Wrote 1611 words last night, I was productive for a change. 

Excerpt - In which they meet a potential ally 

Ruby looked around, not seeming to be in a hurry. “It should stand out,” she mused, “If I remember correctly, it was a big, way too fancy building in the town center.” 

Kodyr halted her and gave her an expression with his eyebrows raised. “If you remember correctly? What if you don’t? Those things will have more time to find us again.” 

“Then we let them try,” Ruby said with a cocky grin, “It’s easy to get lost in here.” 

“Who’s ‘them’?”

Both of them turned around after hearing an unfamiliar voice speak those words. Behind them stood a young man - probably around 25 years old - with dark hair and dark eyes. The smile that was plastered on his face gave Ruby the impression that they shouldn’t trust him right away. “That’s not your concern,” she stated before turning around, grabbing Kodyr’s arm to drag him along in the process. She didn’t care if she came across as rude. However, Kodyr obviously had no intention to leave with her, resulting in her struggling to move him. 

“Your friend is not the nicest, is she?” the stranger asked Kodyr, who was still looking at him, “What’s wrong with some curiosity when you want to help someone?” 

The two of them rode in silence, not paying too much attention to the other. In Kodyr’s eyes, it meant Ruby trusted him to some extent. It wasn’t much, but it was something. Enough to believe the other wasn’t going to stab the other in the back, both figuratively and literally. No trying to kill each other until they had dealt with their common enemy.

Their environment was anything but pleasant, which was something Ruby didn’t enjoy in the slightest. All the trees were tall and either dead or almost dead on grayish green grass and gray rocks that almost matched with the gray of the cloudy sky. As time passed, it was also getting increasingly harder to tell whether it was day or night since the sun was pretty much invisible. 

It didn’t take long for it to be too dark to make out the road, so they decided to take a break and continue their journey at the break of dawn. “The great thing about night is,” Kodyr said, “They shouldn’t be able to get to us when there are no shadows.” 

Ruby looked at him with raised eyebrows. “And you’re only telling me now?” She paused to sit up straight, “You know, I would have slept a lot better if I had known about this, I don’t know, a week ago.” 

“I didn’t really think about it at that moment. Didn’t think it was relevant.” 

Ruby rolled her eyes before looking away from the half-dwarf, “How is it relevant now and not then? I mean, it’s not like our situation has changed that much.” She then laid down with her back turned on him, “You take the first watch. I wouldn’t mind if you took the second watch as well.” 

Mere seconds after she had said that, she had fallen asleep. Kodyr noticed she moved a lot in her sleep, often times revealing the scar on her back. It showed on different places, which made Kodyr wonder how much of her back was covered with it and what happened to her in the past. There were definitely things that she was hiding about her past - he had asked while they were riding and the only thing she said was that she refused to talk about it - and who she really was. Who are you really, Ruby? What happened to you that made you like this?

“Not telling,” Ruby said after having spit in the woman’s face.

The woman turned to Kodyr. He already had a wound on his face from being interrogated - which was mostly due to Ruby not being willing to answer any questions whatsoever. “Then I will ask your friend over here. Where should the next scar go?”

Ruby shrugged with an indifferent look on her face. “It doesn’t really matter. Just make sure he’s alive in the end so I can kill him. Also, how many times do I have to tell you, we’re not friends.”

“What are you then? Companions? Lovers?”

Both Ruby and Kodyr cringed at the suggestion of them being a couple or the mere thought of them being remotely close. “How exactly would trying to kill each other be an example of a healthy relationship?” Kodyr asked the woman.

The woman decided not to get into too much detail about the matter and focused on the more important task at hand: the interrogation. “My boss wants to know where you two are headed and what you were planning to do. Also--”

“Honestly, I haven’t given that much thought yet,” Ruby said with her eyes closed, “I didn’t really think past killing this son of a bitch next to me.”

She abruptly opened her eyes when she felt cold metal touching her ears, a dagger now almost reaching her - slightly bleeding - ear. “Let that be a warning to not disrespect me again, pirate,” the woman sneered, “You’re giving me a lot of reasons to kill you right now and I won’t hesitate if you do just that. You’re probably worth more dead anyway.”

Damn, Kodyr thought when there was no snarky remark from Ruby to counter those words. “What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?”  

In truth, she was at loss for words. If it weren’t for the facts that she was currently the one being threatened, her position was nowhere near comfortable and she already had a girlfriend, Ruby would totally fuck her.

