I think that it might be fun to make up a story for every photo that I reblog for a week as a writing exercise. I’ll start with the next amazing picture I find.
I stumbled outside onto the rain-drenched sidewalk in a daze, my treasure held tightly in my fist, my fist pressed firmly against my chest to stop my furiously pounding heart from ripping through and flattening itself upon the pavement in front of me.
“Are you okay?” Luke asked, grabbing my shoulder and turning me around to face him, his loving eyes full of concern.
“I’ll be fine.” I sighed leaning against his strong, stable chest for support.
“What did she say?” He asked after a minute, holding me at arm’s length.
I held out my trinket for an answer. I watched his face: shock, realization, dread, and then denial all manipulating it in the space of only a few seconds.
“Sophie,” he chided, “be reasonable. Those were just stories.”
“I thought so too,” I said, tension creasing my brow, “…at first.”
“What do you mean, ‘at first’?” he asked, smoothing the wrinkles from my brow with his thumb.
“You didn’t see her. The urgency in her voice…” I looked up at him, my eyes pleading. “Luke, you have to believe me.”
“Of course I believe you, love.” He said, gathering me up in his arms and holding me there. “Just not her. She was dying. She didn’t know what she was saying.”
“Then why would she have this?” I demanded, thrusting what she had given me in his face for the second time.
We both looked at the thing I was holding. It was the most beautiful key I had ever seen. It was made out of some kind of metal that I had never seen before: silver in color, but somehow unearthly; it almost had a glow about it. Though I knew it was impossible, I immediately thought of mithril. I could tell that it was immensely old by the skeletal style and although the design at the top was simple, it looked kingly. There was a pale green star just above where the neck connected to the head, and the tail looked somehow medieval. It was extremely light for its size, and even though I would never try, I knew that nothing in this world could ever break it.
I tore my gaze away from the key in order to further argue my case, but I could tell that Luke’s mind was set and once it was, there was no way to sway it with reason or logic: I would have to show him. All I had to do was find the door that all my childhood fantasies were based on.
That night, I lay in my bed remembering all of the stories involving the key that my grandmother had told me over the years and trying to recall the place where she said the door was. I couldn’t think of anything; all I remembered was her talking about the other world it lead to. I was frustrated with myself for not paying more attention and greedy for what I knew lay behind the door. I groped for the key now hanging from a chain around my neck and looked at it just visible in the moonlight.
[I wrote this about three years ago and this was the story I expanded upon in the shower today. It’s a lot easier to think of something in your head than to get it all down on paper though so the next few weeks are going to be really hard trying to adapt my thoughts into something coherent and fit for a page of text. Now about the writing itself, I know that it’s just a first draft and any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated, and I actually think that the woman’s name is going to be Eloise, not Sophie, because I am reserving the name Sophie for my first daughter, should I have one.]
People never want to give you credit for any of the nice things that you do for them. No, they always want to focus on the negatives, no matter how minor. Sometimes I feel as if I’m just going to blow up out of frustration.
![danceabletragedy:
el sabio
[I wrote this entire scene while listening to Secret Garden’s Nocturne so the whole feeling is set to that, and I think it would help to listen to that whilst reading this to get the whole feel of the piece. Here is the link to it on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd3a189vcVc Thanks. :3]
I dragged his broken twisted body in front of the Tree of Life and laid it there, praying, wishing, needing with every fiber of my being for this to work.
His body remained hopelessly lifeless. I looked up at the graying of dawn all around us, knowing that once the sun came up fully over the hills my one slim chance to bring him back would be over. I knelt down beside him and put his head in my lap.
“Please, Mauru,” I whispered, pressing my forehead into his “damn you, PLEASE.”
The first rays of the morning sun sprouted joyously from behind the distant hills, impervious to the fact that it was no more wanted here than a fatal wound. I was getting angry now, not just at the stupid tree for disappointing me and the fools who told me that it would actually bring him back, but at him for not coming back to me when I needed him so badly and finally (and mostly) at myself for not being able to fight for him, for all of the people of this world, like they seemed to think I was capable of. I felt the hot, angry tears burning tracks down my cheeks before I even realized that I was crying. I wiped them away violently and stood up shaking with rage.
My body was burning with the heat of my rage and I couldn’t see straight, but in my delirium I saw a bright light and faintly thought that the sun must be all the way up. It felt as if my insides were on fire, I could barely stand the heat inside of my own body and I felt as if I would burst from the strain of it all. I could feel something like electricity vibrating through my hands all the way down to my fingertips and I fell to the ground trembling. The pain passed and my body quickly cooled as fast as the heat had come upon me.
I picked up a nearby stone and hurled it at the impassive face carved into the tree, I knew it was completely childish and pointless but at this point I was way past caring.
“Eloise,” I heard a voice behind me say, “I knew you could do it.”
I whirled around at the sound of his voice to see Mauru looking at me with his same old smirk.
“What in the hell happened?” I asked, still a little shaky.
“You happened.” He said simply.](http://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g64/114864/114864_1282115010_submedium.jpg)
