17 thoughts on “Really Slow Motion: OF MIST AND MAGIC”

1. In the Land of Giants (A retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk)
   Once there was a poor boy whose mother had just died. However hard things became, she had been his rock and a loving haven in a seemingly uncaring world. Now, standing over her grave, he wept. Unbeknownst to him, as his silver tears entered the earth, they turned into seeds. Overcome with grief, the boy sat down with his knees pulled up and buried his head in his arms. As he sat there, beautiful thick green vines began to grow from his mother’s grave, up and around him, twisting together as they rose above his head. Finally, feeling the brush of a leafy vine against his shoulder, he looked up to discover a towering green ladder reaching into the clouds.
   Astounded despite his grief, he could not resist setting hand and foot on the vine. He began to climb from the scene of his greatest sorrow to heights he had never known before. The land where he had often gone hungry and been spurned by the townsfolk now spread below him like an enormous patchwork blanket, making the hurts he had experienced there seem merely like crumbs to be brushed away. Upward he climbed, as the setting sun turned the clouds around him to glowing pink and gold. At last, as the sun’s glow faded below the curved rim of the earth, he found himself in the midst of the night sky flecked by star-diamonds.
   Suddenly, a deep rolling voice like thunder, echoed around him, nearly causing him to lose his grip on the miraculous vine-ladder. “Boy!” the voice thundered, sending shuddering vibrations from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. “Boy,” the voice repeated, “where have you come from? How did you get here?” “Sir,” he answered timidly, “my tears for my dead mother burrowed into the earth and became the seeds of this vine you see me on.” For now he could see the voice came from a giant man clothed in a glittering cloak of deepest blue, with a beard like a grey cloud. “Ah,” said the giant, “you are the one then. Come,” said the giant, “Climb up on my shoulders. You are expected.”
   Though fear gripped his heart, the boy did as he was bade. The giant strode away with the boy seated on his shoulder. Ahead of them loomed an enormous castle of clouds, lit from within by pearly white light. As they approached, the misty gates of the castle opened and they entered into the luminous light of the moon enthroned before them. “Welcome,” said the moon. “Welcome,” murmured her giant servants. The giant who brought him knelt, and the boy climbed down and bowed before the moon.
   As he rose, a gentle voice behind him said again “Welcome.” Whisper kisses of rose petals brushed his head and cheek. Turning, he found his mother, the fragrant blessings falling from her hand. “Welcome home my son!”

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3. {A Twist of Goldilocks & the 3 Bears}

   Once animals spoke.

   The world, too, had voice.

   Now, the forests are dying as are the rivers, so she chooses silence. Yet, she spoke to the bear who walked among legends until he himself became one:

   The bear, Hibbs, looked up into the night. Though the Norse called the world Miðgarðr, Hibbs called her ….

   “GrandMother.”

   The forest of his birth was warm. In the Black Forest, cold winds tickled his ears. Hibbs enjoyed it. He didn’t enjoy being in strange territory.

   “Why did you bring me here?”

   No answer. Hibbs knew GrandMother thought him slow of thought. It hurt.

   He heard sobbing. Hibbs smiled. A healer, he would mend this anguish.

   Hibbs spied a woman sitting. Her long hair was gold. Stepping closer, he saw her face was wrinkled as a prune.

   He asked, “Goldilocks, what ails you?”

   “Urðr,” she snapped.

   Hibbs smiled. “Are you lost like me?”

   “I’m hungry,” said Urðr.

   Hibbs gestured to the bushes. “There’re berries here.”

   Urðr smiled. “I eat only flesh.”

   “I see no weapon. How do you catch prey?”

   “I use snares.”

   “I see none.”

   “It’s right in front of you,” snorted Urðr.

   “I’ll be careful where I step.”

   “Too late. Take me to my sisters’ home. You’ll have to carry me.”

   “I don’t like orders.”

   Urðr murmured, “You would abandon me?”

   Hibbs swept her up in his mighty arms. He noticed her eyes were the fiery blue of lightning.

   He saw how sharp her teeth were …and how close to his throat.

   “Do you fish?”

   Urðr frowned. “No.”

   “Have you ever seen trout fly over streams? I catch them in mid-air. I’m very fast.”

   Hibbs smiled with his own sharp teeth. They were much longer than the old woman’s. Urðr pulled back. She no longer smiled.

