The exercise:
It's time to bring the movie prompt back around for another go. So select a movie title - let's say something released this year - and use it as the inspiration for your writing today.
The bakery is definitely back to pre-summer levels of patronage now. When it's this quiet on a Wednesday, you know the tourists have left town. Most of them, at any rate.
With that said, the bakers have reduced production to the point that when I left at noon there were only a few loaves on the shelves, along with some focaccia, butter tarts, and cinnamon buns in the display case. I'm sure they still sold out early when all was said and done.
I'm curious to see what tomorrow will be like.
Mine:
The Jungle Book
Welcome to the jungle. So pleased to see you've made it this far. Many others have come before you, seeking my wisdom, and failed. Some quite spectacularly.
How do I know this? Concern yourself not with such matters. You have much more pressing worries. Like that tiger behind you, approaching at full speed.
Ah, well done! I thought that would be the end of you for sure. As a reward, go ahead and turn to my next page.
You have come seeking the lost treasure of Bazhul. Of course you are shaking your head no. But let us be honest for a moment, shall we? Excellent.
There is no other reason for you to be here.
I am happy to be your guide for as long as you are able to carry me with you. If you are breathing and willing to continue, I will assist in your quest. But know two things. First: I have no loyalty. I do not care if you succeed or fail. I do not care if you are the one to find the lost treasure or if that honor belongs to another.
Which brings me to the second thing you should know: there are others. Many of them. Most of them are willing to do anything to get their hands on me. I hope, for your sake, that you are equally willing to do anything to keep me in your possession.
For if you do not... our time together will be brief.
But for now? I suggest that you take two steps to your right. There, you see? I just helped you dodge those poison darts. You're welcome!
Oh, you should probably start running now. Come on, off we go!
2 comments:
I guess it's nicer in the bakery when you're not run off your feet, but equally I can imagine that it's nicer for the bakery to be selling out and being assured of good profits. Still, it sounds like the trade is still there for now.
It took me a while to spot that you were taking a very literal approach to your title and that it was the book itself that was leading the hero past the traps and offering advice, but I think it works very well in this context. The book sounds wise and knowledgable, but there's a hint in its words that it's done all this before and doesn't really care who finally gets the prize. In fact, I suspect that the book considers itself to be the real prize... which is nice characterisation.
I also like that your jungle is dangerous is a completely different way to Kipling's, it's a nice contrast. Good writing!
Goliath
"There are distinct genera of fairies," said the teacher while the lab assistant removed the box and the fairy from the room. As soon as he'd closed the door behind him she took a box -- the kind used for holding rings -- from her pocket. Opening it revealed a delicate crystal flower with a tiny amber spark at its heart. "We will talk more about them in a just a moment, but first, a quick demonstration of the law of words of power. This is an artefact, which some of you will be studying the construction of. It is imbued with Cleanliness. Fiat castitate."
The flower's amber heart surged and for a moment all the students could see was the amber light all around them. There was a sensation of immense distance, of being in the very centre of something so unimaginably vast that it was like being in absolute nothingness, and a distant, bass pulse like the beating of some goliath heart.
The stench of the fairy was gone from the room, as was any trace of dust. The benches gleamed as though freshly waxed, the floor was prisine, and even their clothes had lost their wrinkles and regained a freshness as though freshly put on.
A couple of the students nodded thoughtfully, but more straightened and discretely observed themselves and the effect the flower had had around them.
The teacher permitted herself a thin smile as though good humour were rationed severely.
"The largest of the fairy-kind are known as Goliaths," she said. There was a rustle of movement as the students picked pens up, and then a collective intake of breath as they discovered that any uncovered papers had been cleaned of ink and writing; notes had gone like morning dew evaporating in the sunlight. "They are unusual in that they do not appear in Nature as such; they appear to live almost exclusively in what is fancifully called the 'fairy realm'. We will return to this topic slightly later in the course when we study environments and locales. To bring a Goliath into our world requires the use of law of names, and as a consequence, the law of self-knowledge."
She paused and looked around the room, her gaze serene but stern. "I should not need to review the law of self-knowledge."
Her eyes lighted briefly on each student, challenging them to admit ignorance, but each man and woman gazed calmly back.
"Good. Then, the first Goliath we will study is known to folklore as the Eater-of-Skin. It is summoned by the use of its true name. Wikkiel Taljilda."
Greg - yeah, it's a delicate balance. Everyone is less stressed these days, so at least there's that!
Thank you!
I think I would like to borrow that crystal flower sometime. And maybe keep it forever.
I quite like this classroom setting you're developing. The teacher seems quite knowledgeable and competent, which is nice to see. I think these students will learn a lot from her!
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