Day 15 - The Other Perspective

The Dread Wraith stood at the entrance to the grand hall, still and silent listening to the scraping and thumping reverberating across the black open space of the hall.

            Being able to see in the darkness was of no assistance, there was nothing to see, it was simply shades of grey, he could make out the arches of the other entrances to the grand hall, beyond that he could make out the pattern of the tiled floor, and the wall opposite. 

            Nothing had changed in over a century since this had changed; not since the Orcs, their bones lying bare in the corner.  Now though there was a change, a life force emanating from the wall.

            A life force like none he had ever felt before. This life force pure, no taint, innocence he had never felt before, youthfulness, joy, excitement an overwhelming energy.

            It was too much, the wraith floated across the hall, closer to the wall. The energy pulsing through its ethereal being. It wasn’t one life force it was two, a male and a female the affection they shared for each other amplifying the purity of their aura.

            Listening the wraith realised it would not be long now until he could touch them, draining the pure energy of their beings into his own. Tearing the spirit from their bodies creating wraith spawn to be commanded.

            Suddenly the darkness of a hundred years was broken by a circular glow breaking the expanse of the wall in front of it. The wraith retreated to the darkness in anticipation, summoning its spawn to its aide, to expire in its defence. To enable and assist it in obtaining and consuming whatever was coming through the wall.

The other perspective!

He stood perplexed; there was a hole where there should be no hole. He knew that did not make sense, as he had been digging the hole for hours, or a tunnel as it really was. Yet his pick had just punched a hole clean through the wall that he had been working on.

Taesha stood behind him, ‘Why have you stopped?’

‘There’s a hole.’

‘Of course, there’s a bloody hole, we’ve been digging it for hours’

‘That’s not what I mean’ moving aside and pointing, Bob gestured for Taesha to look.

Taesha leant in, squeezing past him. She could see the brown dirt of the wall reflected in the lamplight, at the centre of the wall, a black hole, the size of a fist. ‘This can’t be right.’

‘I know.’ Dug Barham had been Bob’s home for all of his 42 years, and now as a young adult, he had been given permission by the council to build his new home at the outer reaches of the underground city. ‘None of the maps show tunnel’s or anything like this.’

Running back up the tunnel into their home Taesha grabbed a firebrand from the hearth and ran to Bob, passing him the firebrand. Moving it closer to the hole, the glow of the coal got brighter. ‘There’s definitely a draught coming through’.

He cast the firebrand forward, watching as it passed through the hole. Dropping only three foot, it hit the ground and skid forward showing a tiled, marble floor. There was definitely a drought, the torch resting on the floor was glowing red as the ember took in all the oxygen it could.

The torch silently burst into flame, both Taesha and Bob; heads pressed together looked through the hole, trying to take in everything they could see, which in truth was nothing, yet a lot.

The cavern on the other side of their small peephole was massive. The light from the flickering flame was absorbed by the darkness of the cavern. There were no reflections, bar from the floor around the flame.

No walls could be seen beyond the one they were looking through. No ceiling, nothing but blackness and the grey-white tiles.

Bob grabbed the edge of the small hole, pulling at it, making it bigger. Taesha pulling him from the wall turned him to face her, ‘What are you doing?’.

Bob looked at her; he was a young adult dwarf, full of exuberance and excitement about what was in front of them. He looked at her blankly, unsure of himself, as he thought it was obvious what he was doing. Taesha stared at him and waited. 

Oh God, why is he so daring! Look at him; that dumb look, a sparkle of excitement in his eyes under that mop of black hair and bushy eyebrows. He is exasperating, he never thinks ahead. The consequence is foreign to him.

Bob, staring back saw Taesha, the love of his life, the woman he had been courting, pursuing for all those years, the woman who was his keystone, his foundation of reason and rationale. He could see her shaking, why? Was it from excitement as he felt, or fear, anxiety, what was going on? ‘What do you mean? I am making it bigger so we can get in there.’

‘Bob Really! Don’t you think we should go to the council?  Tell them of what we have found. Maybe get Tom and Drake, and come back armed just in case.’

‘In case of what? There is nothing there, you can see that.’

‘No Bob, who do you think made that room? Who tiled that floor?’

They stood in silence facing each other, Bob looked at Taesha, her lithe body clothed in nothing more than leather pants a loose-fitting linen shirt and leather vest holding the lantern. He was dressed much the same. He knew she was right, they most definitely were not prepared for adventure, no matter how still and silent it appeared.

