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TNÖ's NaNoWriMo '
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TNÖ's NaNoWriMo '
TNÖ's NaNoWriMo '09... OF DOOM!!!! [evil laughter goes here]
The prologue!
Prologue
The king stood at the top of a staircase, feeling proud. His two lovely daughters were growing up nicely, his cooks were at the top of their game, the musicians he had just hired were undeniably excellent, and his birthday was in two days. Yes, it was a very good time to be king, he thought.
His musings were interrupted by an almost inaudible creak. The king started to turn around, only to feel a hard shove in the small of his back. He pitched forward, tumbling down the stairs, and landed sprawled on his back. He blinked, trying to clear his vision.
A tall, dark-haired man swam into view. He had a dagger in his hand and a thin smile on his face.
"Ah," managed the king, trying to get his breath back. "Du Slomen. Got the better of me at last, I see."
Du Slomen nodded. "Yes, your majesty. It took some doing, though."
The king tried and failed to smile. "Er... If you don't mind, du Slomen, make it quick. And leave the beard."
"Of course, your majesty," du Slomen replied smoothly. "It is my firm belief that kings must be assassinated with as much elegance as possible. It is only fitting."
"Good man," said the king. "And, about my daughters- at least give them a head start, will you?"
"That is traditional, I believe, your majesty." Du Slomen sighed, and turned the knife slowly in his fingers. "And now, I'm afraid I must say goodbye."
"Right. Good luck, then." The king closed his eyes. A moment later there was a stinging pain in his stomach and he grunted loudly.
The Count- now King- du Slomen stared down at the twitching body of the former king. He had been a good king, disinclined to burning down villages and fair with the taxes, but ambition was ambition and when one wanted to be king there was nothing for it but to stamp out the existing royal family. He knelt and delicately tugged the crown off of the dying king's head.
"Sorry, your majesty," he whispered. "But all's fair in the courts of Nok, eh?"
The former king gasped a little, and died.
Du Slomen stood up, shrugging, and dropped the crown onto his own head. It shrunk obligingly to fit, buzzing softly and growing warm. He gently wiped the blood from his dagger and tucked it into his belt.
"Guard!" he called.
"Majest- oh! Count du Slomen." A burly man dressed in chain mail and carrying a long spear leaned into the throne room.
"King du Slomen now."
"Of course, your majesty," said the guard. "What is it that you require?"
Du Slomen smiled a little. "If you would be so kind as to wake his daughters? It was his dying wish that they get a head start."
"Right away, majesty. I'll alert the other guards on the way, majesty, if you wish."
"Yes, do," du Slomen said with a brief nod. "And once the princesses have gotten away, send someone in to collect the body. He'll have a fine funeral tomorrow."
The guard bowed hastily and left.
Du Slomen smiled to himself. After years of quiet assassination, two cleverly orchestrated marriages, and a long, hard journey to the center city of Nok, he was finally, finally the king.
"Told you I could do it, eh, father?" he said, unable to entirely banish the smugness from his voice.
A whispery sigh sounded behind him. "I suppose you were right, Vincent. I was wrong about you."
Du Slomen turned to smile at the yellowed, papery ghost of his father. "I'm glad to have proved you wrong, then."
"As am I," whispered the ghost.
"Can you rest in peace now?"
His father considered for a while. "Yes," he said at length. "I think so."
"Good. Rest in peace, then, and enjoy the afterlife."
"Good boy," murmured the ghost as it started to dissolve. "Good lad."
Du Slomen smiled as his father vanished from the world. A very good day indeed, disregarding the inevitable stiffness tomorrow from his frantic cross-country ride. A very good day.
submitted by TNÖ, age 16, Deep Space
(November 1, 2009 - 9:50 pm)
(November 1, 2009 - 9:50 pm)
Only 3,544. What I really mean is that I don't have access to *my* MSWord files... I printed what I have so far but if I write while I'm here in St. Lou I'd have to type it in an email to myself. Which would be okay-- I could then c'n'p to MSWord when I got home-- but my MSWord computer doesn't have Internet.
