Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Storm Chasing
"Tragedy blows through your life like a tornado, uprooting everything, creating chaos. You wait for the dust to settle, and then you choose. You can live in the wreckage and pretend it's still the mansion you remember. Or you can crawl from the rubble and slowly rebuild. Because after disaster strikes, the important thing is that you move on. But if you're like me, you just keep chasing the storm." - Veronica Mars
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Shalee looked at her companion, a broad knight that she picked up as she traveled through this town, he caught her looking at her and a smile licked the edge of his lips. She looked away not knowing what to say, knowing that he knew nothing of the tragedy. A tragedy that blows to your life like a tornado, uprooting everything, creating chaos. She spurred her horse forward into the sagebrush that surrounded the trail. He followed with the dust settling around them. She tried to remind herself that he had chosen this.
ReplyDeleteIn the distance, a dust devil whirled over the edge of a barely alive ridge with tufts of grass that barely managed to live in the crevices. "Hurry up," she called over her shoulder. "We've got to catch that thing."
The knight's eyes gleamed. It was that way with the muscle-bound warriors. They either lived in the wreckage and pretended it was still a mansion, or they crawled out from the rubble to rebuild. Shalee shook herself, feeling sorry for what she was getting him into. After disaster strikes, the important thing is that you move on. Except for herself, she never learned, she kept chasing the storm.
"Yes."
He only had one word responses and Shalee wondered if this time maybe she wouldn't grow attached, or maybe this knight might be better than the others, maybe she wouldn't lose him. No, that was unlikely.
They climbed the ridge and the red-rimmed scar of the portal caught the days ending light. She wondered what it would bring her, as they galloped the horses. Always, a different challenge, always something ending in tragedy. But, she protected the towns.
A demon slid out of the portal and the knight rose in his stirrups to charge forward. She watched him shrink as she and her horse slid to a stop and she raised her hands over her head mumbling the words of power as lightning bolts squeezed out of her hands to streak forward and rattle the edges of the demon's red-tinged skin. Angering it.
A blur of motion as the knight engaged and the two of them circled each other faster than she could see. Her lightning bolts snaking in to the melee and silhouetting the two against the kicked up dust.
Together they fell, another stone against Shalee's soul as she watched the portal flee her presence.
Casey, a full-length novel is not a prompt. ;-p
ReplyDeleteNevets, the convenient thing about a full-length novel prompt is that I won't feel guilty when I exceed the comment-boxes character limit ;)
ReplyDeleteNevets, play nice. ;)
ReplyDeleteAidan, I love how you've broken up the novel/prompt and created a story that flows around the pieces. That first sentence gave me an intriguing visual that got better as I read. This is great!
Deb...Nevets IS playing nice,.
ReplyDeleteNice job, Aidan!
I sass in love! :-D
ReplyDeleteLightverse, LOL! Hey, where the heck have you been?
ReplyDeleteNevets...sass. Great word. And yes, you are a sassy thing sometimes. That's why we love you.
As a rule I winced every time Whitney took a breath before speaking.
ReplyDeleteShe inhaled. I winced. She unleashed. “So I was thinking, Brit, Veronica Mars said, ‘Tragedy blows through your life like a tornado, uprooting everything, creating chaos. You wait for the dust to settle, and then you choose. You can live in the wreckage and pretend it's still the mansion you remember. Or you can crawl from the rubble and slowly rebuild. Because after disaster strikes, the important thing is that you move on. But if you're like me, you just keep chasing the storm.’”
I blinked at her.
She pouted petutantly. “Did you hear what I just said?”
“I heard CW blah blah blah blah.” I made the appropriate hand-signals for mindless blathering.
“You never share in my moments!”
“I’m your roommate, not your girlfriend.”
“And you’ll never be my girlfriend if you keep that attitude!”
“Oh damn,” I said with as much dry matter-of-factness as I could cram into two syllables.
“You know what I mean!”
“I heard blah blah blah secretly a lesbian blah blah blah blah.” Same hand signals.
“It was a reveltation, Brit!” She hurled something at me. I think she was grabbing for a textbook. She got a sheet of paper. I didn’t bother dodging.
“I’ve known you were secretly a lesbian for a long time, hon, no revelation there.”
Whitney, a primp and proper, naïve and conservative girl, growled with her customary exasperation at me and threw herself down onto her bed. “I had a moment!” she yelled into the pillow, pleading her case. “I wanted to share it with you.”
I rubbed my eyes and closed the lid of my laptop. Time to be a big girl. “Okay, Whitney, tell me all about your second rate TV epiphany.”
“Really?” Just like that she was sitting up, cross-legged and bright-eyed.
I dipped my chin and closed my eyes. “Really.”
Aww, thanks, Deb. And see I finally came up with something. Sorta. lol
ReplyDeleteGreat, thick little fantasy Aidan. If it were written in verse it would have all the marks of a Celtic ballad.
Deb, Lightverse, Nevets, thanks.
ReplyDeleteNevets, nice dialogue here. I like the subtext and the difference in voice between the two.