1) Use the following words in a story or essay: leader, fourteen, russet, enormity, reluctant. (10 min)
"Nine, ten, eleven--" Jek paused when its leader grumbled audibly. "Twelve--"
She brushed by, distracting Jek briefly. When it looked back, the children, visible only as bundles of heavy russet cloth, hadn't moved. Jek swallowed nervously. It just wasn't natural. Maybe they recognized the enormity of the task ahead of them.
"Eleven, twelve, thirteen--"
The leader cracked her whip in the air above their heads, and the children closest to her pressed forward into the reluctant mass near the cave entrance.
"FOURTEEN, FIFTEEN--mistress, I cannot count them if you have them moving!" Jek clenched its teeth and looked at the ground, trying to appear submissive.
2) Write about an encounter between a character and a group of others.(10 min)
"We have no time for your counting. They will stay with you."
Jek bowed. "Yes mistress. Come!" It turned to the mass of cloaked children and waved them forward. Wading through them to the wall, it swung its own russet cloak in a great arc to wrap it around its back.
With the hood up, Jek could only see directly in front.
"Do try to bring back more than half of them this time."
"Yes, mistress." Jek bowed toward her voice. The door was already open, letting cold air into the cave. "Come, children," it said more softly.
The ones nearest Jek looked up, their eyes already closing against the light outside.
It walked with them, spilling out onto the ledge and turning left to start picking their way down the mountainside.
3) What remarkable thing happens to the above characters that makes me want to read your story?
Jek took a deep breath and straightened up. Ahead and behind, the children were shuffling politely along in silence. Water seeped through cracks in the rock to the left, and on the right a forest reached toward them. It shivered in the chill of outside. Once they got off the cliff, building shelter would be their first task. There were building materials in the forest - not rock, but for a temporary shelter it would do.
A streak of light in the sky caught Jek's eye. It hesitated for a second, and a quiet murmur behind it prompted a step forward. Jek turned back to its charges, and dismissed the light as irrelevant to its task.
A rumble started, making Jek and all the children pause and look around. The air became solid and struck them down as one, roaring with a sound that shook their bones and pulled some children off the ledge where they tumbled silently out of sight.
