C.A. Jacobs

Day 12: What does your character do when their day isn’t a normal day? Write a scene where something goes amiss in your characters day-to-day life.

Everyone laughed and joked about how easy the field exercise would be compared to all their training but when inclement weather arrived after the first two days in the field, most of the trainees panicked. The sudden downpour washed away trails and flooded tents. The rain-soaked cloaks, clothes, packs, and boots and left the trainees shivering and irritable. Lemira refused to allow the discouragement and despair of her fellow trainees affect her. She knew wars were rarely fought in ideal and comfortable circumstances which provided her with a sense of purpose to learn all she could about how to not just be reactive during terrible weather, but to turn it to an advantage for the king’s forces. She volunteered to go with the six-person scouting party to search the surrounding area. She never expected to encounter a raiding party of the true enemies of the kingdom.

Day 11: What does your character do on a daily basis? What is their job? Do they have one? Write a scene from a normal day in your characters life.

After the first several weeks of training, Lemira felt as though the life of a trainee was the only one she knew. Physical training in the mornings, a quick wash and change of clothes, breakfast, lessons on history, math, or reading, lunch, afternoon weapons classes, dinner, then collapse onto the bunk only to repeat the same day again. And again. And again. A group of other trainees argued one night over the current week and no one knew. Kalmesh told the trainees about how their pay worked but none of them saw the money they earned. That would happen once they finished the basic soldier’s skills training and moved on to a specialty designated by each trainee’s demonstrated aptitude. Lemira thought every now and again about working towards being a field healer but she knew she would find purpose in whatever job the king’s forces needed the most.

Day 10: Your character has dreams, ambitions, and goals don’t they? What are they? What are they doing to achieve them? Write a scene that shows these aims.

Lemira knew death was a part of life. But she also knew that violent death aimed at increasing the power, influence, or wealth of one nation or group of people over another presented the exact opposite of everything she believed. When rumors of the first raiders arrived in her village, she shrugged them off as exaggerated tales told by passing travelers. But weeks later, when ragged and bloody refugees stumbled into the inn wearing the scars of war and hopelessness, the mysterious raiders became a source of underlying concern for her village on the borderlands of Yabulan, her family’s home for several generations. While the rest of the villagers moved away in shock, Lemira fetched clean hot water and piles of cloth, cleared off tables, and treated the wounded to the best of her ability.

After that day, Lemira vowed to help those who could not help themselves – to treat the sick and wounded and defend the weak. When the king’s recruiters came to her village to draw the lottery and accept new trainees, she volunteered. Confused, her parents supported her decision, though they thought Lemira intended to become a healer and not pursue fighter’s training.

Day 9: How was your characters first kiss? Who with? Where was it? How old were they? Write the scene.

Late in the evening, right after dinner, Kalmesh gathered all the trainees together in order to make an example of two trainees caught participating in inappropriate behavior. As usual, the trainees knew nothing about the purpose for the gathering, but rumors travelled with unnatural speed amongst the trainees. Kalmesh brought the two offenders in front of the entire battalion of trainees which included all four companies and contained over two hundred youths between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. Separated by company in block formations that surrounded the giant training platform in the middle of the training ring, the trainees waited for Kalmesh to inform them who perpetrated the inappropriate behavior and what the standard punishment entailed.

Kalmesh dragged two trainees up the stairs to the platform and placed them on report in front of the entire battalion. Melara, one of only three female trainees, shuffled her feet and refused to look raise her head to look at the trainees while Rumeh, a well-built arrogant son of a wealthy merchant, stared down the crowd with his head held high and a smirk across his face. Kalmesh told the trainees how they were caught in a compromising position which involved partial undress and indecency.

Lemira suspected this had been Melara’s first kiss. Torn between sorrow for the loss of Melara’s pride and innocence and amazement that the two trainees somehow managed to find time to participate in that kind of activity, Lemira watched in awe with the rest of the battalion as Kalmesh described their punishments.

Day 8: What about their earlier school days? Write a scene of your character in grade school or middle school.

School filled Lemira’s early days. She learned basic history, math, and reading with the other children in the village. Classes lasted two or three hours per day, then the children went back to their parents in order to help with family chores and crafts. Not the smartest child in the classes or the dumbest, Lemira sat right in the middle of mediocrity. She enjoyed the history and the reading classes the most but learned to dislike math with a very special passion.

Lemira often thought with amusement about the tavern hosting the classes for the children, but it seemed a logical choice since it was the only building with tables enough to seat all of them. The room smelled like unwashed humans, wood smoke, and warm ale. History and reading remained Lemira’s favorite topics because the history classes usually involved outdoor treks to local battle sites or other places that retained significance away from the tavern while the reading classes consisted only of a homework reading assignment. The students turned their assignments in at the beginning of the class and new assignments handed out based on reading skill level.

