did anything turn up last night?” Jonathan asked, itching to know if their tomb raiding was worth it.
“A lot, actually—most of the pieces didn’t have complete words or phrases on them, but those that did were interesting to say the least. I don’t think these belonged to any fisherman. This suggests that there was a whole settlement here around the river mouth.”
“Right, that follows—fishing vessels wouldn’t go far from home.”
“Mhm, but what’s really mind-blowing is how it’s referenced. It doesn’t talk about an established community. It was a refugee camp,” Rebekkah explained.
WHITNEY: It’s another jump into future parts of Destiny Seeker. Ilsi and Reshma have already met elves and mermaids by this point, but they didn’t expect to meet a peculiar form of hafling: a clan of people who are half-human and half-feline. At one point, Ilsi finally asks about their story to gauge if they are willing to join their side. She gets a pretty good idea from the chief that they are more than willing. Here’s the chief’s version of how their clan began.
“There are curious beasts that hide and hunt in these trees. I remember . . . one of them attacked me. I attempted escape from the sky-callers and one of those animals found me before the captor did. The thing almost killed me. When I awoke, I was no longer a man but part beast.”
Ilsi and Reshma stared back in awe.
“It was a blessing. I would rather be a beast than a slave.”
Check out other snippets here. And comment below if you’ve got a snippet to share as well!
I’m liking Rebekka’s voice, here, and that’s quite a reveal that they’ve discovered a refugee camp.
Very interesting! Definitely want to know more! Great work!
Two interesting snippets! I had to go back and reread the intro to get the point it was two totally different authors and stories though (my bad, need more tea obviously)…but each certainly has its own fascination!
So… double or nothing… Glad I came here today so I could get in on the two-for.
Travis… I like how you establish the idea of a community that was build less on convenience and more on necessity.
Whitney… am I right is guessing that your halflings are what they are because of lyncanthropism? Or am I reading too much into the chief’s words?
You bring up an interesting point, Eden! In his case the change was permanent. Rather than turning into an animal then changing back, he and the others became a mix of the two. This part probably makes a lot more sense with a bit more description of how they act and how they look. I appreciate the interesting questions, though!
“I would rather be a beast than a slave.” – I love that line!
Welcome Travis! Two very interesting and very different snippets- love it!
Mysterious indeed! Great work!