All Caught Up
End of chapter 6
Hi folks! If you’re new here, this is the 200 Word Novel, where I’m writing a book 200 words at a time, Monday through Friday. Each Monday I post the last week’s progress, raw and largely unedited, along with some reflections on the past week’s writing. If you’re here primarily to read the story, you can find the start of the novel here. If you’re mostly interested in the weekly introspection on writing (and occasional life update), you can find that down below.
“We should still talk with those merchants,” Tavi said.
They sat at a small table in Tavi’s appointed room at the tavern. A simple spread of bread, cheese, and pickled vegetables lay between them, brought up from the kitchens below. Somehow they had managed to check in with the tavernkeeper, sign the logbook with their official Scurryer stamp, and order and bring up the food, all with Chiara staying quiet and hidden in the backpack-basket. The dragonling now perched on the bench beside Bria, their tail curled around their haunches as they watched with rapt attention every time either Scurryer brought food to their mouths. Bria tore off a piece of bread and offered it to the dragonling. Chiara sniffed it carefully, then took it with surprising delicacy, chewing thoughtfully before swallowing. “I thought you were worried about drawing attention,” she said to Tavi. “I am,” Tavi replied. He cut a thin slice of cheese and held it out. Chiara’s nostrils flared, and they snatched it from his paw with considerably less delicacy than they’d shown the bread. “Which is why I think we need to know what we’re walking into before we set off through the Woods, and maybe even into the Wylds, with a dragon in tow.” Bria took a sip from her mug of warm cider, considering. “Do we show them Chiara? Lie and tell them we didn’t find their missing crate? Inform them we charge extra for live cargo retrieval?”
“Let’s play it by ear,” Tavi replied.
Bria rolled her eyes. “That’s your answer for everything.”
”It’s because I have great ears.”
Bria took one last bite of her bread, then offered the end crust to Chiara who happily gobbled it down. “What do you think they’ll tell us that we don’t already know?”
“Where they got the egg, for starters.” Tavi leaned forward, elbows on the table. “Dragons don’t just leave their eggs lying around. Someone took Chiara from their nest. The merchants either did it themselves, or they bought it from someone who did, or they found it somewhere—and any of those answers tells us something useful.”
“Like what?” Bria asked, though she could already feel herself being persuaded.
“Like where to start looking.” Tavi gestured with a piece of bread before popping it in his mouth. “If they took it from a specific territory, we have a starting point. If they bought it, we know there’s a whole network of egg thieves we need to be aware of—and avoid. If they just found it abandoned...” He trailed off, frowning. “Well, that would be strange enough to warrant investigation on its own.”
Chiara chirped, drawing both their gazes. The dragonling was staring intently at the cheese wheel. “You already had some,” Bria said gently, but cut another small piece anyway. Chiara’s tail thumped against the bench with satisfaction as they accepted the offering.
“The truth of the matter,” Tavi continued, “will give us better hints at where to start our search. Right now, all we know is that Chiara came from somewhere in a crate marked ‘fragile.’ That’s not exactly a map.”
Bria nodded slowly. “You’re right. And the sooner we know where we’re going, the sooner we can get Chiara home.” She paused, a thought occurring to her. “The merchants were staying here at the tavern, weren’t they? The mayor mentioned they were housing them while they recovered from the attack.”
“They must be,” Tavi said. “I imagine there’s not many other options for out of town travelers.”
“We did say we’d meet them tomorrow at the Village Hall tomorrow to return to them whatever we were able to find or recover,” Bria said. “We could just wait until then.”
“What if we conveniently ran into them right here instead, nice and bright and early tomorrow morning? Catch them a bit off guard, question them without the pressure of the mayor listening in, hopefully get some candid answers out of them.”
Bria nodded, biting her lip as she pondered. “Maybe they’ll speak more freely… or maybe there will be fewer witnesses for them to lash out when we confront them about the egg.”
Tavis shook his head. “You’re sounding like me,” he teased. “I think we can handle ourselves. And if the merchants really want to start a tavern brawl, we’ll have the whole village backing us up in the outrage and the scandal.”
“Fair point,” Bria conceded. “First thing in the morning then. Before we meet with Lin.” “Before we meet with Lin,” Tavi agreed. He yawned, stretching his arms above his head. “For now, I think we could both use some sleep. It’s been a long day.” Bria couldn’t argue with that. Her legs ached from trudging through snow, her shoulders were sore from pulling the sled, and exhaustion had settled into her bones like the winter cold. Plus, she had watched for the last several minutes as the dragonling had gone quiet, their eyes heavy-lidded as they swayed gently where they sat (though they did seem to listen intently to all of Tavi and her conversation).
