ladyhwin

Good day to you, my fellow writers.
I would like to give Chelydra my thanks once again. He ran a wonderful challenge with number 99 and I thoroughly enjoyed writing for it. Everyone did a great job! I was very honored to be chosen out of so many good pieces.
This is the 100th edition of ThinkWrite, I feel very special to be the one hosting it. Some of us still remember the beginnings of this challenge; there have been many who have come and gone along the way. Many of them still drop in every once in a while, some have disappeared forever. I am thinking mostly of giraffe as I type this… perhaps you could throw in a word or two if you remember him…
But to get on with it…I personally really liked the options you put out last time chelydra, and I’m going to follow your example by setting out two different lists/word counts for you all to play with.
***
GOLDEN
DUEL
EARTH
AZURE
ZENITH
BOWER
GARNET
MELODY
WRAITH
CENTURY or any word that is related to 100 (centurion, centennial… you get the idea)

100 words exactly or 300 words exactly.

***
Besotted
Vermin
Tussock
Misgivings
League
Hunter
Pelt
Guile
Flummoxed

Fealty
Fathom
Delve
Cudgel
Daffondowndilly
Darkling
Confusticate
Cob
Blazoned
Billow

Barrel
Blade
Awry
Assuage
Welkin
Apricity

100,200,300,400, etc words. Must be even. I will check.

***
Any form of a word may be used.

DEADLINE: January 27th. 10 days.
***
Thank you again... hope to see some good writings come out of this golden challenge!

mum23

100 words. All words from first list included.

The golden light obliterated the last vestige of his wraithlike afterimage from her screen. Absently, she fingered her garnet earring. Their melody played quietly as she sat, overwhelmed by the yawning emptiness that always engulfed her. The few moments since they’d said goodbye felt like centuries. She duelled with the urge to call back, but, on the other side of the Earth, he needed to sleep.

The sun was at its zenith, blazing out of the azure sky that he’d so admired. The cicadas were deafening as she meandered to their secluded bower. To dream. To imagine him coming home.

marg

Beautifully whimsical, mum !

ladywhin, I have to admit that I prefer :

1. a single list of words, so that every entry shows how wildly different everyone's imagination is - reading through the different realities that the entries represent just knocks me out ! .. and having two sets just seems like having two challenges

2. a word list under 10 - anything above may be fine for people with lots of time, but I'll have to bow out of challenges that go over

I'll try and get a contribution in for you, but if not, I'll definitely be reading other TDers brilliant entries !

ladyhwin

mum, gorgeous!! I loved it very much...

marg, thank you for your thoughts. I will say I want to try my hand at both the lists I put out, simply to see if I can do it. As for the the amount of words, I will still hold to the number 10 since that used to be an unspoken rule in ThinkWrite. yes, please do write! I would love to read your brilliant writings too!

marg

Here you go - sortof - the first list, but I'm not complying with the word count, because a) I don't have time to win and b) it just ruins my street cred.

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LOL, no, dear, don’t you remember ? ..that was years ago – ha, ha, last century - when we went to that lovely garden party, given by, er.. that lovely lady ? You know.. the one where they had that “Zenith” band, that kept playing that stupid ‘Wraith Melody’ ? You remember, don’t you..?

[ Me, I remember it as if it was yesterday - they did the ‘Banjo duel’ thing, and then..

[then.. I led you to the bower
[and then.. then you gave me your garnet .. um.. ring
[and then.. then I gazed up at the sky, all golden and pink and azure – and thought:

‘sky blue pink with yellow dots in it’ – how close can you get ?

....but, um, the earth didn’t move for me this time

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I wrote this in support of the beginning days of the love that mum was talking about - i.e. that you don't always feel totally swept away (in the early days) by the person who may later become your be-all.

This is about looking back, once you've accepted that they're not perfect - and remembering the bestest bits - and it doesn't really matter if you're 14 or 84.

I think that sometimes, if the earth doesn't move for you, but you still want to be with them, you may be on the right track - or it's at least worth finding out about !

Rebel_Sun

Rahima tiptoed from the bower…if the harem matron awoke, as the youngest, it would fall again to Rahima to cater to her every whim. She shuddered, flitting wraith-like through the zenana’s rooms to her haven, a forgotten corner of an outward-facing balcony. She spent a good percentage of her waking hours there, watching the golden sun fall from its azure zenith, ultimately losing its duel with the horizon. As heaven turned pink, lavender, indigo, and garnet into black, she’d convert the interplay of earth, sky, night and day into tuneless melodies that momentarily helped her forget her lost childhood.

ladyhwin

I like it marg... made me think a bit...

And Rebel Sun - you stuffed a whole lot into those few words, terrific job! I like it very much...

ladyhwin

My own entry. 300 words.

