Still writing...

Okay, so as my story had got to a sort of drag-on-side of things, I decided to take it back a step. Instead of them ending up wandering through the Tsingy, I thought, why not let the bandits get them?

So... it looks like Sneak and Aurelia have been captured by the "bad guys" (well, not THE bad guys, just a couple of OTHER bad guys. There's a lot of bad guys around here...) and Karazana and Hery have been dumped into a boat, pushed off into the river and left to starve/bleed/dehydrate to death. Or maybe not, as they may very well wash up on a sand bar and be rescued... Anyhow, their fate will be revealed later. But meanwhile things don't look so rosy for our heroic kits. Sneak is destined for the saphira mines, and Aurelia... well, it's not been specifically declared but it definitely involves some sort of slavery and may involve her becoming a "pet" to... oh I don't know... a rich sugar merchant? Or coffee, vanilla... cocoa... I wonder if any of these are actually native to the island? Does it really matter? My lemurs ride antelope, after all!

Anyhow, I cannot help but wonder if the watching of "Game of Thrones" has made my story take on a distinctly darker edge.

Daily Wordcount: 1,446
Total Wordcount: 60,179

One of their captors stared at him. “You didn't break him, did you Forovato?” He asked. “If his arm is broken he is useless to us. We might as well leave him here to rot.”

The most brutish of the group shook his head, making the bones in his fur rattle. “I only squeezed him a little,” he said. “Weakling.” He spat at Sneak, the globule striking the kit in the face. It trickled down his forehead and into his eye.

Aurelia growled. Her captor cuffed her again. “Be a good pet,” he snarled. “It'll make things easier.”

“If you hurt me,” she snapped, “then I won't be so pretty anymore.”

“That is indeed true,” her captor agreed, his voice deceptively mild. “But we can hurt your friend. He's as good as useless to us anyhow, not worth more than a flawed stone.”

“He's worth twice any of you!”

Her captor gave a slight nod to Forovato. Flashing his teeth, the large lemur seized Sneak by the scruff of his neck, lifting him off the ground. Forovato slashed him across the cheek. Pressed his claws against the injured kit's throat.

“You want me to kill him?” He asked, looking not at her captor, but straight at her.

Aurelia shook her head and dropped her eyes. “No.” She whispered.

Given my tendency to use Malagasy words for the names of the lemurs (although sifaka get French names), each of the "names" actually means something. Basically, I go through the Malagasy dictionary here malagasyworld.org and find a word that describes the personality or nature of the character. I suspect if anyone translates them back, they might be quite amused at how unflattering some of these names are.