2,705!
That’s how many words I wrote today. Terrible, miserable, no-good very bad words, but whatever. I’m writing and it feels great, even if plenty of other things have fallen by the wayside.
I also did a lot of reading, which was kind of encouraging, because I was reading old stuff I had written… stuff I still thought sounded pretty good - and that’s always encouraging.
Plus the read was inspiring. Inspired me to write my own story of “The Faery Hare,” one of the most resonant stories from me from the Frouds’ “Faeries’ Tales.”
Anyway, here’s a little snippet of my original story that I wanted to share. It was from NaNoWriMo 2010. Maybe later this week I’ll post a snippet from my personal experience with a squirrel, a beaver and the faerie hare I wrote today… but for now here’s the history of the bunny instead:
* * *
Often, she left her dolls under the hemlock at night. Arden would cover them with leaves before dark and uncover them for her in the morning. He would delight in the little girl’s excitement as she found them drinking tea from little acorn cups and saucers.
As she grew older would sit together, their backs against the hemlock’s trunk, and although he had not learned how to become tangible in the way of humans, she never questioned whether he was truly there.
“It’s because she’s a baby,” the trees told him, the faeries sang. “It will change. Times change. Humans grow and they forget.”
“She remembers!” He’d cry in response. “She’ll remember. Wait and see!”
And as he called defiantly out to the sprites and spirits gathered around him, Arden knew he was growing up, too. That he was learning what it meant to be human.
One spring afternoon when the windows were thrown open to the fresh April air, the girl’s father came home early. When he slammed the front door closed Arden heard her scream. Then the patter of little feet as she ran away crying. Her sobs echoed from her open upstairs window.
Arden flew from the branches of his hemlock and shadowed the bed where she lay, her face reddening with tears and a large pink welt.
Slowly the sobbing subsided. “Arden?”
“I’m here,” he whispered into her ear.
“I’m scared,” she whispered back.
There was a pile of stuffed animals in the corner of the room. She kept none in her bed like most children, so he took the one that struck him the most and handed it to her, a soft, cinnamon colored bunny. “Miss Cinnamon will watch over you,” he said, infusing the cuddly toy with his protection, his essence, and the love she was beginning to cultivate in him. “Remember that when I am not here, she will protect you for me.”
Noe took the plush rabbit in her arms and rolled to her side. Although he knew he would need to leave her soon, for the time Arden allowed his spirit to rest beside her, feeling the power in her breath as it rose and fell.
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