Story teaser

I am still madly working away at my Love Has No Boundaries story. I'm at close to 25k words now. And here's a little (unedited) teaser for you:

The storm had wetted the sand much farther inland than usual, and it had tossed piles of debris. He poked his toes at the huge snarls of seaweed and inspected the chunks of driftwood. A few of the pieces of wood were manmade planks with chips of paint still clinging to them. He wondered if they came from a ship. Smaller detritus lay scattered on the sand as well: colored shells, polished stones, bits of glass frosted and worn smooth. He slipped a few of the prettier pieces in his pocket. Souvenirs, he thought. He’d found his own little treasure after all.

And then he caught sight of another pile of debris. He couldn’t quite make out what it was because it lay where the waves kept washing over it. It might have been seaweed, but appeared more brown than green. Perhaps it was an animal of some sort—a beached seal, maybe. With mixed curiosity and trepidation, Julian went to investigate.

 When he came close enough to identify the object, his heart caught in his throat and he stumbled, nearly falling. It was a person.

 Was it a fisherman drowned in the storm? How long had it been in the water and how horrifying would it look up close? Gracious gods, what was he going to do with a corpse? He felt as if he might be ill.

 But he couldn’t just abandon the body. The tide was coming in and would surely wash the dead man away before Julian could fetch help. There was no way around it: Julian was going to have to handle the matter himself. At the very least, he must drag the corpse farther from the sea. And then… well, he couldn’t just leave it there until morning, could he? But it was too late to walk to the village. The sun would be setting very soon and the road was too dark to travel at night. Fine then. Perhaps Julian could cover the poor thing with a blanket—a sort of temporary burial—and then get assistance in the morning.

This was rather more adventure than he’d expected to have.

Julian crouched beside the body, shivering slightly as the sea lapped at his feet. The body was belly-down, barefoot, dressed in torn and sodden rags. Julian wasn’t certain, but he thought the person was male. His hair was long and tangled, too wet for its color to be discerned, and the strands covered the man’s face.

How terribly sad to die alone and nameless, to be tossed aside like rubbish.

Julian took a deep breath, grasped the corpse’s hip and shoulder, and gently turned the body onto its back. 

The corpse’s eyes fluttered open. Julian  shrieked and scrambled away. He lost his footing and fell, wetting himself thoroughly in the wavelets. And then he just sprawled there, gasping. Good gods! The man was alive.




So, what do you think so far?