Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors. Meet writers in various genres and read 8-10 sentence snippets of their stories. Find a new author and sample their work. Enjoy!
I’m continuing my new story, Trapped on Vkani, book 3 in my series Atrapako on Eden. The settings are two remote planets: Eden, a terraformed planet with a colony of humans; and Vkani, an inhospitable planet with scaled human(oid) aliens. You can read about the planets and their inhabitants in my Blog Post HERE.
Maya and her team had planned to explore the ruins of an ancient civilization in the radioactive Deadlands. But a sandstorm buried their shuttle under a thick layer of sand. Their air supply is low, and they have to dig to the surface to call for help.
In last week’s snippet,
Maya met the blue scaled hero of the story. You can read their dramatic first
encounter here - https://auroraspringer.blogspot.com/2019/02/large-blue-claws-snippet-from-trapped.html
Excuse my misuse of
punctuation as their interaction continues.
It barked
a word, an incomprehensible command. Stretching a blue-scaled hand with clawed
fingers toward her face, it gripped the neck of her mask.
“No!” she
cried, jerking into a sitting position and raising her flattened hand to stop
it. Fear sharpened her memories of lessons in the Atrapako language, Kavkani,
and she said in halting tones, “Need to breathe.” Not quite correct, but she
couldn’t remember their word for nose filter, if such a term existed.
Gripping
the hilt of its sword, the Atrapako crouched on one knee at her side and
grated, “Worm.” Its voice was as harsh and arid as the landscape of the
Deadlands; “Worms crawling out of the dunes; what are you?”
Mentally,
she translated the accented Kavkani, and her confidence rose. Looking into the
shadowed eyes, she said with improved fluency, “We are not Atrapako; we
traveled from another place, a world far from Vkani.”
The Blue
growled, “Impossible.”
Marooned
on a desolate planet, joining forces with the enemy is their only hope.
Maya
Pandita spent years preparing for an expedition to the Deadlands. But her
dreams of unearthing ancient artifacts are shattered when her shuttle is buried
by a violent sandstorm, and her team is abducted by the scaled inhabitants of
the planet. Maya and her companions must try to outwit their blue captor and
call for help before they die in the toxic atmosphere.
Sa
Vittaran has a problem in his claws. Along with treasures from the ruins, he
has retrieved three smooth-skinned foreigners. They will die if he leaves them
in the desert. Yet the puny creatures have little value as slaves, except
perhaps for the impudent woman who claims to be their leader. He plans to keep
her. Her knowledge of the ancient texts will be an asset if she can survive the
long trek to his house.
An
attack by marauders forces Maya and the Blue leader into a wary alliance. They
must work together to thwart the bandits and reunite their company. Can Maya
convince Sa Vittaran to help her team? If she fails, they are doomed to a short
unpleasant life on the desolate, war-torn planet.
Please return to www.wewriwa.com to sample the works of the other writers.
I like how you wrote her struggling to understand his language. Great snippet!
ReplyDeleteThanks. I had fun writing this scene.
DeleteShe's lucky that pressure improved her mastery of the alien language. On the rare occasion I try to order dinner in France or Belgium, everything I know about the language flees my mind.
ReplyDeleteShe is good at languages fortunately.
DeleteWe had fun ordering in France at a small cafe where they didn't speak English.
Interesting that he came up with "worms" because it does make sense to this human. :) I am enjoying this story!
ReplyDeletethanks - yes, she seems to be burrowing out of the sand.
DeleteHis perspective is natural, given how he found them! Good interaction here between them.
ReplyDeleteThank you. The interactions between them will drive the plot.
DeleteI like the way she keeps her cool, mostly, and works through the discussion. Really enjoyed the excerpt...
ReplyDeleteI think she's intrigued by the Blue, although she loses her cool a little later.
DeleteHer difficulty to communicate with a language she'd not comfortable with came through. I like the Mr. Blue-scale-hand's perspective of what he thinks they are and how her tale seems fanciful to him. Great scene.
ReplyDeleteYes. But at least he didn't force her to remove the mask.
DeleteWell, "worm" is not very flattering, though it's understandable if he's never seen a human before. I wonder if she can convince him?
ReplyDeleteHe can see her shape, but she's wearing an insulated suit with a pattern of fake scales.
DeleteOooo interesting sci fi set up here!
ReplyDeleteThank you. Much of the world building comes in the first two books.
DeleteMr. blue claws isn't a very sympathetic character at first, but I hope readers will learn to appreciate his finer qualities during th estory.
Good job describing her lack of understanding and inability to breathe the atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteA very interesting scenario. It reminded me a bit of the sand worms of Dune.
ReplyDeleteIt is a desert planet, although no sand worms or psi powers. Also, the aliens have a rigid caste system. No governments are overthrown in this story because the place is pretty lawless.
Delete