Thanks guys for your kind comments and your useful advice. I'm half way through Chapter One, but do to some circumstance outside of my control, I'll only be able to post it in about 2 weeks.
First off, Wilbur isn't naked, after exits the lake, I intended to put in that he put on his clothes and gathered his sack, and I may have thought it when writing it, but forgot to put it in, which is a common thing I do, but for me going back to edit while writing really removes me from the creative process while i'm "in the moment".
As for words like "flabbergasted" I'm highly influenced by the writing style of Mr. Robert Newcomb of the Chronicles of Blood and Stone series, which is set in a medieval like fantasy setting, but at first glance could appear to be from any time period with the different words he uses. I used to be very trivial about words like that when reading, but I learned not to focus on the actual word, but on the purpose of the word and how it forwards the story.
The reason I set this as a prologue is because it is an event that isn't necessary for forwarding the story, while it is an important event, just wanted to set up a kind of goodie for the reader, because usually with novels that have a prologue, I wait until I finish reading the book, then I go back and read the prologue and the map and so on and so forth, so it's sorta like DVD Bonus Features, but for a book.
Thanks for advice guys, and thank you very much for not shutting a newbie down.
