Awakening Prose in Gaia | World Anvil

Awakening

The waves kicked up the ship, thunder bellowing in the background, sailors yelling as activity picks up. Rain pelted the hull of the ship as well as the very sea itself. There was cracking...and then, more yelling, as the very ship broke apart. People screaming for abandon ship. "Not the egg, Don't lose the egg!! We need it!" A gruff voice shouted out. "Our lives are more important you fool! Let the egg rot!" "NO! I spent too much tim-" BANG, the gruff voice was silenced by a shot, and then thud, right on top of the egg.   "AAH!" A voice shouted as bed sheets were thrown off. Deep breaths were following this revalation. A clawed hand grasped at the blankets as they were thrown over, and then a pair of clawed feet shifted to sit on the edge of a bed. The clawed hand went up to thier face, a long snout protruding from a furry face. Whiskers hanging from each side of their nose.   "Misuki! What happened dear!" an elderly voice came as the door swung open. a elderly human looking concerned at the figure in the bed. "I had that nightmare again, ma..." A very young draconic voice spoke up. "Oh...Misuki...My dear." The mother moved to the bed and sat along side her adopted dragon daughter, Not much larger than herself. At this state she was no bigger than an older child.   "It keeps happening, Mother..I don't know...I don't know why. Why is there an egg..." Misuku looked at her adopted human mother whom simply ruffled the rich red fur on her head. Then a white mane that was growing from the top of her head between her horns and pointed ears. This became the target of a brush by the womans hand.   "Don't worry about it honey, You're safe h ere, with us." the warm smile lit up the young dragoness' face. Ever since she could remember she belonged here. Slowly Misuki hugged her mother, one arm wrapped around her, the other, was a shortened stump just above her elbow.   "You're right...it is safe here, here in home." she slowly rumbled, smooching now in a form of a hug she had created. This was returned by a motherly kiss upon the tip of her snout, where her nose was. Misuki couldn't help to smile and lay back down, after being tucked back in by good ol 'Ma.   "Sleep well Misuki, okay, no one will hurt you here, I promise you. You should know that." "Yes Ma...T-thank you." A pair of golden eyes scrunched to a smile, the toothy grin of a predator from birth was evident in good humor. Before she knew it, she drifted to sleep again.   The mother watched her daughter sleep. She was a Imperial Dragon, yes, but she was raised human. When Misuki turned to herside, and her tail hung from the bed, twitching ever so gently, that the tuft of white fur on its tip would simply float upon the wood floor.   Slowly the door shut and the mother smiled down at her hands, and then back at the bedroom. Eventually, she would have to discover herself. For now, there is saftey and happiness within this town in the Meridian Confederation.

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Oct 14, 2020 05:36 by Jacob Billings

