Greetings and welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less.  I’ve been sharing from my work-in-progress (one of them); a reimagined fairy tale based on the story of Snow White.  And behold, I have finally reached the end of the second chapter! Or almost, couldn’t quite fit the last few lines into this snippet.  So now I get to decide if I continue with this story, or switch to something new.  We are getting close to the exciting hunt scene….Currently, Gabriel is facing the unpleasant realities of his homecoming.  You can read last week’s snippet here.

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Tristan raised his voice to a shout, “Bring my brother a bow and quiver, and prepare the horses! The hunt is on!”

Servants materialized out of the mist like wraiths, and a few noble men stumbled out of the main tent, brushing cake crumbs from their beards and swilling the last dregs from their goblets.

Gabriel decided the stag had little to fear from this sodden band, but Falkner and his men hadn’t been drinking and would be there to bring down whatever animal a drunken lord or duke failed to shoot. The thought made him queasy, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Hunting was a way of life—the way of life for many in Rosenthal—and he’d just have to reconcile his aversion to the society he found himself in. His boyhood games of pretending to communicate with woodland creatures were just that, games and make believe; not something for a grown man to carry with him into adulthood.

Still, he’d always preferred the company of animals to men, and that hadn’t changed. The hunt felt like fighting on the wrong side of a war.

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Okay, I know these are knights preparing for battle, not aristocrats preparing for a hunt, but isn’t it nicely moody?

Blurb-in-progress for Snow, a reimagined fairy tale:

Following the death of his mother the Queen, Prince Gabriel is called home by his brother, now King. Gabriel hopes for a reconciliation with his estranged brother, but all is not well at Castle Rosenthal. King Tristan has fallen under the sway of a scheming alchemist, the magical denizens of the bordering Black Forest are on the move, and Gabriel begins to fear for his life. Is the handsome huntsman in on a plot to assassinate him, or is there an even darker, more evil force afoot? A forced flight into the Black Forest may expose ancient powers at work, if Gabriel can survive long enough to uncover them.

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Weekend Writing Warriors is a blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less.  Click the link to check out the other writers participating today.  It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book