“I suggest either one of you starts talking before he gets here,” the woman told them, “I’m being merciful by giving you a choice. You either tell me now or he’ll get it out of you the hard way.”

“What do I get out of it?” Ruby asked, having finally found her voice. “I get to live?”

“You two get to be part of something much bigger.” An unfamiliar, masked man arrived on the scene. “You are going to want to be part of that, I assure you.”

“What makes you think that?” Kodyr asked with raised eyebrows.

Ruby continued, “Oh please, dear sir, do elaborate on that. We are going to need to know what exactly it is that we’re going to be a part of to be able to tell.”

The woman slapped both of them on the face, leaving a red mark on both of their cheeks. “Both of you, shut your insolent mouths before I make you.”

The stranger pulled her back a bit. “There’s no need for such hostility, dear.” He turned his attention back to the two in front of him. “These two can talk all they want, it won’t help them any more.”

The stranger and the woman left to discuss something, leaving the two of them unsupervised. This proved to be a terrible idea since it only took a few minutes for them to look back because Ruby giggled.

She was no longer tied to the tree and well on her way to the horses. She made a bow, “It was lovely meeting you, but there’s nothing you can say to make me interested in taking part in any of it. Goodbye.” She raised her middle finger before turning around, mounting her horse and riding away quickly.

Kodyr sighed, “Bitch.”

The woman looked in Ruby’s direction with furrowed brows. The masked man, however, seemed unfazed by the events unfolding in front of him. “There’s no need to worry, she will be back. I promise you.”

I’ve realised I haven’t posted an excerpt of the rewritten version of my story for quite a while now (because I haven’t really been working on it...) Here’s a piece I rewrote while I was actually on the train: 

Nightfall soon crept upon them. All but one man went to sleep, who was burdened with the unfortunate task of guarding the prisoners. An ungrateful task he was not going to enjoy in the slightest.

“So…” Kodyr trailed off, eying Ruby, “What did you do to piss them off this much?”

Ruby sighed. “Why do you always assume I did something?” Upon seeing the look he was giving her in the corner of her eyes, she let out yet another sigh. “Don’t answer that. The point is that it’s not my fault that I don’t have any money to pay them. Scratch that, that’s definitely my own fault. Anyways, I have no clue why they’re after me. My best guess is that one of my enemies is using them to get what he wants. The problem is, I don’t know which one.”

“Do you have an idea? A fellow pirate?”

Ruby shrugged. “Well, they all have reasons to want me gone. I’m not going to say they are good reasons, but they aren’t bad either.”

As their conversations dragged on, the bounty hunter was growing more and more tired. “You know, I still don’t see what is so special about the two of you, eh? Why would anyone in their right minds be prepared to pay so much for a failed pirate and her halfling friend?”

“Oh, he’s not my friend,” Ruby told him, “Far from that, actually. You are not the only ones who are trying to kill him.” For now, she ignored his comment on her, for she was going to prove him wrong soon enough.

The bounty hunter leaned against a tree in front of them and pointed at Kodyr. “If you’re also trying to kill him, why isn’t he dead yet? Are you really that weak?”

“Having him alive has its perks… for now,” she reasoned, “Sharing enemies is even better.”

Kodyr rolled his eyes as the conversations between Ruby and the hunter continued as if he wasn’t even there to hear all the mean things she said about him. She kept trying to persuade him into releasing her, and, if not too inconvenient, him too.

Unfortunately for the both of them, Ruby’s attempts only made the hunter more and more frustrated with the two of them - especially Ruby. The fact she refused to sleep and talked his ears off with talk that wasn’t going to get her anywhere was getting more annoying with each second.

Kodyr noticed this and decided to blend in. “Consider yourself lucky you don’t have to deal with her all day. You will only have to listen to her endless whining and complaining for one night, I’ve had to cope with it already for two days.”

“It’s my life goal to make the lives of others miserable. Especially when I know I will kill them in the end,” Ruby said with a smirk.

“And you wonder why you have so many enemies,” Kodyr muttered. “There’s this thing called ‘being nice’, I think you should try it some time.”

She shook her head. “I’ll pass. Like I said, being nice… not really my thing.”

As the two of them ended up in yet another argument, the hunter had had enough. “For fuck’s sake, can’t you just go to sleep?! All this talking isn’t going to get you anywhere near your freedom.”

