Snippets and Shorter Stories Revamped

Whew, I never knew how much time taking care of a baby can take. Time seems to slip by like water in my hands if I don't pay attention. To help me pay attention, I decided that setting goals along with setting aside time to work on my goals is the best way to help me continue writing. I recently set the goal to finish my first draft of my novel by the end of August (but if I finish it early, I'm okay with that too!). I will need to write 900 words a day excluding Sundays to accomplish it. I will keep you updated about how I am doing. I'm excited, also, cause I bought the Scrivener software and I love it. Seriously. It helps keep me organized and motivated in my writing process. Lastly, I figured that posting a weekly story on my blog would be a good way to hone my writing and editing skills. This picture is by HELMUTTT and was found on DeviantArt via Pinterest. The story is my own and a piece of fiction. Comments are welcomed!

Week 1:

Scavenger

Ashlin hated this part of her job. Scavenging in the ruins of civilizations lost to time set her teeth on edge, but it was the best place to find valuable things to sell. The silence of the tunnel suffocated her as she opened chests, drawers, and anything else that appeared to contain valuables. She exited the small room she was in and moved farther down the hall to the grand chamber.

Large cobwebs stretched across the room and the furniture. As she tiptoed down the stairs, she accidentally stepped into one of the wispy webs. It took several minutes to distinguish what was hair and what was cobweb on her black cloak. Not for the first time, Ashlin cursed her white hair. Dust an inch thick covered the ground and she sneezed before she could stop herself. Fear clenched her stomach as her sneeze echoed off the walls and throughout the dwarf stronghold. She waited. She breathed a sigh of relief when nothing happened for several minutes. That meant she was alone here. Hopefully. Even though Ashlin had been scavenging for years, she had never quite gotten over the feel of being alone, or feeling alone at least. In the beginning, she had hated hearing only her breath and near silent footfalls. Now she welcomed it. Her first few jobs as a scavenger, she had thought that silence was the worst thing about her job. But the only thing worse than hearing nothing besides her own footsteps was hearing other footsteps.

Still, she shouldn’t linger too long. Efficiently, but more hurried than before, Ashlin searched through the wreckage. She found several discarded pouches on the ground with small amounts of money and jewels inside. Success at last. She picked up a dusty emerald necklace off the ground and stuffed it into her cloak. Then she froze, her blood turning as cold as the stone all around her.

Ashlins’ heart skipped a beat as her ears detected the padded footsteps coming from behind her. Guess she wasn’t alone after all. What it was would determine whether she fled or not. There was still a lot of the stronghold left to explore. No one had survived the plague that had swept through this Dwarven stronghold and it was too soon for others to risk moving in. Ashlin herself wouldn't be here if not for her slight elven blood that protected her against most diseases. She scanned one last time for anything close by her, grabbing a few loose coins before pulling her elvish steel bow off her back and notching an arrow. Situated in the middle of a large chamber with hallways on all four sides, she waited silently, half hidden behind an old table turned on its side, hoping that it was just rats or diggers, but she knew she was fooling herself. Perhaps it was just another scavenger like herself. Whoever or whatever it was, she was about to find out. The sounds were coming from the end of the hall just to her left. That was the way she had come in, but she knew of several other ways to exit in case she needed them. She had paid a dwarf a large sum of money for a blueprint of the stronghold.

Just before the sounds reached the entrance to the chamber, Ashlin felt the rhythm of her heart change. What is...? Oh, no. She was in trouble. It wasn’t rats or diggers; it was the Undead Monks. She had heard stories of their Heart Chant, but she hadn’t experienced it till now. When they stopped their spell any heart within their sound radius would stop as well. Very few could counter such a powerful spell. She only had a few moments to break free from their silent spell or get out of range before her heart stopped and she joined the ranks of their undead followers.
Channeling her energy into her bow, Ashlin cast her fira spell, igniting the magical steel and imbuing her arrow with the power of a fire explosion. Then she turned and let her arrow fly before sprinting in the opposite direction.