   Following Urðr’s directions, Hibbs walked into a clearing where there was a rune-covered well in front of a cottage.

   Urðr smiled, “Urðarbrunnr.”

   Hibbs recognized the well’s name, but it was the towering Ash tree that shook him. He stretched his head back and still could not see the top of it. Hibbs frowned when he saw four stags eating buds from the trunk.

   “You said you were hungry.”

   Urðr frowned, “Dáin, Dvalin, Duneyr and Durathrór are the charges of my sisters, Verðandi and Skuld.”

   Hibbs was getting a headache from all the strange names. “I’ll bring you to your sisters and leave.”

   Urðr said. “We shall have you for dinner.”

   Hibbs studied her. He had been hunted by the Lakota. How many travelers had been these sisters’ dinner? He knew why GrandMother had brought him here.

   ‘Do you?’ mocked her icy voice.

   Another wrong guess. But now to tweak this crone’s nose.

   The bear moved quickly to the Ash tree, dumping her. “I’m thirsty.”

   “No!” screamed Urðr.

   He lumbered to the rune-covered well. With a dip of his paw, he scooped out the rainbow water. His mouth exploded as if struck by lightning. Strange images flooded his mind.

   GrandMother’s laughter bubbled. “Slow of thought no longer, beloved GrandSon.”

   The door to the cottage burst open.

   A blonde maiden rushed him, scissors upraised. A small girl with a skull face followed. She yelled.

   “Verðandi, no! Not his present!”

   Verðandi snapped. “Then, Skuld, end his future!”

   Hibbs chuckled, “Two more Goldilocks! Why are you angry? You were thinking to eat me. All I did was drink from your well of wisdom.”

   Skuld held up a vibrating thread. She brought up her scissors. “Dolt, we Three rule the destiny of gods and men.”

   Verðandi laughed, “Fear us.”

   The bear sighed, “I fear the One whom you have insulted.”

   Hibbs frowned, “You may end the lives of men and gods, but you are powerless against the Great Mystery.”

   Skuld laughed. “Never have I seen the thread of the One of whom you speak. But yours I see!”

   Skuld snipped. The blades promptly bent. Skuld dropped the shears now smoking.

   Verðandi hushed, “This cannot be!”

   Hibbs walked sadly away. “So say all when the world proves larger than the grasp of their minds.”

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   • That was cool. I just studied up on norse mythology. What a neat way to use the sisters.

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4. The Return
   (The Steadfast Tin Soldier)
   500 words
   a/n * equal thoughts and memory =D

   *One last battle. One last fight,* he thought as peered at the expansive estate lit in the darkness. She was there waiting. Waiting for him.

   That was his hope.

   *I will return to you. Wait for me.*

   Those were the last words he spoke to her before the betrayal. Before her father sent him to die. Those words held him steadfast. His promise kept him alive for the interstellar year he had been gone.

   His thugs took him to Tra’Rugett Prime and sold him to the slavers there. The labor camps on this inhospitable water world was liquid instead of fiery hell. Stinking marshes and fens and seas of swampy sludge were only an irritant. The plant life in them were as carnivorous and bloodthirsty as as any of the animal variety.

   Five horrendous months lapsed before he escaped on a dilapidated ship with three others. Then his time on the Shadow Reaver began.

   He shook away the horror of those memories. He sidled along the perimeter of the warding beacons. The guard was lax unlike when he was their leader. A hole existed in their defenses and he would use it to his advantage. Using the ruthlessness learned aboard the pirate ship, he attacked.

   *”You need to be more ruthless to earn your freedom, soldier,” the burly pirate said as he slashed the laser whip across the already welted back. “The Captain will give you only so much leeway before he strikes at you.”*

   *They circled each other. “Yancey, I will not kill.”*

   *Yancey jumped back and blocked the whip attack before flicking his in a swift barrage. “I said nothing about killing. I said ruthless. You can be ruthless and not kill. Don’t you understand the difference?”*

   “I do now, Yancey,” he murmured as he dropped the unconscious guard before swinging his whip to silence the other guard before he set off the alarm.

   The house was quiet as he swept down the hall. Nothing had changed. Every nook and cranny was the same. He turned a corner and a long hallway ended in double doors. Faint hints of gaiety and music sounded as he drew closer.

