Hey Guys,
So if you're up to date with the going's on of my blog, then you will know that I took part in NaNoWriMo last year. NaNoWriMo is the most annoying thing to type, but it is also a writing challenge. It is where you have the entire month of November to write a story with 50,000 words or more.
I failed horrendously last year, I started to write a story called Silhouette of a City. I posted chapters one and two on my blog for you to read. I also said that even though NaNoWriMo was over, that I would continue to write it, and continue to post chapters. I have continued writing it, so well done me.
However, whilst reading through the chapters posted on my blog, I realised that they were under edited and kind of awful. So I went back and edited chapter one so it would be better, and now that is what I plan to share with you today. I will continue to update it, and just to specify it is no longer a NaNoWriMo project. Just a bit of fun. Enjoy...
Chapter 1
She dropped, well that would be a
fancy word for what she did. She fell, off the roof of a warehouse after just
escaping the clutches of the council. Lillian Winewood knew that within seconds
the guards would be after her, but then again, she also knew that she could
outrun them.
As Lillian fell through the darkness
that was collecting around and within Greve, she thought to recall what the
seekers had told her. And, as she hit the grimy streets, she tucked her legs up
against her far too thin stomach and rolled into a standing position. She took
no more than a second to regain her footing, and when she had she once again
began to sprint through the repulsive city that was Greve. She clutched tightly
at the bread she had stolen right from the middle of a council meeting.
It was when she heard a loud commotion behind her
that she realised how fast her pursuers actually were and without giving it a
second thought she ducked into an alley to wait out their hunt.
Would this actually work? She
questioned. Then smiled maliciously; first at the noise of the council guards
as they rushed past her; and then at their mistake in not considering which of
many possible ways she could have gone. Again Lillian began to question herself
about; was what she had achieved in snatching worth the risk that she piled on
herself every day? But then righted her thinking by muttering under her breath
You have to, to survive, and any way they don’t call you the sphinx for
nothing; they haven’t caught you once in three years she
physically grinned at the prospect, three years! No one lasted that long; she
was the best of her kind, the best of the Axos rogue. She hastily smoothed her
features into an uninterested expression as she began to stroll casually down
the alley. The neutral facade turned
grim as she made her way back to the hellhole that she had to call home. To her
it felt more like a headquarters; she would check in, and out, and give in her
daily prizes so they could be shared with the more helpless rogue.
______________
Lillian once again began to doubt the victory of her bread as
she lifted the iron grill that closed off the sewer to public access - it
obviously didn’t do a great job - and hopped down into the bowls of the city. When
she had first learnt about this ‘sewer entrance’ she was adamant that she
wasn’t going anywhere near it and would use the more innocent looking front
entrance. She had, as well as most others, believed the sewer entrance would lead
to an actual sewer. But, in fact, it lead to a ladder, and that ladder led to a
room that would be seemingly empty unless you thought to remove yourself from
that layer of sight and position yourself on the one under which case you would
clearly be able to see a small group of people. That small group of people were
in fact the rogue of Axos.
It was that very ladder that she
made her way down before dropping into the room expecting, as normal, for it to
be empty and it was until she ventured forward, and pushed onto the layer below.
When that layer was gone the scene around her changed and burst into life. The
room was alive with people bustling around doing their jobs as if nothing was
amiss, but she knew better than to trust them. She pushed through yet another layer,
exactly like her mother had been teaching her. That was until she was captured
and killed for being different. You remove the layer in front of you and put it
behind you meaning that you are now invisible or ‘clouded’ from others on different
layers of sight.
After the second layer was fully
behind and she opened her mind to see more, the bustling crowd disappeared as
they remained on the previous layer. What stood in front of her was worse.
Seventeen city guards stood there waiting for a moment like this to happen,
that or waiting to attack when everyone was asleep. As quickly as she noticed
them, they noticed her and began to move in set on claiming this one-off prize.
Before she fully disappeared from their view, Lillian saw a sword pierce where
she was standing but a few seconds ago.
When she popped back into existence
on layer two, it took a few seconds for her to realise she was now without her bread;
she had dropped it in her haste to get the barrier back in place. Not that it
really mattered anymore.
She quickly congregated anyone who would
listen to tell them about the situation.
“Ok, Ok how do I start” she began
to mumble, her voice rose as she clearly spoke To the 15 people who had
gathered “umm well right then, I was um checking the layer of sight beneath
the one we declare ‘ours’ and well I was faced with 17 city guards waiting to
ambush. They obviously can’t do it now while we are all up and active, I mean
they would be stupid to try. Break into a room full of thieves, exiled warriors
and in my case seekers, they would be crazy absolutely cr...”
“Get on with it” She allowed her
eyes to skit over the crowd and with little effort located the owner of the
yelling. David Marks, an idiot. The look she then gave him would have made the
worst of the worst shudder even a little. She glared at him until he backed
down mumbling apologies before she continued.
“I don’t think we need to evacuate
or anything like that. This is no extremity it’s simply them waiting to ambush
us so instead we ambush them.” Wheels turned in her head a s she formulated her
plan.
“Anyone who would like to fight can
stay here. We don’t need many, there were only seventeen guards seven or eight
of us will do” She waved a hand in dismissal waiting to see who was left. No
one, that’s who no one had taken her seriously and stayed behind to help her fight,
no one. If that’s how they wanted to play it, they could die. See if she cared.
Lillian turned to go and not a moment later seventeen city guards popped into
existence and began to ambush.
I,m hoping you enjoyed that much better edited version of the first chapter, the suspense might be a bit better now that it is written better. But, then again it might not. I will see you soon xx
-A
