Weekend Writing Warriors – The Rose-Spar Ladies 9

Welcome friends, followers, and Weekend Writing Warriors!

This week, I’m sharing eight more sentences from my funny fantasy adventure, “The Rose-Spar Ladies.” I’m skipping ahead a little: Cromeve and two of his old comrades from adventuring days are heading off to burgle the old man’s house and get back the Rose-Spar Lady statue that Cromeve sold to him years ago:

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Just a few minutes after Vorray had assured them it was only another mile to the old man’s house, there was an unearthly howl that echoed across the road. “A groaning spirit!” Vorray grumbled loudly.

Dennys planted his long staff in the ground. “Groaning spirits are well known to represent bad luck.”

“It wasn’t really a groan; more like a howl,” Cromeve said.

“Well, it could be a howling spirit,” Vorray said. “Are those a thing? I bet they’re bad luck too.”

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Weekend Writing Warriors – The Rose-Spar Ladies 8

Welcome friends, followers, and Weekend Writing Warriors!

This week, I’m sharing eight more sentences from my funny fantasy adventure, “The Rose-Spar Ladies.” So far, Cromeve has ruined one of the priceless carved ‘Lady’ statues, which he gave to his wife as a present. Then he went to visit an old friend…

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“But that does leave one member of our band, and he’s just down the road half a mile.”

“Come on, if you think we need a conjurer… surely we could find a better one now.”

“Certainly we could.” Vorray stirred the contents of his pot, and a savory smell tickled Cromeve’s nose for a moment. “How much would you be wanting to pay a better conjurer, and how long do you want to look for him?”

“Okay, so forget other conjurers. Are we actually better off with him than without him? This is the man who could never come up with a good spell at the right moment in all the years I travelled with him.”

“Well, he’s gotten better since then.”

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Weekend Writing Warriors – The Rose-Spar Ladies 7

Welcome friends, followers, and Weekend Writing Warriors!

This week, I’m sharing eight more sentences from my funny fantasy adventure, “The Rose-Spar Ladies.” So far, Cromeve has ruined one of the priceless carved ‘Lady’ statues, which he gave to his wife as a present. Then he went to visit an old friend…

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“Just the two of us?” Vorray asked.

“Any idea where the Ranger got to?”

“Oh, they buried him out near Blueing Lake.”

“He’s dead?” Cromeve blurted out. “I suppose if he weren’t before he were buried, he would be soon after.”

“Killed by a pig.”

“What, like a wild boar?”

“Farm sow.”

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Weekend Writing Warriors – The Rose-Spar Ladies 6

Welcome friends, followers, and Weekend Writing Warriors!

This week, I’m sharing eight more sentences from my funny fantasy adventure, “The Rose-Spar Ladies.” So far, Cromeve has ruined one of the priceless carved ‘Lady’ statues, which he gave to his wife as a present. Then he went to visit an old friend, who tries to get rid of him…

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“If I leave without you, I’ll go to the Baron,” Cromeve said quietly. “I’m sure he’d love to know more about why his wife and daughter died.”

Vorray sat back down, or tried to. He misjudged the position of the chair, ended up with his bottom on the dirty floor, and pointed an accusing finger up at Cromeve. “You would dare? Of all the ungrateful, unjust…”

“Give me one more thing to be grateful for, and I will never consider it.” Cromeve leaned closer to the thin man. “And I’d only be telling him the truth, about the curse and the gold circlet. 

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Weekend Writing Warriors – The Rose-Spar Ladies 5

Welcome friends, followers, and Weekend Writing Warriors!

This week, I’m sharing eight more sentences from my funny fantasy adventure, “The Rose-Spar Ladies.” So far, Cromeve has ruined one of the priceless carved ‘Lady’ statues, which he gave to his wife as a present. Then he went to visit an old friend…

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“We’re going to rob Old Man Ustit.”

That made Vorray sit up straighter, and some of the food scattered around his feet. “Now, wait a minute; I never burgled *people*!”

“Well, it shouldn’t take much for a clever man like you to work it out. You studied with the best thieves in the land, didn’t you?”

“So sorry you’ve come all this way to no avail, old chum, but it’s out of the question.” Vorray staggered to his feet. “I’ll be pleased to have you to dinner, for old time’s sake, but then you simply must leave.”

