A tremor ran through his body is a writing prompt taken from Winter of the White Horde. The book is the standalone sequel to my middle grade (read that as aged 9 to 90 in terms of the small but enthusiastic fan base) Guardians of the Forest series. The section the prompt comes from is shown below.
Winter of the White Horde, and the other four books in Guardians of the Forest are all on sale at 99c/p throughout August, for the summer holiday. Find them here. (You need to scroll down the Amazon page to get them all!)
In his woody sanctuary, Connor kept his mouth shut. Before too long, the boys and girls would grow tired of their teasing, especially when supper called. Connor’s stomach growled, and he grew chilled on his branch. He wished he’d worn a coat over his jerkin. He wouldn’t leave until he was alone though, else the others would follow him home with their stupid comments, which would worry his mother.
At last, the children tramped off, jeering about people who imagined they could talk to deer and eagles. ‘Hello, nice deer. Would you like to come home with me for supper? I mean, be my supper.’ Hoots of appreciation.
Connor counted to one hundred before feeling his way out of the tree in the near darkness. His fingers were numb with cold. He shivered in his shirt and jerkin. Stupid not to have worn his warm coat and a hat.
He jumped backwards the last few feet to the ground and twisted about to take the path home. He stopped, stared. A tremor tickled his body before his brain caught up with what he saw.
A tall, black horse blocked his way. The horse’s mane was plaited, entwined with blue and silver ribbons. Its delicate painted hooves pawed lightly at the ground as if about to take flight. Connor’s eyes lifted from the horse to its rider, a lady with glistening white hair piled high on her head and wide, deep green eyes much like his own. She wore a blue cloak edged with silver. His heart stopped. Aunt Gwen’s stories tumbled around his brain. It couldn’t be …? Could it?
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Love the mysterious intrigue LOL
A TREMOR RAN THROUGH HIS BODY
He could see the woman walking along the beach towards him, sandals in her hand, toes squelching the sand.
God, he thought, she is absolutely beautiful. I wonder if she has noticed me. Probably not, as her head is down, no doubt lost in thought.
Wonder what she is thinking about. She looks a little sad. Perhaps she is recovering from a bad experience, or has lost someone close to her.
Shane continued watching as the woman drew closer. Finally, she looked up and smiled radiantly.
A tremor ran through his body as the warmth of her expression enveloped him. He couldn’t help himself and opened his mouth to speak.
“Hello,” she said softly. “Isn’t it such a beautiful day.”
Shane was suddenly dumbstruck. Her voice was gentle, lilting, clear water shimmering over stones – like an angel speaking.
“Hi,” was all he could manage. “Lovely to see you here.”
Shane blushed. What an idiot – “lovely to see you here” – what was he thinking.
She didn’t seem to mind.
“Would you like to come for a swim?”
“I..I.. don’t have any bathers,” the stammer betrayed his embarrassment.
“We don’t need those,” she replied, casting off her dress and plunging into the water.
“Come on. The water is gorgeous – so warm.”
Shane observed her bobbing about for a moment before, ignoring his own shyness, he too dived into the waves.
The woman threw her arms around his neck and passionately kissed him.
Good Lord, thought Shane, this has never happened to me before.
Her laughter was like a tinkling chandelier and Shane found himself holding her close as they drifted with the waves, gazing deeply into each other’s eyes.
“You are all my dreams come true,” he couldn’t help himself. The inane comments just kept flowing.
She laughed once more, before turning and swimming out into deeper water.
“Come back,” he called. “If we go too far we’ll not be able to return to the shore.”
“It’s fine,” she replied. “We won’t drown. I’ll see to that.”
“No..no…come back.”
“Come back, come back.”
“Shane….Shane….wake up. You were having a bad dream. It’s time to get up for work.”
Shane opened his eyes to find his mother standing over him, a concerned look on her face.
“Wh..what. Where am I?”
“At home, silly, in bed, where else? Now hurry up and get dressed or you’ll be late.”
Ha ha – poor Shane! At least it wasn’t his wife waking him up!