   Calmness flooded him. *It is almost over. One last confrontation.*

   A foot to the doors had them crashing open.

   The party gathered, dressed in costumes from the ancient homeland, all turned and stared. Gasps and murmurs sounded as he stepped into room, his eyes searching for those he sought.

   He knew what they saw. The scar from a laser whip lash ran down his left cheek. A cybernetic right leg courtesy of a poisoned dagger wounding him in a raid with the Shadow Reaver crew.

   “You!”

   An unamused grin danced on his lips. “Yes. Me. You thought you killed me, Delacroix. You thought wrong. I survived.”

   “Daniel?”

   The anguished voice pulled his gaze away from the man to the daughter.

   “Hello, Rina. I kept my promise.”

   She ran to him, squeezing him tight. “So did I. I would have waited forever.”

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5. Shirayukihime – I’ll let you work out what the fairy tale is 🙂

   The steady drip – drip – drip of snow falling from the overhead branches drenched the ronin’s shoulders. He hunched his cloak closer and peered through the pale mist that shrouded the white-rimmed trees. Was that…?

   It was. A dark cottage squatted in a small clearing like a huge slaughter boar. The absence of smoke implied that it was uninhabited. Perhaps the place might offer him shelter.

   As he trudged closer, dragging his weary boots through the ankle-deep snow, he could make out a vague shape in front of the cottage. Closer, he saw that it was a large box laid on a very low table. The building itself looked odd, with tiny windows and an extremely small door. The ronin would have to bend double to enter. He paused by the strange box. It was fully six feet long and covered with snow.

   He raised a gauntleted hand and swept away some of the snow. Gasping a curse, he took a step back in shock, his hand instinctively reaching into his cloak for the hilt of his katana. Ice sprayed from his boots as he struggled to retain his balance. His breath fogged the frozen air.

   Looking about, he saw no movement, no life. The forest was as still as death. He moved back to the box and swiftly swept all of the snow away. The top was made of glass, though this was not what had caused him to spring back. His alarm had been caused by the contents of the box, now fully revealed.
   She was exquisitely beautiful, skin as white as the snow he had just swept away, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony. Her eyes were closed, her shapely body unmoving beneath her simple shift. The glass coffin, for such it must be, had likely been placed outside to keep it cold.

   The girl was clearly dead, and yet her features stirred such feelings within the ronin’s chest that he felt an irresistible desire to stroke the line of her jaw, the curve of her neck. He searched for the fastening on the lid.

   A dark ball of fury bulleted into him, knocking him sprawling in the snow. A student of battojutsu, the ronin was back on his feet in an instant, his sword slicing through the air exactly where his opponent would be standing. It cut only the air, however, passing over the head of his attacker. His assailant was hooded and, incredibly, stood no more than three feet tall. He carried no weapon.

   “You are not welcome, intruder,” growled the dwarf.

   “Leave this place,” came another voice from behind. The ronin whipped round to see another dwarf, poised to attack him from the other side. More dwarves, similarly hooded, stepped out of the trees until he was circled by seven samurai, all dwarves.

   “Why should not we kill you, intruder?” the first dwarf said. The ronin considered. He would tell the truth, as always.

   “Because I love her.”

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   • How annoying – “slaughtered”, not “slaughter”. Honestly, man.

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6. The Getaway
   499 Words

   … Locked away and forced to wait,
   There were no words to describe her fate…

   She sighs, watching the heroine use a frying pan as a weapon. She imagines what would happen if she had one to use. The look she would see would be amazing. And deadly. A door opens and the amusement and joy drain out of her. She flies into motion, turning off the TV and erasing all traces of her presence. She rushes to the door she left open before slowing.

   She needs to be quiet. She closes the door and descends, taking care to bypass the creaky spots in the splintering staircase. Heavy footsteps from above make her heart pound, but she doesn’t rush. Feeling like she’s moving painfully slow, she gets to the basement.

   It’s a box of cement, bare of decoration or color. There’s a door to one side, maybe a pantry, but she’s never been able to get the locks undone to check.

   Another door opens and then slams shut above, and she moves into the large barred cage in the corner. She closes the door, careful not to let the metal clang as it latches. She sticks her hands out, trying to lock the cage with the key she stole a few months ago.

