The lion and me

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Etol Bagam

In this area of the land live a lion and me. I’m slightly smarter than him, he’s MUCH stronger than me.

It’s an open land and we get the visit from several other smaller or not very smart animals. We feed on them, sharing the load. They satisfy us so I don’t need to bother the lion, and he doesn’t need to bother me.

We leave in peace and respect each other on our strengths and weaknesses.

Occasionally one of our visitors gives us trouble and we wonder what if we don’t let them in anymore. But shall we close the borders, I’ll be his prey.

lionandme

This post was written in response to the 100 Word Challenge for Grown-Ups, with the prompt “… but shall we close the borders…“, and contains 106 words (100 not counting the prompt).
The picture was taken from pixabay.com, uploaded there by Sponchia.

Catching fire

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Etol Bagam

“Mommy, mommy, look! The tree and bushes are catching fire! Look, they’re all yellow and red and orange.”

“Oh, sweetie-pie, that’s not fire, it’s the leaves changing color for autumn.”

“Changing color?”

“Well, every year we have 4 seasons. Remember Winter? We went skiing and built a snowmen?”

“Yeah, it was cold!”

“In Winter there were barely any leaves. Then Spring brought them back. With Summer, the heat of the sun made them gold. Now, they’ll crumble and fall again for Winter.”

“So they ARE burning?”

“Yeah… when you put it like that, they are indeed burning! Just not catching fire.”

This post was written in response to 2 challenges, that had similar picture prompts this week, and contains 100 words.

100WCGU, with the photo prompt below:

And Sunday Photo Fiction, with the picture:

To see other stories inspired by this picture, click the blue frog below:

The picture that has actually inspired me for this text was the one for 100WCGU.
The initial idea I had for the Sunday Photo Fiction was different, so I may choose to write another piece for those, if I find the time this week.

Sun

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Etol Bagam

The Summer was hot and dry.

The sun was implacable.

Not a little distraction would be gone without being noticed by it and light up into a fire.

The mountain tops were ablaze. Sometimes closing in to residential areas, forcing people to evacuate from their own houses.

As the flames leapt skyward, the quality of the air became very poor. Smog was everywhere. It was hard to breath. Cough and teary eyes became a very common thing.

But the sun would still not give us a break.

Everyday. Almost day and night (can 4 am to 10 pm be considered day and night?).

In all its magnificence!

This post was written in response to the Literary Lion: Sun writing challenge, from about a month ago, but for some reason I never published it.

Then, seeing it today I decided to modify it a little bit as to make it also fit for this week’s 100WCGU., in regards to length and also to incorporate the phrase “as the flames leapt skyward”.

The picture was taken during a road trip through Eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana, in Summer, where and when wild fires were burning the mountains and generating a lot of smoke. This one was taken in Missoula, Montana, close to our campground.

In silence and disguise

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Etol Bagam

She had loved him since they met. And so did he.

But they couldn’t be together. His wife’s family was very powerful and a divorce would never be accepted.

They loved each other in silence and disguise.

Now he’s gone. A funeral is being held and she can’t show up.

But she needs to say farewell to the only man she truly loved on her life.

She decides to visit him at the cemetery at night, after everyone was gone.

The howling dog, the moon and the creaking boards made for a scaring moment, afraid of being caught.

But no one showed up and she was finally able to say goodbye…

This post was written in response to this week’s 100WCGU, with the prompt …the howling dog, the moon and the creaking boards made for…

In a couple of days will be Halloween and the prompt is sort of inspired by this.
I like Halloween, I’m excited about it, and I am even organizing a party at my place. But for whatever reason, I’m avoiding writing about it. Maybe to take a break from the party preparations?

But that’s how and why I created something different for this prompt. Still cemetery, still scary situation, but nothing to do with the All Hallow’s Eve…. 😉

I hope you enjoy.

The picture was ‘assembled’ by me, based on 3 different ones I got from pixabay.com. One for the cemetery, one for the person, one for the rose…

The time is now!

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Etol Bagam

Not knowing what to expect, he made his way into the dark of the forest.

It started one morning when, while waiting to open the gates for the big celebration, his house was marked.

Guests went away, afraid of being close to the red mark. He and his family were doomed.

He knew it was time to change, but he was also afraid.
He could still save his family if he went away, but that would mean not seeing them ever again.

The spirits came to summon him. “I can’t decide when to change” was his answer.

“The time is now! Come.”

And so he did…

This post was written in response to 2 writing challenges:

Mondays Finish the Story – Oct. 19th, 2015 -> with a prompt to start a story with the sentence “Not knowing what to expect, he made his way into the dark of the forest” and be inspired by the picture below:

To see other entries for MFtS, click the blue frog below
100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – #Week171 -> with a prompt to include in the story the sentence “I can’t decide when to change“

I also took the opportunity to write a brief continuation to my own The Red Mark, on which lots of people replied curious about what the mark means. Well, this 106 word story does not really explain much, but puts us one step ahead into finding out what it means… ;o)

Coming early

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Etol Bagam

The baby was due in 2 weeks. Family and friends came together to celebrate its upcoming birth and organized a huge fun party for mom and dad-to-be. A co-ed, kid-friendly baby shower.

Everyone was happy and, after a couple hours of chatting, fun, guessing and dreaming about baby’s future, it was time to open the gifts.

For every little piece of apparel, all ladies would voice an “Awwwwnnn” in unison. Mom-to-be was trying to understand the usage of some of the baby gadgets. The kids were excited and everyone seemed to speak joyfully at the same time.

Then, in the middle of the noise, her water broke.

This post was also written in response to the 100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week#169, with the prompt: then, in the middle of the noise.

I had already created one story for the prompt, in Silence. But Silence was about death so I decided to try again, writing about life.

So there you go, 2 different views for the same prompt… ;o)

Silence

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Etol Bagam

The enemy came fiercely in the middle of the night. People got up from their beds to fight for their land and their lives. She grabbed the kids and hid while he went on to the battle. The kids were afraid and crying. The battle was loud, with the rattling of metal hitting each other. With people screaming in anger, in pain, in death. She was also afraid, but trying to keep her composure not to stress the kids even more. She had her gaze searching for him. She saw him and then, in the middle of the noise, silence was made as he felt down, lifeless.

This post was written in response to the 100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week#169, with the prompt: then, in the middle of the noise.

The picture I used to illustrate is an edited (color removed except by that one guy) version of “Detail from William Hole’s painting The Battle of Largs”, circa 1899. The image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. More information about the original picture can be found here.

I do not claim my story to be happening on that specific battle, though. It’s a fictional piece and the image was chosen based only on the looks of it. ;o)