DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
The-Chronicles-Of-Bournemouthshire
HTML https://thechroniclesofbournemout.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: NaNoWriMo Creations
*****************************************************
#Post#: 1013--------------------------------------------------
A Guide to Being a Tree House Minion (on hiatus)
By: Rita Arthurs Date: June 14, 2013, 5:08 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 1
The sun began to rise on the large Oak tree that served as home
for Kiera; forced to run from Glenton, her home and her sister,
she made a life for herself out in the Forest of Shirkers. Her
sister sent letters and notes, and once, she sent Drew. Andrew
Regent was a 14 year old Sapphirite who owned a possessed
shovel, with which, she tried to batter High Priest Glove's
underman, Pansy, to death. She failed and was forced, as well,
to run. She wasn’t all that bad; she helped with the
cooking and chores that Kiera wasn’t too good at and Drew
was almost as well-read as Kiera. All in all, it wasn’t a
bad arrangement. Kiera dragged herself out of her straw bed and
shoved on some clothes- brown, too-short trousers, her hunting
shirt (brown instead of her normal purple) and her trademark,
green, button-up hoodie with short-sleeves. She scraped her hair
in to a ponytail, though several clumps remained, stubbornly, in
her face. Kiera grabbed her bow and slung her loaded quiver
over her shoulder. She attached her knife belt to her trousers
and checked to see if they were all there (Despite trusting
Drew, Kiera was still worried what Drew would try to pass off as
the Shovel’s fault). Seeing that they were all present and
correct, Kiera used her purple hair ribbon to slide down the
rope with no friction burn. The air was fresh and the ground was
damp with morning dew. Creeping along, Kiera did what Kiera
though she did best, in her objective opinion- hunt.
Drew pulled her blue dress over her head, thanking someone for
the front fastenings meaning she could dress herself. The
material used to flow to her feet, but for the sake of
practicality, the blue stopped short above her knee, the fraying
stopped by Kiera’s and her own sewing
‘skills’- the two of them still have needle pricks
over their fingertips, but they got the job done. The blonde
stumbled into the main room and walked out to The Overhang.
Kiera had told Drew that she built the tree house in 6 months
while scurrying about The Underground to gather materials and
food while she built and learnt to hunt properly. Drew
didn’t believe it took Kiera 6 months to build the wooden
structure with the main room, two bedrooms and a balcony
(affectionately named The Overhang) that wrapped around the
entire building. But Drew wasn’t there, so she
couldn’t argue. After taking a breath of fresh air, Drew
wandered back into the main room to start a list of things to do
today. A large slate was propped up against the wall and
balanced on the cupboards, a testament to how well Emily
(Kiera’s sister) knew Kiera. Everyone who knew Kiera could
describe Kiera as daring or cheeky or reckless, but the one word
they could all agree on was scatty. Many times, Drew had been
gathering herbs and salad leaves underneath the tree when Kiera
would appear from nowhere and scurry up the rope like squirrel
and the slide back down just as quick with her knife belt or
quiver or another item she had forgotten. The slate, powered
with chalk dust, was Kiera’s way of keeping track of
things. Drew liked to write a check list of things that needed
to be done, that the two of them could claim and check off once
done. The slate currently said that Drew had finished leaf
collecting, water drawing and book snaffling (The pair of them
had a never dying hunger for books) and Kiera had yet to do bowl
chiselling, teaching Drew to fight but there were five ticks
through hunting. Drew sighed; typical Kiera. She wiped the slate
clean and began to write today’s list.
Kiera was poised in her tree, waiting for some game to wander
onto the path where she could shoot it and, somehow, drag it
back to base. A twig snapped, causing Kiera to instinctively
tighten her grip on her bow in wait for her prey. A greyhound
came into view; Kiera’s heart stopped. Only members of The
Order’s Ecliptic Watch were permitted to have greyhounds.
They were onto her. And Drew.
Drew had finished the list and had now packed her bag to go
gather more herbs, berries and the like. She had also packed the
water skins in case she decided to wander by the stream. She was
about to embark on her trip when she heard the howl of a
greyhound. Only the Ecliptic Watch own greyhounds, thought Drew.
