100,000 Words - (No)NaBloPoMo Day 27

Historic moment, my treasured blog readers. I just wrote 100,000 words of my second young adult novel and put them in some semblance of a format. I may have even spellchecked.

Here's a snippet:

From where I lay, I could see the bottom of one soft black leather boot. My eyes peered up. And up. The boot went thigh high. Above the boot were dark green leggings, a skirt made of raw leather skins, and a glimmer of sharp metal and white gold hair.

Afraid to move from my spot on the floor, I cowered at the feet of the slender woman occupying the middle of my bedroom. 

She rose up on her toes and then settled back upon her heels. She cocked her head to the side, lifted one eyebrow and her violet eyes stared down into mine. Her movements rolled with sinuous grace and raw power. I knew right away she was not of the Earthen. 

“By what name are you called?” the woman asked. Her voice sounded like chocolate milk. It took me a heartbeat to realize her mouth had not moved. She spoke to me inside my head in that language, the one that I didn’t understand except I did. The one Alsaece had used. The language of the Lost.

“I am,” I gulped, “Danielle. I am called Danielle.” I squirmed backwards and shoved myself up to a sitting position, my back leaning against my bed frame. I spoke aloud. I barely had gotten used to Dylan hearing my thoughts, let alone whomever this woman was. I saw no need to throw a party for strangers inside my brain.

“I seriously doubt,” the woman purred, “that I would choose to attend any party of yours, even if you begged me to come.”

So much for privacy. And my party-hosting self-esteem. 

The air quivered on either side of the woman and separated like curtains. In the dark empty space that remained, two enormous lionesses appeared. They looked like Alsaece, the SiniCat, except different. They were white as snow, for one. And for two, red runes etched into the sides of their necks and ran down their forelegs. They stared at me with deep violet eyes. Their tongues flicked like lizards before the hunt. For the first time I’d been face to face with Sydcats, live and in person.

I hunched as far back as the side of my boxspring would allow. In the past six months, I’d survived a lot of dangerous encounters, the one with the Drakken most notably, but this was in a league of its own. 

I knew instinctively that this woman before me was one of the most powerful beings I had ever met. Maybe even as strong as Qilin, the Unicorn, and that was saying something. One drop of Qilin’s blood could unlock any door, and one hair from his shining mane could empower a creature from the Earthen to see Fyire. When I had met him last year, I’d been completely overwhelmed by his immense presence. 

But I knew Qilin was completely and utterly good. I knew as surely as I knew myself that he would never harm me. So although I was overwhelmed, it was with joy, and pride at standing by his side. 

That was not true now. 

Now, all I felt was a towering and pure danger. I could feel its heavy touch prodding me, testing me from all angles. The level of potent force in my bedroom was so gigantic, I couldn’t even be afraid. 

If the being before me wanted to do me in, I knew I was a goner with one wag of her little finger. Or claw. Now that I looked more closely, her graceful hands might actually be tipped with claws, judging by her dagger-pointed fingernails.

“Do you know me from your dreams?” the woman interrupted my mental tornado. “Have you seen Tekel and Ursch in your wanderings?”

I grunted a sort of unintelligible mumble. Because truth be told, I did know her. I had been her. Tekel and Ursch had been my loyal SydCat guard. 

I had worn the soft leathers the woman before currently had on, and I had felt what it felt to kill an enemy in cold blood. I had felt her power course through my veins and the pulse of the serpents twined around my arm like minions glowing with the excess of my power quivering beneath my skin. Seeing and hearing and reporting back to me like the loyal servants they are. 

I knew what it was like to breathe in and out knowing that nothing could stop me. That no creature could withstand the brutal force of my will. I relished and coveted that strength. I could taste how much I wanted it on my tongue and my skin twitched with my desire to possess it. I felt like an addict circling around my own special kind of poison.

The woman smiled at me, that kind of smile that sends chills up through your shoulder blades. “What do you call me, when I fill your thoughts?” asked the woman. The dragons twisting around her forearms spiraled, looping to face me, not quite in unison. Their color shifted from blue to an iridescent green. Four glowing reptilian eyes blinked to stare into mine. I shivered.

“I’m sorry,” I said, the sound of my voice coming as a complete surprise. My mind was so far behind processing the scene I think my mouth just decided to strike out alone. 

“I’m not sure what to call you that is the most polite.” I spoke with wide open eyes and what I hoped was a sufficiently humble expression. There was zero way I wanted to upset the woman or her two sharp-toothed and gigantic Sydcats.

“You may call me Cornelia,” said the woman after a pause. “Most call me Queen and grovel at my feet. But you. You are, of course a friend of the family.” 

I tried not to act surprised.  “A friend of the family?” I repeated, hoping for some clarification. 

Tekel licked his teeth with a blood-red tongue and Ursch cocked his head to the side.