Tail of Two Scions: An Update

As some of you may know, I am halfwy through writing (what I intend to be) a trilogy. Entitled "Lemurs (A Saga)" it follows the adventures of Aurelia, a mostly Silky Sifaka who is orphaned and fostered by ringtailed lemurs, in Ifaty on the west coast of Madagascar. It is an (or hopefully will be) epic fantasy novel, with lemurs. The lemurs have a culture that is a hybrid between that of real-world lemurs, the Malagasy people and a healthy dose of pure imagination. I blogged extensively a few years ago, when I wrote the first draft of "Fellowship of the Ringtails" (book one) for the Southern Cross Novel Challenge in 2011.

I am pleased to say that, despite my rather negative posts towards the end of June 2011, "Fellowship of the Ringtails" DID have a future and HAS been published. Even if no one has bought a single copy in any of the formats.
If you wish to actually buy a copy, here's where you can acquire it from:
Amazon (in paperback and ebook format)
Kobo (epub format, with the illustrations in COLOUR)

Anyhow, more because I want to than because I feel anyone will want to read it, I am working on book two: "Tail of Two Scions". I wrote the first draft for this back in NaNo 2011, and blogged about that too but then ended up deleting the entirity of Aurelia's side of the story (although I am still really very fond of Rakoto's, and shall keep that).

Essentially, the storyline of book two follows two characters -  Aurelia, the true (albeit illegitimate) heir to the royal throne and Rakoto, not a true heir, but by Madigaska rule, the official heir to the royal throne. Hence the "two scions" of the title. Rakoto's story is set entirely (so far) in Narivo, the capital city whereas Aurelia's needs to be set in Bemaraha, the grand tsingy, where she has joined a scholarly collective of lemurs that call themselves the Karazana.

Here the problem lay. I did not really have a good grasp on where Aurelia lived, and what she could be doing there. Obviously she needed to be doing something vaguely interesting - as I am sure that the reader would not be particularly enthused about hearing everything about her daily lessons, but that if I just skipped all that and got straight to the bloodbath* climax, then the reader would feel cheated too. So, I experimented. In the original plot, she went off with a bunch of other lemurs and travelled through the tsingy and rode on a hippopotamus, got captured by a mandrill and a bunch of other stuff which seemed like a good idea at the time, but in retrospect seemed kinda silly and took the plot off on a wild-mad and completely unnecessary (excepting for wordcount) tangent. Then I dilly-dallied around with some other stuff in which nothing much happened.

Finally, the problem occured to me - I needed to better understand how the Karazana worked.
So, I got myself a personal wiki via TiddlyWiki and then I popped along to TiddlyToddler to learn how to use it properly. And I started brainstorming. That worked pretty well - I wrote out a timetable for the Karazana Novices, I made a list of Rules, I worked out different Punishments and then started writing. First goal - to see how many rules Aurelia could break in the first few pages (only about three, but they were pretty serious ones, and she's currently up to eight, including breaking some twice).

This has worked out rather better. In fact, I'm starting to get into a sort of fairy-tale mash up now in which there are elements of Billy Goats Gruff, Jack and the Beanstalk, Hansel and Gretel, Beauty and the Beast and maybe a touch of King Kong thrown in for good measure. I might be able to manage Arabian Nights as well.

I intended to work on this side of the novel for SocNoc 2013, but due to various other events (ie: finishing the final edit on book 1) I did not get started writing properly until the 15th June. Halfway through. Therefore I am attempting what they call "HalfNoc" (25k). It is still feasible that I could write 50,000 words in the remaining 8 days of this month, but it seems unlikely.

Word count when I started: 32,096

Words written since 15th June: 15,454

So far Aurelia has: climbed a stone spire to steal an eagle's egg, fallen and given herself a concussion, been assigned "dung duty" (exactly what it sounds like) as her punishment, befriended an antelope calf (actually, it's a goat, but the lemurs don't quite have my knowledge of taxonomy), rescued antelope calf from a "troll" and now been captured by aforementioned troll.

The troll is a mandrill, the antelope calf is an aoudad, or barbary goat and Aurelia is going to be in a whole lot of trouble... with any luck, these events will work to be tied in with later events. We shall see. Otherwise, I guess I'll just cut them out again and relegate them to another "removed story" text file.


