Originally posted on Pillowfort March 11th 2024.
Messy Draft Monday
Guidelines: post a bit from your messiest draft!
She made her bed in the undergrowth beneath tall trees or between mounds of moss and slept when she felt the need. The light waned, then returned again, and after a couple of days she was starting to understand there was a rhythm to it. Sometimes it was the sun, golden warm in the mornings and the evenings, bright and blinding when it was straight overhead and unobstructed by the trees. Sometimes it was the silvery light of the moon, which she saw for the first time during her third night in the woods from the meadow on which she had dozed off.
And sometimes, it was so dark that it reminded her of the deep caverns where no light could reach that she stood still with her skin crawling, frightened to the bone, and it would be a long time 'til she could convince her feet to keep moving.
It was one such golden morning that she yawned, rolled over to her side and slept on in the warmth of the sun's early rays. If the birds on the branches above would have glanced down, they would have seen this: a fledgling elf with brown skin the same gleaming gold as the sun touching it, and a shock of soft, auburn waves upon her head, uncombed and unruly. There were leaves and pine needles stuck to her locks, and her bare feet were dirty from a week's wandering in the wilderness. A long, tufted tail had curled itself around her calf. She rolled over again, blinked in the sudden brightness, and her eyes were the exact gold of maple leaves in the fall.
This is from a fantasy story in the veeery early wip stages that I'm currently calling
The Last Elf. It's set in a world where elves are born as a byproduct of magic in the deep, isolated parts of the world, and usually pass on without ever encountering any others of their kind. Our currently nameless main character has left her birthplace in search of other elves, without knowing that no others have been sighted in centuries.
This bit may not look particularly messy, but I've not edited or proofread it, erm, once. :'D
(banner credit goes to
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reapergia!)
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