It’s been a while since I completed a chapter. I’d like to blame the fact that my computer up and died on me, so I had to purchase a new hard drive and rebuild the system. Luckily, I always keep my system disk separate from my data, so no data was lost. I have a backup of my data drive, anyway. Can never be too careful.

This is a pretty short chapter, in a story full of short chapters.

Chapter Notes

Most of our toy characters so far have had pretty good lives. Bear’s child may have been a bit of a menace, but certainly not cruel. In fact, we might assume that Bear’s child was an infant or toddler.

Not so with Fox. Somehow, I’ve come to really like this character, despite giving him one of the worst histories. My problem with Fox isn’t his character, but my weird desire to over-explain him in the text. This chapter is primarily geared towards introducing him, as I suspect he’ll be a long term character. I have plans for this crafty, nervous little guy.

Rebecca gently slid her feet out from under the sleeping fox, so as not to wake him up. Waking a fox by surprise did not seem like a good idea, Rebecca thought.

Sitting up in the bed, she realized that she felt better than she had in quite some time. The ministrations of Jomei and the wonderful food cooked by Ken had worked wonders. Quietly, she stood up and wandered over to the glass doors.

As she slid them open, a cool blast of salty air washed over her. She could hear the waves, but the bright light just after waking up made her squint. She rubbed her eyes and let out a big yawn. Blinking, she took in the scene with a gasp.

The log home was built on stilts and stood many feet above the water. Around her were other buildings, all of varying design and brightly painted. A boardwalk connected them all. Each building seemed to hug up against the slopes of a tall mountain on one side, with a wide bay on the other side.

The bay showed no obvious outlet, encircled, it seemed, by mountains and islands. She could see boats out on the water. Looking over the railing of the boardwalk, she could see the waves, perhaps ten feet below, flowing past the pilings. It seemed a quite precarious place to put such a large building!

Rebecca was having a hard time taking in the entire scene. It just seemed so huge. Everything seemed sturdy enough. Looking around at the buildings she realized that there must be quiet a few people living here. Joe had said around fifty, she thought. It seemed awfully quiet right now, though. The only sound she could hear was that of the waves and the occasional bird, which she could no longer understand.

As she stood at the railing, the fox emerged from the open door yawning a big, toothy, yawn.

“We see they’re finally awake,” he said, looking up at Rebecca. He kept a respectable distance from the railing.

Rebecca looked at the fox with a confused look. “Who?” she asked.

“Rebecca,” the fox replied simply. He slowly inched over to the edge of the railing, looked over the edge at the water and then quickly hopped back towards the sliding doors, nervously.

“And what’s your name?” asked Rebecca. So far everyone had just referred to him as Fox. Surely he had a name.

“Our name is Prometheus. Or Epimetheus. Or Fox. Whatever,” responded the fox, as he looked anxiously towards the sky. He paced back and forth near the doors. “They should come inside,” he added, slipping back into the house through the glass doors.

While Rebecca wanted to stay outside and take in the beautiful view, the strange little fox piqued her interest. Following him back into the building, she found him once again curled up at the foot of the bed.

“It’s dangerous out there in the day,” he instructed her as she sat down in the rocking chair near the bed. “Little girls need to be more careful.” He stood up on the bed and stuck his muzzle mere inches from Rebecca’s nose. “They are always out there!”

“Who?” asked Rebecca, feeling this was going to be a common question.

“EAGLES!” the fox screeched and ducked under the covers, his bushy red tail protruding out of the side.

“He seems to be having a bad day,” said a familiar voice. Rebecca looked away from Fox to see Joe carrying a tray towards her. “Wasn’t sure if you’d be up yet, but Ken made breakfast,” he said, laying a tray of pancakes in front of her. “Eat up, and we’ll go for a tour of the village in a bit.”

Smelling the sweet scent of syrup, the nervous little fox poked his head out from under the covers. “Do they share?” he asked.

This chapter would have been posted sooner, but my computer seems to be barfing all over itself. In fact, as I type this, I can hear my hard drive rattling away like it’s going to try and take off helicopter style. What better way to spend a Saturday night that troubleshooting your own computer…

Anyway… One of my favorite places in the Tolkien books was Rivendale. A place of solitude where you could rest and recuperate without the intrusions of life barging in. The Village is my Rivendale.

Chapter Notes

In this chapter, we take one burden off of Rebecca. Not that makes her feel any better. However, we are in a place where she can take some time and recover. Things have been drastically unpleasant for the past few chapters. Now, perhaps, she can reflect and together with Silver Sky finally make some decisions that need to be made.

For the curious, the name Jomei comes from an ancient Japanese emperor with a flair for poetry. His reign only lasted 13 years, and he died fairly young. Our Jomei has some talents of his own, as we’ll find out. Hopefully, though, he’ll live to a good old age.

Wrote this chapter today. No spreading this one out over a few days. When they’re short chapters like these, that isn’t really all that hard to do. Took about two hours to get this one out. I was going to start on it at lunch, but somehow a magazine on coral aquariums snatched my attention. Sooo A.D.D.

Chapter Notes

Silver Sky has to start taking command. Something is wrong with Rebecca. Like me, Silver Sky is easily distracted. Can he overcome this when life throws things at him left and right? What if there’s a distraction that won’t stop being a distraction. Can the distraction help?

Our heroes have been through a lot of hardship. Things haven’t gone the way they hoped. Perhaps it is time to throw them a bone.