* This ain't Game of Thrones

A Tail of Two Scions, update

Story currently at 47k words. 2123 of which were written today.

Noir is such a bastard. And Rakoto's thread - which is darker, so much easier to write than Aurelia's relatively light (for now) thread.

In an effort to actually get the story going somewhere, I skipped back to Rakoto and his new tutor, the sadistic Hunter, Noir. Noir has been charged in training Rakoto (whom he now calls Ombra) and takes great pleasure in hurting him - both emotionally and physically. He is, as you can see, trying to break Rakoto's will.

In this passage, his fellow hunters have captured the one armed sifaka, Eloise, who befriended Rakoto earlier in the story. He gave her a gift - a jewelled collar, which she attempted to trade for medicines - as her and her fellow orphans are sick and hungry, and pretty jewellery is of no use to them (Rakoto didn't think, when he bought them). Unfortunately, the hunters that saw her thought she must have stolen the collar, and dragged her to their Alpha for judgement. Noir, in an attempt to break Rakoto's spirit, has brought the youngster to the sentencing. Upon realising that the two knew each other, Noir was very, very pleased, for here was a new tool in his "breaking Rakoto" arsenal:

Noir smacked him across the back of the head, making his ears ring. “Of course he would. And thus, your little friend,” he spat out the word, and glared at Eloise, “is guilty of receiving stolen goods, or at least goods acquired by foul means. Therefore, she must be punished. Now, I see we cannot take her arm – because she has already lost it. But we could take her other arm.”

“No!” Exclaimed Rakoto. Horror flooded through him. “Can you not punish me instead? I am the one that purchased the collar in the first place.”

“Oh,” Noir purred, “but you had faith in your tutor, and took the saphira in ignorance and innocence. Besides, you are of noble blood, and she is nothing.”

There is no logic to be argued here, Rakoto realised. He is not doing it to punish her, so much as to torture me. Oh, he will hurt her, I do not doubt that, but the more I protest, the more he will understand how it hurts me to see her hurt, and thus the more he shall hurt her to hurt me. The thoughts were painful and complicated, and Rakoto felt sick to the very pit of his stomach. He wanted to throw up. He wanted to just close his eyes and have this nightmare end. But that, of course, could never be. He hung his head and averted his eyes from Eloise.

“So,” said Noir with a devilish grin. “How would you see her punished?”

Rakoto felt like he had swallowed a rock. He knew how Noir worked. A few days ago, the black sifaka had caught a bird and asked the youngster what he should do with it. When Rakoto had replied, “set it free,” he had snapped its neck and declared that “you, Ombra, are a snivelling coward,” slapping him in response to his cries of protest and adding, “now it is as free as it can be.”

He gulped, considering. He had to come up with something dire enough to satisfy Noir's sadistic streak, but not so severe as to result in Eloise's deminse. Of course, there was no predicting how Noir would react, or whether he would pay any heed to Rakoto's words, but he had to try. He glanced around the clearing, seeking inspiration and his eyes alighted on one of the bamboo cages.

“She should be incarcerated,” he said, “overnight, for her main crime is ignorance and trust, and one should not be maimed for that.”

Noir studied him for a long moment, so long that Rakoto felt his knees go weak and wondered if he might faint. What if he doesn't accept that punishment? What if he kills her anyway?

“Very well,” Noir said, after a long, painful moment. “Incarceration shall be her punishment.”

Rakoto almost collapsed with relief.

“However,” added the black sifaka, “she shall be incarcerated for three nights, and the little finger of her remaining hand removed, as a reminder to her that as a lowly urchin, she should never accept gifts – nor the gift of friendship, from those of higher worth.”

Eloise gave a little squeak of alarm at her sentence, and would have tried to run, but for the rope about her neck, holding her in place. She locked her eyes onto Rakoto, and he could feel her gaze boring into him, even though he dared not meet it.

She made no sound as she was dragged across to the cage, her good hand spread out over the bars. Noir took his slender, sharp blade and pressed it against the knuckle and, with a deft slice, severed her finger. She gasped then, swaying and almost fainting with the pain. The two Hunters, who had both looked away as Noir made the incision, heaved her up into the cage, and one of them handed her a wad of cloth.

