Each Sunday, Weekend Writing Warriors offers a selection of eight-sentence excerpts from writers in multiple genres and forms. Check out the full roster here.
***
Who was Phila? I don’t know, but he comes back to me in savors, like an old ghost, in the fumes of brandy, the smell of dumplings frying, the curious scent of boat-rig (that open-air smell, the tarps, the hot-metal smell of fittings under the sun).
Is anything real? There are creatures of folklore who aren’t there when they look in the mirror.
Where am I going now? There will be a future, I’m sure; Phila’s sister is making sure of it. She’s standing there in her livery, that coverall that looks like a uniform though it bears no insignia. She’s in service to a Cause, and so will I be.
***
Speaker is Yasmin-3, Full Clone of the Great Shipwright (Naime). She’s the minor villain of the Ship’s Heart trilogy. Thanks to my writing comrade Lev Mirov, she’s getting her own novel. “Minor villain wreaks havoc on major villain when she discovers she’s been played; finds redemption through love of sex and fried dumplings.”
E. P. Beaumont 
Wow, that first paragraph is fabulous EPB writing at its best – all that sensory description to call up memories! Enjoyed the entire snippet as always, can’t wait to learn more about the minor villain…but the opening of the snippet is EXCELLENT.
Sex and fried dumplings – quite a mix! I can tell you’re having fun with the minor villain.
Love the brandy and dumplings. Makes me feel like I’m right there. Villain stories are so much fun to read.
You made me curious with the line about ‘savors’. Clearly the word means something different in this world, and I wonder what.
I like the last line, about being in service to a cause. Hopefully it’s a good one, but if she’s a villain, there’s no telling what she believes a good cause to be.
I loved this– the opening really captured the senses and the end left me wondering where the story will go from here. Fantastic job! 😀