Chatterbox: Inkwell

The Battle of Journeys.

My book. My beloved book. (Or one of them, at least.) As I look back on it now, I realize that it all started with a map. My history teacher was drawing a quick sketch of one on the board one day, and I though it'd look nice. So I copied it. Me, being a cartographer, decided to add to it, tweak a few things, and...voila! The perfect setting for a book. So it began.

It must've been right around after Christmastime that it really took off. Now, here I am, in July, already planning the next four books (though I'm only through half of the first book). I have roughly 66 pages on word, so that's about....*labours over math* 132 pages in actual book format. Yay me! *claps hands*.

Would you like to hear an excerpt? Of course you would. And even if you don't, you're going to:

The water was dark and cold. Thrin struggled to the surface. Bursting out of the water, Thrin gasped and took a deep breath. Looking around wildly, she could see the Sophia a little ways away. She set out toward it, but the water tugged at her, pushing her back and threatening to pull her down. It began to rain, hard, making Thrin even wetter and colder than she already was and almost pushing her down below the surface of the wild sea.

The wind whipped up and whistled around, making waves almost as high as a boat. They crashed down on her, forcing her below the surface. The ocean wanted her. It caressed her greedily, enveloping her.

No! She thought in her mind. The water would not take her! She began to swim underwater, where it was calmer, to the boat. But was she going to the boat? Maybe the wave had turned her around. She tried to get to the surface, to check but the water forced her down again. She had to get air! Lights began to pop inside her head. Finally, with a gasp, she broke the surface of the water. She breathed in wildly, filling her lungs with air again.

Thrin looked around her. She seemed to be a little ways away from where the worst of the storm was. Frantically turning in the water, she looked for the Sophia. Where was it? She couldn’t have gone that far from it! Had they sailed away? Left her?

No! She pushed that thought from her mind. She struggled toward the general direction in which she thought the ship was, even if it meant going back into the storm.

After a while of swimming against the wild waves and the current, Thrin began to tire. If she could just dip beneath the wild waters and rest just one moment…. Thrin sank. Her eyelids began to droop. No matter how much she tried, she could not stay awake. Her eyes closed, and she continued to sink into the deep waters of the Emerald Ocean.

Something was nudging Thrin. Opening her eyes, she looked around. She was back on the surface, but how did that happen? Treading water, she spun around in a full circle. Someone, or something, she thought, had saved her. She dipped below the surface to see if her rescuer was down there. Sure enough, there, swimming around in graceful circles beneath her was a seal! It turned over on its back and waved a flipper at her. The seal swam up toward her and touched its nose to hers. She laughed, causing bubbles to rise to the surface and salty water to fill her mouth. She rose back up to the surface and spat out the saltwater. The seal bobbed up beside her.

"Hello, there." Said Thrin. "Did you save me?" She asked. The seal seemed to say excitedly, Yes, it was meee! He did an enthusiastic but still graceful back flip into the water. Laughing, Thrin dove down and followed him into a watery green world.

Fish swam around them, seeming to take no notice of a human intruder in their undersea kingdom. She saw coral and sea grass, anemones and sea urchins, crabs and sea horses. The colorful world under the sea was so different from hers, yet so close. She swam back to the surface for a breath of air.

Up above the water, Thrin could see land not far away.

"Land!" She cried. The seal, who had surfaced next to her, clapped his flippers and barked happily. He began to swim toward it, then turned back and beckoned with his flipper, as if to say, follow me. She did.

Finally, she reached the beach. It had looked closer than it actually was. She flopped gratefully on the sand. The seal, who had followed her onto the beach, nudged her. She sat up and looked at him questioningly.

"What?" She asked, puzzled. The seal pointed with his flipper to the driftwood some ways away up the beach.

"Oh." She said, getting up and trudging toward it, her bare wet feet sinking into the sand. What a smart seal. One of the first things you have to know if you’re spending the night on the beach is that you want to sleep beyond the line of driftwood, because that’s as high as the tide can come up. You don’t want the tide to rise and drown you while you’re asleep.

Once past the driftwood, Thrin collapsed on some grass. She heard a barking sound. She looked up to see the seal wave at her from the water before diving down below the waves. Smiling to herself, Thrin curled up and fell into an exhausted sleep.

* * *

Morning found Rideo and a few other slaves toiling away on the vegetable patch that provided the castle kitchens with food. Back bent over, shoulders hunched, Rideo hoed away at the hard soil. It had been baked dry and hard from the heat of the summer sun. Standing up, Rideo paused to stretch her neck and wipe the sweat off her forehead. Before long, one of the overseers came over to her, cracking his whip.

"You over there! Get to work!" He bellowed. But Rideo had had enough. Without so much as flinching as the whip flicked close to her face, she stood defiantly and said,

"We’ve been working all day under the hot sun without resting. If we don’t have something to eat and drink soon, we won’t be good for any work!" Yelling angrily, the overseer beat her mercilessly with his whip. Suddenly, it was stuck. Tugging on it, the overseer realized that Rideo had it. He stared at her, amazed that anyone would try to defy him. His grip on the whip loosened. In that instant, Rideo grabbed it and tossed it into the air to grab the whip by the handle. She began to whip the overseer just as hard as he had beaten her. The other slaves began to cheer. But their cheering and the screams of the overseer brought attention to other castle guards and overseers and they came over to help. Jumping on Rideo, they pinned her down. A sword at her throat, and her wrists tied by a whip, Rideo was helpless.

Yayness! Please review and comment. Stay tuned for more!