‘Right then!’ Bob turned and walked back down the tunnel they had been digging. When he entered the main chamber he leant his pick against the wall, grabbed his boots and sat on the kitchen bench and started to pull them on.

As Taesha stepped out of the tunnel, Bob looked at her. ‘You go find Earnest the Elder. If you see Tom or Drake tell them to get down here as quickly as possible. I’ll stay here to make sure something from in there doesn’t decide to come through here and explore us’.

Day 14 - The Final Assignment

Day 14 for me is the writing of a draft for the final assignment in my creative writing course.

.    Write a synopsis for a piece of fiction. 
Make sure that it has been written in the present tense, and covers all the main plot points. (Refer to the synopsis content list in the last Section—have you given the reader an idea
of the theme, setting and period, plot, characters, and emotional turning points? Also give consideration to brief snippets of dialogue and mention of subplots, although this is not crucial.) 
Check your final draft to make sure the synopsis has been written in a smooth style and makes the story sound interesting. 
(Length: Maximum 1,000 words) 


Day 13 - Obtuse & Obscure

Oh to have a rampant imagination, that is what every writer would want, an imagination that is a storm of stories, a whirlwind of plots, characters, twists and tensions.

The only problem is if your imagination is rampant in all the wrong ways. An imagination that is busy devising all the ways you could end it all. Be it planning and plotting or simply wishing; comically optimistic yet contradictory to the negative thinking that conceived the end in the first place.

The problem with this sort of rampant imagination is it detracts you from your writing and blocks your ability to tell stories to create. You become fixated and challenged; it can be all-consuming and debilitating.
.
Being obtuse and obscure about it all, to write about it, would be to admit it, to admit it would be to indicate that there is something wrong.  But then is there really something wrong, maybe it really is simply a rampant imagination.

I had to ask someone before I could really recognise what it was, even now I sometimes catch myself in mid-thought and have to tell myself that it is not common or correct to wish you were dead.

What am I talking about?  I am talking about the forbidden thoughts, and yet I know my imagination grabs them, looks for them. It’s a proximity thing; proximity could be on the street, out the front door, on my own verandah.

Or it could be a hundred miles away, simply a thought of fading, dissipating into the blackness of the night. If only I could channel the energy of this rampant imagination, into words, paragraphs, plots and more, to give words to my thoughts to the benefit of all.

Day 12 - Under the Bed

‘There’s something under the bed!’

‘Seriously Sarah, go to sleep, there’s nothing under our bed’

‘No Derrick, there is, I am sure of it’

* * *

‘Aroogah, Aroogah’ Derrick hit snooze, and rolled over to cuddle Sarah, that’s why the alarm was set and had a snooze feature, so they got a few minutes of semi conscious cuddling before they dragged themselves out of bed.

Draping his arm over her, on the outside of the doona, he snuggled into her, kissing the nape of her neck. No reaction, he nuzzled into her again, nothing.

‘Sarah, Sarah’ shaking her, nothing.

* * *

‘Mr Carrigan, Derrick can you tell me what happened?’

‘I don’t know what happened? I was asleep, Sarah was next to me, everything was ok.’

‘Can you remember anything, did you hear anything? Was there anyone in the house?’

‘I’m not sure, I was tired, I remember her saying something’

‘What did she say? Can you remember’

‘Something under the bed’

‘What’s under bed?’

‘That’s what she said.’

* * *

Derrick collapsed exhausted; he lay still looking at the ceiling, thinking about the day. Their little girl Eliza lay next to him, breathing through her mouth.

‘Daddy, there’s something under the bed’

* * *

Day 11 - Mine Craft Mum

Playing catch-up now - bit of a disruptive weekend.  here is a draft of an idea I had a while ago.  Note complete, t'is cool though I might come back to it sometime.

'Mum!' Sarah yelled impatiently sitting on the downstairs chairs, Wii U controller in hand.

'Coming, be patient.' Mum stepped off the bottom step into the downstairs TV room, finally.

'OK so what are we going to do, how do I hold this thing?'

Sarah could never tell if Mum was kidding her, or was she seriously this clumsy with technology. Surely being married to dad must have qualified her to use a Wii U in someway.

'Look Mum, hold it this way. OK, that there under your left thumb, that's how you look around and under the right thumb how you move, I'll explain more as we go.'