“To staunch the bleeding,” he said, “press it against the wound. We cannot have you dying on us.”

“Not before your three nights are up, at least,” Noir added, tossing the severed finger in the air and catching it. He shot a grin at Rakoto. “Another for my collection, Ombra. See, it is not only the ones I've killed. I am not entirely heartless."

Lemurs: A Tail of Two Scions

The completed front cover for volume two of the Lemurs Saga - A Tail of Two Scions. It features Rakoto and Aurelia. Rakoto is a colour mutation of diademed sifaka and Aurelia is a silky sifaka/diademed hybrid, which is why she has golden arms.

In volume two - which is yet to be finished (and volume one has not been published yet either, still editing it) - the story begins with Rakoto, the six month old son of the Usurper Queen. He barely knows his mother - having been raised by a foster mother and his aye-aye tutor. However, things are not looking good in the capital city, Narivo, and discontent and war are settling over the land of Madigaska. Off to the west, in the sanctuary of the Stone Forest, Aurelia is undertaking her training as one of the Karazana, the sisters. But her peaceful existence is about to be shattered in a nightmare of violence, blood and loss. This is the first trilogy I have ever set out to write, and I am finding book two to be a bit of a struggle - it's got to be a good solid story on its own, whilst also providing a "bridge" between "Fellowship of the Ringtails" and the third volume, which I don't have a name for yet. Suggestions welcome. I like puns, and as you can, see, Lord of the Rings references. It could be "Return of the Queen", but that's a bit crap. And, to keep the trend, it should *probably* contain the world "Tail". But I'd rather have the world "tail" in the middle since the other first time it was at the end, the second in the beginning. Hrm... ponders. Currently considering "The Silky Queen", "The Rise of the Silky".

In volume three, Aurelia will likely be journeying to Narivo, and maybe into the saphira mines of Ilakaka, to rescue her kidnapped friends. There will also be an uprising in Narivo, led by Misokoso, the one-eyed crowned lemur. I haven't devised the plot too fully yet.

Mahay, the Mongoose Lemur

Mahay is a river "trader". He travels the Tsibirhana river withhis family, collectig adn trading items along the way,

He is also a Mongoose Lemur, an animal that is classified on the ICUN list as "vulnerable" and therefore qualifies as  my endangered species for today.

More Madigaska art

Today was quite a busy day for me. I had to go to the Doctor and the Dentist and I also made lots of art. Oooh, and baked biscotti and made dinner.

Then went to see the Avengers. Which was a pretty awesome movie!

Anyhow, here's the art, they are all drawn for my book "Fellowship of the Ringtails" and are ATCs, and thus available to trade.

This here is a Pied Crow.

Chike, the Vervet Monkey

Kaikitra the Fossa

And this one I made yesterday - or maybe the day before -

It's Mena, the poorly drawn Mongoose lemur...

A Lemur a day for the month of May

Wouldn't that be nice? A new lemur ATC every day of the month.
Well, I can't promise a lemur a day, but I can promise a lemur today.

This is Blanche:

 

Blanche is the daughter of a Counsellor and lives in the charming tree-city of Belo-Sur-Tsiribhana. She is a species of lemur that is commonly referred to as a Decken's Sifaka but in my novel she's called a tsibahaka - that's the Malagasy name. It's also the Malagasy name for her closely related species - the crowned sifaka. Not to be confused with the crowned lemur to which it is not at all related. Blanche befriends Aurelia on her journey and masquerades as her sister. The two species are not related - Aurelia is a silky simpona, more closely related to the diademned and Milne-Edwards species.  It's kind of odd because the two species fit the same description, but when you see them side by side, you can't mistake one for the other. I think Silkys have broader heads and their faces are more a greyish-pink (they turn pink as they age) whereas Deckens are pure black. Deckens are less endangered too, and more widespread. Whilst Blanche is pure white, Deckens can be splotched with colour. Of course, if you've noticed in the latest pictures of Aurelia she now has pale golden fur on her arms and legs. This is because her father is actually a diademed sifaka. And "Aurelia" means golden, too.
 
