Project Dreamer: My Christmas Present to You
This will be my last post for the year.
Today through probably somewhere in the middle of January, I will be taking a bit of a hiatus from blogging and social media. I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and a happy New Year!
Before I close the book on 2021, I wanted to give you all a smol little Christmas gift. It’s nothing big. I don’t have a book I’m suddenly releasing or even a completed story or anything huge and exciting. I might have something exciting for you fairly early on NEXT year, but it’s not quite ready yet, so I’m going to keep it a secret for a bit longer.
My Christmas present to you all is just a tiny little something.
I want to tell you what one of my super secret projects is that I’m working on.
Project Dreamer is a Sleeping Beauty Retelling!
Yep. I’m going for the hat-trick. Stone Curse is already out there, I have a Cinderella story that needs polishing. And now I’m drafting up my own version of Sleeping Beauty.
The details
I’m trying something pretty different for me with this story, so we’ll see how it goes. There are a series of letters interspersed throughout the story. So far, I’m having a blast with it, but I’m really just getting started.
I’m setting it in the same world as Stone Curse, so that’s kind of fun. It’s in a different kingdom and there aren’t any cross-over characters really, but it is set in the same world, and there will be hints in the story to make that obvious. I’m thinking I’ll be tweaking my Cinderella story so that it is also set in that world, which shouldn’t be too hard or take any re-writing.
Like Stone Curse and my Cinderella retelling, this is going to be a novella, I’m aiming at around 30,000 words, but we shall see what happens as the story progresses. I’m getting better at guestimating how long certain stories will be, but there’s definitely some leeway for error.
But just telling you what it is really isn’t that great of a Christmas present… so I’m going to share the whole rough draft of chapter one with you. Because I love you, dear Reader.
Project Dreamer
Chapter One
by
Jenelle Leanne Schmidt
Desperate banging at the door made the knight start up from the chair he had been fixing in the small main room of his cottage. His hand fell to his sword before he remembered that he no longer wore the blade at all times. With a glance at the young page sitting by the window poring over a book, the knight rose to his feet and crossed the room. Quietly, he lifted the sword down from where it hung above the door.
Cautiously, he turned the knob and opened the door a crack. A delicate flurry of pink and gold burst into the room. The knight sighed in relief as the small fairy fluttered past him.
“Briar, you scared me!” The knight set the sword back into its bracket and stomped back to the chair and knelt, his brow furrowed as he studied the leg that had come loose.
“Sir!” Briar settled near the stone hearth and gave a curtsy. “My apologies.” Her voice rang out like a tinkling of bells in her miniature form.
The page looked up from the book, dark blue eyes wide. “Briar! It’s not your day to check in. Has something happened?”
“Yes.” Briar gulped. “Just a moment.” With a wave of sparkles, trailing from her tiny wand, the room flooded with light and a moment later Briar stood before them in her regular size. She was still petite, even for a fairy, but now she stood just under five feet tall. Slender and youthful, her silvery-purple hair glittered as though a thousand tiny fireflies nested in her curls. Her strangely violet eyes danced with mischief and excitement.
“Sir,” she gasped. “The sleeping castle has returned!”
He was on his feet before he knew he had moved. He could feel the blood draining from his face, leaving his skin cold and his head light.
“When?” he rasped, glancing at the page, who stood on tiptoe, eyes wide and curious.
“Just now.”
“Has it been so long already?” the knight sank to his knees. “How fast can you get me there?”
Briar’s smile dimmed. “I can’t take you all the way, you know that. But I can open a door near the western Norvue border with Authelia. It’s only a couple days’ ride from there to the castle.”
The knight nodded, excitement and foreboding brimming within. “Any ideas what we’ll face on the way? Mircalla won’t make it easy to get inside, surely.”
Briar stared down at her feet. “What makes you think she will even be paying attention? It’s been so long…”
“Because she will want to see us fail,” he interrupted. “Now is not the time to become complacent. Just because she hasn’t been able to find us doesn’t mean she hasn’t been waiting for this moment and preparing just as much as we have.”
Briar’s translucent wings drooped. “You’re right. I should have prepared you better.”
“You’ve done all we could have asked.” The knight strode over to the fairy and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve kept us safe here. And don’t forget, you gave me Anghamar.” He nodded at the brightly gleaming sword hanging above the doorframe. “Not to mention the way you helped us in the very beginning. Briar, nobody blames you. Without you…” He trailed off and shuddered, trying not to glance at his page. He had tried to shield the child from so much, but even now he wondered if there was more he could have done to prepare them both. He shook his head. He was getting as bad as Briar.