'Ok!' Said mum, sticking her tongue out between her pursed lips, in concentration. This was the first time ever Sarah had persuaded her mum to play Minecraft, and she was anxious to make it as great an experience as possible. To do this she had taken her into the castle game. The castle had everything that was good.  

Everything; including monsters. That was the downside of the castle, that you could only play it in survivor mode. The upside though, all of Sarah's best creations where here.'Mum, can you see me, I am jumping up and down in front of you. Turn mum, turn.'

'Oh, ok I see you now'

'Follow me.' Sarah turned her Avatar and ran towards the castle, she wanted to show mum her latest creation, the mirror. None of her friends had ever made one, nor could she find it online anywhere, it was great, it operated like a real mirror.

'Wait, Sarah wait.' boy was mum slow, she seemed to bump into everything, if there was a step she'd get stuck trying to jump up, going through doors seemed to take forever. Sarah not wanting to discourage her mum simply waited and watched, occasionally helping out a little, leaning in and pressing which ever button needed to be pressed.

Finally they were approaching the mirror. 'See Mum, isn't it great! I made this, no one else ever has'

'Crash!' Sarah turned to where her mum was. She was gone, her controller falling to the floor.

Sarah looked everywhere, 'Mum!' Then she saw it, her mum's avatar was running around in circles jumping up and down on the screen. What was happening. Sarah opened the text box and slowly typed, 'Mum, is that you?'

'YES!' Not a yell as such, just the all-CAPS typing of YES! 'GET ME OUT OF HERE!'

Sarah slowly typed 'Calm down mum, let me think!'

'My arms won't bend, my legs don't bend, what do I do? SARAH!'

OK, just how did mum disappear inside the game, this was baffling. 'Mum, what where you doing just before you went in there?'

'I kept bumping into your mirror, then I was here, all stiff armed and legged.'

Sarah had an idea. She ran her avatar against the mirror, nothing happened. Again she ran her avatar against the mirror, nothing. Maybe, just maybe one more time. 'Voosh'.

Everything around her was bright grey; the darkened, cool TV room was gone, replaced by the insides of her castle. Standing in front of her all pixelated was her mum, all box head, dark hair, grey top, brown pants and boots.

'Hello Mum!'

'Sarah, what have you done? Are you in here with me now as well? How are we going to get out of here?'

'It's ok Mum, I've got a plan. Dad will be home soon, he will see what has happened and work out how to get us out of here.'

'Oh you're so smart Sarah' Mum moved towards Sarah to give her a hug and a kiss, or what could pass for a hug and a kiss in minecraft where you can't bend your arms, let alone actually hug each other.
After the awkwardness of the attempted hug had passed, mum asked 'So what do we do now while we wait?'

'Well Mum, that's the tricky part. If I am right and Dad realises what has happened he will log into the game, which means he will appear at his mine.'

'His mine? Where is his mine?'

'Oh not so far, sort of, as long as we can get a horse each, and get to the halfway cabin before it gets dark, then we can sleep, and we should make it to his mine by tomorrow. 

'TOMORROW!' Sarah could hear the shout this time.

'Yes Mum, tomorrow. It's game time though, if we can get to halfway now it will be much quicker, else we will have to sit in a dark hole somewhere'

'Why would we sit in a dark hole?'

'Skeletons, zombies, creepers, slime, Ghast's, all that sort of stuff'

'WHAT! oh no! I am scared.'

'It's ok mum, you're with me, we'll be fine. Come on let's get going'

Sarah led the way, first back out into the grand hall, and down to the storage room, they needed to get some stuff if they where going to make this mad dash to dad's mine. As much as Sarah and her dad loved playing together, he tended to just mine for treasure, occasionally coming out of the mine to cut down trees or get other things that Sarah asked for. 

Sarah and her dad would sit next to each other chatting about all sorts of things even though their two avatars could be days away from each other in the game, as they were now.
                 

Arriving at the chests in the storage room, Sarah opened her chest and took out an apple, a saddle, an axe, her armour and a sword. She also grabbed some cooked pork and two cooked fish. 'Right mum, I need you to open that chest and get, the same stuff I just got'
                 

Sarah watched as her mum thumped the chest, and thumped it and thumped it. 'Mum, use your left hand, you're right hand is for hitting stuff'
                 

'Oh!' Reaching with her left hand the chest infront of Sarah's mum opened. Sarah waited patiently, calling out some simple instructions to her mum about how to move things from the chest into her back pack.
                 