But enough about Aurelia, let's talk some more about Blanche. Blanche is a higher class of lemur than Aurelia is used to. She is sophisticated and likes to keep her fur clean. That does not mean she can not be persuaded into the occasional adventure! Her favourite hobbies are sunbathing, grooming and gossiping.

Blanche will be available for trade.

The Epic Lemur novel

Argh, they've gone and reformatted blogspot on me. I liked the old layout - I was used to it!

Anyhow - where have I been, you might ask? Well, I've been working on my Epic Lemur Novel and preparing book one for release. Indeed, I am about to order my first proof copy. Very exciting stuff! It's still quite incomplete - I'm missing the map and several interior illustrations, but I wanted to get my hands on a physical copy for editting the text. It is so much more satisfying to edit in an actual book. Whilst I can use the kindle somewhat for labelling mistakes, actually writing on the paper is easier. Also, the most exciting thing in the world is holding the first printed copy of your manuscript. Seriously, it is!

So, what can you expect from "Lemurs: Fellowship of the Ringtails"
- around 80k words
- a number of almost full-page interior illustrations, all black and white, featuring the characters and creatures of Madagasika.
- and, of course, Epic Fantasy - with lemurs.

Here's a piece I made for the first page (I made it in colour, but it's greyscale in the book, of course).

Formating this novel was a fun learning process and I now know how to use OpenOffice rather more succesfully. GONE are the page numbers from the first six pages. They start at page 7. There are NO PAGE NUMBERS on the pages with the illustrations and the page numbers all follow on consecutively. This may not sound very exciting to you - unless you have spend hours cursing at OO and trying to work out how to do something that you are are sure should be basic. If you would like me to teach you how to do it, please let me know!

Now, to bed! Tomorrow I have rather a few more illustrations to begin on.

In no particular order:
- Chike the vervet monkey
- Blanche the white sifaka (not a silky)
- ring-tailed mongoose
- Kaikitra the fossa
- pied crow
- Mena the komba (adult male)
- Ophelia, Kelyloza and Aurelia
- also a few pieces of lineart for the chapter endings that have too much blank page!

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 24

Wordcount: 2,051
Total Wordcount: 51.708
Percentage: 103%

According to OpenOffice, I am finished. According to the Validator, I have another 70 words to go.

I shall finish it tomorrow. And there will be celebration. And muffins. Definitely muffins.

Rakoto has had his first lesson in fighting, met Eloise's brother, Roland and also had his first glimpse of the Alpha Hunter, Noir.

And all this before breakfast. His breakfast, that is, not mine. I wrote this between breakfast and heading to work - just to get matters straight.

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 23

Wordcount: 1,481
Total Wordcount: 49,657
Percentage: 99.3

Almost there! Another day and I shall have crossed the threshold and then will have to write another 2k words or so to get the official wordcount. No matter - I've plenty of time - almost a week and the story seems to be flowing okay.

Aurelia has faced off against the kinaoly, but where is Kelyloza?
Rakoto is learning how to fight. It is not going to do him well.

Bit of fun today, because I want my city of Narivo to somewhat resemble the actual city of Antananarivo, so I've been looking on google earth. Alas, no streetview of Madagascar, but Earth shows me the contours and all, so I can see which bits are ridges and which are gullies. As the editting begins, I shall create the city in more vivid colours -maybe even rustle up a map.

Tomorrow, shall hopefully be a day of celebration.

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 22

Wordcount: 1,385
Total Wordcount: 48 176
Percentage: 96.4%

So close... And the plot has hardly moved very far at all. Aurelia and her team are messing around in the Tsingy, where she appears to have now befriended the mandrill that may possibly have killed her friend (accidentally...). I need to finish this chapter and get back to Rakoto.

At this rate, it might be a trilogy yet. Can I tie this up in another 25000 words or so? Time will tell...

But now, I need that thing called sleep.

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 21

Wordcount: 2,186
Total Wordcount: 46, 791
Percentage: 93.6%

And we're into the home strait now! I'll be done by friday at the latest - with the wordcount at least - if not the story - which still has a loooong way to go.

I have nothing profound to say today.

Goodnight!

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 20

Wordcount: 1,898
Total Wordcount: 44,605
Percentage: 89.2%

I would have liked to finish on 90% today, but alas, the chapter I was writing is complete and it is time for that elusive thing called sleep.