Of course, thinking it over, I could put it on a disc and then upload it... Right, I'm going to go see what I can do about that now...
(November 3, 2009 - 11:03 am)
TNÖ, you are a genius.
(November 3, 2009 - 2:12 pm)
My lampshade addiction gets noticeably worse with NaNo... It's almost sad, really.
See? Here:
Of course there were actual Chosen Ones, whenever the gods or the Principles decided they really wanted to get something done- but that rarely went over well. Usually another god or Principle decided they didn't like what the Chosen One was setting out to do and created a Chosen One of their own to combat it. The result was usually a very bloody fight to the death between the two Chosen Ones, and the country was left in precisely the same state that it had started out in. After a while the gods and the Principles had figured this out and stopped relying so much on Chosen Ones and started merely nudging people in the direction they wanted them to go, often adding monetary incentives and the threat of Death by Lighting Strike if they didn't. This system worked much better on the whole, although the very occasional Chosen One would crop up every now and then when the gods and the Principles actually agreed unanimously that something needed to be done.
Many others had claimed to be Chosen Ones, as the blacksmith’s cousin had, but this could easily be disproved by sneaking up behind them and stabbing or beheading them, thus showing that they were not, in fact, invincible.
(November 3, 2009 - 10:51 pm)
Oho yes, I have a Chosen One just to make fun of... he's a flamingo.*
Other things I'm poking fun at in NaNo'09: Twilight, wars over pointless things, stupid dreams (these things annoy me, okay?), my english teacher's ludicrous conception of "word of the day" (use it three times 'n' it's yours!), and some other things...
Very, very unprofessional. But surprisingly more fun than a lot of other things I write.
*Named Harry. *headnd to Jen*
(November 4, 2009 - 4:08 pm)
*eyes cross* Waow. That... last bit was confusing, in a way that kind of made sense... but I really liked the actual prologue. I had no idea that du Slomen was actually the king's son at first. And I also liked that dialogue between the two right before du Slomen killed him. Great work!
I, sadly, am not doing a novel for NaNoWriMo, because I'm already in the middle of a novel-writing class (One Year Adventure Novel - has anyone heard of it?) and I don't want to get behind. Plus, you know... life. It gets in the way.
(November 4, 2009 - 5:42 pm)
But... du Slomen *wasn't* the king's son! *makes note to clarify when revising*
(November 4, 2009 - 11:13 pm)
Okay. So it was just his father's ghost that appeared to tell him good job! Oh, I gots it now! (yes, I put gots, that was intentional) Sorry. I'm very random today.
(November 5, 2009 - 8:51 pm)
Oh. Got it. Yeah, the ghost dude showed up, and I just assumed it was the king's ghost, since I had just seen the king die... but yeah. Got it now. XD
(November 7, 2009 - 10:11 am)
What's Write or Die?
(November 6, 2009 - 9:29 pm)
A browser-based app (well, I use the desktop version, but I had to pay 10$ for it) written specifically for NaNoers that makes you write fast, because if you stop it will either play super annoying sounds at high volumes or eat your words one at a time, depending on the settings. There's probably a link to it somewhere on the NaNo site, or you could google it if you want to find/use it.
TL;DR: It's why I have 20,000 words already.
(November 7, 2009 - 1:54 am)
It's a program TNÖ uses to write her NaNo. google it.
(November 7, 2009 - 10:04 am)
I like it! It kinda sounds like du Slomen and the king were old friends or something, before du Slomen got ambitious. Were they? Or has the king just known about du Slomen for a long time? Anyway it's good!
(November 7, 2009 - 9:29 am)
Yes, there's a link to WoD on the NaNo site. I might download it, but probably couldn't get it on my no-internet writing computer...
It sounds very, er, motivational, though. ;)
(November 7, 2009 - 6:30 pm)
TNO, what's your username? I want to make you one of my writers buddies. Mine is elizabethcricketeer. Yes, in honor of Cricket, our beloved magazine/website.
(November 9, 2009 - 4:43 pm)
My username is... *dramatic pause* ...TNÖ. Just TNÖ (you can search without umlauts, though, I think).
(November 9, 2009 - 6:45 pm)