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Looking Write Back at You

Monthly Archives: June 2020

Flash Fiction: Running (A Medieval Fantasy)

30 Tuesday Jun 2020

Posted by waynemullane in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

blogging, Blogging community, Discovery-Prompts, Fantasy, Fear, Flash fiction, Hope, Medieval, Short story, writing

‘Silently, silently,’ she whispers.

The candlelight illuminates her pale, pain-laiden face. Sweat pours over my hands as I try to loosen her bonds.

Her attempts at humming a tune to soothe me against another botched effort fail due to the undercurrent of angst I sense in her rhythm.

The candle flickers casting wild shapes against the rough stone walls. The dank smell permeates my nostrils as if a mouldy old boot had been pressed hard into my face, making it hard to think let alone talk.

‘If I hadn’t heard you call out, I wouldn’t have thought anybody else was trapped here,’ I say.

‘How did you manage to escape?’ she replies.

‘There was a loose piece of small rock in my cell. Every day when the guards untied my hands for me to eat, I sharpened that rock for a few seconds at a time. It took me a couple of weeks.’

‘Then?’ she asked expectantly.

‘This morning when I woke I found the rock sharp enough to cut through the ropes. When the guard went to untie my hands from behind my back, I brought the rock crashing down on his head.’

‘Did you kill him?’

‘No, he was wearing his helmet. But I stunned him enough to bolt past him out the door.’

‘You need to hurry,’ she says. ‘He can’t be far behind.’

‘I have these,’ I reply, holding the cell keys aloft. ‘That should hold him long enough until somebody comes to see why he’s taking so long.’

She stares wide eyed as I finally yank the rope free.

‘I thought I was the only person here too,’ she says with a weak smile.

‘There may be others…’

But before I finish my sentence we hear distant shouts far back along the corridor.

We step out into the passageway, looking both ways. She grabs a burning torch attached to the wall. Normally, there would be guards passing through at regular times, so our concentration is heightened when we see nobody. This causes a strange creeping sensation within me as we face no resistance at all as we run through the lower levels of the castle, into the catacombs and eventually down the sewer. Every part of me is on full alert as I hear her breath rising and falling in rhythm to our pounding feet.

After braving the freezing moat on this clear, chilly winter night, we turn and look back at the castle, shivering and wet.

‘Look there,’ she points.

I can see the Lizard King glaring down at us from the battlements,  malevolent and unnerving.

‘After them!’ he rasps as the drawbridge starts to lower and the chants of bloodthirsty soldiers fill the silent night.

‘Now it makes sense why nobody tried to stop us from leaving the castle,’ she cries.

‘Why?’ I inquire. My voice is dry and panicked.

‘He wanted us to leave, so he could have us hunted down. We are but game to him.’

Her words echo in my ears. I take hold of her hand and we flee blindly into the silent, dark forest. Foolishly, I grip the cool surface of the rock-knife, thinking it to be our last line of defence if the hordes that are flowing out of the castle catch up with us.

ABOUT

Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that seem hopeless. No matter what way we turn there seems to be no clear path ahead. All we can do is keep running in the hope that an answer will come somehow.

I hadn’t written a medieval fantasy story for sometime, so it was nice to be able to return to this genre.

I hope you enjoyed reading this. If you have any comments, it’d be great to hear from you.

Stay safe and have a good week, Everybody. 😊

Flash Fiction: Fire Face

25 Thursday Jun 2020

Posted by waynemullane in Uncategorized

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Tags

blogging, Blogging community, Circus, Danger, Discovery-Prompts, fiction, Fire, Flash fiction, Short story, writing

My hare-brained ideas are normally the result of some ill thought out notion that seems to make sense at the time. One or two have led me into some close situations, but, generally, I’d come out the other side okay.

My problem is I’m too impulsive, and so despite all my experience screaming at me to stop each time my brain box goes into overload, I’ll thrive on the spontaneity of it all.

Last Tuesday evening, I started to watch a show about circus performers. Although I’d seen them before, I’d become attracted to the fire jugglers. I legged it into the garden and located a couple of sawn off branches from a spot of DIY treework I’d done a couple of weeks ago. I wrapped a petrol-doused rag around one end of each branch, then applied a flame direct from a lighter.