A few years ago, I nearly drowned. It was, as one might imagine, a deeply disturbing experience. What got me was how calm, slow and exhausting the moment felt. And it was entirely my own stupid fault. Luckily, for me, I have good lungs and a strong voice and another boater happened to be within earshot.

I grant this experience to my characters in this chapter.

Chapter Notes

Every writer, I suppose, pulls from life experiences. The above one took place only two days after saying goodbye to my children who had been up for a visit – an event that doesn’t happen nearly often enough. What I took from the experience, and perhaps what I’m hoping my two characters pull from it, is a deeper appreciation of life. Not of mine – but those of my family.

I’ve written Rebecca and Silver Sky into a deep moral dilemma, and not one I had set out to write them into. I guess this is what happens when one doesn’t have a set plan in place when they start to write. I’ve given Rebecca humanity and Silver Sky a wildness he couldn’t have known before. Are they willing to give that up for those they love?

I’m writing this, and even I don’t have an answer to that, yet.

I love magpies. They seem to have a lot of charisma. They are immensely curious and chatty. And they’re sneaky little buggers that you don’t want to turn your back on. They are also very intelligent birds, and are one of the few animals who can recognize themselves in a mirror. I don’t exactly paint them in a good light in this chapter. But their cunning also makes them a perfectly good villain.

Chapter Notes

I’m not one to let a good mood last long. This was a fun chapter to write, despite the rather evil intent of it. I need some things to happen before we get to Joe. Some altogether unpleasant things. These things will help shape our characters and help them prepare for the choices that are looming before them.

The choice of magpies as thieves was a pretty simple one as anyone who has had food stolen in a campground might have experienced.

Rebecca seems to be experiencing some changes that Silver Sky is not.  How will this affect her choices?

Probably the shortest of chapters, so far. Just a bit of interlude, really. We’ve got to move our characters a number of miles before we see Joe.

Chapter Notes

I wonder if I’m leading Silver Sky down a depressing path. Ok, let’s rephrase that. I know I’m leading Silver Sky down a depressing path. Somehow, I’ll figure him out.

Perhaps that’s what worried her most. She knew Silver Sky enjoyed his new body. Would he want to go back to Timothy if it meant returning to his old form? She was even having doubts about herself.  Why had Joe decided to stay human? What would he say when they got there?

Seeking to lighten the mood, she dug a prune out of the bag. “Try it,” she prodded Silver Sky.

Silver Sky looked at the wrinkled fruit with suspicion. “Don’t wanna,” he replied. “It looks gross and old,” he added.

Rebecca giggled. “Come on, just taste it, silly.”

Silver Sky glared at the prune like it was going to attack him. So far he had been perfectly content with the grasses and plants that were available along their trek. Rebecca seemed to really enjoy these shriveled up chewy things, though. He had to admit, it did seem tempting.

“Okay, but only a little,” he said, hesitantly.

Scrunching up his eyes, he opened his mouth. Rebecca chose not to go for the “a little” idea and dropped the entire prune on Silver Sky’s tongue.

Without chewing, he just sat there a moment with a horrified look on his face. “It’s squishy,” he stated simply.

Rebecca started to giggle, which frustrated Silver Sky who defiantly chewed the dried fruit. While he wanted to mad, he was finding the taste not altogether unpleasant. In fact, it had a sweetness that the grasses didn’t have. He didn’t want to admit it, but it was good.

Silver Sky, who had been so excited to start this section of their journey, now found that walking along the rocky banks was more clumsy and challenging than he had at first expected. He preferred the grassy areas away from the water. He found himself continuously at odds with Rebecca, who wanted to take a more direct route.

They found themselves walking in grumpy silence a great deal of the time. Silver Sky wanted to lighten the mood, but was not sure how. Rebecca being in a foul mood was something he was not used to.

He looked up to the sky, where the sun hung heavy high above.

“How about a break, dearest?” he asked the sullen little girl.

“We need to keep going,” was the curt reply.

“You’re human, now. You need to eat and rest from time to time,” Silver Sky prodded.

Rebecca shot him a withering glare, but found a soft spot to sit and rummage through the backpack for something to eat. She knew he was right. She also knew that she was being more than a bit rude and grumpy. She felt guilty. She hadn’t found a way to talk to Silver Sky about the many things Wolf had said. And she wasn’t sure she wanted to.

I have nothing good to say about this week. It was stressful and annoying. Not because of writing, mind you, but because of work. It was not conducive to writing, and I didn’t get nearly as much done as I would have liked. In fact, no writing was done on two of the days. I’m not sure if what I would have written would have been appropriate for a children’s story.

On the other hand, today was pretty good, and I finished this chapter.

Chapter Notes

We must prepare for the next section of our journey. Rebecca and Silver Sky find themselves in different circumstances in terms of knowledge and physique. I’m curious where this will take them. As we get ready to part ways with our tricky Wolf and somewhat grumpy and lazy Bear, we have a few things to get in order.

I’m not overly happy with the writing in this chapter. Aside from the aforementioned crappy week, I had difficulty putting myself in Silver Sky’s shoes. When that happens, I have to reflect on how I’ve written his character, so far. It was easy, at first, and I want him to be happy with where he’s at now – a real horse, and all that entails. It’s supposed to have given him a boost in confidence.

I have a feeling this chapter will see some extensive rewriting.