Thrown from the 'Coaster for the lack of a Belt

I've been thinking that I should post something here. And then the ridiculous work days they ask me to work will catch up to me, and I'll go to sleep instead. Today you are lucky, and I have some reserve left. So you get something of an update I think.

I decided that I hadn't read enough fluff titles recently (aka. Oscar Wilde and middle-esque english King Authur and His Knights) so I have a quick fluff book from a friend. It's helped, I acutally still can go through a book in a day and a half! They just can't be accedemically acceptable books. Like you couldn't reference this on a biblography sort of thing. By the way, Sir Lancelot is NO longer my favorite knight. He's well... not excatly who I'd thought he'd be. Sir Galahad (Sir Lancelot's illegitmate son, cause you know he was only trying to sleep with the Queen and got tricked with this other girl) has definately taken the position of favorite Knight of the round table.

The reason for wanting to read this paticular book through? (Once you get used to the writing style {and the fact that most of it is borrowed from French fables... that were, um weirder if the introduction is to be believed} it's really quite engaging) It would be 'A Perfect Gentle Knight' by Kit Pearson. Now anyone who knows Pearson will regconize her as the one to write 'Awake and Dreaming' which is set in downtown Victoria. Sweet, I know. She mostly writes young adult/preteen stuff. That said, it's high quality writing, the plot and such are the things mostly um, held back? How would you say it? Gah.

Anyway, the book in question borrows it's title from Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' from the introduction when the knight is introduced. You can easily find it. The copy I have reads it as, "He was a verray, parfit, gentil knight." Commonly now known as, "He was a very, perfect, gentil knight." Anyways, they make reference to King Auther and the assorted tales. This does include 'Le Morte Darthur'. I haven't quiet gotten there yet though.

The whole thing is incredably interesting to me. That's all.

On an unrelated note (sortof), here is the first chapter of the cleaned up copy of the book I am writing. Well, attempting to write.

Attempting.

It got put off to the side once I started working more, while I was striving to find balance in life again. I'm getting there so I'm thinking about it again. I have up to Chapter Three roughly outlined, and know generally what will happen, unless the characters decided that they know better than I do what should be done, up to Chapter 5 or 6. The girl is interesting. I'm having trouble getting into her head later. So, we'll see.

Let me know what you think! I haven't written in years, but I've gotten good responses so far. Grammer errors or any questions are more than welcome. The story is going to be named "Capla Shurin". For no other reason than I liked what it sounded like at the time, and named the story thus.

Chapter One (Unnamed Title, RE: Up for grabs if you think of a good title before I do.)

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Fingers Tremble. An outstrectched hand struggles to rise. Trembles work their way up and down the arm. Muscles seize. The body wavers. A fight ensues agaisnt gravity. The hand struggles to continue. The hand drops an inch. Sheer will holds the hand up despite the trembling. The trembling becomes limited. The hand has reached it's apppointed height. Posture is streaightened. the other arm moves quickly mirroring the first. The sleeve is still intact on this arm. It is dry; it had not been dyed.

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There had once been a clearing. It was a lovely place to go to in the late spring and during the summer. Too early in the spring and ground was so soft that you could sink your lower leg half way into the mud. Before that the ground was cold, hard and harsh from the throes of winter. In the late spring the ground lost enough of its moister that it could be crossed without sinking into the mud, but retained enough moister that unlike the ground in winter it would cushion walking.

This clearing was surrounded by trees. In a hollow on the edge of the clearing an ancient weeping willow could be found. It was now dying, as it was losing the competition with the tall trees for rescources. The trees surrounding the clearing were tall and straight. Various kinds of evergreens with branches full of needles so thick that harldy any underbush could survive for lack of sunlight. The lack of underbush made it very easy to walk, even though there was not much light.

On the other side of the clearing it was not the trees that dominated, but the underbush that held sway over the ground. This was not for lack of effort on the trees part. Saplings struggled in fierce competition with the bush. Prehaps in the years to come the trees would reclaim the area.

The clearing itself was shaped very much like a figure eight, or a slightly melted, half built snowman. Neither outer circle of the clearing could be completed without overlapping the other to a great degree. The larger circle approximently held a fifty meter radius. The smaller circle was only a third of that size. The odd shape and composition of the clearing looked as if it was not what nature intended.

The evergreens surrounded most of the larger part of the clearing, while the overgrown underbush threatened to claim parts of the smaller circle. On one side. where the evergreens and underbush met, the taller trees blocked the sun for most of the day, slowly killing the bush. At eht other meeting place the thorny bushs and creepers beat back the trees. The trees grew thinner on this side and the bush thicker, turning the odds in the bush's favor. Almost all theought the underbush the growth was impassible. Those that passed the clearing infact found it quicker to detour around the bush than to attempt to force their way through.

