Five Sentence Fiction: Armour

First time doing this - Every week, Lillie McFerrin posts a theme on her blog for a FSF challenge. Decided, at last, to give it a go!

This week's theme - Armour.

(Yes, I'm British, so I spell it with a U)

She donned the armour in silence, as best as she could considering she would have to manage on her own. First the leather hide, that part was easy; then plate metal, rubbed in goose fat for lubrication and insulation, for in the North Lands the cold could freeze your bones with just a whip of the wind.

She found that she could move easier than expected, and the magic of the armour changed its shape to accommodate her smaller physique, but as it twisted to the contours of her breasts the hole over her heart remained. The armour could not knit this back together, for the sword that had pierced it had been spelled with dark magic, with runes to degrade and destroy.

Cloaked now in the armour her father had died in, she took up his sword; tonight, her father would be avenged.

The Keeper of Tales, and 7 Sentence Challenge

The past few days have been focused on finishing my latest short story, which I've mentioned in previous posts. Following the feedback received from my writers group (a shout out here to Joanne, Eilis, Niamh and Cathy) and from my good friend Liz (visit her fantastic ezine Wordlegs), the story is very nearly complete. Titled 'The Keeper of Tales', it's about two brothers and their clandestine burial of a body deep in the snowy woods of Germany. As in all good stories there is more to this than meets the eye, and things go from bad to worse when we discover just who - or what - the body is.

I'll give no more away. It's now at a third or fourth draft stage, and I have a few others reading at the moment it for final opinions before I start looking for a suitable market. This, I think, I'll write about next time. There is a fantastic website I have used in the past, sort of like a searchable Writer and Artist Yearbook, which I couldn't recommend more if you are a fellow writer.

As a teaser, I thought I'd take part in a little meme proposed by my good friend Angela Goff over at Anonymous Legacy (you can follow her on twitter at @angela_goff). It's called 'The Lucky Seven Game'.

1. Go to page 7 or 77 in your current manuscripe.
2. Go to line 7.
3. Copy down the next seven lines/sentences as they are - no cheating.
4. Tag seven other authors.

While I don't have seven other authors to tag who have not already taken part (if you'd like to take part and don't have a blogspot, feel free to post in my comments), I thought, what better time to post something from The Keeper of Tales? So, here you have it - seven lines from the seventh page.

Wilhelm curses and pulls me on. The preternatural wind whips up again, the manifestation of her rage; all around us I hear sounds and movement coming out of the snow and the dark; inhuman cries, muddled voices and half conversations. A glance and Wilhelm dodges something I did not see, but I hear him swear even over the cacophony of sound.

‘What were those things,’ he calls.

‘I don’t know, just keep moving!’

‘They’re her, she’s doing this!’

Teasing, right? Hopefully you can read The Keeper of Tales soon as possible, if I am lucky enough for it to be picked up by anyone. Until next time, and thanks for reading.

Matt