tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149217012399643733.post127535861700530993..comments2023-12-06T00:48:23.734-08:00Comments on Daily Writing Practice: Sunday July 27th, 2014Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14952331166517430843noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149217012399643733.post-61147786462562854192014-08-05T02:03:36.951-07:002014-08-05T02:03:36.951-07:00Greg - love your descriptions in this one, but tha...Greg - love your descriptions in this one, but that's no surprise. You've left me wanting to hear more about Lobelis Castle though!Marchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14952331166517430843noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149217012399643733.post-85487736005042519312014-07-28T01:13:20.676-07:002014-07-28T01:13:20.676-07:00Wow, that was a stroke of good luck there at the e...Wow, that was a stroke of good luck there at the end! Well done on getting your phone back, and that was a very nice gesture with the apricots as well. I'm sure the guy who found your phone also thought he'd had a pretty fortunate evening after it all!<br />And with only one small crack to the case, which is cheap to replace after all, that's doubly fortunate :)<br /><br /><b>Good fortune</b><br />The smell of sewage got stronger as you moved away from the river, and all the streets were narrow and dark. So narrow that in places a man had to back up to let someone coming in the other direction pass, and sometimes duck, depending on what -- or who -- they were carrying. Brine blew in on the occasional breeze, but it seemed like even the wind didn't want to venture in where the stink was and the streets were typically still and hot.<br />Flies buzzed up in a cloud as I passed, and I avoided looking down. I could guess what they were feasting on, and I didn't need my guesses confirmed. I pushed past a pile of rubbish that might once have been someone's wardrobe and paused at a tiny, cobbled crossroads. I checked to see if anyone was watching me, and I couldn't see anyone, obvious or inconspicuous. I was sure that at least two of the shadows formed where the buildings made corners were occupied, but there are some things you just have to accept.<br />I looked down. Set into the cobbles was a flat iron plate, the kind of thing you could mistake for a manhole cover if you were daft enough to think that a place that stank of sewage could have sewers. I stamped on it, three quick, two long, and as my foot came down a sixth time there was a puff of cerulean smoke and everything changed.<br />Diana leaned on the lower half of a stable-door, the upper half open and proclaiming that her shop was doing business. She was busty, brunette and as pale as a mushroom. She smiled when she saw me, and pulled out the scales.<br />"Selling me some more bad luck?" she asked, and her voice was like the gurgle of the sea over shells and pebbles at the water's edge. I shook my head.<br />"Buying me some good fortune," I said. "I hope," I added.<br />She raised her forehead, but only because she keeps forgetting that she doesn't have eyebrows any more.<br />"For my best producer I've always got a little something held in reserve," she said. She twinkled a smile at me. "Can I ask what <i>you</i>'d want good fortune for?"<br />"I need to find a way into Lobelis Castle," I said.<br />"You'll be lucky!" she replied, and then a moment later heard herself and laughed.<br />Greghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08503319830584828982noreply@blogger.com