She abandoned her bag unknowingly and grabbed the shovel. Kiera
always had a bit of an issue of her keeping it but it was
Drew’s only way of defending herself as Kiera constantly
forgot to teach her to fight. There was another howl before Drew
realised that Kiera was out hunting, while the hounds were
hunting her. Drew went to The Overhang and threw a rope with a
rock tied to the end to the tree beside The Oak. The rock
wrapped itself round a large branch, bringing the rope with it.
Tying the free end to the shovel, Drew launched herself off The
Overhang and into the forest. The wind rushed past her as she
was free-falling into oblivion when the rope jerked and
tightened. Drew opened her eyes and quickly searched for a spot
to land. She saw a branch sturdy enough to take her weight and
navigated towards it. Landing with some grace, the blonde
teenager used the rope, shovel and tree to climb up to the stone
to repeat her unconventional form of travel.
Kiera watched the greyhound pass and waited for the watch men to
follow, but there were no tell-tale sounds and signs that they
were coming. The brunette risked a quick peak onto the trail-
nothing. Shimming down, Kiera checked again, being overly
cautious as only a semi-trained hunter can be. Kiera quickly and
silently dived into the cover of the trees and looked the hollow
tree that leads to The Underground. The Underground was an
interesting collection of tunnels and passageways that gave one
access to all of Glenton, and because of Kiera and Drew’s
extra tunnelling, part of the forest. The forest tunnels were
not connected to the Glenton tunnels as not to risk exposure,
but the entrances were close, to limit above ground movement.
The Glenton Underground could be accessed through a cave while
The Forest Underground was accessed by a tree hollow near to
Kiera. Spotting the yellowy green lichen that was indigenous to
the South side of the forest, therefore out of place meant the
tree was easy to spot for all who knew the forest well enough.
Taking another look around, Kiera sprinted into hollow.
Rearranging the mossy covering, Kiera assessed that her hiding
spot was well and truly covered before embarking into the
tunnels. She walked slowly at first, verging on creeping, then
began to pick up her pace to put as much distance between her
and the hound as possible. She came to a four way junction- to
the left, to the right, backwards or above. Kiera felt her way
to check for a wooden panel on the side. She and Drew made a
system to indicate which way to each landmark or part of the
forest- a square for Glenton, a triangle for the supply and
storage tent (separate from the Tree House as to provide a
refuge if either is discovered), a pentagon for The Tree House,
two parallel lines for the main river and a coloured circle
which showed which part of the forest you were in, depending on
the colour (Purple for North, Red for South, Yellow for East,
Blue for West and Green for the centre). Kiera struck a match
and studied the panel next to her- it showed that The Tree House
was to the left, the Storage Tent to the right, Glenton behind
and the river above. Where the river symbol would normally be
was a Red circle. Kiera could go back to The Tree House or she
could hide in the Supply tent. Either way, Kiera thought it
safe to go by land. She grabbed the hidden hand holds and
hoisted herself up to the surface to find a pair of cold, grey
blue eyes, looking straight back at her.
***
Drew was exhausted. Her means of travel wasn’t the most
efficient or effective. She had travelled from the tree house to
the south of the forest when she surmised that the greyhounds
would be looking for fast movement so it was probably safer on
the ground. Untying the shovel and wrapping the rope over her
shoulder and under her arm, Drew set off, holding the shovel in
front of her as some form of protection. She could hear a
rumbling nearby, and decided to walk near it, as to mask her
steps. The source of the rumbling was in fact a stream. Not as
large as the main river but still large enough to make a decent
foot step covering noise. Walking along, Drew noticed that the
stream was very near the point where it joins the main river,
which a path follows alongside, so Drew crept back into the
shadowy undergrowth. She continued quietly, looking about for
any signs of movement when a scrabbling behind her made Drew
stand bolt upright. The shovel wielding girl looked about to see
the source of the noise was a tree, marked with orange lichen,
which belonged in the East of the forest.
“A tunnel…” breathed Drew. She crept up to the
entrance, shovel raised and insides steeled when the surface was
breached by her perky, overzealous best friend; who promptly
punched her in the face. “Kiera!”
She crept up to the entrance, shovel raised and insides steeled
when the surface was breached by her perky, overzealous best
friend; who promptly punched her in the face.
