This week is another excerpt from “The Brave Little Thrall,” a Heartsbane Saga short story that will be out hopefully any day (assuming my day job isn’t super hectic like it was all last week). It’s a retelling of the fairy tale “The Brave Little Tailor.”
I’m continuing from last week’s excerpt. Our hero Fahim has been trying to interpret some old runes, despite his fellow scholars thinking it’s a waste of time.
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A month later, Fahim still hadn’t deciphered the runes. He stared at them, willing them to take on meaning. He yawned and propped his head on his elbow. Weeks of little sleep had left him exhausted. A quick nap couldn’t hurt. His eyelids grew heavier, until with a bang his head dropped onto the desk and his eyes shot open.
He cocked his head just a bit. From this angle, the runes looked similar to an old script used by the Fustites. He narrowed his eyes, deep in thought. Where had he seen this before?
* * * * * * *
And here’s the rest of that scene:
Fahim leapt up and raced through the library to the section on Fustite history, searching until he found a tome on city planning. He thumbed through the book until an illustration caught his eye. Grinning from ear to ear, his tiredness forgotten, he hurried back to his table and set the book down next to his runes.
“Yes,” he whispered to himself. “If that…then that…and so that…and that one….” His jaw dropped. “Seven! I figured out seven in one go!”
He stood up and looked around him. The library was mostly empty. “Seven in one go!” he said, softly at first and then louder. “I got seven in one go!”
* * * * * * *
About “The Brave Little Thrall:”
Fahim Al Rasheed has spent his life studying foreign cultures, but he never thought he’d actually have the chance to visit them. When his journey of a lifetime leaves him and a young barbarian king marooned in a hostile country, he’ll have to rely on more than book learning to make it back home alive.
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What a fun little snippet! I really liked it, very amusing how he found his solution…
Always love that Eureka! moment. :) Having been a scholar and researcher most of my life, I can empathize with his excitement completely!
Yes, simply staring at a small sample like that is unlikely to bring about any understanding. You need to be able to reference it to other material to make any sense of it.
I don’t know if I could have kept trying to figure it out for that long, but I’m sure he’s glad he did. Sometimes we just need to look at things differently to figure them out. Nice!
I can just hear my mom – retired librarian – Shusssss! Libraries aren’t the best place to make amazing discoveries. Kinda hard to hold in the excitement.
Good depiction of a eureka moment.
Nothing like discovery to get you going. Great snippet.
What a way to make the discovery! Enjoyed the snippet.
Nothing like a bang to the head and a new angle to get the mental juices flowing. :-D
Just look at things differently! Nice scene. A lot of times, finding a solution happens just like that. :-)