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Weekend Writing Warriors – The Rose-Spar Ladies 4

Welcome friends, followers, and Weekend Writing Warriors!

This week, I’m sharing eight more sentences from my funny fantasy adventure, “The Rose-Spar Ladies.” So far, Cromeve has ruined one of the priceless carved ‘Lady’ statues, which he gave to his wife as a present. Then he went to visit an old friend…

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Vorray was sitting on a wooden chair by the fire, (though it was a warm evening,) drinking out of a dull tankard. “So, mister burglar. You have fared well, these past four years.”

“I suppose.” Vorray picked something up from his lap and brought it to his lips. Cromeve couldn’t quite see what it was, but guessed at a delicacy that he couldn’t afford. “Respectable pillar of the community–keeps me very busy.”

“You’ve grown lazy, living off the fruits off our adventures.”

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Weekend Writing Warriors – The Rose-Spar Ladies 3

Welcome friends, followers, and Weekend Writing Warriors!

This week, I’m sharing eight more sentences from my funny fantasy adventure, “The Rose-Spar Ladies.” So far, Cromeve has ruined one of the priceless carved ‘Lady’ statues, which he gave to his wife as a present.

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Cromeve gathered all his old adventuring gear, and left the bindle in the corner of his roughly made wooden trunk. There was only one thing to do now.

The most direct route to Fairmere wasn’t the easiest or safest. But Cromeve was short on time, and he’d spent enough time hunting in the wild forest that he could hike through ten miles of game trails with some confidence. He had to climb over several fallen trees, get out from under one that fell on top of him, and scare off a bear, but that was just another day in the woods.

Finally he made it to the small well and crossroads around which the village had formed over a century. Cromeve had been to Vorray’s house a couple times, and assumed that his sense of direction was good enough to lead him back, but apparently it wasn’t finely tuned enough to civilization, (yes, for Cromeve a village of a hundred buildings was quite civilized,) or there’d been enough changes to throw him off, and he needed to pay a little boy a half-copper to give him directions. For that, he got personal guide service right to the doorway.

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Weekend Writing Warriors – The Rose-Spar Ladies 2

Welcome friends, followers, and Weekend Writing Warriors!

This week, I’m sharing eight more sentences from my funny fantasy adventure, “The Rose-Spar Ladies.”

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Cromeve and his friends had saved villages from giant insects, done battle with an evil sorcerer, and chased off highwaymen. But mostly, they’d crawled through some of the most miserable underground tunnels you could imagine looking for forgotten gold.

The two Rose-spar Ladies were the best treasure Cromeve had found in his years of adventure. Each one was no taller than his hand from wrist to fingertip, and their resemblance to noblewomen in elegant gowns was better if you squinted at them. There wasn’t much to each lady’s face than a button nose and the impression of sunken eyes.

But they’d somehow been fashioned from incredibly delicate pink stone. Cromeve rather thought the ladies had been made by wizardry, for no other reason than he couldn’t imagine anyone managing to carve them with ordinary tools. One mistake, one fault in the rose-spar, one chisel blow a fraction too hard… and the craftsman with would have only had a collection of shards like the one in his bindle.

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Weekend Writing Warriors – The Rose-Spar Ladies 1

Welcome friends, followers, and Weekend Writing Warriors!

I’m switching to a new story for this week, a funny fantasy adventure, “The Rose-Spar Ladies.”

 

It would never have happened if Cromeve hadn’t tried to clean the house.

As he tried to mimic what Aledell did with the dusting rag, a corner of it caught one of the knickknacks on the hearthstone, which bumped into another, which sent the Rose-spar Lady tumbling to the hard floor.

Cromeve gathered the pieces of rose-spar into a pile on top of the dusting rag and tied it up into a bindle, and muttered to himself, “her own fault for leaving the lady out in such a precarious spot.”

Cromeve hadn’t always been a husband and farmer. To tell the truth, he wasn’t much of a farmer even now. He managed to gather some corn and vegetables each year, and raise a few animals, but it weren’t really enough to support the family. But a little hunting in the wild forest with the bow and arrow put more meat in the pot, and he did odd jobs for the other farmers along the path, clearing heavy obstacles, digging holes, and helping out with building just about anything.

Once, though, he’d been Cromeve the Sturdy, valiant warrior and the most beloved adventure-seeker in the Fearless Five.

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