“Kiera!” the younger girl shouted, “What was
that for?”
“I umm, thought you were part of the Elliptical
Watch?” Kiera stated, though hesitantly. Using Drew as a
hoist, Kiera plonked herself onto the ground next to her
companion’s feet. Drew looked down, clutching her nose.
“Just think next time, ok? Oh, wait, you never
think,” she sat down next to Kiera and looked at her
short-haired best friend, “So now what? There are
greyhounds after us but I haven’t seen any humans,
you?” Kiera shook her head, “so do you think
it’s safe to retreat to the tree house?”
“Well seems so and we’re armed just in case, but
should we take the underground? You know, to be extra
safe.”
“Nah, I know we dug out those tunnels but the things that
live in them freak me out.” To emphasise her point, Drew
picked an unidentified creature out of Kiera’s hair, threw
it away and shuddered. The two looked at each other before
lifting themselves of the floor at time same time. Dusting
themselves down, they set off towards the tree house with the
light tread of one who has spent many years far from
civilisation (in reality, it was only three). The girls walked
without speaking, but no words were needed between the two who
had only had each other for company for months on end. They were
family.
During the pair’s escapades, dark and heavy clouds had
covered the sun and now started to drizzle down. As the two
progressively made their way deeper into the forest, the rain
became heavier and heavier until there was a bright flash of
light, causing the girls to jump a considerable distance into
the air before a resounding boom filled the forest. The two
forest dwelling teens, now soaked to their bones, dropped to the
floor and crawled into a space devoid of trees but filled with
bushes and shrubbery.
With some shelter from the storm, the 14 year old and the 16
year old watched the raindrops come down through the small
leaves. They were there for an hour, laying down in the storm.
When the thunder had subsided and rain had returned to a
drizzle, Kiera and Drew shimmied out of their hole and back into
the tree cover. They made their way back to the Tree house with
neither incident nor accident. Scrambling back up the rope, the
girls both returned to their rooms and changed into dry, clean
clothes and hung their sopping wet clothes over The
Overhang’s barrier. Returning back into the main room, the
duo checked the whole house for leaks. Finding none, the two
looked at the slate to check for chores that needed to be done.
Kiera decided to continue to chisel out bowls while Drew decided
to do the laundry with collected rainwater and tree house made
soap. The two girls worked in silence for the next three hours,
Drew finishing the laundry and moving on to reading at the
table. Kiera continued to chisel and chip away at the slowly
forming bowl, until there was a rough shape. The bowl just
needed sanding down; however, such items were only available to
Glenton citizens, which Drew and Kiera were not, so Kiera pushed
herself out of her chair, walked across the room and wrote
‘Ask Emily for sand paper’ on the slate. She then
went to the cupboard beneath the slate a retrieved a book that
Kiera had read many times before yet the simplicity of the story
telling mixed with the complex character developments were
timeless to Kiera. As she reached chapter three, where the son
of the former king (who had been forced into hiding) had started
to put in to action his rescue plan to save the love of his life
from the clutches of the sadistic, pretend ruler, Drew perked up
“Did you get any food, in the end?”
“Nope,” Came the response, “you?”
“Same here, chief,” Drew dragged herself out of her
chair and stretched, “I suppose we might need to fix
that.” Kiera, likewise, lifted herself from her chair,
(however, with Kiera’s day to day gracefulness,
‘fell out of her chair’ would be a more apt
description)
“I think we do, m’dear, I think we do.”
“I have no idea how someone who is so poised and graceful
in a fight can even contemplate such a horribly awkward dismount
from a chair.” Kiera gestured back at the empty chair,
“Like that!” her smile and tone had a hint of
‘ta-da’ to it that only Drew or Emily could had
picked up on.
“What about the hounds?” Drew asked as she
shouldered her bag and searched for her shovel.
“You whack ‘em and I’ll shoot ‘em,
problem?” Kiera looked up, using her momentum to correctly
place her quiver. Drew paused before shrugging and returning to
her packing. Kiera twanged her bow string to check the quality.
