The best big brother ever is turning seventeen today!
I love you, Spencer! Thank you so much for everything you help me (and all of your family) with, not least of which is keeping this blog up and running. You’re awesome!
Happy birthday!
Monthly Archives: April 2016
“The Sacrifice”: Part twelve
Part twelve! I have a feeling you guys are going to freak out about this one. . .
The Sacrifice 
Part Twelfth: Alone
Penelope stumbled onward, up the slope before her. Tripping on tree-roots and fallen logs, and large rocks, slipping on small ones. Branches and thorns tore at her clothes and skin, pine-needles slid beneath her feet—she scrambled blindly forward, her vision blurred by tears. She finally reached the end of the hills, with the mountains, rocky and frightening yet majestic, rising above her; and got her first glimpse of the dragon’s lair:
April Fool’s Day
So. Yesterday was April Fool’s Day, and it would have been the day to try and convince you guys I was publishing a book or we were adopting a sixteen-year-old from Ethiopia or something crazy. That sort of thing.
(I’m realizing in retrospect that I should have posted a fake part of The Sacrifice and had Penny die. Your comments really would have been hilarious. 🙂 )
But the fact is: April Fool’s Day always drove me insane–probably because I’m the most gullible person on the plant (don’t say it, Ellen. I know I’m blonde, thanks.) And I promised myself once (I think it was last year) that I was not doing April Fool’s Day stuff on my blog. Just not.
So, here we are. No April Fool’s Day jokes. It’s just not how I work.
What’s your take on April Fool’s Day?
“The Sacrifice”: Part eleven
Happy April, y’all! Can I say it’s officially Spring now?
I love Spring!
Anyway, The Sacrifice:
The Sacrifice
Part Eleventh: Hard
The familiar ride ended at the hills, somehow seeming longer and yet shorter than before to the Princess. Brother and sister dismounted at the edge of the very first of the tree-clad slopes. Neither thought to keep hold of their horses’ reins, but Captain and Snowflake stood still and watched them, as if aware that this moment was a solemn one for their masters. Both humans stood and looked at the ground, unwilling to break the silence.
“I have to go,” said Penelope at last.
“I know,” said Henry. Slowly he reached out and hugged her. “This is harder than dying in dragon-fire,” he said softly, as she pulled away from him.
“I am sure it is,” she answered, gently. “But we have to, Henry.”
“I know,” he said again. “But it’s so hard.”
“Of course it’s hard. And your part is harder.” She wasn’t quite sure this was true, but she said it anyway. “But you have to stay. I—I’m dying for these people. They shall need a King. Help them. . . when I’m gone?”
“Sure, Penny,” he answered, halfheartedly. “Anything you like.”
“Anything except forget me?” she teased sadly.
“Right.” Something that might almost pass for a smile flickered across Henry’s face as he brushed windswept strands that had escaped her braids out from between their faces.
Penelope closed her eyes as his hands played across her face. It had always been her and Henry. Did she have to do this? Would anyone blame her if she didn’t? Probably not, but that wasn’t the point.
She shook the thought of turning back out of her mind as she shook her brother’s hands off her face. She gently placed her hands on his shoulders and craned her neck to kiss his cheek before she turned her back and marched up, into the the foothills. She could hear Snowflake whinnying for her like crazy, but she never turned around. She had said goody-bye to her brother as best she could, she would not ruin it by looking back again now.