Welcome! As promised, here’s a deleted scene I had fun with.
Context: After setting off on his quest, Beniqo asks Jule to retrieve an oppressive guard’s helmet that he’d confiscated. It will prove to some suspicious villagers that he’s on their side.
Glossary:
Skinnies are their smallest coins.
Korsetiz is a village.
And I’m pretty sure that a latrino needs no explanation. Enjoy!
Within the hour, Jule entered the Korsetiz public latrino with the pruning hook. Bending over the opening, she flinched from the revolting stench. Her heart plummeted. What if it was gone?
Idiot. Who’d bother?
Quelling her nausea, she peered into the dark pit. The helmet lay there, almost buried by a layer of steaming filth. Jule swallowed and wrapped a scarf around her head, taking pains to tuck every wisp of hair inside.
Then she lowered the hook through the opening.
Closer…
Closer…
Her shoulder strained towards the prize while her nose rebelled. The hook caught the helmet’s slimy rim, but in the next moment it slipped beyond her reach.
“Noooo!” Wrenching back, she crashed against the edge, then scrambled to her feet and escaped into the fresh air. “Harhhghrh!” Now what?
Jule nearly crossed her arms before she remembered the putrid sludge clinging to them. For several excruciating moments, she removed the worst of it with the sack. “Zem it, Beniqo! You could have thrown it in a ditch. Or down a well. But no!” She clamped her lips together. Yet here she was, trying to fish it out. Oh, joy and wondrosity!
Fuming, Jule noticed a small boy trudging down the road towards her. She gauged the width of his shoulders, the length of his spindly legs.
Making herself speak slowly and calmly, she smiled at him. “Have you eaten today, little one?”
He turned huge brown eyes to her, then shook his head.
“Want to earn five skinnies?”
Thanks for listening. I hope you have friends who care about your own life’s deleted scenes, those bits that most people don’t need to access, but that still matter to you.
Ciao for now,
Kai