She learnt that her bow made a ‘twang’ sound when
plucked. The two girls looked at each other before setting off,
sliding down the rope one at a time using their ribbons, oldest
first, as Kiera always insisted (‘When you’re older
than me, you can go first.’ She’d say with the grin
of one who’s slightly insane. Drew’d say Kiera was
more than slightly insane)
The pair set off, Drew back to the river, her previous work with
horses and her reading preferences meant she could differentiate
between poisonous leaves, flowers and foliage in general, while
Kiera, with her years of training in archery and other
techniques was better suited to hunting. Both Kiera and Drew
returned back at the Tree House about an hour after noon day and
began making preparations. Drew washed the leaves, put aside one
that could be used that week and the ones that needed to be
dried. Kiera however had the task of preparing the meat; three
rabbit, two wood pigeons and squirrel that needed to be plucked,
skinned, washed, salted for storage and cooked for when needed.
Having decided that the birds would be best for later that day,
Kiera started on them, plucking them quickly, but surrounding
herself with feathers in the process. The birds were soon
decapitated and de-footed and handed to Drew for cooking. As it
was unsafe to have a fire in the wooden house, all the cooking
had to be done below, so a pulley system was conceived. A rope
with many hooks on was stretched over tree branches, two that
were next to each other and level with the overhang while the
third was at waist height off the ground. This meant one of the
girls could go down and collect the pots and ingredients as the
other passes them down.
#Post#: 1014--------------------------------------------------
Re: A Guide to Being a Tree House Minion (on hiatus)
By: Rita Arthurs Date: June 14, 2013, 5:08 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Tonight Drew was collecting the pots as Kiera passed them down.
Forever the jokester, Drew put down the last pot, (which
contained Kiera’s caught game and knife collection so she could
help with the cooking and resume doing her meat preparation) and
turned to grab anything else Kiera had decided to bring down for
fun to find Kiera herself hanging by the scruff of her neck. Far
too used to Kiera’s antics, Drew just left her hanging and went
to continue with the evening meal preparation. Kiera however
swung about with all her might, trying to unhook herself. Using
the tree, the trapped girl shifted her body weight off the hook
and back onto her feet, albeit vertically. This caused her shirt
to unhook and gravity to take its natural course, leaving Kiera
to land in an ugly heap on the dirt floor.
“You know,” Kiera started as she picked herself up and dusted
herself down, “some help would have been appreciated, because
now I have to climb all the way back up to the top and dust my
hands off on a clean cloth.” Kiera pouted- a useful technique
against most enemies, just not Drew.
“I’m way ahead of you, slacker!” Drew smirked as she threw a
clean cloth at Kiera’s face.
“Damn it.” Came her muffled reply, before Kiera unveiled her
face and dusted off her hands. She dumped herself on to the
floor next to the fire pit, collected her pot and started to
skin the rabbits. Drew grabbed two sandwiches made from leftover
meat and handed to Kiera. The two girls ate them hungrily while
preparing that nights meal, again in silence.
Drew and Kiera were done by about three hours later, the early
autumn sun hanging low in the sky. Kiera brought down the books
that they were reading earlier and the two sat in a peaceful
bliss as the pigeons stewed. Kiera was again transported to
land where daring knights (and troublesome women) actually stood
and fought for what they believed in and for those they loved.
Totally immersed in the story, (The prince had dressed up as
pauper and had infiltrated the city) Kiera missed Drew’s cries
for food three times, so that Drew resorted to splashing water
onto her face.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIEEEEE,” Kiera screamed, jumping a good 6
inches into the air, “What, was THAT for?”
“I could have chucked an entire bucket on you, but you were
reading and it is always good to preserve the written word and
other literature, even if it means not properly bringing your
friend back to the land of the real people.” Drew shoved a
roughly cut bowl full of pigeon stew unceremoniously in front of
Kiera’s face. The girls said a brief and generic ‘thanks’ to
everything and every person that had, in some way contributed to
their meal then began to eat in silence. After the two finished,
they washed every dish used, then returned to reading before
going to sleep. And every day was much the same yet very
different as the girls lived in the forest.
Chapter 2
The two girls woke up at the same hour this day, and as neither
had to go hunt or gather, they continued to do other tasks. It
was mid-morning and Drew was reading out on The Overhang in the
glorious sun and Kiera was fletching arrows inside when a Kathy,
a young messenger girl from Amethyst, popped her small blonde
head above the trap door in the floor of the tree house. "Umm,
Kay,” Kiera spun round in her usual scattered manner, “I have a
message from Emily." Kiera dived on to the floor in front of the
11 year old with the expectant face of a child on Christmas
morning.
