onsdag den 10. februar 2021

Winter at Unicorn Farm - 2

In February the prompts are provided by Alex J. Cavanaugh, but published at Elephant's Child's blog. Today he has given us two times five words.

Fates
Warning
Armored
Saint
Dynasty
     And/or
Wolfheart
Serenity
Dream
Theater
Voyager

These words were quite challenging. 'Wolfheart' is what - a heavy metal band or something? and Voyager a space probe, and on top of that my spell checker kept insisting that "theatre" was the correct spelling, I complied so as to keep it happy.
  Once again I used the words in the order they were given.
  This is a continuation from last Wednesday, and tells in a very compact form something that will probably turn into a full chapter or two in the book.


The fates did not want her to succeed, that dastard statue. Some parts must be missing and others mixed in. her thoughts went astray. Outside the windows the snow was falling in droves and she thought back at the mornings radio news warning about not venturing out due to snowstorms and drifting. But this day was going to be the exam in teleportation for the younger ones at Unicorn Farm among those Susan and Heidi. Nobody and nothing, not even two metres of snow, could have kept her at home. But she felt sorry for Grandma. She had phoned that morning. Her house actually was covered in two metres of snow. She had to climb the steep ladder to the attic, put on her snowshoes and go out through the hatch to go shopping. Susan had promised to come and help later that day - she hoped, fervently hoped, that she would finally pass her teleporting test. That would make keeping her promise so much easier.
  She stared at the armoured belly of the statue ... parts were still missing from there, and even a saint would have lost patience by now. She thought back. Dragons from the Ming dynasty were not supposed to have legs, or were they supposed to have many legs. That blasted statue. She gave up, left the statue at the table and went in search of Jon. He had to help her.
  Opening the door, they almost collided. "Sorry Susan," he said, his white teeth bright in his friendly, dark face. "I gave you the wrong box. Most of the parts for that dragon is NOT in the box marked 'Dragon', but in the one marked 'Wolfheart'. However this happened, nobody knows." Jon went to the cupboard and took out another crate, almost identical to the one at the table. Susan pushed aside the wrong parts and poured out the contents of the Wolfheart crate. Yes. There an eye, here a leg and a tongue. This looked like it could turn into a dragon.
  After putting together the statue, Susan went to the small room in the attic. She needed to find at least some modicum of serenity before her turn came up ...

Jon knocked on the door. "Susan, are you in there? The exams are starting in a few minutes."
  Frantically Susan gathered her wits and joined the small group in the corridor. "No need to fear," Jon said. "You all know how to do it, and what to do. You can do it. Relax!"
  They went to an unused part of the Farm buildings. In the cellar of the teachers' building were among other bric-a-brac, the remains of an old puppet theatre; and Jon had used the dolls and the theatre to explain and demonstrate the hows and whys of teleporting. From there it was like being in a dream. As her turn came up, she did the moves, and said the words, and she was no longer in front of the theatre, but in the Barn. All the other teachers sat there and applauded her loudly.
  The next voyager to appear was Heidi. And Susan applauded with the others and the teachers. Then Heidi and Susan hugged one another - now they were free to come and go, and Susan could go help out Grandma who was almost buried in the snow drifts.

6 kommentarer:

  1. I am, as usual, super impressed that you find a way to use the words in the order they are given. As you know I love your continuing story and long for the day that it is a book that I can hold and read and reread.

    SvarSlet
    Svar
    1. Thank you. I really, really hope to make a book. The satisfaction by sending it to you (and some of the other WfW-writers too) would be immense. But I'm afraid you won't be able to read it, as I'd have to publish it in Danish.

      Slet
  2. Teleporting! Bonus word in my book.
    Yes, all of those words came from favorite metal/prog bands of mine. Well done.

    SvarSlet
    Svar
    1. Thank you. Teleporting belongs in magic!
      Your words are sure tough ones to use, as I'm back in the 1970es, and some of the words are just too modern.

      Slet
  3. Fabulous! You do these so well.

    SvarSlet

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