NaNoWriMo: End of chapter 1!

This is the third part of what I have written so far.

The Prelude is here

The first part of Chapter 1 is here.

As stated before, this is an unedited first draft, the point of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is to knock out a 50,000 word novel in 31 days. 1,667 words a day. Editing will come later. I welcome constructive criticism.

No part of this content is to be reproduced for any reason.

Chapter 1 (part 2): Annika

(Entering into a description of Marvin, the Ox-Cart delivery man)

He'd been a member of her father's weaponized coven, years before, a traditional wizard, he was a healer, like her mother. She knew his secret, and he guessed at hers, they would always help each other seem normal without ever speaking of it aloud.

The Ox Cart passed, stacked nearly full with a delivery of goods from High Port. Among the Parcels sat a sad spector of a man, his eyes pale and unseeing, his beard unkempt, his clothes worn loose on his emaciated frame, his sparce hair an iron grey. Sad as the man's appearance was, something about him felt, wrong. Though she could not quite put her finger on what it was. Something dark hovered over him.

His vacant gaze locked on hers and something quickened in those eyes, something completely alien to the old man before her. Those blind eyes saw her! Heart pounding, Annika stopped in her tracks, allowing Marvin's Ox to take the frightening man away from her. He looked about to speak to her and she thought she may very well feint dead away in the middle of the road.

The cart rounded a corner through the woods and was lost to sight, but Annika waited, like a rabbit caught in a trap until it was out of her hearing as well. She started forward once more, her steps stilted and mincing. Those steps lengthened and quickened and soon she was running as fast as she could for the safety of Lady Faye. Annika turned off onto the narrow donkey-cart path to Faye's house. She ran passed the row of raspberry bushes, panting and calling out Faye's name.

Faye came out of the house, wiping her hands on her apron, her face a mask of confusion and concern. She saw Annika's panic and met her halfway across the yard, taking the younger woman into her arms to steady her.

"Great stars above, what's happened Annie?" Faye asked in alarm. Annika took great gulps of air, her lungs burning, and tried stammering out her story between gasps. "You aren't making any sense child, come inside and have some Lavender tea. You can tell me what's given you such a fright once you've calmed your nerves."

Though Faye had sneaked a bit of Valerian Root into the tea, Annika remained disturbed.

"He saw me, Faye, he did!" Annika exclaimed the third time. The elder woman had known Annika every one of her 22 years of life and had never seen her so panickes, even as a chils, the day they'd burned her mother.

"I believe you Annie, I do." Faye soothed, rubbing Annika's palm with her thumb. "The problem is, I do not know what to do about what you're describing. I've never anything like it myself."

The women sat at a small round table in Faye's herbal garden, tea cups and a kettle between them. Faye was a woman of presense, the red in her curls had withstood the test of time and were piled high on her head, styled like any real lady od the courts. Her dress was sensible but well made, with fine fabrics, decorated with bits of lace and flowers embroidered into the deep blue bodice.

Choosing to finally leave the Inn to others had taken her well passed an age when most in her financial situation would normally retire. Faye still kept the books and spent three days a week tending the place, her second son was there when she wasn't, keeping up the standards. Gordy was completely prepared to take over when Faye was ready, if she ever was.

Faye was far from ready. She was of thr mindser that retirement would slow life down so much it would kill her. She told everyone that asked of her health that it her work kept her young but Annika knew it was her heritage. Faye's vigerous, wholesome public face was a farce. The woman was the most powerful kitchen witch in the county. And the more power one had, the longer their lifespan tended to be. Even the weakest witches lives abnormally healthy, long lives, by human standards.

Her talents in the kitchen extended neyond food and drink good enough that rumors spread far and wide, sending sailors over land to get a taste. Faye's talents brought information. Lady Faye knew things no outside the King's closest confidants should know. She knew of far away places and the whispers of fireside chats across Breckenwood and beyond. She did not know of a blind man who could see, and that bothered her.

"I am expected at the Inn tomorrow morning, I'll hear what there is to know then. It would seem odd if I went today, especially since Marvin will say he saw you coming here for a visit. That is the best we can do for now. You stay out of toen until we know more. You had such a strong reaction to this person, and Marvin gave no inidcation of anything strange. The suspition will be on you, not the traveler." Faye sipped at her tea.

