Novel Idea

Hey, I gotta brag on my kid for a second here. A has been writing a book for the past year or so and I think it is pretty darn good. Anyway, she just entered it into a novel writing contest for homeschoolers. This is it here. She is pretty darn excited about this. She does not even care about the money, all she wants is the critiques. She told me she wants to be on the NYT bestseller list someday. Wish her luck!


She gave me permission to post the first chapter here. I think she wants to put it up on her blog, too, sometime soon.

BLAZE

CHAPTER 1

The young rabbit hopped along, her blue pelt shining elegantly in the sunlight as she passed through patches. The octagon-shaped diamond swung on its silver chain around her neck. Her mind was focused on two things: harvesting whatever was edible, and not getting caught, unarmed, by a wolf – she had had far too much experience with the creatures and bore a scar to prove it. A long time ago she had been cornered by a young, although quite fierce, wolf; she had taken a leap to the side, but the wolf had turned in time to slash her hip before she could fully escape.

Blaze hurried forward as she spotted a large raspberry bush. A small leather pouch was attached to her shoulders and her back with straps, the pouch itself secured to her underbelly, enabling her to stand on her hind paws and pick fruit. She was lucky to have one – only few rabbit requested that their pelt be made into leather for family members to use. Studying her paws as she thought of her older brother, she occupied herself with filling the pouch to the brim with raspberries.


As she hopped off to the edge of the trees, she had the intention of visiting Fleur’s shop. The ferns and other forest foliage decreased as Blaze entered the vast meadow in which most of her kind dwelled. She passed various types of flowers – tall cosmos, mallow, phlox and many other late-summer plants. Her eyes surveyed the area, taking in the beautiful plants and lush grass that cushioned her paws. She drew nearer to Fleur’s burrow with the surrounding sunflowers that now stood at their full height; the wide variety of herbs that grew underneath them. Blaze finally reached the entrance to the shop. Before going in, she stood on her hind paws, but it was no use. She had wanted to see if the seeds on the sunflowers were ready to be harvested. Instead she let her front paws retreat to the ground as she sniffed at a little plant with many tiny green leaves. Closing her eyes, she murmured "Mmmmmm, mint…"

Entering the burrow, where she was not surprised, for she had been there many times before, to find that it the hole was rather steep. She skidded downwards until it flattened out and stopped before a small wood door, the perfect size for a rabbit. Blaze put a paw on the knocker, and then pulled it back. Something was there that she hadn’t noticed before. A rose carved into the center of the wooden knocker. The rabbit knocked, a sense of unease beginning to form inside of her; although there was no reason to be afraid of Fleur. She was friendly, wise, and the healer of all the wounded rabbits in the meadow.


"Come in."

Blaze slowly opened the door to spot Fleur sitting calmly at her table, her tortoiseshell fur as sleek as ever. She was wearing the silver rose charm on a chain around her neck. Like all rabbits, Blaze and Fleur always had a unique accessory about their bodies that described their names. Her full name was Diamond Blaze, but of course not all rabbits had full names.


"Ah, Blaze. How may I help you?" said Fleur in a soft and reassuring voice. Blaze guessed that this was the tone she used to calm hysterical patients. She carefully leapt out of her chair and took a step forward.

She blinked as she realized the herbalist was waiting for an answer. "Uh, I need – can I have some honeysuckle nectar, please?"


Without a word, Fleur set off for her cabinets, which held vials of strange things even Blaze could not name. She heard the quiet chime-like clank of glass against glass. Soon the sounds stopped; the padding of paws floated to her ears. The tortoiseshell doe hopped back into the room a few moments later. Holding up a clear vial, which at first seemed empty, she put it up to a small window that had bright sunlight flowing through it like water. Now it seemed to be filled with a soft yellow substance.

"There you are, the nectar. Now, are you trading or buying?" Fleur asked.

"Trading," she answered politely. She opened the flap of her pouch to reveal the raspberries and gestured towards them with a paw. Fleur nodded and said, "Very well. That will be fourteen berries, please. I worked hard for that little vial – it’s very hard to harvest honeysuckle nect –"


Fleur was interrupted by the sound of two pairs of paws as they scrambled frantically down the burrow and hurriedly to the door. Blaze half expected that the rabbits would knock, but instead the door was thrown open, and there stood Ruby and Stormsong.
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Voila! Want to read more, don't you?