I am wondering where this story is going - like Part one - which I wrote in June, it is moving at what seems to be a snail's pace, yet is hopefully interesting enough to keep the reader entertained and for each occurance to have some relevance to the plot. I am just not yet entirely sure what.

In today's instalment, Aurelia has discovered that her diminutive friend has been captured by a mythic beast referred to as the "kinaoly". A kinaoly is: A horrible looking elf of folklore. Or, in this case, a troll - well, actually, it's a mandrill. Now, the purpose that this mandrill serves is unclear. Rumour has it, that he is a cruel and malicious being who slaughters and eats lemurs at the least provacation and is dangerous and should not be messed with... The bones and assorted other debri scattered around his lair are testament to this theory.

But.. I'm not yet convinced. The monkeys (vazaha) are outlawed by royal decree and any found living in Madigaska is likely to be killed on sight. So, who is to say that this mandrill is not simply hiding in the Tsingy and wants nothing more than to eat durian and scorpions and be left alone? Current theory is that he was a crew-hand on one of the ships that sailed neared the coast - and being dimwitted and easily manipulated, wound up getting dumped by his companions. Then, he stumbled about, trying to befriend the local lemurs, merely to find himself attached and chased away - beaten with sticks and burned by fire. He ran into the Tsingy to escape the vicious lemurs and immediately got lost. He likes the tsingy - nobody tries to hurt him and he's found a place with plenty of food, water and a nice private cave system to make into his lair (ok, bit of abnormal behaviour there). But... sometimes he gets lonely... So when the little tsidy stumbles into his territory, he decides to keep her as a sort of friend/pet because she can tell him lovely stories and keep him company.

Except it appears that he's about to have Aurelia drop on him from above and stab him in the throat while he's asleep. Not very sporting, I know.

So, without further ado, I give to you the Kinaoly:
(it's dark, so Aurelia can only see in monochromes)

This was clearly the kinaoly's lair, and it had made some effort to add some homely touches. It was open to the sky, moonlight streaming down to illuminate the great beast crouching in its centre. The floor was covered in a thick layer of dried grass, with scraps of cloth and torn lambas littered across it. There was a wooden bucket and a wicker basket filled with fruit. Durian fruit, Aurelia noted. He must have visited the pond. I wonder whether it was before, or after, we left? I am glad we did not run into it then.

She watched a while longer. The great beast did rather resemble Chike, she observed, at least in general shape. But if he were a monkey, he was truly a monster of the monkey world. His large, muscular body was covered in a short pelt of dark fur, which thickened into a shaggy made around his neck and shoulders. Pale fur fringed his belly. But it was his face that startled Aurelia the most, for it truly was the face of a monster. He had been turned away from her, so that she could only see the back of his head, but something caught his attention, and he turned around, to stare directly at her.

His face jutted out into a long snout, framed by large circlets of pale flesh, as though he were wearing a plate on his nose. The skin that ran between them was a darker colour, maybe red, Aurelia surmised, although moonlight had diluted the colour from the world. Two great black nostrils flared at the end of the snout, and he moved his head slowly, as though trying to locate her with tiny, dark, oval eyes. She drew back instrinctively, although surely he could not see her, not with the moonlight behind him and nothing but shadows behind her.

“Smell company?” He said, his voice low and deep, but plaintive too, as though he were a kit asking his mother a question.

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 19

Wordcount: 2.007
Total Wordcount: 42,786
Percentage: 85%

I have actually composed more like 3000+ words today, but I deleted that extra 1000 that I had hanging on the end and getting in the way. They were starting to annoy me. I am still going steadily, but the plot is crawling and I have a feeling some heavy editting shall be involved in the next few months. Instead of publishing this one to use with my coupon (should I get it), I shall instead concentrate on completing "Midsummer Knight's Quest" and purchase that with my 5x free copies. But first... I have to achieve 50k.

I'm running much on par as I was with NaNo's past. Last year, at this point, I was *almost* finished. With SocNoc, I was struggling - I ended up deleting around 5000 words from that story. Still, the ones I put in instead were better.

I don't have any interesting quotes for today. So have some art instead:

Seal/Penguin hybrid


Gryphon composed of Waxwing and Genet.