“I’ll see you in the morning, then,” Bria said, standing and heading for the door. Chiara blinked and leapt off the bench to follow.
“Will you two be okay through the night?” Tavi asked, standing as well.
Bria looked down at Chiara with a smile. “Yeah. I think so.”
Tavi hesitated for just a moment, then nodded and handed over the basket. “I’m just one door over if you need anything. They seem to have bonded with you more anyway.” There was no resentment in his voice, just a simple statement of fact, tinged with something that might have been fondness.
“Get some rest, Tavi,” Bria said softly as she hoisted Chiara into the basket. “We’ll need it for whatever tomorrow brings.”
“You too, Bria.” He gave her that crooked grin, though his eyes were tired. “Try not to let Chiara eat the furniture.”
“I make no promises,” she replied, and slipped out the door with a wink. Bria’s room was indeed right next door—a similarly appointed, small but cozy space with a single bed against one wall, a narrow desk beneath the window, and a washbasin on a stand in the corner. A small fireplace held the dying embers of an earlier fire, still radiating enough warmth to keep the chill at bay. Bria set the basket down gently on the floor and began preparing for bed, washing her face and paws in the basin and taking off her traveling clothes and armor. When she turned back around, Chiara had already climbed out of the basket and was investigating the room with their characteristic curiosity. They sniffed at the corners, examined the desk legs, and gave the fireplace a particularly long look before apparently deciding it wasn’t interesting enough to warrant further attention. “Come on, you,” Bria said, patting the bed. “Time to sleep.” Chiara’s head tilted, gem-colored eyes watching her intently. For a moment, Bria worried they wouldn’t understand or wouldn’t listen. But then the dragonling bounded across the room with surprising grace and, with a little hop, landed on the bed beside her. Bria pulled back the covers and slid beneath them, and without any prompting, Chiara curled up against her side. The dragonling’s scales were cool to the touch, though their breath felt warm on Chiara’s cheek. Bria marveled at the strange duality of the little creature, a being of ice and fire.
Chiara let out a long, rumbling sigh and tucked their snout under one wing. Within moments, their breathing had slowed into the deep, even rhythm of sleep.
Bria lay awake a while longer, one paw resting gently on Chiara’s side, feeling the rise and fall of their breath. Through the window, she could see snow beginning to fall again, soft flakes drifting past the glass. Somewhere out there, a dragon parent was searching for their child. Somewhere out there, answers waited about how Chiara had ended up in that crate, alone and far from home. Tomorrow, they would start looking for those answers. Tomorrow, they would begin the journey to reunite Chiara with their family. But tonight, in this small room with the ember’s warmth and the dragonling’s steady breathing, Bria allowed herself a moment of peace.
🐭
Milestones
With that, the story is now caught up in terms of Gruber’s storyline and Bria’s—which means this week, I’ll be back to writing what happens next with Gruber and co! When we last left our favorite murder-frog, they were seeking a safe port to repair their ship. Only problem? Port’s haunted. 👻
So far, I’ve written 6 chapters, and roughly 19,000 words of this story. I started this project just shy of 4 months ago, with the goal of writinga minimum of 200 words a day on Monday through Friday. That puts me roughly 3000 words ahead of my minimum, which is pretty neat given I’ve had weeks where I didn’t write at all. That said, I’d (very roughly) guestimate I’m 15-20% through the story that’s starting to take shape, which means if I keep my pace of 200 words a day, I’d finish this story in a total of two years.
…I am an impatient man.
Nothing like a bit of math to put a bit of carrot ahead of me in exceeding that minimum commitment each day.
But also…
A Confession
I’ve been cheating on this story… with another story.
For some, November is National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to try to write 50,000 words (the rough length of a novella or short novel) in the month of November. While the “official” organization that spawned out of this idea has become defunct (and had gotten plagued with various issues and concerns, because we can’t have anything nice in 2025), a friend has organized a Discord where folks are chipping away at the noble goal of shared community and motivation to finish a project.
I joined the Discord on a lark… and may or may not find myself 10k words into a urban fantasy romance novel.
The funny part is that is still under pace for hitting 50k by Nov 30th. But I’m having a lot of fun blitzing through a story idea that kind of tumbled into my brain and refused to be dislodged.
If folks are curious, I could be (easily) convinced to share progress in a new section here as well! I think I’ve figured out how to do so in a way that lets you unsubscribe if getting two emails from me a week is just too much.
Stay tuned for smooches and shenanigans later this week, and as always—thanks for reading. 💙