My favourite Scenes from Trial of Time!

Yeesh, I've got to stop making promises that I then forget about... like writing a part two of this. But I finally visited my own website again, realised I had done a 'favourite scenes from Search for Snow' post and that I had promised to do a similar post for each book. So here we are!

Where to begin? First of all I'd like to point out that my second book has many more scenes in it that I enjoyed writing. Reasons for this were that I was older, had gained more experience (a.k.a. read more books to gain inspiration from) AND I'd developed a writing style that I was/am still proud of. So let's jump into it.

Trial of Time - favourite scenes:

Scene 1:

At the end of the play, I was very hot, breathless, and randomly kept bursting out into fits of giggles. I hadn't laughed like that in a long time. I frowned, remembering a time when I had laughed like that, namely with Chris, and tried to shove the thought away. I'd been having fun and I wasn't about to ruin it with miserable homesickness.

“That,” declared Sophie, “was the best thing I've ever seen!”

Liza pursed her lips, containing a wide smile. “I quite enjoyed it as well, even if the jokes were a little... crude,” she said carefully.

“Oh, give it a rest, Liza. They were hilarious!” Sophie argued and winked, making a phallic gesture with her hand. Liza shoved Sophie's hand down and looked around worriedly. Sophie chuckled at her wariness while I had to suppress my own chuckle.

Why do I like this? It showcases the stark difference between Sophie and Liza, who come from different backgrounds (Liza, who was definitely more sheltered than Sophie).

Scene 2:

Securing her appearance so she now looked like Loreo's recently deceased grandmother—grave dirt and all—Tridhaon knocked on the door and waited for him to answer. It creaked open, Loreo's face peeking out to see who it was. His skin turned the colour of a pale new moon and his eyes bulged in their sockets upon seeing her.

“Grandmother?” he whispered; his voice was as silent as the grave, which seemed appropriate.

Tridhaon smiled softly, wrinkles crinkling. “May I come in? I've had an awful morning.”

“But you're dead! We buried you three days ago!” he burst out with hysteria edging in on his voice.

Tridhaon looked puzzled. “Did you now?” Loreo nodded his head, causing his curly locks to bounce on his head. “How did I die?” demanded Tridhaon.

Loreo opened his mouth, then closed it again. “You died in your sleep.”

“And how did you know I wasn't still sleeping?” she asked, her wrinkly hands on her hips.

Loreo just shrugged helplessly.

Tridhaon poked the young man in the chest and said with a pinch of annoyance in her voice, “Do you know how horrible it is to wake up in a grave? Do you?” She didn't let him answer. “It was dark. Very dark.” She shuddered for effect. “I could hear my sorry excuse for a family throwing the dirt over my grave and I screamed. Apparently not loud enough,” she added dryly. “And now look at me,” she said, gesturing down at herself. “It took me two whole days to dig myself out of that darn grave! And you won't even let me inside my home? Your own grandmother!”

Loreo looked thoroughly shell shocked. “You were alive?! We buried you alive?”

Tridhaon shoved past him and hobbled into the house. “Isn't that what I said? Now hurry up and get me some new clothes, a nice, warm cup of spiced wine and bring me the person who deemed me dead. I'd like a word with them,” she said icily, plonking herself down on an uncomfortable wooden chair by the kitchen table.

This scene was a delight to write, not only because Tridhaon and Loreo's second meeting is so vastly different from the first, but also because I enjoy writing grumpy old lady characters - if you haven't already noticed with Ms Felis. They have no boundaries, snarky voices and demand respect wherever they go.

Scene 3:

Darren snorted. As if you don’t cheat occasionally!

I didn’t put a tracking spell on you! Chris protested. I just happened to find you unawares today… scratching your butt on a tree, he added slyly, and barely avoided the swipe at his head from Darren’s long claws.

My back, Chris. Not my butt!

Same thing for a bear, Chris retorted. He lunged back as far as the chain would let him before Darren could do any damage.

When it comes to the Beasts, I find it difficult to channel 'adolescent boy' when I write, although sometimes I find myself letting my inner child run rampant as I write, and it usually ends up well. I like this scene because Chris is so rarely playful, usually being the serious leader of the group.

Scene 4:

Ben skidded to a halt in a small clearing where he found the most unusual thing he had ever seen. Black and grey fur was wrapped around a tree with a shiny net holding it in place. What the… Ben thought. He edged closer and almost jumped when he saw that the fur was moving. A strange honking sound filled the air, but Ben couldn’t pinpoint it.