“You heard the man,” Ruby said, “Let’s get some sleep so that I’m energetic enough to insult the both of you, this entire group and their new leader tomorrow.”

Kodyr sighed. “You really are a bitch, you know that?”

She grinned. “Oh, I’m well aware of that.”

Thank you for the ask! I’m so sorry for how long it took me to answer this, but here you go :)

01. Full name: Kodyr (he doesn’t have a last name)

02. Best friend:  Kodyr’s best friend is Baely, his childhood friend and fellow halfling.

03. Sexuality: Bisexual

04. Favourite colour: Yellow

05. Relationship status: At the start of the novel, he is still pining for someone.

06. Ideal mate: Someone who is not afraid to stand up for him/herself and is adventurous 

07. Turn-ons: Confidence and kindness 

08. Favourite food: I haven’t really thought about this one.

09. Crushes:  Baely, he’s been in love with her for quite some time, but he’s afraid to tell her in fear of ruining their relationship. He has also had a crush on a boy when he was younger.

10. Favourite music: Folk probably

11. Biggest fear: His biggest fear is the consequence of his actions. He always feels as though he is doing something wrong and the universe will punish him for it. 

12. Biggest fantasy: Living in a world in which he is respected instead of ridiculed for being a halfling.

13. Bad habits: Overthinking

14. Biggest regret: Telling everyone in his hometown he would grow up to be a respected commander of the Coast Guard when he was eight years old. 

15. Best kept secrets: He’s not really the best at keeping secrets, so he would rather not hear them. 

16. Last thought: I don’t really understand this question, so I will just skip it. 

17. Worst romantic experience: What romantic experience?

18. Biggest insecurity: Him not being good enough and not living up to expectations.

19. Weapon of choice: A longsword.

I realised I haven’t posted any writing lately, so here’s a piece of writing I just finished rewriting today

Before he could answer her question, Ruby made them stop before they could be spotted by a group of strangers in the middle of a clearing. She narrowed her eyes at them and ordered Kodyr to stay as silent as possible. “I suggest we take a detour.” She knew who those people were and she would rather not get in touch with them again if it could be avoided.

“Why?” Kodyr asked, “They don’t look like bad guys to me. Are you afraid of some people camping in the woods? Do you know each other?” He sighed. “What did you do?”

“I did nothing to them, okay? Ask them what they would do for money. Set a high enough bounty and anyone can be a killer.” She glanced at the group. Their leader had already tried to kill her once before; her only concern at the time being the amount of gold she would receive upon delivering her head.

It was probably best to not question the girl for the time being and followed her on another path. She knew what she was doing and where they were going, right? Getting lost in the forest with a group of mercenaries wasn’t on his wish list, after all.

“It sounds like you’ve experienced it first hand,” he stated, “Have you seen it?”

“I’ve seen what the promise of riches has done to people,” she said as she briefly looked at him with her eyebrows raised, “How else do you think my father became a pirate in the first place? People like money. As soon as they’ve gotten a little taste, they’ll only want more.”

“So… you’re saying humanity is greedy in its nature.”

She nodded. “Perhaps you don’t want to admit it, but you can’t deny that the idea of honour and gold doesn’t put a smile on your face and would make you willing to do things you never thought you would do. Or do things you never thought you’d even be capable of.”

Kodyr looked away. He had never really thought about that before. How much would he do just to be respected by the people? What level of cruelty and selfishness would he be capable of? He shot her a brief glance. “How about you?”

“What do you think?” she replied without bothering to look at him.

Today is all about music, so I attempted to find a song for each of my most important characters/relationships. @originalficfest 

Ruby: “I Am The Fire” by Halestorm (Kind of ironic considering she’s afraid of fire though)

Kodyr: “Dear Me” by Nichole Nordman (Kodyr is a faithful person and the religion he follows resembles Christianity in terms of a loving God)

Kodyr/Baely: “Distance” by Christina Perri (Those two idiots are afraid to lose what they have if one of them were to confess their feelings to the other)

Baely: “Why Worry” by Set It Off (Baely is pretty carefree. She doesn’t really concern herself with what others think of her or what her actions might cause)

Shae: “First Things First” by Neon Trees (The song is all about self-discovery, which is exactly why Shae decided to travel around in the first place)

Two days late, but better late than never, right?