Thursday August 20th, 2015

The exercise:

Write about: the conflict.

I was hoping to get caught up on comments up until August this morning but I fell a bit short. At least I finally got started on it.

Other than that, I put together some produce that Max and I brought into town as a trade for the haircut he got... two weeks ago? Hmm. That was not very prompt. I guess it slipped through the cracks last week. Anyway, she was very pleased with what we brought.

This evening the valley turned into a smoke bowl once again, effectively killing any plans I may have had to get some work done in the garden after dinner. It's cleared up a bit now, but I'm not sure that's a good thing since this wind cannot possibly be helping with the wildfire containment efforts.

We could really use some rain around here.

Mine:

"Good evening, general."

"Who are you?"

"Unimportant."

"And how did you get in here?"

"Even less important."

"Really? I'll be the judge of that. Guards!"

"You're wasting time. Too much talking, not enough listening."

"Guards!"

"They can't hear you. But I would very much like it if you would hear me."

"Guards?"

"Are you about done? Because I don't have a whole lot of time here."

"What do you want?"

"There we go. I want to talk to you about this conflict you've found yourself in the middle of, general."

"Do you have information on the enemy? Their whereabouts, their strategy?"

"No, nothing like that. I come with a warning: this battle is of much greater import than you or anyone else realizes."

"I don't understand."

"Of course not. Let me state this plainly, general: there is more at stake here than mere victory or defeat. There is an overarching story playing out behind the scenes."

"What, like a Good versus Evil sort of thing?"

"Yes, quite right. And well done on the capitalization! I could hear it."

"And my army is on the side of Good?"

"As long as you believe that, general, you and I shall have no issues between us."

2 comments:

Greg said...

I like the idea of trading produce for haircuts; I wonder what else you could trade like that?
Rain definitely sounds like a good idea for you (for all you were complaining about it just a couple of weeks ago!) I guess you need the kind of rain that prevents fire but doesn't make farming miserable :)
That's quite the piece today; I like the back and forth between the characters and the determination of just whoever it is who's broken in to see the General. They seem remarkably resourceful too!

The conflict
"I think Lord Darcy is going to be displeased, sister."
"Why?" Alicia smiled peaceably, and spread her hands across her lap. "I think I've been an excellent house-guest so far. I've even put out for him."
Geoff's face flushed. "Wha– I– who–?"
"Oh brother, don't be such a prude."
"It's not that," Geoff finally got his breath back. "It's just that... well, I've put out for him as well!"
"Oh really?" Alicia raised an eyebrow that needed plucking. "Well, that's interesting. Is that why he's going to be displeased?"
"No. He's going to be displeased because your chihuahua has eaten his dragon."
"Morgan? Oh no! How is he?"
"Happy, running around the garden, and breathing fire."
"Breathing–"
"Oh yes. He's set two shrubberies and a pagoda on fire so far."
"Oh the little darling, he must be enjoying himself!" Alicia smiled beatifically.
Geoff sighed. "Maybe, but it's going to displease Lord Darcy. And that means conflict."
"Ah yes," said Alicia, her face going stern. "Conflict."

Marc said...

Greg - you might be surprised. We've traded for bread, fish, eggs, haircuts... other things I can't remember at the moment. Oh, massages too. Barter system all the way.

The image of a chihuahua running around breathing fire and setting things on fire is a great one. A little mini-dragon.

Hmm, the possibilities...