“We will be ready within the hour,” he said, forcing himself toward more productive thoughts. “Come, Ellis.”
The squire stared up at the old knight. “It’s time?”
The knight felt a rush of pride. The youth’s voice betrayed a slight tremor, but his page’s shoulders were square, ready to take on whatever they were about to face. He nodded. “Yes. It is finally time.”
******
An hour later, both the knight and page rode out into the main yard. Their horses danced anxiously in the pale sunshine, probably picking up on the tension in their riders. Briar looked up at the knight.
“Are you ready?”
The knight gave a single nod. He and his page had been sequestered here in this cottage and the small yard for ten long years. Ten years for him and the page, a hundred for the world outside, and no time at all for those trapped inside the sleeping castle. He was more than ready to see the true sky and feel the bite of a breeze once more. “I am ready.”
Briar waved her ebony wand and the air shimmered as though transparent curtains were being drawn back. The knight took in a deep breath as the constant view of misty horizon suddenly changed and sharpened into a rocky path leading down from the mountains into a dark forest. A sharp intake of breath made him glance over at his page.
“What do you think, Ellis?”
Ellis stared out at the suddenly sharp landscape and took a deep breath as the breeze wafted the scent of pine to them. “It’s just like you described it, sir. I just… I wasn’t expecting it to be so… big.”
The knight chuckled softly. “It’s the whole world, child.” He sobered. “And at the end of that path, a princess is waiting.”
The page nodded. “Yes, sir.”
The knight clucked at his horse and the giant roan stallion moved forward through the veil and into the forest on the other side. The page hung back for another few breaths, and then joined the older man in a darting, breathless rush.
The veil swung shut behind them and the cottage in its little clearing surrounded by tall pines disappeared completely from sight. Briar had also disappeared. Nothing lay behind them except the mountains that separated Authelia from Norvue.
“Have you ever been to Norvue?” the page asked as if reading the knight’s thoughts.
“A few times in my childhood,” the knight admitted. “I had some good friends there.” A pain of wistfulness shot through him. All those friends had died a long time ago now. He wondered if Ritter had ever found his brother. He hoped so.
Shaking off the melancholy thoughts, the knight heaved a sigh and patted the hilt of Anghamar. “Come along, then,” he barked, not unkindly.
Together they rode down the mountain path and into the deep forest. The fresh air and changing scenery lifted both travelers’ spirits, and soon the page began to chatter away, commenting on everything they passed and every animal they spotted. The knight smiled and answered all the questions that came flying his way. But as the hours trudged by, even the page’s youthful enthusiasm began to diminish. They paused to eat some of their rations and water the horses and the knight realized that his young charge had not spoken in some time. He glanced over at the child, wondering if he should be concerned.
“Sir, may I ask a question?” the page asked suddenly.
“You may ask me anything,” the knight replied. “You know that.”
“Yes,” the page hesitated. “But this is one of those things we’ve never really talked about.”
“You may ask,” the knight said. He pulled his horse’s head up from the river and began leading them back to the path. “We will walk for a while and give the beasts a rest.”
The page trotted along. “How did it all start? The curse, I mean. Will you tell me the story as we travel?”
The knight had been expecting this question for a long time. He had always expected it, really. What was most surprising was that it had never been asked before. He had rehearsed answers in his thoughts countless times, and yet, all his carefully planned words fled at the simple request.
Silence stretched between them and the page’s head drooped. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to tell the story,” the knight said gently. “I’m just trying to figure out where to start.”
“At the beginning,” the page replied promptly.
“Ah, but where is the beginning?” the knight asked. “The birth of the princess? The fairy’s curse?” He paused again. “I suppose you’re right though. The beginning. And where this story truly begins is with a letter.”
I hope you enjoyed that! Did you catch the references to Stone Curse?
I am enjoying working on it. It’s fun to write something a little shorter, sometimes. I’m not sure when this will be finished, but it’s fun to be drafting something new again, even if I am splitting my attention between this and like three other projects (Turrim Archive obviously taking all the priorities)!
Do you have a favorite version of Sleeping Beauty? I’d love to hear about it! I haven’t read many Sleeping Beauty retellings apart from the Five Magic Spindles anthology, and Spindle’s End by Robin McKinley.
I hope you all have a lovely set of holidays and can march into January feeling refreshed.
“Merry Christmas to you and yours, from me and all of mine…”