This was meant to be a quick tester to see if I’d like to take this up as a hobby. The first couple of throws worked quite well. I gained a little confidence and threw the makeshift batons a little higher in the clear, dark autumn night.

I started to add cheers and whoops as I threw higher.

‘I’m quite good at this,’ I thought as one of the fiery sticks came crashing down on to my face, singeing the skin on my cheek. I howled as the other branch whistled down and smacked me on the top of my head.

Expletives filled the night air as I stamped on the patio. I turned the garden tap on and sighed as a jet of water from the hose soothed my face before I drowned out the fire sticks.

I stepped back into the house rubbing my face and cursing my impetuousness. Before I looked into the mirror to see if a trip to the hospital would be needed, I saw a tightrope walker and said to myself, ‘Now, that looks interesting!’

About

This flash fiction idea came to me when I was watching a show about circuses one evening. I’m quite a cautious person by nature, but fiction gives us a way to shake of those shackles and explore different versions of ourselves. This story is one such attempt at that as it reminds me to be spontaneous from time to time – but not to play with fire!

I hope you enjoyed reading this. If you have any comments, it’d be great to know what you think.

Have a great weekend, Everybody 😊

Poem: Breakfast In The Woods

21 Sunday Jun 2020

Posted by waynemullane in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Adventure, Berkshire, blogging, Blogging community, Discovery-Prompts, Hiking, Lockdown, Poem, Poetry, Travel

Today, my friend and I left the town

On our first rural trip since lockdown.

Concrete, tarmac and neighbourhoods

Gave way to farm fields and woods.

Stresses and strains gone in the blink of an eye

As we treapsed through fields of wheat and rye.

And in the long, tall grass the crickets chattered

As we got back to what really mattered

Out on to footpaths flanked by hedge

On a pursuit to live a little on the edge.

The last few months inhibited our freedom,

Now was the time to address this wrong.

Before we left, we’d scoped the views, consulted maps,

Checked the weather, adorned our caps,

Packed our burgers, veggies and buns

To head off to the woods and have some fun.

Stove set up, we sipped our tea

And watched squirrels leap from tree to tree.

Burgers sizzling, tummies rumbling

By the time we ate there was no grumbling.

On the way back we spied a deer

As it shot through a hedge like a spear.

What a great adventure so close to home

Now we’re back we’re gonna roam.

About

On our first joint outing since lockdown, my mate Robin and I fancied doing something different. Breakfast in the open air was great. It’s so great that our home county of Berkshire in the UK has so many adventures. It’s so great to be outside for long periods again.

It’d be really great to read others thoughts on this. I’d really welcome your comments below.

I hope you are all well and staying safe and that you can do more stuff outdoors 😊

Hello, It’s Good To Be Back

16 Tuesday Jun 2020

Posted by waynemullane in Uncategorized

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Tags

Adventure, blogging, Blogging community, Hiking, Lockdown, Self-publishing, Travel, WordPress

Hi Everybody,

I hope you’re all well and keeping safe.

I’ve been off air for a couple of weeks. I’ve missed WordPress and sharing with other bloggers in this time. But it’s good to be back now.

I decided to take time out to reassess where I was going with my hiking book and I decided to do a lot of restructuring. It’s meant staying up into the early hours quite often. I’m in a good place with it now, so I’m more freed up to focus on my blog.

I’ve finally been able to go on a few more hikes in the local countryside too, so I’ve got ideas for a few posts and poems too. If the truth be told, it was good to finally be out more consistently again as lockdown eases in the UK; but I think I enjoyed it too much that it’s taken me this long to return to WordPress.

Finally, in any spare time I had to read I had my head lost in ‘Neverwhere’ by Neil Gaiman. In brief, it’s about the people that live in the murky depths under London – it’s a mind-blowing read.

Well, I’ll leave it there for now. I look forward to reading your posts in next few days – I really have missed being here 😊.

Hope you all have a good week.

Peace and love,

Wayne

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