After a few minutes of this, as well as a brief moment helping mum put on her armor and a sword in her hand they were ready to go.
                 

Sarah led the way out of her castle, and out onto the green forested fields. 'Wow Sarah, this is really pretty.'
                 

'Yep it is. Come this way mum we have to catch a couple of horses. We have to hurry. It's a long ride, and we can't get caught out in the dark'
                 

'Why?'
                 

'Monsters!' Replied Sarah, as calmly as possible, as if this was something normal and nothing for her mum to worry about.
                 

'MONSTERS! WHAT DO YOU MEAN?'
                 

'Oh just zombies, and skeletons things like that. Nothing we can't handle.' Quietly Sarah worried, she did not know what it meant if they died in the game and there was no one on the controller to hit the respawn button.
                 

'C'mon mum, lets get going there is a Horse over there' Sarah ran towards the big chestnut horse, only quickly glancing to see if mum was following. She knew it would be better to keep mum busy, giving her less time to worry about Monsters.
                 

'Just do what I do mum, we need horses, it means we can get to dads mine a bit faster' Sarah watched her mum for a moment, it stood still, simply looking, then bolted of towards a big bay mare.
                 

Sarah quickly mounted the Chestnut, it bucked her off.  That was normal. Getting on a second time she did not get bucked off. Sarah put the saddle on the horse and fed it an apple, all done. Now where was her mum.
                 

Looking around Sarah saw her mother riding a sheep. She rode towards her mum, calling 'Mum! You can't ride that. No one rides sheep. I didn't even know the game let you do that'.
                 

'Obviously it does, because I am riding one. Only problem is it will not go where I want it to go'
                 

'Ok mum, lets see if you can ride double with me' Sarah waited as her mum got on to the horse behind her. This was cool there seemed to be things they could do in the game that they could not do playing the game with the controllers.
                 

Sarah turned the horse north and started off towards the horizon, towards dad's mine. 'How do you know where to go Sarah?'
                 

'Oh, I've been there a heap of times. Dad is not real adventurous, he tends to stay in the mine all the time cause he gets lost whenever he comes out. So I have to go to him all the time'
                 

the two of them rode on for a long while, across green fields, through Oak forests, traversing a sandy dessert, slowly making there way over some mountains, through a long straight tunnel. 'I made this tunnel mum because it was easier than climbing over this mountain we are passing under.'
                 

When they came out the other side the sun was starting to set. 'OK mum we are going to have to stop for the night.'
                 

'Why?'
                 

'Monsters, mum, monsters. They come out at night'
                 

'Oh, ok, what do we do?'
                 

Sarah jumped off the horse, and started hacking at a nearby tree with her sword. Mum figured she'd do the same. As each piece of the tree was hacked away Sarah grabbed the floating block and built a very basic building, three bricks wide, three deep and three high, leaving a door at one end.
                 

'OK mum in you go' Once her mother was inside Sarah followed, half blocking the door.
                 

'So what do we do now?' Mum asked looking over Sarah's shoulder at the slowly darkening day she could see through the small opening Sarah had left open.
                 

'We wait! We will know when it is day time by watching through here, also we can maybe, just maybe see any monsters, so you can see what they look like.'
                 

'I don't want to see any monsters.'
                 

'Eeeeeurrrrr!'
                 

'What's that!' Exclaimed mum, again trying to clutch at Sarah but in truth simply giving her a stiff armed whack.
                 

'A Zombie!' Sarah quickly put the last piece of wood across the opening, her and her mother were plunged into darkness.
                 

'Eeeeurrrr!'
                 

'I can still hear it Sarah, I'm scared.'
                 

'It's ok mum, he won't be able to get us in here'
                 

'Eeeeurrrr!'
                 

The two of them stood in silence for what seemed an eternity, the zombie's groans fading into the distance, after a long while Sarah removed one of the blocks. The Sun was rising the light slowly crawling across the landscape.
                 

'Eeeeeurrr!' the zombie wasn't gone, it appeared in front of the opening, arms outstretched reaching, grasping for Sarah. 'Eeeeurrr!'
                 

Sarah responded in a flash, drawing her sword and hacking at the zombie 'Thwack', the zombie reeled away from the hit 'EEEEURRR!' Angrier it returned to the opening.
                 

'THWACK!' The zombie fell back again, stumbling and falling to the ground dead.
                 

'OK Mum, lets get going, we've got to get to dads'
                 

'Sarah! You're so brave, why weren't you scared?'