Tuesday, August 23, 2011

What's all this then?

Most if not all my posts are going to be short stories.  To get things rolling, here's one I wrote earlier this year.

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The Discovery of Fire

                The young man had been told to never venture outside the caves that sheltered the village during one of the Spirits’ great battles; but he always wanted to see one of the Spirits.  The great lights flashed across the sky as he felt every hair on his body stand straight up.  The loud booms and crashes of battle could be heard throughout the land making even the land shudder in fear.  The boy was amazed.
                After climbing to the top of the great hill, he found a meadow and strained his eyes to try and spot one of the mighty beings.  He then felt a sudden charge of energy in the air. Quickly following was a flash of light so bright he was blinded for a whole minute.  The ringing in his ears took even longer to fade away. 
When his eyes finally readjusted, he noticed a strange glowing being right in front of him!  He jumped back in his fright; hid behind a bush; and peered through the leaves to see what the strange spirit wanted.  He called out a warning to it and shook his spear at the bright being.
Slowly realizing that it meant him no harm, he carefully walked toward it. Feeling the strange warmth radiating off its majestic body, he was in awe and reached out his hand to feel its skin.  He screamed in agony as he pulled back his hand and thrust his spear into the spirit in his frustration at the spirit. To his dismay, the spirit just swallowed it and crackled a laugh at his foolish attempt to hurt it.  The boy, quickly realizing his mistake, fell to the ground in fear. He sobbed for forgiveness for his foolish act.  Before he could stand back up, another loud crack sounded. What appeared to be a stick with some of the strange spirit on one end of it landed right in front of him.
Hesitantly, he reached out his hand toward the being and remembered his previous discomfort at coming into direct contact with it.  He picked up the end that did not have the glowing spirit on it and quickly ran down the hill. He yelled for his villagers to look at his great discovery and hoped he would be rewarded for his bravery.