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 18

Wordcount: 2.088
Total Wordcount: 40, 779
Percentage: 81.6

You might be excused for thinking I was finding this NaNo a romp in the park -a walk down easy street. You'd be wrong. I've reached the midmonth doldrums. That is to say, the story has ceased to flow and I am now having to force the words out of my head and my heart. The characters have decided to stop sitting in my head and barking orders, and have decided to sneak off and have a delicious meal of banana custard and rice, with vanilla rhums.

In some ways, the conceptualising is still working - I have a vague idea of where the plot is going, but no great handle on how to get it there. Still, I'll get through this, and tomorrow my wordcount might even be up to 90%.

Yeh, we can dream.

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 17

Wordcount: 1,062 (1,752)
Total Wordcount: 38, 691
Percentage: 77.4%

Why the number in brackets? Cos that's how many I would have written had I not decided to delete a bunch and rewrite the scene. Anyhow, it's better now. But I think I'll keep those extra 690 words tacked on the end, because the official wordcount validator and my Open Office wordcount are having a disagreement to the cost of over 1300 words. I think it must be the "-" I have been known to use on (every) occasion. Perhaps if I went through and replaced them all with ";" my wordcoutn would decrease significantly.

Hrm, let's try that (and save first!) - count = 38,584 - so that lost me about 100 words.
Now what happens if I delete all the "s - wordcount= 37,316

What does the official validator currently say? wordcount = 37,321.
And what do I get in Microsoft word? 37,319

I guess we see what is more accurate. Does anyone know how I can set OpenOffice to stop counting "s?

Once I get the wordcount up to around 52k, then I can delete the excess words cos it will make the wordcount >50k.

Anyhow, I should quit goofing around and get some beauty sleep. Although I did get around 10 hours last night. And I still ain't anywhere near beautiful.

Rakoto and Kary (a gentle lemur with a bad case of mange and baldness):

“Aww, no need to be embarrassed,” said the kit. “We all make mistakes and you're just too nice. You always think the best of lemurs. That's why greedy sods like that kotrika, he take advantages with you. Miso, he was just looking out for you. Tryin' to teach you to not be so gobble.”

“Pardon?”

“Gobble, you know, not to believe what everyone tells you is always the truth.”

“I believe you mean 'gullible'?” Rakoto corrected.

“Yeh, gobble. You're gobble.”

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 16

Wordcount: 925
Total Wordcount: 36,939
Percentage: 72.9%

I am very tired tonight. Possibly because the neighbour's decided to have a domestic at 11.30 pm (resulting in the man shouting VERY loudly and with very foul language before storming out and speeding off in his car - I hope to cool down). And then it stormed - wind and rain rattling the windows and roof. By the time I left for work the sun was shining, and it has been a lovely day overall.

But I did not get a lot of sleep.

So here's some lemur facts to entertain you:
(from Smithsonian)

Lemur expressions:

• Staring open-mouth face: The eyes are opened wide, the mouth is open with the teeth covered by the lips. This occurs when mobbing a predator or serves to communicate an inhibited threat.
• Staring bared-teeth scream face: The eyes are opened wide, the mouth is open with the corners drawn back so that the teeth and gums are revealed. This display occurs with terror flight.
• Silent bared-teeth face: The eyes are staring at the stimulus, the eye brows are either relaxed or up, and the corners of the mouth are drawn back allowing the teeth to show. This is used to communicate submission or a friendly approach. <- THEY CAN SMILE!
  
• Bared-teeth gecker face: Similar to silent bared-teeth face only with a rapid noise attached to it. This display occurs during subordinate flee-approach conflicts and also when an infant is bothered.
• Pout face: The eyes are opened wide and the lips are pushed forward such that the mouth resembles an "O" shape. This occurs with contact calls and also occurs with begging.
• Hoot face: The lips are pushed forward to resemble something called a "trumpet-mouth.” This display occurs with long-distance calls (e.g. territorial calls).

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 15

Wordcount: 1, 816
Total Wordcount: 36,040
Percentage: 72%

I declared tonight that I could not go to bed until I had written at least 1000 words. Then Rakoto took over and out poured nearly 2000. Awesome!