I like it. I was slightly surprised it was a prose article... for some reason. There were just a few small things that immediately stood out to me:   "There was cracking...and then, more yelling, as the very ship broke apart."
You use the worlds "and then" a lot but sometimes dealing with the comma structure a bit weirdly. I'd suggest avoiding using it so much and trying other transitions and playing a bit more with intentional grammar. For example: "There was crackling and yelling, the core of the ship tearing apart." That suggests more direct action in a simultaneous moment.   ""Not the egg, Don't lose the egg!! We need it!" A gruff voice shouted out. "Our lives are more important you fool! Let the egg rot!" "NO! I spent too much tim-" BANG, the gruff voice was silenced by a shot, and then thud, right on top of the egg."
Fun fact: in prose, paragraphs are determined by a change of subject, scene, or time. In this case, the inclusion of dialogue here automatically switches the subject and format meaning this whole bit should be its own paragraph. Additionally, when a second character speaks that also needs to be a new paragraph so it's not a "hey" "bye" situation where the dialogue becomes entangled and incomprehensible.   ""AAH!" A voice shouted as bed sheets were thrown off. Deep breaths were following this revalation."
Two thing here. Firsly, any dialogue tags following the dialogue aren't capitalized even if the dialogue ends with something other than a comma so the "a voice" shouldn't be capitalized. Secondly, your tense problems are best illustrated here. "shouted" invokes a feeling of past tense. "were following" brings about a broken present tense. "were" is unneeded and "following" should be "followed." I'd suggest looking into tense a bit more as the tense generally seems a little broken. It's a frequent problem, however, so looking into it might be helpful.   "A clawed hand grasped at the blankets as they were thrown over, and then a pair of clawed feet shifted to sit on the edge of a bed. The clawed hand went up to thier face, a long snout protruding from a furry face. "
The use of the words "clawed hand" to begin two consecutive sentences feels slightly odd. Maybe word it more along the lines of "A clawed hand grasped at the blankets as they were thrown over and a pair of talons shifted to dangle over the side of the bed. Bringing their clawed hand to their snout, protruding from a hairy face." It's not the best example, but it should illustrate the idea. You also have a typo here in "thier" instead of "their".   "Whiskers hanging from each side of their nose."
This sentence should probably be combined with the previous one to describe the face in a single swoop. The tense also makes it feel fragmented. Based on your main tense, I'd say it should be more like "Whiskers hung from each side of their nose" instead.   -   ~ Whiskers hanging from each side of their nose. "Misuki! What happened dear!" ~
I'm so confused what happened here. You probably should make this transition a bit more clear as it took me a bit too long to comprehend how the two scenes were related.   -   "an elderly voice came as the door swung open. a elderly human"
Small things. You repeat the sentence openings again(the second of which should be "an" not "a"). That and the second sentence isn't capitalized.   "A very young draconic voice spoke up. "Oh...Misuki...My dear." The mother moved to the bed and sat along side her adopted dragon daughter, Not much larger than herself. At this state she was no bigger than an older child."
New paragraph. Don't continue the previous one. The "not much larger than herself" is really disjointed and out of place. Probably weave it in a bit and don't capitalize "not".   "Then a white mane that was growing from the top of her head between her horns and pointed ears. This became the target of a brush by the womans hand."
Huh? "Then" suggests action. The separation of these two sentences also doesn't help. Try something like: "the woman's hand ruffled the white mane growing from the crown of her head, sat between her horns and pointed ears."   "Slowly Misuki hugged her mother, one arm wrapped around her, the other, was a shortened stump just above her elbow."
This one is a bit odd. You should probably mention the one-armed character trait a bit earlier. It doesn't really fit well in the sentences and you have a few too many commas.   ""Sleep well Misuki, okay, no one will hurt you here, I promise you. You should know that." "Yes Ma...T-thank you." A pair of golden eyes scrunched to a smile, the toothy grin of a predator from birth was evident in good humor. Before she knew it, she drifted to sleep again."
Split dialogue into new paragraphs.   "For now, there is saftey and happiness within this town in the Meridian Confederation."
Small note: the grammar here could be reworked for a more comprehendible structure as follows: "For now, there is safety and happiness within our little town, our little section of the Meridian Confederation." You also spelled safety wrong.   --   That's most of it. There are some other problems I didn't mention, but those are mostly things that could be fixed by a quick line edit. Additionally, I noticed a few quirks in the writing style as far as sentence structure that I personally didn't like; however, this was mostly countered by the other aspects of the style. Honing these sentences would really help. Beyond that, I liked the writing and it makes me more curious about the setting.   (Writing Style)   "A pair of golden eyes scrunched to a smile, the toothy grin of a predator from birth was evident in good humor. "   Sentences like this are odd. They fall more on the side of telling instead of showing despite having the ability to being more on the side of showing. In this case, I'd write it more like this: "Here golden eyes scrunched as a smile lit up her face." The other half of the sentence is really odd. It almost doesn't make sense. Maybe like: "[Her] toothy grin, reminiscent of the predator she was born to be, brought a smile to [mother]'s face." It's just a little bit odd.   Looking more into this kind of thing can really benefit your writing style and bring it to the next level.   --   SMALL note: this isn't meant to be a super harsh critique or anything as I liked everything in the article. I just wanted to make note of the things that I noticed as I was reading so that you could continue to improve your craft.