If you’re kind enough to read this sample chapter thank you so much! Would love feedback positive or critical. And if you know of a place I could send/submit I have had no luck finding publishers open to new work.

Chapter 1 Too Early

“Pack your things! Hurry! Take what you can. We leave now!” said her father.

“Must we move again?” asked Ygritte.

“Yes, now hurry! Hurry” called her mother, her voice strained and sharp.

“Ygritte!” called a voice “Ygritte! ...Ygritte”

Ygritte woke up with a start from her dream. Her father, standing over her, was gently shaking her shoulder.

“Come little one. It is time.” he said in a whisper.

The morning was still dark as Ygritte sat up rubbing her eyes. With a groan she stood up, stretching her arms above her head.

“You know, deer can die from arrows during the day too. Do we have to get up so early every time?”

Her legs were still sore from yesterday’s hunt. She put her sandals on and with a small groan reached down to tighten the coarse leather straps lacing up her calf.

“There’s no guarantee we’ll find a suitable animal, and what if we miss and have to chase?” asked her father as he buttoned his leather coat up to the neck.

Tightening her belt around her calfskin dress she slung her bag over her shoulder, its contents carefully measured and packed the night before. Grabbing an apple off the table she walked out the small wooden door joining her father under the still dark sky.

“With such a talented archer for a daughter I think you might have more confidence in our success” she said with a giggle. “It’s not like you spent hours training me since I was five so I could miss” She said, confident yet rueful of the time she wanted to be out playing or picking flowers but instead was fletching arrows or practicing a consistent draw.

“I have all the confidence in you little one. But if we wait, someone else could harvest them, then what would we sell at the market?”

“Okay, okay. Trudge away my strong father, I’m right behind you.” she said with a bow.

“Ahem, Ygritte, would you mind?” asked her father, pausing.

“What” she asked.

“The rain” he said looking up at the falling drops barely visible in the darkness.

“Ah, just a moment,” she said, closing her eyes. She steadied her breathing and felt a cold flow of energy and connection with the earth begin to move through her. Starting at her toes and moving up through her arms and hands the flow of energy reached her fingertips and she reached towards the sky and whispered

“Away”.

The rain began to fade and clouds disperse. A silver ray of moonlight broke through the clouds bathing the earth in silver shadows. Lifting their small packs onto their shoulders the two set off up the wide valley towards the dim outline of far off hills.

The thin white morning light had grown to a soft pink when the mosquito bit into Ygrittes arm like it was sucking water through a straw. Ygritte looked at its tiny spiked legs resting lightly on the pale flesh of her forearm while its nose was buried deep in her skin. Quietly she rubbed it off her as she looked at the deer rooting lazily at a berry bush. Drops of dew fell from the leaves glistening in the morning sun like diamonds sparkling in the light. The quiet creek bubbled in its bed, watering the roots of the berry bushes, ferns and pines before passing down the valley to feed the mountain lake by Ygrittes home. Tensing her arm against the pull of the bow she drew back the string until the small bulge of her thumb rested at the corner of her mouth. Next to her, her father nudged her arm, reminding her to keep her bow arm straight. She had developed a bad habit of bending her arm to avoid the snap of the bowstring scraping her. She could hear his voice in her ear saying quietly:

“Keep your wrist straight and you won’t have to worry about your arm”.

She narrowed her gaze, breathed out a moment, and let the arrow fly.

Together Ygritte and her father walked down the valley, the deer divided between them on their packs. It was a clear morning by the time the small stone cabin came into view. It had been abandoned for years before Ygritte’s father happened upon it, moved in and began to repair it. The cabin sat facing south just uphill from a small, tree lined creek that ran through the valley. Its stone walls were weather worn and gray. Some had been replaced and stood out light tan and brown against their neighbors. Behind the cabin they had built a small shed from trees harvested from the nearby grove and created a small yard and homestead. Lines for drying cloth ran between the cabin and the shed and there was a small dirt pile where little Aelon, Ygritte’s younger brother liked to play.

As they drew closer to the cabin they heard the sound of shouting and something like a plate thrown against a wall. Immediately Ygritte and her father looked up, their eyes fixed on the cabin.

“Wait here” her father said with an anxious whisper “do not come until I call! And DO NOT come into the cabin no matter what happens unless I call you. Promise me!” he said fiercely.

“I promise papa” she said squatting down amid the tall grass.

Sprinting in a crouch up the slight hill aiming towards the cabin her father took off.

Ygritte squinted against the cold morning sun as she peered across the field. A group of horses were galloping down the hill outside the house. Two horses stood riderless silhouetted against the rise of the hill behind them. One of the soldiers held a black flag with a green horse and a snake wrapped around the horse’s neck. Instinctively, Ygritte crouched lower in the field waiting to see what happened.

As she watched, the men dismounted, their horses' breath bursting in steamy blasts from their noses, without knocking they went into the house. She heard shouting and more dishes crashing and her father suddenly appeared at the cabin’s southern wall. Leaping through an open window he started fighting the men who had stormed into the house. Ygritte hid in the field waiting to see what would happen. Her father was strong and fierce but there were too many of them.

The sound of fighting was loud and floated across the field to Ygrittes ears. Suddenly it ceased and the men came out carrying the limp figure of her father and threw him roughly onto a small wagon. With a cry Ygritte sprang from her cover and began moving bent over towards the house. Nearing the cabin she crouched low again. She heard her mother yelling “don’t you touch him I will carry him” as she came out of the house holding her younger brother Aelon. Ygritte’s blood raced feverishly as she watched the men escort her mother and younger brother to the same wagon. They climbed onto it and the men closed the heavy wooden doors on the back of the wagon. Peering out across the field the men huddled together, she could hear them talking as she watched.

“I thought he said there were two kids and to make sure we got the girl”.

“Nah” said the leader “She said the girl died over the winter”.

“And you believe her?” said the gruff voice.

“I believed my knife when I held it to her throat. Even more when it was at her boy’s” said the man laughing.

“Well that’s for the best, it's a nasty business taking kids. I don’t like kidnapping and the less the better, if you ask me” said one of the guards as he turned and stomped through the mud to climb up on the wagon.

The leader of the guard turned and stared at him.

“Well no one asked you did they. You’ll not say another word about it unless you want the Dark One to hear you were complaining” he said fiercely, glaring at the soldier.

“Of course, cap’n. I didn’t mean nothin by it. Just’ll be glad to get back North. This warm sun don’t sit well on me, my cheeks is rosy.”

“Well rosy cheeks, just remember who sent us on this mission. I don’t like it either but here we are. We’ve got a long, long journey ahead of us, let's get on with it, and get home before the summer sun bakes us into mud pies”.

The captain mounted his horse and the whole group turned and went back up the hill towards the road. Ygritte stayed hidden in the field, frozen, her toes growing cold in the hard earthy soil. She couldn’t believe what she had seen nor what had happened. It was so fast! Who were these men who had taken her parents? Where did they go? She was scared to return to her home, but she was not sure where else to go. She watched as the horses and wagon rode up the ridge and away from the broken remains of the family she loved. Shading her eyes from the glaring sun she peered watchfully until the train of horses and men disappeared on the other side of the ridge. That was it. They were gone. She was alone.