W1.3K

A doubly-productive weekend for me. I did some much-needed work on Voices of Wonder and also wrote approximately 1,300 words on Wetsilver over the weekend--which is good, seeing as how anything I write over the weekend counts as bonus. I got over the rough patch that stalled my production Thursday night, fortunately, but the going is still tedious. This is a character chapter, it turns out. Several new characters have been introduced--characters I wasn't expecting--so I'm finding out about them along with potential future readers. I wonder what role they'll play in events yet to unfold? In any event, this is one chapter that I'm sure will undergo extensive cleaing up once the book is done and my subconscious sowing of future plot seeds becomes apparent.

Jachym, for his part, doesn't care about any of that. He's still trying to get over the fact that he isn't quite as rid of Gauthier as he'd earlier thought:

Jachym took his hand and climbed up onto the bench, gripping its edges with white knuckles.

"Go on," Radek nudged him. "Help your friend up."

Without looking, Jachym held out his hand.

"Hey now, Stinkbug! You weren't thinking of leaving without your best buddy, were you?" Gauthier said, taking Jachym's hand and pulling himself up. He sat beside Jachym, reeking of sweat and fresh horse manure. "You wouldn't last half a day out there without me looking out for you."

"Stinkbug? Why d'you call him Stinkbug?" asked Radek with entirely too much interest.

Jachym gave Gauthier a withering glare.

"Why? Because he comes from a long line of Stinkbugs. His matka was a Stinkbug, his otek was a Stinkbug," Gauthier said, ticking off his fingers. "Just smell him! Smell him and tell me he's not a Stinkbug."

18,500 / 90,000 (20.6%)

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