Monday, June 30, 2008

Better late than never...

Finding a minute to write in the summertime, when all of my children are out of school, has been nearly impossible! The fact that four of the six of us are on antibiotics for strep throat (including me) hasn't helped matters either. I was so excited for this month's topic, too. The lesson I've learned is to start earlier in the month next time. Here is my submission--completely free-written and unedited, but I like how it turned out. Too tired ot write more, unfortunately.


I have one green eye and one blue eye. The green eye sees truth, and the blue eye sees much, much more. I sit outside my misty mountain home and cast my blue eye across the expanse before me. Its sight reaches beyond the miles of olive trees beneath my mountains—a vast forest whose grey-green trees climb hills and fall into valleys and move with the earth, looking more like a swelling sea than anything else. My glance extends past this verdant ocean to the true sea, skipping across the shallows like a smooth stone, and then on, skimming the white tips of the waves. When my sight reaches the shore of an island kingdom, all that I see has an azure tint; and at the edge of my vision, all is lost in deep blue mist.

The palace of the island kingdom is not beyond the limits of my vision, and I can look easily through the stone walls. I see a tall room hung in tapestries and a massive bed decked in fine velvet bedclothes. The room is bustling with the movements of a dozen servant women. Their queen reclines in the bed, beads of perspiration on her brow and a look of relieved joy on her face. In her arms her naked newborn daughter studies her mother’s face.

Just outside the queen’s chamber, a nervous young king is still unaware that his wife has given birth. He stands at a narrow window and gazes on my mountains—if he had an eye like mine he would be staring me in the face.

I have watched the king and queen prepare for the arrival of this little princess. Her parents have such splendid plans for her future that I feel almost sorry to deprive them. But this little one is special, and I have plans of my own.

My sharp claws grate on the craggy ground below me as I ease myself to the edge of the cliff. I stretch my neck out into the abyss before me and let the weight of my head pull me off the mountain. I dive sharply, then open my wings and begin to fly.

2 comments:

Courtney said...

I loved this story, the turn at the end was great, a definite surprise and very interesting, a really good idea!

ern said...

heather, i love reading your stuff! you have a perfect way of incorporating analogies and similes that flow so smoothly with the images you create. i can tell that fantasy-writing has influenced your own writing and it makes me want to start reading more of it! is this something you've just done for the blog, or will you be fleshing it out into a story? i've been thinking we need to change our format so we're working on more long-term goals, with maybe these shorter practice posts in-between just to stay sharp. we'll see how things go this month.