More Filler: A chapter from my first novel!

I'm not sure how many of you know about my novel. It was something I wrote in sixth grade, then ignored in seventh, found in eigth, and completely rewrote and expanded it.

The premise was this: It was a sci-fi story, set in a time when humans had colonized seven different planets. The original humans had staged a mass exodus from Old Earth to Newearth and left the remaining people behind to fend for themselves for a few thousand years on a planet that had been stripped of minerals and left for dead. The remaining people had no choice but to revert to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. As time passed, plants took back over, animals began to become more abundant, and human settlements became more scattered. By the time the book starts, the people of the planet have interbred so long that they have become a brown-haired, brown-eyed, mildly psychic race of tribal people who live and work with animals that have grown to be three or four times their size on average due to a lack of competition.

The main character is the bastard daughter of an emissary from another planet. Her "father" hates her, and is an abusive drunk. She leaves the planet and joins their exploratory fleet, but is haunted by her bitter chilhood and feels like she has no home. Eventually they were supposed to go to a planet overrun by dragons, crash land, and have to live alongside them...

Does it sound like an Anne McCaffery ripoff? It is, which is one of the reasons why it took me so long to write it. I wanted it to be new.

But, I do have to say, in retrospect, that it is probably a good thing the story got destroyed in a 350-page devouring twist of fate. There are some good ideas in the remnants, however. Maybe one day I'll write just the story of Old Earth, skip the starfleet bullshit, and then write the story that this novel was originally meant to be a prologue to, which I won't get into now.

Anyway, here is a dream sequence from the book where the main character is remembering part of her childhood. The dream sequences were the best, since back then I had no fucking clue how to write dialogue. In short, I hope this isn't too painful, and remember: I was in seventh grade. I've left the entire thing as is, so be gentle in regards to grammar and word choice. ^^

She laid in bed, wide awake, waiting for the sounds coming from the other rooms to settle down and fade away. From her brother Mesyr’s room across the hall came a soft humming; he had just discovered that his singing impressed the girl he liked, and had been practicing every chance he got. Alannai smiled at the sound, focusing on it until all others had stopped and it was the only thing she could hear. At last it too trailed off, and the entire house was silent. Still she waited- her father was getting better at pretending sleep, trying to catch her when she went out at night. And she wasn’t in the mood to face him tonight- or to wake up the house with his bellowing.

It had been a good day. She had managed to stay out of his way until he was off working in the fields, so it had just been her and her mother all morning. Some of her younger brothers had come home for lunch, and they had all sat out under the big tree in the front yard and laughed and talked- nobody had pretended to hate her to escape her father’s wrath. It had been a nice feeling.

Everything seemed different when he was gone. Sometimes she wondered what would happen if he died, but knew better than to wish for it. Things like that came back to you. Someday, she knew, father would get what he deserved, but right now Chad was still too young to take over the family. Alanai wouldn’t want him in charge, anyway; he disliked her as much as her father did.

After lunch the boys had decided to go on a hunting trip, and Mesyr and Brujhm asked her if she’d like to come along. She had gladly agreed, and had impressed them all with her skills. For some reason she could tell where animals were, how they felt at the moment, and whether or not they were a threat or felt threatened, so had easily managed to keep the party out of danger. She was also responsible for finding three of the four bucks they had felled. They were young males- not the ones with the many-branched, sharp antlers and the angry eyes who had long since discovered they were larger and more powerful than their hunters. So, no one had gotten hurt, and several families had succulent venison with their dinner- with enough left over to cure and use for pack provisions. Alannai had been pleased because the others had given her a respectful nod before heading home with their share of meat trussed and slung over their shoulder. Feeling accepted was a new experience; she had enjoyed it greatly.

It had all gone downhill at dinner, though. Father had come home and promptly gotten drunk, so the meal was spent in terrified silence. Brothers that had been kind to her hours before now refused to meet her eyes, or even acknowledge that she existed. All but Mesyr; but ever he didn’t dare tell Father what an important role she had played to get the food on the table. In his irrational state he probably would have thrown it all out the window.

So the feeling of loneliness and sadness had returned and grabbed hold of her once more.
Alannai laid quietly in her bed, comfortable with the sensation of non-belongingness, biding her time carefully, waiting to escape for the one place she felt she could fit in.

After a few more minutes she decided it was safe after all. Rising quickly, she re-dressed in her hunting leathers, grabbed her pack, and jumped out her open window, landing cat-like on the soft grass below. She was running almost as soon as she had landed, heading down the path and out of the village. All the houses were dark and silent, and for a moment she felt like she was the only one living in the entire village. For some reason that made her feel a little bit more sad and alone. Why should she care if they all died or went away? Flames burn them all.

All but Mesyr, she corrected quickly.

Soon the village was far away. Soon the woods had dropped behind her and she was on a large plain, completely flat for as far as she could see in front of her. The sky rose and loomed large about her, the stars gleaming coldly down from it. Alannai paused and stared in wonder. She had never gone this far from her village; she had always thought the whole of Old Earth was covered in trees. Never had she imagined such a large, blank span of land to be possible. The Native in her was terrified and wanted to run back to the safety and protection of the trees; it understood what was out there, and that she had a far smaller chance of surviving if she stayed in the open. But a small voice deep down began to tell her to keep going, run farther, see more. If this much empty land was possible, what was next- a vast river that stretched as far as the eye could see?

The grass swished rhythmically about her as a breeze kicked up and whipped her loose, lower-back length hair against her, then out to her left. Alannai shut her eyes and inhaled deeply, enjoying the new scents. The air here was fresh and free of the dankness of rotting leaves and the rich dirt of the fields. If life had a smell, she thought, it would be this.

A low growl sounded from her right. She whirled quickly, drawing her stone knife, and soon found the shape of a large feline crouched in the grass. It was a young lion; if standing it would probably only be as tall as her at the shoulder, though Alannai knew it would get easily twice as big as that when grown up and still be considered small.

She knew better than to run; instead she stood and stared into its huge, surprisingly intelligent eyes. They were a vivid green, rimmed with brown, and by looking in them she realized the poor thing was just as startled as she was. It must have been asleep, and her running had woken it. Alannai knew it was wary; she sensed that it had never seen a human before and wasn’t sure whether or not she was dangerous.

“Please,” she murmured softly, not taking her eyes off his. Big, furry, ears pressed back slightly across his head, then perked forward, tuning in on her voice. “Please,” she repeated, “Let me pass. I will not hurt you.” Would that work?

There was an excruciatingly long pause, but Alannai realized she wasn’t afraid; if it had planned on eating her, it would have pounced while her back was turned. Still, the encounter had drained all the adventurous spirit out of her. She backed up slowly, making sure her movements wouldn’t startle him, then headed back for the village. She would return some other night, when she felt brave again.