This week's - and final - picture prompt is from digital artist Jeffrey Smith. I love his art. I used others of his pieces on Week 245, Week 307 and Week 310. It's definitely something I'd fill my house with. He created this back in 2017 and called it 'I'm never going back.' Strangely apt for my last Mid-Week Flash entry and post.
I've decided I need more time to focus on other projects and have been struggling to write for this on time or sometimes at all over the past year, so am bringing it to a halt, the end of 2023 being very fitting as I've been running it for 7 years, and life tends to run in 7 year cycles.
I will never say never in terms of returning to it, but for now, it's time to retire it. It's benefitted my writing so much, and I've really enjoyed it.
Today's is short and sweet as I am still working on Tricky's third book, and this is a snippet.
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He’d gone and left
another one open! What was with him? Did he really think Tricky was that
stupid? His big shiny ‘follow me this way’ signs weren’t going to fool her, oh
no. She wasn’t going to jump through every open time portal he created in an
attempt to chase him, no way, definitely not. He thought she was stupid,
clearly, or that she wasn’t as gifted as him - but he was proving he couldn’t
possibly be, with leaving these things hanging in the sky all over the place.
Tricky stopped on the path to take in the magnificence
of this opening though; portals were truly beautiful to behold, even though
they were horribly dangerous – and not just for the individual but for the
whole time plane. It was like making a tiny hole in the leg of a stocking, eventually
it would tear the entire thing apart, making it unusable.
Tricky narrowed her eyes, or was that his
plan? Was he trying to destabilise it all? Or was he trying to play some random
game with her that didn’t make sense, other than boy wizards with overblown
egos who were crap at setting traps?
Tricky didn’t waste time on trying to work
out his mindless ploys to entrap her, she knew better, but she wasn’t just
going to ignore what he’d done, instead she had to work to close the portal and
return this plane to safety.
It didn’t take her long, being that she’d
done it before, and with the swathes of grasslands around her there was an
abundance of energy to work with and help her shut it down. It was still scary
as it pulled together – also pulling at her - but once it reduced to a certain
size it zipped up quickly with a deafening pop, and the pale blue sky returned.
It cleared the pathway ahead, which led in
between the fields to a point as yet not visible, but Tricky knew was there. She
needed to reach it before dark. She took in deep breaths, calling in her own
yellow energy and the lime green of the land around and sped up. This was not a
place to be after dark.
Thank you for running these prompts Miranda. I have really enjoyed your curation of pictures for this and some of them have really helped me to come up with some different things. I have written a few Tempus Rock shorts for these prompts so it seems fitting to finish with them although I will be endeavouring to go back and use older ones too :) Thanks again and hope you enjoy. Knock Knock
ReplyDeleteOctopus Cloud Over Empty Field,
ReplyDeleteOil on Canvas of Pain
By Boyd Miles
My head ached and my feet hurt, I wasn't sure where I was.
The sky couldn't possibly be normal but I couldn't tell you what was wrong with it. The colours were vivid and bright but somehow not right and I'm sure clouds just don't look like that.
The road was empty and there were fields on both sides, where could I be where there were roads through fields? I can't remember an empty street and never anything bigger than a vacant lot, these were fields like in a movie or painting.
Painting, like a painting. When did I last see a painting? Did it look like this?
I must be dreaming but for a dream there was an awful lot of very realistic pain.
Each step took me, as far as I could tell, no closer to an answer, no one to even ask.
There was a wind in my face, it was cold but the sun was hot and the pavement burned my feet.
The clouds swirled like an octopus, a bright light in the centre, bright and cold, tentacles swirling without sound.
My head ached and my feet hurt, I walked on, getting no closer to anything. Fields, clouds, empty road, along with pain my whole world.
Don't know how I got here.