High up in the branches of one of the dying trees where the bush had begun to take over the trees, was a squirrel. The squirrel huffs, while it's tails twitches agitatedly. the squirrel is trying to calculate a jump of about one foot.

A little girl runs beneath the squirrel, forcing it's choice in a moment of panick. The girl looks no older than two. She is dressed in light brown fiberous pants and shirt. Her iris' are so pale blue that they almost meld and are forgotten nto the whites of her eyes. Her pupils are not quiet black, but seem more of a very dark brown. she had just run out from the thickest part of the bush.

On a hidden path her mother follows, calling a name now lost in memory. The girl turns and her black hair whips her face before settling on her shoulders. The women's image is now blurry at the edges, the more detailed features lost in time. She is slightly shorter than adverage height. She had given her daughter her black hair and her own was pulled into a bun at the back and base of her head. She has brown eyes; her figure is slender, and at one time may have been called fine, but now it appears fragile. The clothes she wore were a loose fitting pants and shirt, colored to fit into their current surroundings. They were much more worn now, as they had been taken out of all circumstance that they had been intended for. The girl laughs distracted, and continues playing a game of her own making.

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Arms stretched. Held far away as possible. Palms splayed forward. The body sways. Energy focused. Pushed toward the palm. Centered in palm. The arm swings. Energy shoots forward. Mile ahead, yells. A sigh. A groan. A hum. All covered in white. Job done, hand drops. Energy collected down arm. Dances down the red. Arm shoots forward. Covers all white with black. Screams. Shouts.

Death echoes.

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The girl is called again. She continues to ingnore this and runs out into the clearing. The women sighes. Then it is the girls trun to sigh as her name is called again, sharply, with the threat of punishment, so she can not ignore it. Little puffs of dirt rise as the girl turns toward her mother. the women gestures for her to come closer and kneel. The girl moves forward and inch and lowers herself without moving her feet.

A lesson begins. The details are lost in the frequency and multitude of others so similar. This lesson is about herbs. With the end of the lesson the women and girl fade back into the bush. The once impercebtible paths have become overgrown and impassible. Following the paths you would come to the unmemorable shelter in which they took refuge.

Pieces of the little girl's lessons can still be recalled with startling clarity. Most of the lessons were only theory, but most of the lessons were looked upon as a diverson by the girl. They were something for her to truly focus on. However some lessons, like how to pour tea, were given by rote and quickly forgotten for the girl gave little attention to them.

The lessons continue and time passes. The women visibly becomes less vigilent. The strong heat of summer stole the energy with which the women used to maintain her suspicions. The warm long days were luring with their sense of security. The women's face could be sometimes seen cast into a state of wistful hope. during the summer days the girl was allowed to entertain herself in the clearing between her lessons.

The days could be counted by the length of time the sun had been in the sky. The days were long for nearly fifteen hours the sun would be unobstructed in the sky. The presence of light in the sky could be said to start and finish before and after this time, as the sun rose and fell for dawn and dusk. After the dusk had completely come, the nights were a repreive from the heat and mostly cool due to a breeze that would sweep up from under the trees. Few of the nights however the breeze did not blow and the night would retain the heat and mugginess of the day. If one stood in the clearing at the hieght of the day, which occured between one and four int he afternoon, the hear would be so intesnse that within minutes the person's skin would dry out and become cracked.

As the spring turned into summer the wildlife increased as the animals returned from the south and woke up from their long slumber. An additional increase came from the young ones that had been born. Over protective species remained on high alert, snarlling or growlling in the face of danger. This aditional noise relaxed the women fuher, for once she learne to read the animal's sounds she could tell if something was in the forest that was a vistior or a threat.

Water may have been a concern given the intense heat. The women ha found a pit that had been dug, that once was a well. It was now half hidden in the mass of under bush, hidden deeper under a wildly growing throne bush. The stones scatered around the pit implied that it had been a well once rimmed with stones, and prehaps a wooden canopy. The women had immeiately started searching for a source of water when they first arrived at the clearing, and had been flooded with an overwhelming relif that she would be able to provie for the girl. After finding the water source, the women's next task was to create a cover for the pit. This needed to be designed to keep out most bugs and insects, and other debri from falling in. The wooden woven cover would also act as a barrier to prevent the girl from falling in.

If spring was their chance for new life than that summer they lived it.