A Random Pattern

She didn’t get a chance to answer, something pierced the water above them.  They both dove instinctively, even as they felt the cries from Muuld and Xero further up the shelf.

“What is it?  What do we do?” cried Gooshan.  Alex had already whipped around, a quick turn and rapid acceleration.  She bent her waves towards Muuld and Xero – Xero was hit with something, and was thrashing around in pain.  Muuld was working to severe some type of rope.

“It’s some type of spear and rope” called Alex.  “Stay far from the surface, they’re accurate with these things down several meters now.  There must be Grounders attacking us.  “I’m going up to try and get Muuld, you stay down there and try to help guide us.  I know it’s hard, but see if you can get any idea of what is on the shore from there.”  He bolted off, skimming on the bottom and changing direction every few strokes.

She focused her mind, travelled along the rope, trying to follow it all the way to the land.  It was actually rather easy, the rope was under a lot of tension and there were waves from the Grounders, filled with hate that enveloped it.  So she saw rather easily a weak spot in the rope.  “Xero, pull, swim back and forth going toward the rope, get a little slack!  The rope is about to break!”

“You’re crazy” Muuld yelled back.  “They’ll pull him in as fast as he can swim towards them.”

“How far up the rope is the damage?” called Alex.

Gooshan focused again, traversing up and down the rope.  There was a sudden cry from Xero.  “The net is caught on my hand! They’re pulling too hard, I can’t stop it!”  His waves were laced with fear.  She focused, harder.  She felt along the threads, focused her waves.

“It’s about 2 of your lengths” she called to Alex.  “But hurry, I think they might fire more shots at you.”  She kicked up to the surface and leapt out, trying to see what was happening on the shore.  It was dusk, but they had a fire and there were a few bodies silhouetted. One was holding something long.  “They have another spear or something!  Get away from the surface!”

Our band of adventurers, on the run and outside of society’s bounds, are getting into much more populated areas.  Turns out they have a lot of enemies, and very little in the way of friends.

Just so you don’t think the whole novel is filled to the brim with violence – they make better excerpts is all.  I’ll look for a more conversational or descriptive excerpt to bring you later in the month.

My novel is currently titled “Oceans Die”.  I expect this to change again, but it will do for now.  It is 32,000 words long, or 88 paperback pages.  See the sidebar for my daily wordcount progress, which has gone swimmingly.  Still, this story’s not going to fit comfortably in 50k, and I want to be done by end of November with the first draft.  We’ll see how it goes…