"Yes, Marvin seemed unfazed, and Hanz, as well." Annika admitted with a shrug, not knowing if the boy was blessed with any powers. They typically did not begin manifesting in a noticable way until the child hit puberty. The Zealots did not know that yet, which is how Holly had saved Annika. Annika could just imagine what those killers would put the youths through in order to test their "purity".

"How is Clyde, my dear? Last we spoke he had not yet shaken off the winter blues." Faye reminded her, changing the subject.

"He's the same as ever I'm afraid. Your efforts with the mead were in vain, he suspects you were "Up to something tricksy" and refused to have a single cup. I can arrange to have the cask brought back to you, he's such a stubborn old man." Annika complainre, but Faye laughed.

"Well he wasn't wrong! Keep it, I'll come for a visit tomorrow so we can talk about what I find out. And then I'll help you brow beat the old curmudgeon into drinking some. I suspect some guilting on the trouble he causes his only daughter will do the trick." Faye nodded and this time Annika laughed.

"He will not allow me to visit you anymore if he thinks we're conspiring against him." She said.

"Oh, just let him try and stop us." Faye's eyes twinkled with mischief.

They ate the small lunch Annika had brought, Faye added honey for the bread and then they worked in the garden together, the younger woman absorbing as much of her mentor's wisdom as she could. Faye brought Annika into the surrounding woods and showed her a birch log, rotten and old, but blossoming with young life.

"Next week when you come I will show you how to cook and preserve them, your father will like that." Faye said of the orange mushrooms called Chicken of the Woods. "These will get too big for me to eat on my own , and Townsfolk don't trust mushrooms anymore."

They both knew she was talking specifically about the Zealots. Most peoplr native to their town liked the big meaty mushrooms just fine. Neither of them spoke of the charity Faye was offering.

Clyde could no longer do much physical labor, and he had dropped the practice of being a Druid 12 years ago, when he'd come home to find Holly gone and Zealots raising his hollow daughter. He sold a wooden carving once in a great while, pretending it was his talent and not pity that drove the sale.

It was an uncomfortable subject for both women. Faye had put aside a small sum for Annika in her will. The girl could not refuse the help from a dead woman, it would be viewed as a gift of love rather than charity.

Annika was lovely and bright, but her lack a dowry kept her unwed and without prospects while most young women her age were already birthing their second or third children. It didn't help that her mother was found guilty and burned alive for witchcraft. The Zealots had let her go, and she was thin but pretty. But the dowry was the line no one would step over.

Because of it, Annika had not had one single suitor. Faye sometimes noted a wistful look on her face in the presence of small children, but had never once heard the girl complain.

"These people murdered my mother. I do not want the seed of their sons growing inside of me. I would rather be dead myself." Annika had once said, shocking Faye, who had not realized the girl carried her grudge so deeply. Rarely did Annika allow that side of herself to show through, and on the occasions that she slipped it was always to Faye, except for the one single time in front of her father.

Clyde had kept her home for two-weeks after the beating he'd given her over her hate filled words had turned her black and blue. She stopped speaking to her father, refusing to utter a single word for months in protest. He'd never hit her again, and she never conversed with him about anything more important than the garden, or the weather.

Eight long years had passed since that day and their relationship had yet to recover. Annika learned her letters and numbers from Lady Faye and took control of running the household by age fifteen. She was miserly, never buying a single thing they did not absolutely need and even then only if they could not make it themselves. Her Earthy talents were of use. She was able to sell her fruits and vegetables at the Breckenwood Market during the summer months, making just enough to get them through the winter months without starving. She dare not push for more lest people begin tp wonder how she had grown so much on her own without help.

Only once had she attempted to sell in High Port. She'd been set upon by two drunken men who'd stolen her turnips and potatoes and the three coppers in her pockets besides.

This past winter had gone easy. They had made it through with more than enough and all of the seeds she had set aside made it through un-damaged. She had an extra six coppers that she'd saved to replace any seeds lost to flooding or freeze, so instead, she used it to buy four unsexed chicks. It was a gamble, and Clyde had been angry that she hadn't used the money to buy some bacon. But now, at two months old and growing fast, the two pullets would soon start laying eggs, and one of the two roosters would be destined for the pot come fall once they were big enough.

