This is a sketch from my next WIP. For Sue Vincent’s #writephoto challenge.
They scrambled to the top of the hill, and stopped, chests heaving, trying to get their breath back. The tree cover was sparse, rowan and birch and spindly oak trees, and overhead the sky lay, dark and heavy. Jon felt the weight of the dark sky and the pressure of the dark earth, the forest that was black and grey but never green, and the wind that sang in a colourless voice through the bracken.
He gazed out over the treetops to where the place lay where they would be safe. Safe from what, he wasnโt sure, but they had four legs, sometimes two, faces with narrow eyes, but sometimes the grimacing muzzles of dogs that had never been.
Halli recovered from the climb first and was was about to plunge down the hill and back into the forest when something made Jon grab her arm. โWait,โ he whispered. The silence thickened; he couldnโt breath.
Halli looked about in alarm then gasped, โThe sky. Itโs broken.โ
Overhead the grey was as compact as ever, darkening to slate at the far horizon, slate the treetops that moved sluggishly in the wind, but away over the forest, the cloud and mist was torn and through the rent, a golden cascade of sunlight fell in pillars of brilliance.
โWhat is it?โ Halli murmured, her eyes open wide as pools. โWhatโs happening? Is it the end of the world?โ
โItโs the sun,โ Jon said, and for the first time since he had burst out of the dark tree tunnel, he smiled.
Jane Dougherty Writes 
‘ Pillars of brilliance ‘ ah I’ve seen them.
It’s the kind of sky I associate with Yorkshire.
Not far off, as it happens…about half a mile across the border ๐
Another cliffhanger teaser though ๐
They shouldn’t really count as short stories since I don’t give any context. It’s just testing out plot and character and hoping it makes some sense ๐
You know where to cut to leave the clues and the mystery, so they work very well ๐
I’m glad you think so ๐
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Love it, Jane! The first line with breath taking sounds like me some years ago. ๐ Hope you had a beautiful weekend. Michael
Thank you! I know that feeling too.
The weather has been glorious and there weren’t too many butchers around either ๐
The Oracle had killed them? ๐ Poor animals, every year these games.
It’s a bit dispiriting that the only two we saw this morning were boys of about 18 and 16. I had hoped the younger generation would have got over blood sports, but they still love it.
From toddlers on they will be drilled to do. You will not believe, but in the age of 10 it was normal to me shooting birds, with a air riffle. Nobody disciplined me.
When I was a child in Yorkshire, lots of young boys had air rifles, especially farm boys. What these lads were carrying looked like assault rifles!
Oh, not so good, giving youngster so harmful things. But air rifles are harmful too. I will never understand my father, who lets me use his old rifle.
Men who shoot usually encourage their sons to do the same. Maybe it’s a form of guilt. If your son also shoots he won’t condemn you for being a hunter.
This could be true. Here are most people in shooting clubs, and reservists, i can not really understand. I did my military service too, but later had no interest in having a gund or a rifle.
I don’t know the psychology of shooting, but it seems to me that wanting to shoot something = wanting to kill = a very unhealthy mind.
Think so, too.
What happened next ๐๐๐
Wait and see (when I’ve written it) ๐
I’m thinking of what happened before as well as next. (K)
That’s good, because there is a before, just haven’t written the after yet.
Smiling too.
(eyes open wide as pools…loved this)
It’s a story idea I had a while ago and abandoned it to work on more grown-up stuff, but I’ve gone back to it.
Glad u have.
๐
That is beautiful Jane. I loved the 2nd paragraph, just the poetry of it, but I can’t put my finger on the disquieting words ” … had never been.” Where they nightmares, his imagination? Or is it simply a mechanism for creating anxiety. Whatever it is it works ๐