Wanted: Doppelganger

November is upon is. Now is the time when writers and bloggers everywhere submit themselves to grinding out obscene amounts of new writing. Originally I was going to participate in the madness. Even a week ago I was still set on doing it.

But I’ve decided against the insanity of NaNoWriMo.

I have a wife I want to spend more time with. I also have been linking up with several awesome weekly writing prompts. I think I’d rather do something less strenuous than write 50,000 words or do a blog post a day for this month. Besides, I think NaNoWriMo is more for those who need a reason to motivate them to produce new writing and I clearly don’t have an issue with writing new stuff right now.

But, since many of my writing and blogging friends are committing themselves to something for the month, I will make my own resolution and see how well I do:

I will take part in the Master Class, Scriptic, and Trifecta (weekly and weekend) prompts every week in November. I will also do something writing related every day this month, whether it is to write a new post, edit an old post or story, or to submit a story or poem for publication. On December 1st I will reflect back on how I did this month to keep to these tasks.

So here is today’s post, which is a continuation from Monster Hunter.

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The next morning Ava departed from the Silver Saddle Inn. The sun was just beginning to rise on the horizon and most of the other inhabitants were still sound asleep. It would almost be worth her while to stay a little longer, simply to see the fear in the eyes of the men as they came down for breakfast. They all kept their distance after last night’s display.

But she knew that she should head out to find her next job. Unfortunately monsters rarely hunted themselves, which meant she would still be needed. She was almost certain to find something to hunt near Elwood, and that was less than a fortnight away. They always seemed to attract a band of goblins or a trio of trolls. She had saved them so often that their king had stopped trying to negotiate a better price with her. He would pay anything she demanded.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she almost failed to notice a wanted poster on the side of the stables. She backed up, frowning at the poor sketch of the monster. The reward was almost laughable, but the monster itself ignited her sense of adventure. Somehow Mulhaven had noticed a doppelganger among them.

Of course there were doppelgangers all over the seven kingdoms. They were by far the most common monster, but the vast majority of them would never be recognized for what they are. They usually live in peaceful harmony with all the other races, although there is the occasional case where the monster instinct takes over. Ava figured that it was most likely that this doppelganger was simply careless and someone saw it shift.

But what if it went rogue? This whole town could be wiped out by one sinister doppelganger. Her father had warned her about them when she was younger, although he never let her hunt one with him. He said it was too risky for them both to go. It was the one monster she had always wanted to hunt.

Ava decided it would be worth her while to stay in Mulhaven a little longer. If she was going to hunt a doppelganger she was going to have to get some help. And she knew exactly where to go to find some help.

For more of Ava’s adventures check out the previous post, Monster Hunter, or the first short story, Ogre Hunt. The next part of her story, The Seeress, is up now!

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