She hated the idea of eating either of them, but had already begun watching to see which one of them would have the better temperment. Annika prized those birds so much that Clyde had actually gone out and cleaned out and patched up the old chicken coop. To keep them safe from predators when Annika was not around for them to follow around, he'd told her.

There had not been animals on the property for years, not since the last cow had dried up and gone to the butcher. Meat and even eggs were a rarity, something Annika had to barter for fiercely with the butcher for his cheapest scraps.

Faye had taught her to sew and Annika did a great job of keeping Clyde's and her own clothes from falling apart. But in spite of her talents, nobody from town would hire her on or buy the embroidery she brought to the market with her each week. They had compartmentalized her. Annika was nice to look at and provided produce, that's it.

Her potential to be anything more never crossed their minds as they avoided her as much as she avoided them. The guilt of what they'd done and allowed to be done to Holly was always stirred up when they saw her face, so alike the dead midwife.

Their visit over Faye was walking Annika toward the path that would take her home through the woods when she stopped with a sudden thought.

"Annie I've just remembered! Todd told me yesterday the old barn cat has had a litter of kittens! Probably the last she'll have she's getting so old. Would you like to look in on them before you go? He says they're maybe about 2 weeks old already."

"I'd love to!" Annika grinned and they turned right around and walked up to the hops barn, where the old cat protected the grains from rats and mice and other assorted critters.

"He said they're back behind the broiler. He didn't get a good look, but said there looks to be quite a few." Faye said, taking the opportunity to survey the current batch of brew. She smiled when Annika found them, the exact moment marked by a drawn out cooing sound. The girl sure did love cute little animals.

She came out with her arms full of growling, spitting fur. Closer to three weeks, Faye judged. Annika set three striped kittens on the table, two grey, one orange. One of the greys had long hair.

"There's more of them!" Annika dissapeared behind the broiler again and Faye inspected the little feral beasts. Two girls and a boy. Annika returned with two more, a darker striped female, quite a beauty, and a long haired male, solid black. Faye grunted when she saw them.

"When they're old enough to leave their mother you pick one out and take it home with you. You'll want it to guard your chicken feed and I don't need four new cats around here." Faye said and Annika looked up sharply.

"There's five of them." She said softly. Lady Faye frowned, she was going to make her say it.

"These days it's dangerous enough having cats around in the first place, with these religious killers in town. A black cat, well, a black one is just asking them to accuse a body of keeping a familiar Annika, you know how they are. They'll use any excuse." Faye said, looking at the kittens instead of her friend.

"So it's his life for another's? Just like my mother?" Annika frowned.

"Goddess Annie, it's a cat, not a baby. Todd will drown it and the matter will be settled." Faye said.

"You'll have your son do it, but won't do it yourself? Doesn't that tell you it's wrong?"

"Be fair, Annie."

"No, yoube fair. Killing him isn't right. I'll take him and I'll raise him myself. You told me to pick one, I pick him." Annika picked up the hissing ball of fluff.

"Just as stubborn as your father." Faye muttered, shaking her head. But she looked at Annika and nudged her with her shoulder when she sighed. "You'd better take Tilly and her kid with you for the next fee weeks so you have something to feed it."

Tilly was a nanny goat that Faye just adored. She was also the sweetest goat she had and the least likely to give her young friend any trouble. Annika hugged her mentor fiercely.

"Thank you!" She exclaimed, tears in her grey eyes.

"Don't you know I'd do just about anything for you my Little Annie?" Faye stroked her hair. "Now get yourself home before you make us both cry!" She said and they both laughed.

"I'll take good care of her!" Annika called, running toward the goat pens, her kitten tucked into the basket, hissing and mewling.

"I know you will." Faye muttered. "But who will take care of you?"

That is the end of Chapter 1. Honestly I doubt I will post this much again as I have spent way too many hours hand writing this on paper onky to fight with auto correct and a slow internet connection to post it on #steemit using only my thumbs. It's exhausting! Not only that but these are yesterday's words, I still had to meet today's word count as well!

We shall see going forward. I have 15 hand written pages done at this point with almost 6,000 words that must also be counted by hand. It's only day 4! I don't know if I can make it!

Love to you all, goodnight!