"What does my sister dearest wish to say to me today?" Kiera and
Kathy had always had a strange acquaintanceship- while they got
on well; Kathy always disapproved of Kiera's scatty and reckless
tendencies, while Kiera always thought that Kathy could lighten
up and actually be a kid.
Kathy began to read: "’Kiera, I apologise that I must start
with troubling news, but The Order has placed a warrant for the
arrest of more petty 'criminals', they're just pranksters who
were completely within the law, but they'll find out about you
if I say anything,” Kiera was well known for being a bookworm,
however few knew that of all the books that Kiera read, The Law
Books of Glenton were her forte, “Anyway, the good news is that
they are joining you to assist you in whatever you do in the
forest. They are currently in my basement and will set off
tomorrow night’ she wrote this yesterday, so she means tonight,”
Kathy added, “‘with food, clothes and some weapons that should
suffice. They are Crimson and Scarlett of the Ruby tribe and,
one last thing, Kiera, please stop snaffling books! I send with
my kindest regards, Emily.’" Kathy rolled up the scroll and
looked expectantly at the older teen.
"Well then, I shall inform Drew of the news, and tell Em to send
some books if she doesn't want them snaffled, okay?" Kathy
rolled her eyes but nodded, "good, run along now and could you
send some sand paper with them." Kiera heaved herself off the
floor while Kathy handed over the scroll and slid back down the
rope to return to Glenton.
"This is going to be fun," Drew walked in from The Overhang, "no
longer just you and I vs. the world. We're going to have
company!" the sarcasm was slight and subtle but Kiera hadn't
been Drew's sole best friend and only human contact (Kathy
didn't count, well she did, but for literary effect, she didn't)
for nothing.
"Crimson and Scarlet are coming here because, like us, they have
done something irrevocably stupid, so you will like them
regardless." Kiera turned round to the Slate to write up
'Prepare for new arrivals' "Irrevocably?"
"You can't take it back. Examples of irrevocable actions
include, but are not limited too- shooting pig-headed authority
members in the foot and or trying to murder said authority
figure's underlings with a shovel." Kiera turned back on the
word shovel.
"Hey! The shovel made me do it!" Drew threw her hands up.
"Right..." Kiera rolled her eyes and returned to her work. It
was greatly discussed in the tree house; whether or not the
shovel was possessed. Drew had ‘acquired’ (stolen, perhaps, is a
more fitting verb) the shovel from a female Order member from
overseas. Madam Shovél was a woman of small stature, yet she
commanded a room with her brisk pace and clacking shoes. Her
hair was blonde and fell mid-way down her back. Many rumours
were spread about this woman, most saying that she had come to
Bournemouthshire because she broke the laws of her country of
origin by murdering her recent ex-suitor. The shovel of Madam
Shovél was an even greater mystery than the woman herself. It
had come with her, that was certain, yet it was not in her bags
as she arrived, or separately packed, it just arrived. Nothing
much was said about the shovel but thoughts were thought. As the
hype died down, so did the shovel’s public appearances.
As the hype died down, so did the shovel’s public appearances
until it was all but forgotten about. Yet the shovel, it seemed,
needed attention, it thrived off and the lack of hearsay,
theories and gossip caused a longing so deep within in the
shovel that it again decided to reappear, near an argument.
Saying that the argument was heated was the understatement to
understate all understatements. Pansy, of the Order, was
declaring to a girl that she was forbidden from rolling up her
dress sleeves by “yet another pointless edict that should just
DIE IN A HOLE ALONG SIDE YOU, YOU FILTHY, LOW-LIFE SCUM,” as the
girl so eloquently put it. After screaming at him briefly, she
looked for the nearest form of expressing her anger and loathing
at the victim of her wrath and, lo and behold, there laid before
her was a shovel, almost calling her to pick it up and wreak as
much havoc as possible. The seconds blurred in her head as she
picked up the shovel. It seemed as if no time had passed between
being without the shovel and having it whisper in her ear before
turning to pay the man back, when in reality, it was a full
minute of the girl standing, revelling in the power that the
shovel had given her. After she realised that she now had a
force of nature itself under her temporary command, she turned
and hit the offending Order member around the head. He turned
and fell but the girl continued to beat the man until a shout of
the Elliptical Watch alerted her to reality and from there she
fled. She fled to a place that soothed her, a place of music and
laughter- the Amethyst music hall. On the way, Emily, the tribal
leader noticed her panic and chased after her. After catching up
and hearing her story Emily decided it would be best for her to
run to the forest, where her sister was, so the blonde girl (who
is actually Drew, if you hadn’t guessed) headed to the forest in
the cover of darkness to the tree house that Kiera resided in.