   The stairs squeal in protest. There’s no time. Abandoning her task she goes to her sleeping bag, across the cage from the bucket she uses for bodily needs. She sits, hunching her shoulders. She can’t give the woman a reason to check the lock.

   “Still alive?”

   “Yes, Mother.”

   The woman stands outside the cage. The girl closes her eyes, praying that the unlocked door will go unnoticed. “Go to sleep.”

   She’d forgotten, in her rush to get back, that this is her ‘nap’ time. She lies down. “Yes, Mother.”

   The words are the only ones she’s allowed to speak. The clomping of heavy footsteps goes by her cage. She sighs in relief, turning her head to see what she’s doing. She’s approaching the pantry. The girl holds her breath, watching the woman open the locks. The door open.

   For the first time she sees what’s inside.

   It’s another teen, a boy. He’s in ragged shorts and nothing else. He’s bound with ropes to a metal bar protruding from the wall. He’s gagged. The boy is barely even skin and bone. He doesn’t realize that he’ll be fed if he stops fighting the woman. It hurts to see him; her fellow prisoner she didn’t know existed.

   She can’t let this happen. It’s different than being alone, now she needs to be strong. She remembers the movie she was watching. The boy and girl escape their troubles… she can do the same. Moving quietly she grabs her bucket and creeps out of the cage. She sneaks behind the woman, and just like the heroine of the movie she swings her weapon.

   The woman called Mother collapses and she looks over at the boy. “Let’s get out of here.”

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   • So awesome!

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7. 1000 Nights and One
   -Alaya.AD

   -270 Words-

   Requiem for a Queen, in this life and the next,
   I saw your rage and loss of faith,
   As a simple test.
   My gamble of Truth or Death,
   I, Scheherazade, a heroine to the helpless.

   A timeless masterpiece of Eternal Love,
   It was for my country and the beauty of its mortal Doves.
   The Dark Ages of the maidens could not last.
   I alone shall triumph over the shadows of your past.

   Behold, my greatness to inspire a New World.

   Knowing No Fear,
   I rose above my impending fate.
   With closure in my soul,
   I set out to give you a taste.

   Purity shall Prevail,

   Beginning with One Thousand Nights,
   And One.

   A journey in the darkness,
   Beyond Love and Betrayal,
   There was so much to tell you,
   Surely, I would not fail.

   On that account…
   In such a way,
   My stories cradled you through every night and,
   Every day.

   Behold our Nature, an existence beyond Dreamscapes & Wishes,
   The imagining of the Odyssey, and the passing
   Age of Innocence.

   Written in the Stars
   And Singing with the Sea,
   I am deeply pleased you sojourned into the Great Unknown
   With me.

   A Lovers’ Requiem, our Legend Begins,
   The journey of a dream filled,
   With colors of the Iridescent.
   Embodying the poise of Serenity…
   …and movement of Grace,
   After One Thousand Nights and One of storytelling,
   The light returns to your face.

   A Requiem for a Queen, in This Life and the Next,
   Your rage and loss of faith,
   Was more than a simple test.

   Life after Life, Time will Remember Us.

   In the end, as was in the beginning, I am Scheherazade.

