King's Warrior Read-Along: Chapter 4
Good evening and welcome to Chapter Four of the King’s Warrior Read-Along. We’re almost a week into this adventure. If you’re just joining us, I am reading through my first book: King’s Warrior, through the month of December. Our pace is a chapter a day, and each evening I post my thoughts, some background information, and various other interesting trivia about the writing of the story and such. I’m also posting discussion questions, and answering any questions you might have as we read along.
Today’s chapter is a bit shorter.
The Travelers: the journey so far has been fairly smooth. They have not encountered others along the way, and the road has been easy. However, as we join them today, the path has become steep, rocky, difficult, and is about to lead them into a dark cave.
Two of our stories are about to intersect, as it just so happens that the cave they are about to enter is the one that Yole is about to leave!
“A shock went through Kamarie as she felt a recognition of something long forgotten shoot into her.” Kamarie’s first encounter with Yole is fascinating. Something buried deep within her recognizes something in Yole. And something about her causes Yole to trust her completely. We’ll learn more about that later.
“It was sometimes fairly easy to forget that Darby was even there.” Okay, okay, I admit it. During the first draft of this story, I actually DID sometimes forget that Darby was there. I had to add in a few lines for her after the fact, and this particular sentence is me having a bit of a laugh at my own expense.
“I don’t have any use for sheep of my own.” Oh, I love Yole! And he makes me laugh.
“Did you ever consider, young man,” Darby spoke up, “that perhaps they were in the wrong?” I love Yole’s innocence. I love that the difficult nature of his life has not done anything to make him bitter or angry. He is absolutely convinced that he is treated unkindly because he has broken some rule he was unaware of. None of this, however, prevents him from longing for a normal life, a family of sorts, a place to belong.
The Sword. Oraeyn is only out of sight for a moment by the others’ reckoning, but when he returns with the sword in his hand, it is apparent that something about him is different. This is a place of great magic, perhaps Oraeyn experienced more time passing within the ring of rock than the others did outside it? Honestly, I’m not sure what all Oraeyn saw, heard, or felt in there, but something convinced him to pick up the sword.
Brant. Here we get a glimpse of some back-story for Brant. We are not sure why he was in the Harshlands, or from whom he was fleeing, but we get to witness the moment he met Kamarie’s father. I enjoyed interjecting these moments into the story as I was writing it. I believe it was about here that I started to have a glimmering of an idea as to how the story was going to end.
Q&A
Jack wants to know: Would it be possible to tell us what the first draft was about? I've been getting more and more curious.
Certainly! Do you mind if I go ahead and work on that as a separate post for once the read-along is over? I don't think I can do it without giving away too many spoilers for those who are using the read-along to read the story for the first time.
Discussion Questions - I don’t have a lot of them for this chapter:
- I’d love to know what you think of Yole at this point. (Or what you thought of him the first time you read it).
- Oraeyn now holds the Fang Blade... which means, of course, that he must be a descendent of King Llian. What do you think of that? Did you see it coming?
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments, and I will answer them in a later post! Have a lovely weekend! (I’ll still be posting through the weekend, don’t worry! But I know that weekends can get busy, so I understand if you don’t get back here until Monday).