Haven’t done a writing prompt in a bit so let’s do this. First the search for anything that sets a spark. Second, a warning. We’re back to details. As I was writing on my Astronautica draft, I noticed (again) I have a tendency to go so far into conversation and actions that my characters begin drifting in the void. So it’s time to practice. And time to go so far the other way it’s noticeable. I compared this in writing group once to not “bushing out” my story enough, leaving the branches of a tree but not enough leaves and twigs to make it fully fleshed. Well, get your machetes out because we’re going fully into the brambles this time. The goal is every sentence needs to describe the setting in some way. Every line of dialogue must be followed by a description that includes the setting. If it’s not clunky and obvious, I haven’t done my job right today.
To get on to the prompt: I’m pulling from two sources. The first- I attended a virtual Q&A with Kaela Rivera (I mentioned her in my LTUE post and she continues to be an awesome individual and I loved reading her Cece Rios trilogy) where she talked about fight scenes. She invited people to practice with the following: Two siblings, raised apart and trained to defeat each other. The winner will receive a magic wish. One has magic but moves slowly, the other is strong and fast as an assassin but has no magic. Second source- there’s lightning outside and that feels appropriately atmospheric for a duel in an exercise about writing descriptions.
So here goes.
Albrecht sat and watched the rain pouring down outside the cave. Lightning flashed, illuminating the rocky landscape in shards of white fire. All of his twenty-five years of training came to this night, this encounter on these barren slopes, this arena set for him and for his brother. His brother, trained by the Shades of Twilight , who would even now be searching for him and ignoring the torrential rain and furious wind. But he was ready for even this slippery battleground. He pulled his cloak tighter and extinguished the lamp, letting its golden tones disappear from the granite outcroppings around him. The trap was set, now he would sink behind these rocky spurs and wait.
Tenebrae, scion of the Shades of Twilight, let the peal of thunder roll around him as he floated, suspended three feet from the slope, watching the golden light in the cave dwindle. He brought his hands in front of him, tracing a carefully measured gesture as his hands drew apart up and down then twisted and pulled apart, sending another crackle of lightning up to the clouds then back to the earth. The flash of brilliance as the electricity snapped below him, shattering gray and black rocks, would have blinded him if he were not already prepared. Glasses with lenses tinted by arcane sands to balance all light and not allow for sudden flashes; cloak woven with the wool of thunder-yaks to shed all water and trap body warmth inside and the biting sting of the fierce wind outside; gloves with fingers enforced by symbols charred into the leather to improve his grip and never drop his tools unintentionally; boots with soles made from the tanned hide of forest frogs and boiled in sap under a new moon in the spring so they would never lose their grip, even on the mountain slopes below him where dirt and grass could not find purchase. He knew the light in the cave was from Albrecht’s lantern. And so he knew, out of all of the dozens of caves that pocked the mountainside, where Albrecht was. But he also knew that Albrecht was no fool and would not have lit a lantern, much less so obviously extinguished it in this dark night, if he did not have a reason. And so Tenebrae descended carefully, cautiously, feet falling on what should have been air but lowered him like a staircase, alighting with a step that would have been silent on a still night, much less this night full of the ceaseless drum and trickle of rain.
Albrecht knew Tenebrae knew of his methods, just as he knew of Tenebrae’s, so he tried to stretch beyond what he’d been taught and use methods he’d only thought about before, like this sheet painted and wrinkled to match, he hoped, the uneven surface of the cave wall. The floor was uneven and jagged, too far from elements and animals to be worn smooth, so he had to be careful as he slid into position. He checked his weapons again, the tripwire strung across the cave passage, the hidden snare, the carefully balanced rock. The fate of two kingdoms rested on what happened here today and that weight filled him like the crushing blackness of the deep cave.
Tenebrae finished the spell to loose another bolt of lightning as he lit on the ground outside the cave. His foot splashed into a rivulet of water that, encountering the sudden obstacle of his foot, began to pool and run around to either side, making him glad again for the waterproofing spells worked into the leather. As he stepped into the cave, a ring on his finger began glowing yellow. Of course there were traps nearby. He took a moment to chant until his eyes began to glow within, giving him the ability to see in the increased gloom. Twilight outside and rain, the dark of the bowels of the earth within, not a good circumstance for anyone with normal unassisted human vision. He almost felt sorry for Albrecht, he thought as he spotted the trap. A tripwire strung across the obvious path into the cave. A simple matter to undo- he didn’t even need to expend magical energy, just stand to the side and kick the piton out of the rock wall, sending a large rock rolling down the passage. Was that even supposed to work, he wondered, leaning against the rough stone wall. Regardless, he was going the right way, so he stepped around the stone as it came to rest and walked further into the passage. Right onto a thin slab of rock that gave way beneath him and sent his foot into a crevasse in the floor. Tenebrae cursed, realizing his ring was still glowing yellow, and tried to pull his foot out of the narrow crack. It was wedged tightly but a little concentration for a spell to move the earth just a little would solve that. He closed his eyes against the gloom for a moment to make the appropriate gestures. And his protective amulet sparked, glowing off of the walls in the darkness.
Albrecht had taken the moment of Tenebrae altering his eyesight to move around behind him. His teaching had hammered into him time and again, the magicians come prepared. You must be more so. Contingency upon contingency hung from his belt or hid in his pouch or //
Ok I’m going to post this now. I will follow up later because I am interested in where this is going. Things I’ve learned- Hard to do flashbacks. I didn’t end up with any dialogue yet, even internal monologue was difficult. But now that I’m getting into it I want to move faster and had to keep backing up and adding something in for description. So. TBC.
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