A Dialogue of Characters

I felt it was time we did something a bit fun around here, especially since there will be no guest post tomorrow...

 

So I threw this together. You'll all have to tell me what you thought of it!

You look like you are limping this morning, Breem. Do you feel well?

I ran 8 kilometers yesterday, three of which I was being chased by knights with crossbows, and then spent the night in a tangle of roots. Am I supposed to feel well? I don’t know. I don’t really care.

Care! You ought to care! I spent three weeks recovering from a gash by a dagger across my neck. It became infected while I was in a dank and dirty prison and I had such a bad fever I fainted when they stuck me on a horse in the middle of a whirling thunderstorm. But I fought it, every step of the way. No despair will be found in me! Ha! Let them try and discover weakness here. 

You are so full of courage, Ionez. You never give up, even in the face of defeat. We all admire that, though I could never do what you do.

I should think not. You must be a Briton to have the pluck I possess. No mere mortal lives with this breathing passion. A Briton you must be and a Briton I am.

How about you, Merci?

…….

Merci?

I’d rather not share.

But you must. The author demands we say something.

Is it not enough to have present suffering? A hard heart. Bitter regret? No. I have a backstory that makes my insides shake like mush and will turn you cold as stone. 

Yet most of you will survive it though. Your life and mission will only grow. It may start out bad, it’s true. But for me, my story ends when I do.

It doesn’t matter to me what happens, Theron, oh failure of a poet. I just want to be left alone. Ignored is where I feel safest.

Take hold of your tongue, Merci. This is not the place to let your cynicism rule. You won’t always think that way. One day love will blossom in your heart.

You are always so sweet and encouraging, dear sister. You will never understand.

I can’t even explain what I mean and feel. There is no expression that I can make for it. Do my words even hold any meaning? Nothing makes sense to me. I can’t feel anything. I am like a stone. The living dead. Can that be any better? I don’t know.

Yes! It is. You can’t feel your pain.

Nor my joy. Do I even know what joy is? I’m not sure.

My story is not all peaches and cream either, Merci and Breem. You know that. I have to fight for what little peace I have and it takes all I am to do what it right because it is so hard. You just have to hang on and wait. Caitria knows what she is doing.

We hope. 

Merrie understands my terrifying plight. Your riddle will be solved, Merci, right? Sure, right now you live in agony. But someday your pain will be nothing more than memory.

I’d rather be in my place than anywhere else. Who else could be the way I am? This is what makes me, well, ME. I don’t want anyone tarnishing the name of Britannica. I am Ionez. I am of Britannica. If anyone should be a Briton, it is I. Besides, these trials are what makes our lives worth living, worth fighting for. Who would I be without my raging hunger for home? This is what comes of being Caitria’s loved ones. Would you prefer to be a passing thought that comes and then goes forever? How can we be remembered if we have no heart and soul? Our passions, desires, longings, they all create us and make us who we are. It is by them that others will find us authentic and sincere. We are no masked charade!

There are favorites, Ionez ~ loved ones, as you put it ~ that do not come packing a history of tragedies.

And they do not mean as much. Just wait and see. When the day comes and we are free at last to be shown to the world, you will see. Free….it’s almost a magical kind of word, isn’t it. Holds so much promise and hope and a future of light.

It holds nothing but a dream of what will never be.

But dreams are always free to come true.

 

 

 

I have to admit, I had a ton of fun writing that. It is strange seeing how different my characters are. Could you see the different personalities? I am introducing the natures of a few key people in my two main novels. What did you think? Any opinions on what they are like? What did you like? What did you not like? Were there any discrepancies or flaws?

Merrie ~ from In the Shadow

“Breem” ~ from The Last Scribe

Ionez ~ from In the Shadow

Merci ~ from In the Shadow

Theron ~ from The Last Scribe