Rakoto learns why naive highborn sifakas should not visit the markets by themselves and has his first run-in with Misokosoko. Ah, Miso is fun. He's more cynical and scornful than I expected him to be.

Rakoto frowned. “What do you mean?”

The kotrika sighed. “I mean you get good deal, excellent deal,” he declared, plucking the saphira from Rakoto's hand. Too late, Rakoto realised that it did indeed take the scruffy little lemur both hands to hold its weight. “Now, you want me wrap 'em or take as is?”

The little rat's cheated me, Rakoto realised. “Azafady, I would like it wrapped,” he declared. He pointed at a neatly folded blue kerchief, tucked under one of the belts. “In that.”

“But that is genuine silk!” The kotrika declared. “I cannot just give it away.”

“And why not?” Came a low voice from beside them. Rakoto whirled to see the one-eyed varika had sauntered over. He crouched beside the kotrika's stall, tail draped over his shoulder. The vivid circlet of orange fur, partnered with the silk eyepatch, made him look both dangerous and sly. “You've just pretty much robbed him in front of everyone.”

The kotrika sputtered. “Robbed him? I never! This is honest business, it is.”

“It is?” The one-eyed varika cocked his head. “And I'm a mongoose's uncle. The kit's a naïve little highborn and cos he's as dimwitted as a drongo, you've just skinned him. So give him the damned piece of cloth and his belts and know that you've gotten the leafy end of the stick.”

The kotrika glanced about to find many pairs of eyes upon him, he hastened to wrap the two belts into the piece of silk. Shoved it at Rakoto. “There you go,” he said.

Rakoto reached out to take it, but the varika interrupted. “No, you ain't done yet, kit. I reckon as this cheeky bandit here oughta toss in that mirror and that there comb. Unless he wants me to go singing to the Queen's Hunters about how as he's skinning the...” he winked at Rakoto, “prince an' all.”

Rakoto startled. He was not used to being recognised and identified as a prince – his own mother failed to acknowledge him. And whilst he did spend much of his time in the company of the Queen's advisor, it seemed generally assumed that he was an apprentice or runaround.

“Prince?” The kotrika stammered, shaking his head.

“Didn't ya see him in the parade yesterday? All fine and fancy with his blue collar and all?”

The kotrika's ears flattened and his tail sagged. He shoved everything together – the wrapped belts, the comb, the mirror and a small carved goblet. “Take it,” he said, “go, go. You done good from me, you did. Really.”

Rakoto took it, and hopped away, bemused. It was a lumpy armload and he rather wanted to set it down. Also, he could not stop shaking. But he could not give into such urges yet, because the varika had followed him.

“Misaotra,” Rakoto said, his voice wavering.

“Well, you can thank me,” declared the varika. “But thanks ain't much to a one-eyed homeless chap like meself. I done you a good turn, I reckon you owe me one now. You don't be wanting that comb or that mirror, do yous just?”

“No, I suppose I do not require them. Here, take them – they are yours. You have more then earned them.” He held them out to the varika.

To which, the varika slapped him in the shoulder, hard enough to send him staggering over. The weight of the collars unbalanced him, and he toppled into the dirt. Cowering into a ball, he hugged the bundle to his chest.

“What,” he whimpered. “What are you doing?”

A crowd had gathered, as crowds do around such an unexpected example of market theatre.

The varika loomed over him, close enough so that Rakoto could smell the spice of his fur and see the distain in his one eye.

“You is just gonna give it to me? He snarled. “Not even try to argue? You is soft,” he snarled. “Like a baby bird fresh from the nest. Just waiting for the mongoose to eat you. And she'll gobble you up. You've gotta grow teeth and learn how to use them or you ain't never gonna be nothing more than the Queen's little pet.”

With that he scooped up the mirror and the brush, nudged Rakoto hard with his foot, and scampered off on three limbs. The crowds parted to let him through and began to disperse. The show was over, and no blood had been spilt. A vague scent of disappointment hunt in the air.

Rakoto picked himself up, shook the dust from his fur. He was scared, but worse than that, he was humiliated.

