‘Tis WIPpet Day! I have 3 paragraphs for the 30th of July (3 +0 = 3)
I have family in town this week, so I won’t be making the rounds. I WILL make it to all of you who are kind enough to leave a comment, but it will probably take me a couple weeks.
If you’re new around here, WIPpet Wednesday is a weekly game for which participants share snippets of their works in progress. The only rule is to relate the snippet to the date in some way. You can play along or read snippets by clicking here, but before you do, be sure to buy some bananas. You’ll need them for our hostess’ flying monkeys. K.L. Schwengel and her monkeys reside here.
Last week I left Arvid up a tree, surrounded by monsters…
Arvid stared down at the creatures while her heart sank into her stomach and settled there to rile things up. The monsters’ protruding brows sloped into triangular snouts lined with toothy smiles. Straight rows of fringe began a few inches behind their brows to run along their spines down to the tips of their long tails. Broad shoulders adorned with heavy riverstone necklaces topped muscular torsos. Around their waists, they wore goatskin belts decorated with more riverstone to secure their brightly colored loincloths. Sinewy arms stretched down to five-fingered hands boasting wickedly curved claws whereas their flat feet splayed into only three sinister claws. Their scaly skin, mottled or striped in the various muted shades of moss green, stone gray, or sandy yellow, blended one monster into another until telling them apart required intense concentration.
Hoping the creatures might wake up, get bored, and leave soon, she strapped herself back to her branch. Her troublesome thoughts of the night before returned full force, with added concerns. Not only could Oya be lying dead somewhere, or holed up in her own tree, while Kiano readied himself to face the Raven Nation alone, nature was calling with intensity. True, she could handle one of those problems with only minor inconvenience to herself, but surely urinating on one’s captors did not increase the chances of survival.
The tedious morning dragged on beyond human comprehension. The sun’s smile turned mocking and cruel. Arvid scowled back at it, little good it did her, for it only climbed up over her head and beat down on her from there. Below, monsters grumbled in their sleep, or tossed now and then, but never woke and certainly never left. Once she thought one had awaken, but he… she? IT had merely punched another in its sleep. Not all of the monsters enjoyed this cuddly arrangement, then.
Look at that pile of nasty monsters! Horrifying! You can barely tell one from another.
AWWWWWWWW, what cute little furry monsters in that picture!!! I want to cuddle one, and I promise I won’t punch it like the other monster in your excerpt.
Wow, this was a very descriptive and detail-centric excerpt! I laughed with Arvid’s biological need to pee (in fact, the laptop is sitting on my full bladder as I write this, and your except has NOT helped the need to get up and empty it! I want to finish this thought first…).
This was one of my favorite lines: “The tedious morning dragged on beyond human comprehension. The sun’s smile turned mocking and cruel. Arvid scowled back at it, little good it did her, for it only climbed up over her head and beat down on her from there.”
I think it might rain yellow pretty soon if those monsters don’t wake up pronto!
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Yeah. Don’t punch the puppies. 🙂
I’m glad the excerpt engaged your attention so well!!! What a wonderful compliment! Any time I can get someone to put off peeing, I’m happy. 😀
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PUUUUUPPPPPIIIIIEEESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!! They look like Aussies. 🙂 I do so love puppy piles. These look like they’re just getting to the fun age.
I am laughing at the second half of the second paragraph. Which is bad, because I’m at work and supposed to be…um…Hey! I’m working. I can multi-task. Yes, I would suggest not waking her captors up in such a manner. I’m thinking they wouldn’t be in the best mood.
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They ARE Aussies. 🙂 Good call.
The second half is based on many years of road trips. And one mission trip. There were times we couldn’t stop that I started fantasizing about trees. “There’s a good one. That one, too. Not that one. Not that one. That one’s good!” 😛
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lol A sister and I recently returned from a road trip where we spent a dozen miles or so trying to decide if the sage brush was tall enough. Thankfully there was a strategically placed restaurant/store/camp site before we had to resort to such measures.
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My dad used to take us on month long road trips, some of them very ambitious (California to Florida to New Jersey and back, in one instance). My sister and I learned early on that the trips went more peacefully if we only needed to use the bathroom once every three or four hours. Not always easy for little girls. 😛
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Such adorable monsters!!!!
I was totally waiting for Arvid to realize she needed to visit the facilities as they say. Hee hee. What a pickle! Hope Oya made it home.
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🙂 You think like me.
We shall see about Oya. 😉
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Oh, poor Arvid! I wonder if the monsters are really bad or if they just look scary. Much like those terrifying puppies in the picture. 🙂
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They are terrifying! Sneeze-balls every one of them. Thought, I suppose they have a certain appeal… 😉
Like I told Shan last week, I gave the monsters a backstory deserving of the name. How much of it will come out in the book, I’m not sure.
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That incredibly cute picture really distracted me from the monsters, I’m afraid. 🙂
Loved the line about urinating on her captors!
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🙂 Thanks.
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Great excerpt ReGi. I’m finding it a little hard to picture the monsters though, although that’s more me being dense than your descriptions which were beautiful.
I feel sorry for Arvid at this point and very much hope that Oya’s OK, even if she’s stuck up a tree too.
Love the photo BTW. If only dogs stayed puppies, eh? 🙂
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It’s not just you. I have trouble picturing certain things from description, too. I’ll have to ask betas to pay special attention to be sure I give a good idea of what I mean. I might be able to sketch something kind of along the lines, but in the meantime, if you search “lizard man” and ignore the tattooed fellas, you’ll kind of get an idea of it.
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“but surely urinating on one’s captors did not increase the chances of survival.” hahahaha. Yeah, that may not be the best course of action 😉
awwww, those “monsters” are adorable
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No. I don’t imagine it would be a good choice. 🙂
Aren’t they?
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Ummm isn’t she queen of the bears? she just needs to order said monsters to do something and see if that works =P
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LOL! That’s a good idea. 🙂
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next time you post such distrubing pictures to go with your scenes, please include a warning. Sheesh. Yeah, and you’ll have to let us know how that whole urinating on your enemy thing goes 🙂
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Oh, don’t worry. I’ll let you know how she handles the, ahem, call of nature. 🙂
Sorry about the photo. 😦 I really should have posted a warning, huh? I guess it slipped my mind at the time. I was in a terrible rush that day.
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Thought sure I was going to see monsters in that pic, but can’t say I’m disappointed with adorable puppies instead. 🙂
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Glad you liked them. 🙂
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Avrid seems to be in a very tight spot! Love the description and the bit of humor about urinating on one’s enemies. 😀
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Tight spots are the best spots. For characters, at any rate. Don’t enjoy them much myself, but they are so much fun to inflict on others. 😉 Glad you liked it!
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Ugh, nature always calls at the WORST times.
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Yes, it does!
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Oh, so glad I had just taken care of my own call of nature when I read Arvid’s situation. It will be interesting to see how she avoids a variety of unpleasant outcomes. 🙂
Being smothered by cuteness is a definite possibility with the type of monster in that photo. 😉
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Heh. 🙂 I can call the puppies monsters because I’m allergic to them. They all know it, too. “Oh look! She’s allergic! Let’s go get her to pet us and then watch the fun when she starts sneezing up a storm!” And I always fall for it. *sigh*
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