The exercise:
Let us give the blocks prompt another whirl, shall we?
Our three words to include in our writing this time are: elephant, queen, mouse.
I promise I didn't trade or turn over any of the blocks, that's just the way they came out. What are the chances that I'd pull both elephant and mouse out of the pile? Pretty slim, it's safe to say.
It's looking like my picture will be in the local paper this week, as the alley played host to a fundraising event for Variety BC this evening. As the only staff on site, I got dragged into a couple of those cheque acceptance pictures... with about half a minute's notice.
I am not looking forward to the results.
Mine:
The queen sat upon her throne, shifting uneasily as the awkward hush in the hall continued to grow. Every pair of eyes examined each of her movements, all ears waited for her words. An unpleasant odour lingered in the air, but she was happy to blame that on her predecessor.
A response was required, she knew that all too well. The mouse who had ruled before her had chosen poorly and she was not eager to repeat that mistake. Unfortunately her people would only permit that ponderous silence to go on for so long.
"My beloved subjects," she began at last, but slowly. As though she were trying to decide which word would come next as she spoke. "We cannot allow this subjugation to last another day. No, not another hour. Not another second!"
Feeble applause. Not a good sign, so early in her reign.
"I have concocted a plan," she continued and the hall grew very still, very quickly. "Wheels have been set in motion. Agents are already in place. We will be free once more." A slow, sweeping gaze around the hall as sweat began to pool at her feet. "By morning the elephant will be dead."
That, she hoped desperately, would buy her enough time to flee to safety before the next murderous rampage ravaged their village.
3 comments:
I'm sure that Kat will be delighted to have a picture of you to cut out of the newspaper and save! If it's really so bad you can always add it to the material you've on Max for when he gets his first girlfriend: "And this is what his Dad used to look like -- no, he'd put the axe down for the camera...".
Well, the blocks decree what they will, and elephant and mouse are at least easy to think of ideas for!
Heh, your mouse queen is quite the planner! I like that she's less concerned about her status and more about her life! Her attitude puts me in mind of the Ladies of Mejaran, now I think about it :)
Mine:
She wasn't cute. Not even her own mother would describe her as any better than handsome, and her sister ("the pretty one", her mother occasionally sighed, knowing that the sister was handsome in a good light only) made snide jokes about her having turned down proposals from the Elephant Man because she didn't want to be the ugly one in the relationship.
She wasn't clever either; she'd spent an evening camped outside a mouse-hole once to prove that she was better than the cat. The cat, who was well aware that the mouse-hole was long abandoned, had spent the evening on the sofa being petted and watching television.
But she was available, and as she sprawled, ungainly and unlovely, on the queen-sized bed, Mirabelle looked at her and wondered if it was stretching artistic licence too far to put a pillow over her face, or at least a pillow-case over her head. She sketched a few more lines on the canvas, capturing the knobbly knees unpleasantly well, and came to a conclusion. Just as the Venus De Milo was a quadruple amputee, so this model could be a quintuple one. The title, "Headless Nude Limbless on an Unmade Bed" might make viewers pause and wonder, but it was better than making them vomit.
There were lines that even Art must draw.
The queen of the elephants thought rapidly. Her suitor, while attractive, was drawing too much attention to the entire herd and threatening the mice, whom she had sworn to protect. His trampling would have to stop.
She could agree to be his mate, that would stop him. But he was too bull-headed for her taste, really. He would have to go.
She gathered her court near the bushes that were his day-sleep place.
"Charge!" she trumpeted, and the elephants charged.
He came out fighting, but he was no match for the entire court. By evening, he was gone out of the herd's territory and the queen's lands were peaceful once more.
Greg - hah, yes, I suppose so.
Self preservation rules all, for some. My mouse queen is certainly one :)
Oh goodness, that paragraph with the cat is fantastic. Sums things up so wonderfully.
Morganna - really like the relationship you suggest between the mice and the elephants. Just the idea of a companionable interaction between them puts a smile on my face :)
Post a Comment