No news preceded her arrival and an explanation was sent the
following day. The rest is, as they say, history then that
became this story.
As Kiera continued to write up the addition to the list (when
writing Kiera had to be slow to be neat) a thought occurred to
her.
“Where are they going to sleep?” Drew looked up from reading in
a slightly dazed manner.
“I… Don’t know” came the honest reply. The two girls both stood
up (straight, in the case of Kiera) and frowned, both knowing
what should be said but neither wishing to say it. They both
looked up, Drew with her eyebrows raised. Kiera responded with a
curt nod and they both started to move towards Drew’s room.
“Wait, what are we doing?” Kiera stopped suddenly and asked.
Before Drew could answer, the sound of a sword being unsheathed
pierced the air, jarring the two girls.
“I think ‘what was that’ would be the better question.” Drew
sniped before the two ran to the Overhang, keeping low to avoid
detection. Peering slowly over the edge, they caught a glimpse
of a glowing short sword. “Wait, is that sword glowing?”
Kiera glanced at her blonde companion and replied, “That’d be
better news than a dull and normal one.”
“Oi, Pearson! Where is that silly child‽” Kiera snorted
and stood up, much to Drew’s surprise and shock.
“So not only do you lack the ability to read or differentiate
between homophones and other words, you also happen to be blind!
Wow, Arthurs, I think having that many issues might actually be
a talent in its own right!” Kiera slid down the rope and joined
her former adversary on the ground. While having called a truce
to malicious taunts, the two would still banter in a way that
seemed as if they hated each other.
“Ah, there you are, peasant,” Rita had taken to calling people
peasant soon after her becoming a tribal leader, as revenge for
being called it herself many times, “and at least I can write a
legible sentence, walk without hitting large, solid objects and
I can show my face in public, instead of hiding out here.”
“Why are you out here anyway, this,” Kiera gestured to her
forest surrounding her and the taller girl, “doesn’t seem to fit
your ‘fancy tribal leader’ lifestyle.”
“Well, I came to tell you about a small problem in my tribe. You
see, we value honour and all that stuff, but, somehow, one
person managed to get in to our tribe when, really, they belong
in Amethyst.”
Kiera was confused “So why aren’t you talking to Em? She’s the
leader, I’m the Shirker, in case you didn’t notice.”
“Yes, I did notice, anyway, she’s done something, well stupid
and-“
“She needs to escape the law?” Kiera cut Rita off, “you got it,
chief. Does she have a name?”
“Meagwen , weird, I know, we just call her Gwen, or stupid, or
blonde, but hey, she’s all yours as of tomorrow.”
“Wait, she’s not the blonde one who supposedly hit Jemma when we
were 11? She is isn’t she?” Rita nodded, “Well, goodbye
normality.”
“You got that right! Now, they’ll be wondering where I am and I
don’t have an excuse…” Kiera grabbed a knife out her belt and
threw it, hitting a passing deer in the heart.
“Just stab that with Caledfwlch and just say you saw something
moving, but it was that. You’re welcome.”
"Oh, you!" Rita sighed, rolling her eyes. She stabbed the
creature through the incision that Kiera had made then, using
her crystal, Rita lifted the carcass and set off back to
Glenton.
"Stop by again, soon! I need some target practice!" Kiera
shouted after the retreating figure.
"Pfft! You wish, Pearson!" The Amber Tribe Leader called back
with out look behind her.
"Whatever, Arthurs!"
~~~
I have not edited it so I'm not sure whether all the posts put
together make sense
This project is on hiatus for obvious reasons
*****************************************************