***

The sunset was at its zenith, turning the sky to brilliant shades of color, leaving a gray twilight in its wake as it moved across the horizon. Ellis gazed at it in wonder, marveling at the perfection.
“It is beautiful,” he whispered behind her, wrapping an arm about her waist.
She did not respond, watching intently as the colors changed for the millionth time and a golden glow spread across the sky, engaging in a duel with the heavy garnet red of the horizon.
His warm breath against the back of her neck forced her to turn and look into his deep azure eyes. He smiled, drawing her close. She liked to think of his embrace as her bower, the place where she felt safest.
“Why can’t this last forever?” she sighed, turning back to the sunset, which had by this time all but disappeared.
He tightened his arm about her, stroking her copper-colored hair. “We have centuries on this earth, love, centuries to enjoy this place, to enjoy each other.”
Again, Ellis did not respond, for he had not understood her. She understood well how long she had, but how long the beauty of this place had was uncertain. The follies and evils of Earth’s creatures ruined many a grandeur before its time and her sadness often overcame her.
The faintest of melodies drifted over the mountains to her ears and she shivered, pressing back into his arms again as the wraith-like tune swirled nearby. He held her firmly so she could listen to the heartbreak of the melody as it collapsed into the grass.
“I cannot enjoy my time here when all around me is pain and suffering,” she whispered when it had gone.
He kissed her tenderly. “Then let us leave here, my love. Come with me.”

chelydra

Part One

How can you be so besotted with this vermin!? And for pity’s sake, girl, gets that tussock out of your hair. Have you no shame?

Oh Lord. I just want peace. Okay, I admit I have some misgivings.

I’m listening.

Well. (long pause as she rolls another cigarette) I didn’t know until last year he was in league with those whachacallits, with the chanting and stuff. Name’s supposed to be big secret,, they never utter it out loud. So how’s anyone supposed to remember it? Yeah, and I wasn’t thrilled when he told me I had the potential to be a Hunter of Toads. When you have a dozen delicate dry little warty pelts to wear, you get the title. No sorry, a hundred forty-four. Once a philosopher, twice a pervert, and twelve times twelve is a Hunter of Toads.

That’s what that thing was, pinned to your blouse in church?

Yeah. I skinned it myself. He said he’d never seen anyone weild a knife with such grit and guile.

I’m flummoxed. You mean his fealty to you was based on your way with toadskins? I can’t fathom it.

There were— are —other attractions. The way he could delve right into me, reaching places no one ever visited before.

My Waldo was like that, with that cudgel of his.

My mind I mean. My soul. It was his tongue, the way he spoke, asking questions in dulcet tones, melting away my defenses. I’d get all sort of daffondowndilly-feeling, you know? You ever get that?

Methinks you're involved with a darkling, my dear. Not a duckling, a darkling, They confuscate your mind and throw away the cob. His name's blazoned on your forehead, and on your butt too. I mean everyone can see right away in your expressions, your walk, that a darkling’s got you in his power.

As I cry in my pillow
the ocean doth billow

Don’t warble your nonsense at me. Not now, girlfriend. This is serious. He’s got you over a barrel. Like he’s holding a blade to your milky throat. Your whole life’s gone awry. And how can I or anyone else who’s halfway normal ever assuage this hunger in you, this need for whatever it is? Don’t you get it yet? You just have to wake up and make a decision not to need this thing you’re getting from him.

I know, I know. But then, you know… when he touches my welkin with that apricty of his, you know, oh gosh, I just, I just, you know. Or maybe you don’t know.




Part Two

The smoky air in the kitchen grew golden in afternoon light as the girlfriends’ duel of wits dragged on. They needed to feel crimson clay earth squishing through bare toes, to inhale azure pheremones of birds and bees, to just relax together as in their teens so long ago, two pretty adolescents ascending carelessly towards a zenith of womanly beauty. Outside, they remembered wandering through fragrant bowers of youth, speaking of boys. One slipped a garnet ring over a pinkie, another hummed a melogy softly in an ear. Just wraiths now, taken by war. On a stone, a centipede writhed.


Part One is obviously ineligible, and it didn't seem amenable to any more editing after culling a couple dozen words (I may have inadvertently edited out one or two from the second word-list.) Part Two followed the rules.

chelydra

In case there's any question, I'm not in the running this time around. I liked the word lists a lot, once I'd abandoned the tedious idea of looking up definitions. Good to see ThinkWrite's modest revival continuing.

chelydra

Just as well I didn't look for definitions, I guess (now that I've looked)!

mum23

marg... I love your story and the idea behind it, but most of all your remark about ruining your street cred. I doubt there's anything you could do that would threaten that...

Rebel ... the way you put words together is simply stunning

ladyhwin... poignant and beautiful

chelydra... I'm impressed at how naturally you managed to use all those words, in order, in Part One, and how strangely apt your incorrect use of the last two words on the list was! And Part Two was evocative and lovely.

mum23

Couldn't resist... 2nd list, 300 words.




