Allow me to begin with a bit of complaining. I never understood parts of this book I’ve got on plots because several sets of plots noted as distinct never struck me as such. Unfortunately I’ve hit a triple patch: metamorphosis, transformation, and maturation. I’ll forgive the literal interpretation of metamorphosis as maybe different than the other two, but I still read all three as a group meaning not much more than ‘the character changes in some way’. I suppose that Transformation is different from Maturation in the same way that girl becomes cheerleader is different from girl becomes doctor, but I think the differences are subtle.
I doubt I’ll be happy with tomorrow’s theme.
Theme – Transformation
Setup – Tyh is the 8th son of a nobody farmer; destined to be a nobody farmer himself. When apprentice honga rider Keena goes looking for help she tricks Tyh’s father into giving her Tyh.
Hook – Keena dragging Tyh into the honga pit to meet Bem and the Quartermaster.
Plot Point 1 – Tyh discovers he can telepathically communicate with the honga like a rider does and decides to find out how to become one.
Pinch 1 – a group of tyro riders catch Tyh interacting with a honga and beat him up for the audacity.
Mid-point Twist – Almost simultaneously Tyh learns he can communicate with all honga over nearly any distance and that other riders can’t.
Pinch 2 – Keena, Tyh’s sometime friend, sides with the trainer’s council against admitting Tyh to the rider program.
Lull – Tyh returns to his home; there he discovers he can’t settle for farming when he knows he should be a rider.
Plot Point 2 – Tyh returns to the honga pit to at least work out his days as a helper for the Quartermaster when the alarm for marching to war goes up.
Conclusion – sneaking into the battalion (or allowed, but as a supply line drudge) Tyh’s ability to communicate with all the hongas proves invaluable in saving the battalion from a rout.
That didn’t turn out as bad as I’d thought it would. I’m not sure I adhered to the concept of Transformation as well as I could have, but that could be worked out in the details not shown here.
380 words on day 670