“I shall find you, you one-eyed scoundrel,” he growled. “And I shall show you that I do have teeth and I know how to use the... Ow!” A small, hard fruit had whizzed through the air, striking him on the cheek. He whirled in time to see a small lemur, his bald head hidden beneath an oversized hat. The little lemur laughed, and darted away.

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 14

Wordcount: 1, 683
Total Wordcount: 34, 224
Percentage: 68%

Okay, so now my lemurs are riding on the back of a hippopotamus in a special submersible construct.

I think I might be going officially crazy.

Or as the lemurs say it - "adala".

Just like Tristan...

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 13

Wordcount: 2,627
Total Wordcount: 32,541
Percentage: 65%

Today I completed my requisite 1000 words before breakfast, ate and went to work. Work gave me time to think, to mull over what I had written and to work out a manner in which to revise it - to make it more interesting - hopefully a little more entertaining and to introduce Tristan, the saarcastic avahy who talks to bats. And, as it turns out, has a pet hippopotamus called Mathilde.

*gasp* You say - what is she doing introducing hippos to Madagascar? She's already added antelopes - how far can she stretch reality?

Well, folks, I hate to tell you this - but this IS a novel about lemurs that talk and live in tree houses and sail boats and things. I don't think realism is going to count.

And besides, hippos once lived in Madagascar. Sure they were "pygmy hippos", but a mere 2m hippo is going to be a monster to a 40cm (excluding the tail), lemur - isn't it just? Anyhow, the pygmy hippo (there were 3 species, maybe not closely related) became extinct years ago - except that the Malagasy people still tell tales of it. Kilopilopitsofy were what the Malagasy folk called it. But I think Mathilde is easier to remember.

“Crocodile!” Aurelia shrieked, grabbing Astrid and pushing her back from the pool's edge.

Something immense appeared from the water, directly beneath the paddling lemurs. A great, gray shadow that rose and rose. Contance's fingers closed about the rope. She clutched it and began hauling herself along as Ngara braced against a rock. The ankomba tugged with her teeth and hands. Astrid scurried to help her, and Aurelia followed, wrapping their hands about the coarse fibres, pulling and pulling for all that they were worth.

Constance reached a semi-submerged rock, hauled herself onto it and leapt for shore. She scampered up onto the rocks and crouched. Her fur hung in dripping clumps – the waterproofing oil no match for the complete dunking.

“Tristan,” she gasped. “We have to safe him.”

The beast rose from the waters. A head like a rock, cracking open into great gaping jaws lined with spear-like tusks and a gret, purple-grey tongue. Beyond that, the dark maw of a throat that looked big enough to swallow a lemur. Whole.

“Tristan!” Astrid cried, lunging forward. “Where is he? I cannot see him!”

He must have been dragged beneath it, Aurelia realised, crushed by that massive bulk. What is this monster? Is this the kinaoly?

The creature lunged forward, head dropping back down into the water, so that only the eyes and the upper snout remained above water. On its head, between its bulging eyebrows, perched a small brown sifaka.

Tristan stood and shook himself, then reached down and touched the creature's head. It walked to the shore and he hopped off and onto a rock.

“My friends,” he said. “I would like you to meet Mathilde.”

So yeh, i've added hippos.

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 12

Wordcount: 3,266
Total Wordcount: 29,914
Percentage: 59.8%

Discovered today that the NaNo Validator and I don't agree - Open Office says I have nearly 30k, Validator loses me about 1k. So I'll have to overdo the mark. Still, that doesn't seem a problem. I'm at almost 60% and it's not even halfway through the month yet.

Today I crippled a character. Badly. I broke her back. I'm not sure why, except that I had trouble spelling her name and I kinda wanted to cut down the amount of characters I had PLUS a bit of dramatic sadness is always useful.

I also packaged up a bunch of art cards to be posted out on monday and set up a store on facebook so that people can buy my cards and stuff. Also, ordered more things through Visaprint. This time I actually had to pay for some of them.

And I finally finished this picture:

It's Niirsha from the excellent novel "Petal Storm" by Paul Kidd. According to his website, they're supposed to be tiny people with like four arms, antennae and wings, but since the descriptions kept mentioning chitin etc, they're bees to me. Anthro bees. And to all those that disagree - I'll set a giant jumping spider on you!

But I did give her hair. I think it kind of suits her.

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