NaNoWriMo Journal

NaNoWriMo 14: When Little Bear Wakes

Chapter 13:  First Light

This is where we begin to approach the heart of the novel.  We are currently about 25% into the novel, judging by the scene list.  I’ve tried to keep the emotional flow interesting, but it has all been set-up to this point.  The real story is about what this alien presence inside a human is doing, and how the blended personality survives, interacts, and learns what it does not know.

It also, of course, wreaks havoc with relationships, because Gerleesh does not know anything about human interactions or pair relationships.

Gerleesh has deep and powerful emotions, but so does Little Bear.  As do Willow, Raccoon, Ash, Cave Bear, Tiger, and Apple.  Still more characters are going to be introduced, and I haven’t planned all of them, so I’m going to have to go into much more depth with them.

Both Ash and Apple, for example, I had not planned at all, so I need to write out their character sheets, and figure out everything they want.  I realized I did not have any of the women interacting, and while they wouldn’t be interacting much with the boys, they certainly would with Willow.

By the way, everyone caught that the female names are all plants and the male animals, right?  It’s a frequent pattern today, and has no significance to the story, other than to give me a handle to push personality characteristics from the names.

Ash’s interest, of course, is in her son marrying the girl with the best stock, and she agrees with Tiger that Willow is the one.  So she is throwing her weight around in favor of her son, to get the best match for him she can.  She also sees Tiger’s violent side, and truly doesn’t want Willow to start out on the wrong foot with Tiger, by spending too much time with Little Bear.

But Willow is caught up in her indecision about the relationships.

So far, Little Bear is just looking around, not really understanding anything he sees or hears.

I'm still wandering pretty far afield from the scene list, as I go forward, but this material is more along the lines of what I had intended from the beginning.

I'm not at all sure I have Willow's confusion and interactions right.  She is terribly young, by modern standards, but when twenty is rarely achieved, there isn't much time to grow up.  She seems very fickle, but really, she is just trying to make the best choice for herself she can.

Still, if something doesn't feel right with the human behaviors, I hope you will let me know.

Chapter 14:  Awakening

This time, Little Bear actually wakes up, and starts recognizing people and trying to do things.  He has been flat on his back for a month, so he is terribly weak, and sick.

Not only that, his body isn't working right.  He doesn't realize it, but he is trying to combine physiological understandings from a being with four eyes, four legs, arms on the underside of the body and legs on the top, and a method of locomotion entirely foreign to his body design.  So he tries to move his leg and hits himself with his hand.

His mouth also does not work right, and his first attempt at speech is pathetic, when he drools over himself trying to say something to Willow.

He is a great disappointment to both Willow and Raccoon.  His father stands by him, but the girl chooses her other option, although she is still somewhat torn about it.  Even Ash and Apple are emotionally affected by what has happened to Little Bear.  Everyone liked him, and everyone hoped he would become a medicine man like his father, but he has become a liability to the tribe.

The problem is that they cannot take Little Bear with them when they go South.  They have already delayed a month, and they are in real danger of getting caught by an early winter, which happens as often as not, and would probably be fatal for the entire tribe.  So they must go now, and they must go fast.

Ordinarily, they would just leave him behind to die, by the first predator to come along.  But Raccoon won't abandon his son, and they need their medicine man.  It's an impasse, until Tiger plays his little prank.

Everyone has been misunderstanding what they are seeing.  Little Bear is reacting the way he is, not because he is brain-damaged and can no longer function, but because he is still trying to assimilate two sets of memories and ways of looking at the world.

When the rabbit is thrown at him--and this is an ice age rabbit, almost a meter in length, and perhaps 15 kg (33 lbs)--we see Gerleesh in action for the first time since the encounter.  The alien reaches out, and manages to gentle the rabbit almost instantly, so what starts out as a cruel joke by Tiger backfires into a truly frightening experience for the entire village.  Crippled Little Bear, whom they are planning to abandon for dead (and whom Cave Bear was about to kill,) has some kind of magical powers.  Big juju is at work, and that is scary.

The dilemma for the tribe, of course, is that now they can't leave Little Bear and Raccoon behind, but that puts the entire tribe in even more danger.  More conflict.

Willow changes her mind again, and finally makes her choice, which cannot be taken back.  Ash hates that, but tradition does not allow her to question it.  Tiger is seriously mad, now.

Cave Bear is furious that he cannot leave Little Bear behind.  He is glad he does not have to kill him, but he is afraid his entire tribe will die, all because of Little Bear.  He is also annoyed with Willow for choosing against his son, but that is his wife's affair.  He wants Tiger to be stronger than he is, and he is mad at his son, because of that stupid prank with the rabbit.

Lots and lots of conflict, ahead.  The chapter ends on a peaceful note, with Willow finally feeling a good sense of resolution about her choice, but it is merely the calm before the storm.  Just because she has made her choice, it does not mean either that she will not question it, or that she will no longer feel any attraction for Tiger, or even for Raccoon.

There will also be major problems with weather, animals, war, disease, and lots of things I’m not going to bring up here.  Little Bear has shown that he has a remarkable ability.  Following good rules of fiction, any advantage like that has to be countered with at least twice as much disadvantage.  It isn’t going to make things easier for him; it’s going to make things harder--much harder.

When the tribe starts moving in the morning, there are two elements that I plan to include, which did not occur to me until I wrote the chapters I posted last night and this morning.  One of them is going to involve a recurring humor theme, that is nevertheless an important part of the plot.  No, I’m not going to tell you about that one, but I plan to have fun with it.

The other involves the fact that the tribe is going to go past Gerleesh's ship, which is still sitting down near the head of the valley.  I haven't entirely decided what Little Bear is going to do when he sees it.  Several things come to mind, but I'm not sure.  He will need to be with his tribe for most of the rest of the story, but he might detour to the ship, causing the tribe to move on without him.  If he does, will Raccoon and/or Willow stay with him, and how would he catch up with his tribe?

I don't know yet.  Find out with me, tomorrow morning.

Brian Groover
Frederick, Maryland
Thursday, 6 November 2014