NanoWrimo Days 1 and 2

<Okay, I broke the rules of NanoWriMo, and edited my first 1,000 words. It was for a good reason though, I realized I had some introduction I wanted to get into the beginning to lay the groundwork for what lays ahead>. I'll try to make this my only re-write until after November though.

-Edited Version-

She yawned, slowly swishing her tail, belly full. It had been a great night. Midsummer’s eve celebration always was, but tonight seemed better somehow. There had been games, prizes, a ring toss, even a magician! As a special treat, her father let her stay late to watch the coming of age ceremony for young panthers. For the males, this included a test of strength, and for the females, it included a fire dance. The elders then placed ink marks on the panthers; blue headstripes for the males, and blue stars on the cheeks of the females. In ancient tales, ancestors born with these marks had possessed incredible gifts, healing, fire conjuring, fortelling. Now of course, only the occasional villager was born with them. Hereditary Traits, they were called, and much less powerful.

At the end of the ceremony, there was a large dance for the new initiates. All the young panthers would dance in pairs around the fire. It was said that only the fortunate few found their soulmate under the Midsummer Eve moon. How romantic! She thought to herself. In a few years, she would be old enough to participate. She had lived in her village her entire life. Most of the villagers were black panthers, as it had been for time out of mind. However, for midsummer’s eve, all manner of creatures attended, from the Red Fox Clan, to the Traveling Tigers Carnival Troupe. The magician was a pure silver badger, bent with age. But his show had been the best of all! He made apples disappear, turned buttered rolls to silver, even teleported a one of the tigresses from one spot to another!

She rolled over, almost buried in blankets in the back of the cart. She could hear the soft clip clop of the horse’s hooves over the path. Night had fallen, and the fog began to set in. She was just dozing off when the cart stopped. “There’s something ahead on the road” her father, Raylin whispered. Stay in the cart, I’m going to check it out.” She heard him dismount, and walk slowly up the road. “Ere now, what do you mean by blocking the road?” He called out. She couldn’t make out the conversation, but someone else was talking, in a low, urgent tone. She popped her head out, trying to see the road ahead. A tall dark shape, taller than even the border guards. He was wearing a great black traveler's cloak shrouded in fog. After some more words with the stranger, her father came hurrying back to the cart.

“We need to leave the village at once!” he cried. His eyes were wide. “They’ve come back!” he whispered, in a tone almost to faint to hear. “Who’s come back?”

He paused, as if weighing how much to say. “Remember those bedtime stories I used to tell about the fearless warrior mages of old and the curse of the black lake?”


She nodded. She loved hearing about their town lore, and the great deeds of long ago.
“They weren’t just stories. And this time, we no longer have the strength to repel them!”
He gave the reigns a tug, and quickly pulled the cart off the main road and into the brush.
“This fog is welcome, it will help muffle our breathing, and hide our trail.” He whispered.
"All the same, no sense in taking chances my dear. Git under those blankets and keep quiet!”
The cart rattled and creaked as it left the road, and into the forest that separated the center of town from the outlying farms and distant border patrol. They hadn’t gone more than an arrow’s pace of the road when he halted.
“Listen!” He gestured. The fog was too thick to see the road, but straining her ears, she could hear a faint sound. Almost a hissing, and quick pace of a dozen or so large, heavy sets of feet. They passed in the night, never slowing, nor changing their direction, headed straight for the center of town. Soon they were gone. She could hear her father breathing a sigh of relief.
“What were those things? Who was that figure on the road who warned us? What will happen to our town?” Questions came bursting out of her mouth.
He patted her furry head. “Hush my little one. I will explain everything. But not now. Now we have a long journey ahead of us. The town, and our home are no longer safe. Let’s be off!” He pulled the horse back towards the road, and then off in the direction away from town. She looked back and thought she saw prints on the road, deep in the mud tracks of the like she had never seen before. She curled into a ball, hiding deep under the pile of blankets and tried to stave off the horrible images of these creatures.
The night passed slowly, every gust of wind and crack of a branch made her start, the cart never slowed down, traveling at a steady pace down the road. It wasn’t until they had been traveling for a good 30 minutes after their fright that she realized something. They were still in the outskirts of Mawr, their town. Surely the border guards would have stopped the intruders? What if they tried, and failed? She shuddered. The border guards were the closest thing Mawr had to a military. They mostly kept the wolves away, or checked travelers wishing to enter. Still, they were well armed, and brave. She had heard the captain, Saber, possessed Keen Eye, an ancient hereditary trait that made him unbeatable in close combat. If these things were in town, why hadn’t she heard a fight, or even an alarm?
The cart came to a sudden halt. She heard her father gasp quietly. “So the rumors are true!” He said almost to himself. Then he turned to look into the back of the cart. Moriko, my kitten, I’m sorry but we can’t risk stopping by our house to pick up anything. We’ll be on the road a while, and we’ll have to make do with what we have with us. Can you accept that?” She nodded under the blankets, then, realizing her father couldn’t see her, said meekly, “Of course daddy”. “That’s my kitten” he said softly. Then she heard him click the horses back into a trot. Moriko felt the cart bump heavily over something, jarring the muffled silence. *Clunk* She peeped her nose and eyes out, and a shocking scene met her eyes. They were passing the main gate. The cart wheel had rode over one of the posts from the gate. It had been torn loose, and lay on the path. The gates were flung wide open, and the lock mechanism looked melted with some green acid still clinging to the sides. But that wasn’t the worst. She looked beyond the gate posts and saw many of the border guard on the ground, still and lifeless. She shivered and buried her face into the warm blankets.