A furious witch? snippet from fantasy story for #WeWriWa

 

Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors.

Enjoy a little distraction from pandemic worries. Meet writers in various genres and read 8-10 sentence snippets of their stories. Find a new author and sample their work.

I broke my arm two days before Thanksgiving, so I’m typing with one hand. Yet another disaster in a horrible year! Still, I’m making slow progress on the new fantasy romance about a witch and an elf. The main character, Bridget Bramble, lives in a small cottage on the outskirts of a village. Her plans to go on a foraging expedition in the woods were interrupted when a troop of armed men marched into the village and beat up the residents.

You can read my last snippet here: https://auroraspringer.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-harmless-old-man-snippet-for-wewriwa.html

Suddenly furious, Bridget resolved the horrid foreigners would not capture her or steal her best buttons. Shutting her eyes, she rubbed her fingers over the charm-inscribed buttons on her bracelet and considered what to do. Her cottage stood on the slope of a hill at the edge of the woods, well separated from the rest of the village. She would have a few minutes respite before the raiders came.

Randall and his pregnant wife lived in the village, but she had no way to defend them against the attackers. Few of the spells in her scant knowledge of magic were designed to harm people. She had only once used her best weapon, the repulsion spell, when the blacksmith’s son had tried to rape her. Later, he took revenge by spreading rumors that she was a witch who hated men. Repulsion made an effective defense against a man at close quarters, but at this distance, it would not work on the enemy. Her only option was to flee before the invaders captured her.

Extra paragraph: 

She was dressed for her expedition in a boy’s trousers, woolen shirt, jerkin and leather ankle boots. Her hair was tied in a ponytail and tucked under her cap. Randall had complained about her clothes. He scolded her about being unfeminine. It was useless to argue with him. He was only voicing his wife’s opinion, likely shared by the old biddies in the village. Bridget preferred the freedom of a man’s clothing for foraging in the woods. She had planned to spend the whole day gathering rare herbs, nuts and mushrooms. She had already packed a bag with barley cakes, a chunk of cheese, two apples and leather flask of ale for her midday meal. What else could she take for her flight?

 

Draft Blurb

In a land troubled by invaders from the east, Bridget Bramble lives in a small village where she barters herbs and carved buttons. When marauders target her village and murder her family, she flees into the woods. Armed with her Granny’s advice, and a bag of magic buttons, she sets out on the perilous journey to Oakenwald, the fabled land where elves and men live in harmony. As she travels farther from home, she encounters malicious creatures from the worst kind of folktales.

Lost in the foothills of the mountains, Bridget meets an elf, Windswift the Wanderer. He offers to guide her across the mountain range. But what is he doing in human territory? Can an ordinary, or almost ordinary, human girl trust a cold hearted elf? 

 

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

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