Fancy A Game?

Image provided by Pixabay.

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Dear Steemians,

Would you like to play a little game? It goes like this: I will post the beginning of three different stories over the next three days. On the fourth day, I will use my Special Algorithm (composed of votes, comments, and powdered unicorn horn, or somesuch), and decide which story will be continued on Steem. Feel free to put any questions, comments, concerns, and/or cries of outrage in the comments below. And may the best story get an ending….

Yours Truly,

The Owl Hours

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Story #1

She moved through the bazaar, her skirts swishing about her feet, ignoring the curious glances of the people she passed. She didn’t fit in, but then again, she didn’t expect to. With her dark hair, coppery skin, and blue-green eyes, the only places where her looks went unnoticed were the seasonal pirate cities.  

And if Aditi had it her way, she would never set foot in one of those cities again.

So here she was, in yet another respectable town filled with respectable people, who were respectfully curious about the girl who looked just a little bit, hmmm, I can’t quite put my finger on it… dangerous.

“Are you sure this is the best idea?”

She glanced sharply at her second in command.

“Do you have a better idea, Jai dearest?” she purred, pitching her voice low so that he’d have to lean in to hear her over the din of the bazaar. She flashed him a smile, or perhaps she was just baring her teeth — to the casual observer, it was hard to tell.

Jaidev gulped. Big man that he was, you’d think it was impossible to frighten him. But he wasn’t a fool. He and Aditi had grown up together, fought together, killed together. So out of all the people in this city, possibly this whole island, he was the only one who knew exactly what she was capable of. He had every right to be scared.

She smirked. “Thought not,” and continued to move demurely through the crowd, as if she were just another girl who was out to gather her groceries for the week, or whatever it was that normal, polite, meek little girls did. To be honest, she didn’t have the faintest idea about what “normal” women did. And she didn’t care.

When they reached the center of the bazaar, marked by a fountain and a large open space, Aditi turned to Jaidev and smiled again before handing him her shawl. Then she slipped off her shoes and gracefully stepped away from him. She curled her toes, relishing the feeling of the warm cobblestones beneath her feet. She climbed up onto the wide lip of the fountain and surveyed the crowd. She could hear the people around her starting to murmur, wondering why the strange-looking girl was standing barefoot on the fountain ledge. She caught the eye of a young boy who was looking at her with wide eyes and winked at him.

And then she started to dance.