Almost a decade ago, I went caving with a friend on a trip to Costa Rica, and our guides thought it would be really funny to lead us into a cave full of bats without warning us. Needless to say, my first reaction (well, maybe my second reaction) was to pull out a notebook and write a description.
Years later, writing Death Sworn, I thought I finally had my chance to use that description. I pulled out my old travel notebook with great glee.
Alas, it was not to be. When Leah Clifford, author of A Touch Mortal and caving expert, read an early manuscript, she pointed out a number of reasons why there couldn’t be bats in the caving system I had set up. So I excised the scene – but if you’re interested, you can read it here!
Years later, writing Death Sworn, I thought I finally had my chance to use that description. I pulled out my old travel notebook with great glee.
Alas, it was not to be. When Leah Clifford, author of A Touch Mortal and caving expert, read an early manuscript, she pointed out a number of reasons why there couldn’t be bats in the caving system I had set up. So I excised the scene – but if you’re interested, you can read it here!
At the bottom of the third
staircase, the passageway opened into a large cavern. Sorin waited for her
there, eyebrow cocked mockingly. Ileni strode past him into the cave, and
suddenly she was surrounded.
It was like being rushed by a
waterfall of arrows. They streamed past her, over her, around her, small and
dizzyingly swift, filling her ears with a high-pitched chittering that bounced
around the inside of the cave. Ileni screamed, and the defensive spell was
half-formed in her mind before she realized that nothing was touching her. Tiny
creatures filled the cave like ghostly shadows, dashing inches over her head,
around her, but not one brushed by her.
Bats.
Furious – at herself for the scream,
and at Sorin for his obvious enjoyment of it – Ileni gripped her elbows with
her hands, pressing her arms against her body. “You all walk through here every
day?”
“Several times a day, usually. It
helps teach us to ignore illusionary dangers.”
“How fortunate for you,” she
snapped, and strode onward, through the cloud of bats that swirled around her
without touching her. After a moment, Sorin followed her.
