Early Muster

Welcome back to another (very late) WIPpet post. Sorry… have felt under the weather the last few days.

Before I get to the story bits, here’s a quick update on my progress for my ROW80 goals:

Today I crossed the 20K mark for NaNoWriMo.  Typing is going well.  And I’ve managed to get a few more boxes packed and things put away/sorted for the move or travel in the new kitchen. 

Goal for this upcoming week?  Clear out the office of extraneous stuff and pack up things I know I will never use.

Now to the WIPpet:

Today I offer you six small paragraphs from the tentative opening to Marche/Promenade, the third book in my Swan Song series. The maths involved are: 1+1-8=6 for the day and month.

This piece follows directly upon last week’s excerpt, where Val has joined some of his campmates for breakfast. Last sentences of last week’s post included for flow…

He (Val) didn’t quite dare to grin at the man, when the bowman took up a solitary slice mournfully.

As if they all hadn’t been filling their jaws on the stuff for some before he’d arrived.

“Early muster this morn,” he said after he’d taken a few bites and washed them down solidly with the boiled cabbage water in his tankard. Val didn’t like how quiet they all were. Save for greetings, they, like the rest of the men in the tent, now ate in a tense silence. Hurrying, but taking a long as possible to do so.

He watched to see if there were any signs, sideways glances, stiffened shoulders or clenched teeth. Instead of those, all he could see in them was sense of confused acceptance.

Val wondered why. Usually the Katsdan didn’t hold much close to the breast among his own men. And he’d heard nothing through his connections with the Army.

Finally Jalla shrugged. “Heard a rumor that this might be the last battle of the season. Don’t see how.”

Val nodded thoughtfully. He’d heard similar rumors this past week and like Jal had scoffed them off as fool’s ramblings. With nearly three more weeks before the weather even hinted at cooling, it wasn’t likely that the lordlings sponsoring this campaign would let them leave before they had a chance for jousts and sport.

Like that?  Then head over to the WIPpet linky and visit some our other awesome members for more super awesome word goodness. And as always, a huge shout out to Emily Wrayburn, our gracious host.