He was besotted. This was not the vermin he’d always been led to believe. He watched as the creature hesitated, sniffed the air delicately, though slightly suspiciously, before burying its nose in the tussock. It crunched the delicacy it found there with relish. His misgivings grew stronger with each passing moment.

He’d set out that morning to earn his place within the League of Hunters. Presenting them with the pelt of this charming, guileless animal would win him much admiration, but, now, surprised by an easy opportunity to fulfil his quest, he was flummoxed by his emotions. There was no question of his fealty to the tribe, or the way of life that they’d always known, yet this intimate moment with his quarry had him confusticated in ways he could not fathom.

His fingers delved beneath his raiment, unhesitatingly finding the cudgel. He’d practised this countless times; a deft blow to stun the animal, then swift work with the blade to assuage any suffering. Never before had he felt this darkling sensation when faced with the task, although there had been a twinge of regret over the cob, whose feathers had billowed and blazoned with the final desperate beating of his wings. He shook his head; time to stop being such a daffondowndilly. With the cudgel raised, he barrelled out through the bushes and leapt towards his prize.

Calmly, knowingly, the yellow eyes looked into his. Rendered helpless by its gaze, the falling blow went awry and the club smashed painfully against his own shin. The fox looked down at him while he writhed in agony. Transfixed by the intensity of its stare, and bathed in the apricity from beyond the welkin, he suddenly knew.

I am a fox. I am the swan. I am the earth. We are one.

ladyhwin

chelydra and mum, both awesome jobs! I enjoyed your stories and your writing talent... Thank you especially, chelydra, for participating even though you're not eligible

1-2 days more until the end of this challenge! Hope to see some more stories!

five

Answered Prayer. 100 words.

Azure -- the blue color of clear sky -- broke through. Decay was a drowned out melody.

A century before, fertile soil welcomed Liddie. She was pale, thin, and lacking in substance -- the definition of a wraith, wandering, aspiring. Here she found her zenith: a small garnet -- her “diamond” -- dueled with dark leaves as its spark slid from her finger and she prayed to feel solidarity.

Solidarity! Liddie laughed. Faith had been reliable. She had grown roots and could not leave the overgrown bower. She tried. But physically--

Physically, how was that possible for a ghost! Yet, physically, she could not move.

five

oops, left off golden....

Answered Prayer, 100 words, revised.

Azure -- the blue color of clear sky -- broke through. Decay was a drowned out melody.

A century before, fertile soil welcomed Liddie. She was pale, thin, and lacking in substance -- the definition of a wraith, wandering, aspiring. Here she found her zenith: a golden garnet -- her “diamond” -- dueled with dark leaves as its spark slid from her finger and she prayed to feel solidarity.

Solidarity! Liddie laughed. Faith had been reliable. She had grown roots and could not leave the overgrown bower. She tried. But physically--

Physically, how was that possible for a ghost!

Yet, physically, she could not move.

five

Geez, left out earth -- this is what happens when you go back and edit words! Last try.

Answered Prayer. 100 words re-revised.

Azure -- the blue color of clear sky -- broke through. Decay was a drowned out melody.

A century before, fertile earth welcomed Liddie. She was pale, thin, and lacking in substance -- the definition of a wraith, wandering, aspiring. Here she found her zenith: a golden garnet -- her “diamond” -- dueled with dark leaves as its spark slid from her finger and she prayed to feel solidarity.

Solidarity! Liddie laughed. Faith had been reliable. She had grown roots and could not leave the overgrown bower. She tried. But physically--

Physically, how was that possible for a ghost!

Yet, physically, she could not move.

chelydra

five: took a long to start to "get it" but the repetitions set up a rhythm (like Bolero) so it's growing on you more and more whether you get it or not (I think I still only half get it, but definitely feel it)... mum: neighbourhood fox was swishing and scampering through the little front gardens, making his rounds of this London street, right after I read your story - made me think of the fox in a different light. good stuff...all of it... think write lives!

ladyhwin

Very nice everyone!! I'm sorry I didn't get around to judging last night and I'm leaving for school now... any more entries are welcome... I will read everything again tonight and make my decision

Nylecoj

100 words, all the words are in, but I "cheated" on the word related to hundred, I just used hundred.



The sun rose like a golden flame bursting light across the earth as she peeked over the bower of the trees, turning the grassy hills into glowing emeralds set with flowers of garnet, making the waters shine in deep azure splendor as wraiths of white fog swirled from their surface to be caught in a duel between the West wind and the East breeze. The melody of a hundred birds filled the air, a tune for all others to wake to, for them, the dawn is the zenith of the day, to sigh, the best part of life, to welcome Spring!