You idiot!! a voice suddenly bellowed, adding to the cacophony in his mind.

Sorry! another voice yelped, but it was just there, and I had to… uh, we’ve got company.

You are idiots, aren’t you? Ben smirked, looking at his friend’s furry bodies, wrapped snugly around the tree. He could barely make out their faces smushed up against the trunk. So ripe for the picking, and so defenceless.

Oh, come on, man! Please stop laughing and help us already, Darren protested.

I’m not laughing, Ben pointed out confused.

The honking noise stopped, and Will flew over to allow the chain that was holding their friends to the tree to wrap around his tiny ankle instead. His two friends tumbled down onto the earthy ground.

That was you?! Ben asked in baffled disbelief. I didn’t know eagles could laugh.

Shut up. I hate my eagle laugh, Will grumbled, preening his feathers. About three came out as he did so, making Will caw in annoyance. He hated it when he moulted.

Another scene which I find hilarious when I imagine it in my head, like a movie scene, with the sounds, expressions and visuals.

Scene 5:

Chris was now up on his forelegs, squealing, Wheeeee.

Oh holy Earth, he’s urinating! Darren shouted.

At that point, Chris was back on the ground on all fours, and dragging his rump across the forest floor, with his tongue hanging stupidly out of his mouth. This is soooo much fun! he told his friends, you should try it!

Ben was glaring at Will and Darren. No, thank you, he told Chris politely. To his other friends he yelled, What did you do?!

Will cleared his throat. I only gave him 3 tablespoons of the stuff, he grumbled self-consciously. Wait a minute… did Caspian say tablespoons or teaspoons? he asked himself.

I'm seeing a pattern here in my choice of scenes. It's quite possible that I have a childish, fecal humour... but it was a lot of fun imagining what a wolf on 'wolf drugs' would act like.

Scene 6.

I smiled back and let the swaying of the horse soothe me. The horse carrying me was a tall, golden gelding with a white-blonde mane. I had taken a liking to him almost instantly but riding him did not come naturally to me. It had taken me three embarrassing tries to get up into the saddle. The first time I overestimated the strength needed to vault up, so I had ended up on the ground on the other side of the horse. My back was still ‘thanking’ me for that fall. The second time I had gotten on the horse’s back, but I was facing its back end. That had made my friends laugh even more.

My third attempt to get on my horse’s back went the worst of all. I took too much inspiration from my ride on the griffin, Crest, earlier this year, and ended up hanging upside down from the horse’s belly. Thank Mercury that he was a patient horse! After Liza helped show me how to mount properly, I was sitting happily atop my horse. But my smile had quickly vanished when he started to walk. I fumbled with the reins and tapped his sides with my heels to no avail. He wouldn’t listen to me. My horse insisted on being behind Mel’s horse. I found out only later that Mel’s mare had a soft spot for my gelding. Yikes!

Who doesn't love these scenes in books and movies? When the main character has a funny flaw that everyone can laugh about in a good-natured way? I love that Alexa cannot feel comfortable with horses, while I love them in real life. Its a funny juxtaposition.

Scene 7:

“Cool dress,” Sophie said. “What’s it made out of?”

“I have no idea,” I answered. “I think it’s a strange form of water.”

“At least you’re not naked,” Sophie joked.

“Thank Mercury,’ I sighed gratefully. Slowly, I got to my feet, the dress flowing coolly around my body. It swayed when I moved but kept its form. Its style was contemporary and made it easy to move around in.

“Can you walk?” Liza asked.

I laughed. “I walked in the city. Of course I can walk!” I only had to take one step forward to prove it, yet it came as a shock when I face-planted into the sand. I pushed myself up, spitting out infernally small sand kernels from my mouth. “Gross!” I complained. There was silence for about a second before Sophie began to laugh loudly, and soon the others were joining in. “Hey, isth no funne!” I protested with my tongue hanging out. That just made them laugh harder, so obviously I had to join in. It was good to be back amongst my friends!

I admit, I was inspired by Mako Mermaids with this scene. Three mermaids, newly turned into humans, are trying to walk and one of them takes one step and face plants into the ground. Hilarious!

That's it folks, I left out a longer scene for the sake of keeping this blog post relatively short, and of course to annoy my dear readers, because now you'll want to know what Chris and the Beasts got up to after their night of partying ;-)

Yours truly,

-Andra