Day 7: FREE DAY! Write any scene you want!

Home for the winter festival with her parents, it took Lemira several days to adjust to again sleeping in her soft, comfortable bed. She noticed her brain still maintained that extra sense of alertness but that she could control it by stressing the safety of her surroundings to herself again and again. One night, she woke in the middle of the night after a terrible nightmare. Confused and unsettled, Lemira struggled to identify why she slept in such a soft bed and its location. She recognized the beams across the ceiling in the attic. Home and safe, she curled up into a ball and cried for all the pain her nightmare showed her. Never in her whole life had she felt so helpless as the night of that dream. A dream that would scar her for years to come.

Day 6: How was your character’s childhood? Write a scene about them as a child. How was their home life? Their family? Their upbringing? Where did they grow up? What friends did they have?

Lemira’s childhood felt so far away and yet as though everything happened yesterday. She often remembered instances where she stood up to local boys when they bullied animals or other children. They never pestered her and she felt as though their cruelty extended farther than she knew, but she could affect only the world she saw. She remembered one particularly cruel encounter with Pumenth. She caught him as he plucked the feathers from a wounded sparrow that fell out of the nest. His face twisted with evil glee as he listened to the torment of the tiny bird. Lemira’s heart ached in her chest and even though Pumenth stood a full hand taller, she strode over and kicked him in the shin with all the might of an angry eight-year-old. He hollered and screamed until several adults investigated the racket. The adults didn’t believe him when he denied his crime and Lemira’s parents prepared a special treat for her for dinner that night to show their approval of her actions. Father gave her a public speech about not using violence as a method of correcting the wrongs in the world but winked at her when all the others looked away.

For several days after the incident with Pumenth, Lemira received more invitations for dinner than the usual one or two per moon but she never felt any closer to any of her peers. They all seemed nice enough, but she felt she had a drive they lacked. Demila remained her closest friend but even she felt distant. She’d lived in the village her whole life with her parents and never felt closer to any of the other villagers. If she stopped to think about it, she might have thought it odd, but too many adventures awaited in the nearby forest and too many stories remained for her to dwell on things that didn’t seem to matter.

Day 5: Your character is getting ready in the morning. Write a scene of their morning (or even mid day) routine.

Lemira opened her eyes and listened to the barracks around her. She lay on her bunk, awake and alert for no apparent reason. Her eyes scanned the familiar wood beams across the ceiling and noticed the grey light of pre-dawn as a faint tint against the far rafter. Any moment now, Kalmesh would spring some sort of loud, painful contraption into the giant bay filled with bunks. Designed to scare, startle, and prepare the trainees for the chaos of true combat, the morning alarm tended to have the desired effect.

Except on Lemira. For whatever reason, Lemira always found herself prepared for the morning alarm before Kalmesh entered with the new day’s torment. Strict barracks rules kept the trainees in their beds until the alarm sounded, but Lemira found that those extra few moments of alertness allowed her to take stock of the situation before the axe fell. She also tended to be more prepared than the other trainees because she figured out little tricks like keeping her boots unlaced with the laces tucked into the boots which allowed her to dress faster than the others. She also took the time prior to crawling into her bunk to set up her trainee garb at the top of her pack in a neat pile so she knew the location of each piece of clothing by feel instead of losing time searching for necessary items.

As she listened, she heard the distinct scrape of Kalmesh’s newest toy along the ground. Today’s sounded like he decided to drag in a bag full of kettles from the kitchen. Lemira didn’t identify the precise items in the bag before Kalmesh unleashed the morning alarm.

Day 4: What world does your character exist in? Real or imagined? Scientific? Fantastical? Write a scene where your character is shown in their world.

Lemira knew that Kalmesh trained them so hard only to ensure they survived as long as possible in the war against the Trehakans. He did not encourage and he did not discourage – he existed to teach them basic combat, to forge them into the kingdom’s weapons. The first of several handfuls of girls pulled when the draft men came, she had volunteered. Her parents were confused but supportive. They believed their daughter capable of anything she set her mind to and pushed her to be her own person. She remembered that day – the creak of wagons, the smell of hay and smoke, and the morning chill. She knew her decision then would change and shape who she was to become. She just had no idea it would be this much work.

Every morning at dawn, all the trainees ran through the forest or around the training ring. Rain, sun, or snow, the trainees ran. Sometimes they ran in full practice armor with weighted poles. Sometimes they ran in nothing more than undergarments. The rest of the day alternated between classes and more training, especially the afternoon weapons’ work. Everyone learned basic sword work and in alternating weeks, instructors split each trainee into different projectile weapons courses. Lemira’s arm felt as though it would fall off after spending a week with the spear and her week with the bow had been a blessed relief after that.

Day 3: Think about the character you created for Day 2. Write their seven word biography.

She would fight, and she would win.