Day 12: 3418 (Book total: 5312, NaNo Total: 111,349)

Oops. I was so tired last night that I forgot to post.

I talked to Russ tonight about a strange problem I seem to be having. I wrote 10k a day for 10 days. It took me right up to midnight, and I often fought to get the number at the last moment.

Now I'm doing about 5k or less a day for the second novel.

I'm working right up to midnight to get the number at the last moment....

I can't say that I'm doing much more outside of writing, either. Sure, a few things but not so much as I would have thought. Where did all the free time go?

Sigh.

Day two snippet:

He moved up to the closest building, listening at the wall. Nothing. Up to another and heard the sound of a woman singing to her child, and the baby laughing with delight. She had a lovely voice.

He left that one more slowly, his hands shaking. If he sent this coordinate....

Up to the next one.

"We can't get Vender back, Tallie. I'm sorry. There's just no way to break him out of their jail, especially not with the IWC troops here now. We don't dare go near town."

"He's a fool. He should never have tried to reach them," a woman said, her voice shaken. "I told him --"

"I know, I know. But all we can do now is wait. The net is holding, and we're not going to be found that way."

"Damn Narada. We can't give him any more."

"It's not what he wants anyway."

Someone moved too close by. Feather had to pull away from the building and slink back along the edges of the settlement. He tried other buildings, but nothing gave him any more answers. He went back later, but heard nothing at all, except the whisper of crying.

Left the village then, slid back into the woods -- shaken.

So shaken that he ran into trouble almost immediately. He should have realized that these people would be out collecting plants from the woods.

"Intruder!"

Damn, damn, damn!

He started to run, counting on his abilities in the woods and his dark clothing to hide him if he could get clear of --

Bright flash of light and a sudden stinging pain along his right calf: He went down, cursing at the pain of the laser burn. They had the weapons, all right.

He got back up, ran limping -- and making far too much noise -- into the woods to the right. They followed. He ran farther, looking for something -- something --

He chased an animal out of the underbrush. Not a balis, which might have gotten him killed. Instead, something big and fast went charging off into the underbrush.

He took that moment to find the nearest tree, lean back against it, and stand very still, waiting.

"Over there! I can hear him --"

"Doesn't sound like --"

But the others had already changed direction, charging off after the creature. The last man paused, and Feather could see him barely two yards away. If he turned... Feather tensed muscles, ready to leap, and trying to ignore the pain in his leg.

"Damn. We aren't going to survive this one," the man said, almost a whisper. "What the hell does Narada want from us?"

And he walked away, heading back to the village, as though there was nothing more that could be done.

Feather waited until he could hear nothing close by, and then he carefully walked away, still making too much noise -- his leg didn't want to hold him. But he walked.

He couldn't get back to his supplies. No matter. He could live off the land for a day. And he had the locator on him. He pulled it from his tunic pocket, stared for a moment, and then hit the beacon on, settling it down in the muck by the tree. Close enough to the village. They would find it here, and it wouldn't be overpowered by the net.

The locals would be looking for him to head straight back to town. He moved off to the north instead, and then headed back. He hadn't heard anyone near him.

But all day long the song of a mother to her child, and the soft crying of another, haunted him.