Thursday June 13th, 2013

The exercise:

Write about: the origins.

Of what? Of whatever you like, but of course!

With my parents heading out this morning and my aunt and uncle saying their farewells last night, the farm is feeling a little empty right now. But I'm glad that everyone was able to stay for a while and spend some time with us and Max.

On the wildfire front, as best I could tell things were taken care of by the time I got up this morning. It looked like they'd dropped a perimeter of fire retardant on the mountainside before it got dark, so the fire was unlikely to get far overnight.

Which, I suppose, is better than saying 'Screw it, let's go to bed. We'll see how things look after we've all had a good sleep."

Mine:

The naming of the Killdeer

*screeech*

"Good lord, what is that racket out in the garden?"

"Looks like a little bird, carrying on for no good reason."

"Be a dear, won't you, and kill it?"

*BOOM*

*screeech*

"Do you hear that?"

"How could I not, darling?"

"Just like the one before, isn't it? Hurts my ears terribly."

"I am sorry, love."

"Kill it for me, dear?"

*BOOM*

*screeeeech*

"What, again?"

"I hear it too."

"Kill it, deer."

*BOOM*

*screeeeech*

"Kill, deer."

*BOOM*

2 comments:

Greg said...

Well, I think there's a story prompt to had out of a explaining why the last line is a character saying "Screw it, let's go to bed," but it's your blog ;-) It's good that the fire is under control though, and it'll probably be good for the fertility of the mountain and its environs in the long run too.
Ah, that moment when the guests all leave you suddenly feel like you have space again, followed five minutes later by wondering where everyone is and why you feel lonely.... I'm sure the only reason houses have so many rooms is so that people can have moments of solitude without actually having to leave company.
Heh, I think your story is more about extinctions than origins! I do like how the Killdeer gets its name in your version though, it's much more believable!

Origins
The Killdeer huddled together, taking advantage of the autumn foliage to camouflage their meeting from any predators. Orange eyerings flashed now as then as they talked, like sunbeams from the setting sun reflecting off water.
"These BOOMsticks are a problem," said Griswald, shaking his feathers in agitation. "We've lost four Killdeer today alone, simply because they were staying in contact."
"What can we do though? We don't know anything about these BOOMsticks other than they look like big branches and go BOOM. And kill us." Josie clucked a little, unhappy. She shuffled her feet.
"Not just us!" Robin piped up. "They kill squirrels too, and rabbits."
"Well, no-one cares about rabbits," said Josie, and there were cluckles of agreement.
"I have a plan," said Griswald. The other looks at him, shushing expectantly. "We need something that the BOOMsticks cannot fight. Something like... fire!"
The Killdeer all looked at him as though he were mad, and he picked up a piece of flint in his beak.
"I have discovered," he said rather indistinctly, "that holding this and pecking rocks like this –" he demonstrated – "creates fire."
Tiny tongues of flame licked up dry grass, and the Killdeer retreated a safe distance.
"Now what?" asked Robin.
"We fly away and come back when the fire has reclaimed our land for us," said Griswald.

Marc said...

Greg - hah, that's not a bad idea actually :)

And yes, I feel as though my version strikes far closer to home than the supposed official story.

"Well, no-one cares about rabbits" made me laugh out loud :D

And I very much appreciated your ending tying in to the news of the day - that's good work!