Tag: Fantasy

No one believes me. I can hardly blame them. My mind barely holds the memory, it feels so fantastical. And yet I have the scars. I’m the only one who made it back.

We’d been six days in the lifeboat, our ship and the rest of our crew sunk below. Nothing but endless blue, no idea where we were, when I saw it for the first time.

I thought I was hallucinating at first, so I kept my mouth shut. It wasn’t long before the others saw it too. It rose up just high enough to see the spines along its back. If it was a fish, it was bigger than any I’d seen before.

We floated a bit longer before we felt it nudge the boat. Derrick stuck his head over to look. Gav and I stared in horror as a huge tentacle shot up to wrap around him, taking him overboard. The water calmed too quickly, and we sat there in silence. In the bright sun we listened to the sound of the boat creaking underneath us. Gav was still praying when it burst.

Timber splintered in all directions as we dove away, narrowly escaping the tentacle’s squeeze. Each of the monster’s limbs took hold of a piece of our boat. I lost sight of Gav as the monster reared its head. 

It was a serpent, but unlike any other I’d seen. The limbs of an octopus lined its body, while the head resembled the fish of the deep sea. I floated, frozen on the piece of boat I’d managed to cling to. The creature focused on Gav, whose face will be forever etched in my mind. The thing swallowed him whole. 

The nurses tell me it never happened, as if they were there. Such a creature doesn’t exist. The giant ring-shaped scar on my chest says otherwise.

The chosen has come. She who will lead us out from the dark. For too long, the good folk of the midnight zone have craved the light, with no more than imagination to sustain them. The denizens of the upper ocean stop us from reaching too high, keeping us so low that we meek out miserable lives on the ocean floor.

But no more. The sea witch claimed many currents ago that the one who made their own light would lead us up. Their shine would be so bright that all would see and gather. In their brilliance, we are freed. The light has arrived.

She is by far the largest Angler I have ever seen. Her luminescence can be seen for miles. Creatures I lived next to my whole life, never knowing they existed, are clear to me now. All of us are drawn to her. 

She has never spoken, not a word, but her eyes see us clean, her will resounds in our heads.

“Soon. You will follow me soon.”

Week No 2 of the April Shower Monthly Writer’s Prompt: And then there was the flood

294 Words

She watched as he stood there, holding the other girl’s hand. She hated how beautiful the girl was. He had said he loved her once. He still might.

The heatwave had dried her small river, making it impossible for her to move or speak. The young water spirit watched as her lover arrived daily to search for her, powerless to reach him. Then his searches grew weekly. Then monthly. It had taken a few months for her to realize he wasn’t coming back.

Sorrow had gripped her. She longed to search for him, worried the forest had taken him. After almost a year, the rain returned.

Her limbs slid out of the riverbed easily, the euphoria of movement  lifting her to the surface. She almost forgot her lover, until she saw his pendant on the ground.

The river girl raced through the woods, saturating the ground as she went. She sought to start at his village. Someone would know where he went.

They were kissing when she arrived. Her sorrow turned to rage and she went straight to him. His eyes widened when he saw her, not with joy but with fear.

“I loved you”. She saw his fear mirrored in her eyes and hated her all the more.

Both the betrayer and his new love looked down when they felt the water arrive at their shoes. The river girl laughed as they ran, there was nowhere to go. She let what was left of her dissolve into the ground below, coaxing the ground water to swell up.

The flood never rose to a dangerous point, at least not for most. In the house at the far edge of town the villager found two bodies, the only casualties of the night the river died.

The Life Cycle of Trees: A Gardener’s Manual

(Note: I am changing the title of these from Writer’s Exercises to Fiction, as they are not always inspired by the list found here.)

All trees begin life as no more than a seed. Buried deep in the ground, encased in a hard shell the small soul has much work to do. Awakening is not a process to be rushed. Each species of tree goes through a slightly different process, but all experience the push to grow. There is an urging to stretch the fibrous centers to crack the shell and head to the light. The soul inside is only too willing to give into this urge.

The seedling experiences a range of new sensations from the moment it’s seedling arms come forth. The tiny soul goes through a process in which it can only be reactionary. There are so many new sensations for it: light, heat, wind, mist, chill and rain. It is a sensory overload that can take some time to pass.

The period just after the growth of the “true leaves’ ‘ or when the tree obtains its first set of adult limbs is its first true danger phase. The number of troubles it may endure are endless. The tree may become covered in pests or worse still, a lunch for those pests. The tree is still tender and delicate and is a very tasty open for many creatures. In this stage of life, the tree learns about endurance.

Once the bark grows thick enough to be properly called a trunk, the tree is ready to be called a Sapling. Most trees feel this stage takes forever to be through. You can liken it to adolescence. This is a period of great learning for the tree, and the proceeding few decades will be spent in quiet observation and learning.

The next phase is arguably one of the most dangerous in the life of a tree. When they have grown and hardened enough to gain the attention of humans, they must be on guard. Humans use trees for many things. Their homes, furnishings, tools and more, all made with the corpse of a tree. This is also the phase of max reproduction, and all trees of any species begin serious efforts to further the forest and expand the land held by trees. Each generation spreads their seed, the saplings claiming more territory.

Occasionally humans, armed with their blades, weaken the ranks of the tree militia. They cut down the ones outside of the designated space, or the ones deemed of “good quality”. So, the trees are ever replacing their fallen brethren.

After a time, and no one except for the trees truly knows why, the tree leaves the militia. No one stops him, and he retains communication with his allies through their entwined roots in the soil. It is suspected that once one has spread as much as it is able, and learned as much knowledge as one tree can hold, it becomes an elder or a guardian. Certainly, some magnificent trees could be called nothing other than sentinels, their branches reaching so far, they must see everything. It is no wonder smaller trees hope to grow around them. The font of wisdom each tree represents would be a blessing to any student.

Then, after a century or two, at the end of its life the consciousness it has displayed for years will simply begin to fade. It is going to sleep, back in the earth. This is a relatively quick process, when compared to the other life stages. The kingdom of Mycelium knows when they are needed. They begin the breakdown with ease. The tree allows this breakdown, letting its memories seep through its roots to the soil below. The Mycelium people feed deeply, converting old wood into new ground.

Ready for the next seed.

Describe a process: write a description of a process in the manner of an instructor to a student.

While it is a time-consuming process, the hands-on part of the work is minimal. You will want your environment as dark as possible, preferably with no more light than the Alembic flame. While the process is not labour intensive, you do need to maintain a vigil. The spirits will try to escape if given the chance. 

Place the Water housing the spirit in the alembic. The spirit’s essence is bound to the water until it reaches a simmer. The heat forces the spirit to break the bond to its habitat.

As the steam rises both the now spiritless water as well as the now angry spirit will come out together. You’ll need a deft hand and a gossamer net to catch the spirit. Once the spirit is in the net transfer it to a crystal jar large enough to hold it. The spirit can now be kept until needed.