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8. The Crossing

   “Don’t look back. Run, quick sticks, and hide in the woods with Missy. No, don’t stop. I’ll come find you.”
   I hoped I would, anyway.
   The hand gripped my ankle, restricting my circulation.
   The bridge boards creaked beneath his weight as he pulled himself up. The hand left my ankle then fell like a dead weight on my shoulder, spinning me round to face him.
   He was one of the bad ones.
   Red rimmed eyes peered at me from between a thicket of beard and a tangle of wild, greasy hair. His breath rattled and bubbled like a broken down old steam engine. Seeping sores had decorated his sweatshirt with red and yellow wet patches. One bloody, weeping toe peeked through his ripped tennis shoe.
   I wrinkled my nose as he leaned closer.
   “Now then, Sweetheart, I kept my word, let the little ones go. It’s just you and me now.”
   His grin was a ruined castle of rotten teeth, and he smelled like the cesspit after David got too sick to empty it.
   He reached out. A filthy, nail bitten finger raised my chin.
   “Hell, you’re pretty! How come you didn’t get the sickness?”
   I tried to sneak a peek across the bridge but the finger stopped my head turning.
   “No, Honey, like I said, this is a toll bridge, and it’s time for me to collect.”
   How long had it been? Had Missy and Laura reached the woods yet? I tried to smile at him. Like I’d seen Mary smile at David before the scourge took them.
   The twins needed more time.
   “What you got for me, Baby?”
   “What do you want?”
   He shuffled closer, his stench settling like a cloud around me.
   I gagged, tried breathing through my mouth. It didn’t help.
   “I want to see what’s under that coat of yours. For a start.”
   “OK, I’ll show you.”
   I slowly dropped my left hand, opening the front of my coat – and showed him.
   BLAM!
   The roar of the sawn-off twenty gauge made my ears sing, but his finger was gone from my chin, and my nostrils now only registered the acrid sharpness of gunpowder.
   He reeled back, slamming hard against the rotting rail, before toppling over.
   I sprinted for the woods, calling for the twins, ejecting the spent shells, reloading as I ran.
   Laura’s head popped out of the long grass and I skidded to a halt beside her.
   “Girls! It’s time to play hide and seek! We must run and find a good place to hide, and then we must be quiet as mice.”
   I rushed them into the woods, heading for the deep brush.
   “Will the smelly man be trying to find us?”
   “No, he’s… he’s back under the bridge. Quick now, let’s go!”
   The gunshots would attract more of them, I knew.

   (Based on Three Billy Goats Gruff)
   470 words
   @nickjohns999

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9. Children of Winter and Snow
   500 words

   Deep in a forest
   Amongst the trees and snow
   Within a den of stone
   Is a story you must know
   For there inside lay a wolf
   With fur as black as coal
   And beside it lay a little girl
   A delicate little soul
   Her hair dark and tangled
   Her skin a glowing white
   A red tattered blanket ‘round her
   To save her from cold and fright
   The pair had grown together
   These children of winter and snow
   Their souls and minds connected
   The other always in tow
   There was a human who knew them
   Though others sure to follow
   Grandmother was her name
   And she felt lonely, hollow
   She was alone in life
   Though others did love her
   Her younger days were riddled with strife
   And soon the little girl found her
   Grandmother lived in a den of logs and sticks
   With a fire to warm her bones
   Just outside the forest
   Is where you would find her home
   She found the girl cloaked in red
   Peering inside her door
   She brought her in and kept her fed
   Until the day was no more
   The girl returned to the wolf who waited
   Never staying too long
   The wolf and girl were always fated
   Though Grandmother thought it wrong
   The girl returned whenever she pleased
   Bringing a basket full of forest in kind
   Roots, winter berries, tubers, and leaves
   Whatever she could find
   Grandmother one day asked
   Who had given her the blanket she wore?
   The girl shrugged with her emotions masked
   It had always been with her before
   Her time on the earth was with the wolf
   A spirit of the winter and snow
   It traveled alone with the girl
   Because the girl was all it would know
   It wasn’t born within a pack
   As other wolves had come into the world
   It appeared when her parents left her in the snow
   A spirit soon unfurled
   From the forest around the child
   This child of winter and snow
   The energy taking form
   Into the wolf she would always know
   It knew her heart and mind
   For together they were one
   Grandmother did not respond with kind
   Finding damage to be done
   The wolf saw want
   Within the old woman’s eyes
   And soon it started to warn the girl
   Of Grandmother’s jealousy and lies
   The old woman hired a lumberjack nearby
   To kill the wolf
   The girl’s dark shadow
   Under the guise of a great lie
   Grandmother wounded herself
   And claimed it was the wolf
   But the girl knew better
   And wolf and child ran deep into the snow
   Searching for black and red
   Many hunted for the girl and wolf
   Until one night Grandmother rose from her bed
   A knock on the door
   She peered outside
   But the visitor was no more
   A basket on the ground
   Berries wrapped in red
   The girl had been around
   And then had fled
   Grandmother choked
   The berries bitter
   The poison in her veins
   The forest closed in around her
   Grandmother had been slain

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10. Anyone know if the winners have been announced yet?

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11. It’s a holiday season….give them some [more] time. ^_^

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12. Congrats!

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13. Congratulations to the winners!

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14. Pingback: Really Slow Motion - Flames of Glory [CDQ + iTunes + ALAC]