Sentence Sunday

[alanajoli]

melissa_writing has declared a Sentence Sunday. Since I haven't done one of these before, I'm posting her whole explanation here.

Rules:
For those of you new to this game, here's how it works:

1) It's done on a day that includes "-day" as the last three letters.
2) You pick a bit of text in keeping w the request. (Today it will be page 123)
3) You share.
4) You tell us what you like abt it.
5) We all get to read.
6) There's a tendency of others to reply to each other. (I like this, btw.)

THE REQUEST: Again, the request this time is "page 123" . . . Go there in one of your manuscripts. Start at the first full sentence, and give us a short excerpt.

My Excerpt:

I thought about doing one from Into the Reach or Departure, since those are still hard to track down, and I know not everyone has read them. But my desire to show something new won, so this is a bit from p. 123 of the (still unedited) manuscript for Regaining Home.


“Tell Nara I tried,” the halfling whispered. “The Krieggs spotted us. Maybe twelve of them. Knew we were watching. Tried to save them.”

Pareesa felt the blood draining from her face when she realized what he meant. “All the scouts?” she whispered.

The halfling tried to nod, but his head lolled back in her arms as he let out a final, shuddering breath. Eoin rose, swearing, and walked back toward the wall. “Tell the healers it’s too late,” he said. “We’ll walk around to the gap. Keep the archers guarding us until we get back in, just in case they’re planning an ambush.”

He walked back, each step angry as it pounded the ground next to her, rocking through her body as she held the blurry form in her arms. She blinked her eyes to clear them but didn’t speak. Eoin tried to take the halfling from her arms, but she resisted, trying to stand and carry the tiny man’s weight on her own.

“You said they’d be all right,” she said tightly at Eoin.

He looked out at the Reach around them. “I thought they would be,” he said. “I’m sorry, Pareesa.” He reached out again as she struggled with the weight and removed the small body from her arms. This time, she let him.

As they walked along the wall, voices called down, most of them recognizing the halfling, Frass the stable keeper, and calling him by name. They watched as the General carried the body, and Pareesa could see on their faces that this treatment marked Frass as a hero. Others realized what it meant that only Frass had returned, and he, too, was dead. When she and Eoin finally reached the gap in the wall, right along the Wild Way, pointed directly toward the Stones of War, a procession awaited them. They took the body of Frass and carried him through the streets.

Pareesa ducked between the wall and one of the houses and threw up.

What I like about it:

Writing an all-out war was a new thing for me, an undertaking that was much bigger than I realized it would be. So in order to handle something that *big,* I tried to capture little moments of it that would show the scope, but also make it personal. I think it worked.

Your turn
melissa_writing has an excerpt up from Ink Exchange. Six or eight other writers (I was going to list them, but there were too many) have played back over in the comments, so there are plenty of excerpts to read today!