So I'm participating in the
Love At First Sight Blogfest, organized by the lovely
Courtney Reese.
For those of you new to the idea, a blogfest is when someone comes up with a scene topic and anyone who wants to participate writes a scene (or takes one from an existing piece) and posts it on their blog for all the world to see.
This one is, clearly, about love at first sight scenes (appropriately for Valentine's Day). Or, if you don't have a love at first sight scene, it can also be when your characters realize they love each other.
I thought I had plenty of scenes like that in my writing. But it was hard to find one. Most of my short stories are not of the happy variety (about 90% of my shorts are horror-esque) and though Foxfire had a few, they were both lengthy and would require too much build up and backstory.
So I looked at my previous WIP (the one stalled at 70K).
This one had a few options so I went with one scene that looked pretty solid.
The only editing I did on it was spell check so this is how it looks in the unfinished first draft.
I tried to include as much conversation as required to make sense of the scene. I hope you can follow along...
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“When we got attacked by the wolves, back at the alley,” Joachim began, “you changed your form.”
She nodded but continued to watch the fire.
“Is that something you’ve always been able to do?”
“Yes. You did not notice when I changed before?” she asked.
“You looked like one of them,” Joachim said. “Like one of the wolves.”
“I don’t look like them. They look like me.” Cilka clarified. “And now I look like you.”
Joachim saw that Cilka had changed her appearance to once again look more human, her fur gone, her mane replaced by hair and her claws with fingernails. She had gone back to the woman he knew. The woman he loved.
As soon as the thought entered his head he found it to be true. When he had seen her fall into the river and not resurface he had felt such a moment of loss the closest association he had was when Jen had lost the baby, and then he had lost Jen. He had loved Jen. And now he loved Cilka.
“You told me that you loved Arenna,” he said to Cilka. “That you would have died for her, given the chance.” Joachim turned to face her. The firelight danced across her skin and created patterns and reflections of movement.
“Yes.” Cilka said.
“Is that why you spend so much time with me? Am I just her to you?”
She turned to face him. “You aren’t her. You can never be her. She was a unique creature that no human could ever encompass.”
“But you said-”
“I am a creature of the moment, Joachim.” She rested a hand on his leg. “You have to be when life just goes on and on. I tell you this so you can understand that when I say I house guilt over Arenna’s death, you can understand that, for me, to hold onto any emotion for such a length of time is an anomaly. That is how much I loved her. She changed my very nature. I am no longer what I was before I met her. My kin would not recognize me now and would see me as a broken creature, to feel as I do over a being that was destined, as all things are, to end, to die and return to dust and earth once more.
“When I first saw you, I knew immediately you carried Arenna’s blood. I see it in your skin, taste it on your breath. You can’t imagine what it is like, to have loved so greatly so long ago and to have just a glimpse, a reminder, of that love again. It hurts so much. And yet, I would experience it over and over again. Because you are all I have left of her.”
Joachim nodded. It was the longest speech he’d ever heard from Cilka and it was full of lovely and painful words.
“I understand,” he said and noticed how the black polish on his fingernails had chipped.
“Joachim.” She reached two fingers and lifted his chin so he could look into her eyes. “I already told you that two things cannot be one and that you are not Arenna. But even if you carried nothing of her in you, I would still love you as you are.”
She leaned forward and kissed him gently upon the lips. She tasted of good things, rosemary and mint and he was reminded again that she smelled like cedar and dry leaves in the fall.
He wondered if it was possible to love a monster.
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So there you have it. I hope it wasn't too confusing and I think I accomplished what the blogfest was meant to do.
Now I'm off to read the other entries.
