Friday, March 27, 2015

FLASH FICTION FRIDAY: Lunadar Homeward Bound




***This will be the last Friday post I will be doing for awhile. I wanted to highlight the wonderful talent of illustrators out there like I did with authors from my WRITERLY WISDOM series, but there doesn't seem to be enough illustrators interested in participating so I will suspend my Friday posts for now. I will be participating in the A to Z Challenge in April and will be reviewing 26 children's books over the next month. If more illustrators start contacting me again, I might bring back the series but for now I leave you with the opening passage to my young adult novel LUNADAR: HOMEWARD BOUND for this final FLASH FICTION FRIDAY...enjoy!***


 
The setting sun, a fiery orange, bathes the deck in an unnatural light. The men are restless. They have been too long from land, too long from hearth and home and it weighs heavily upon their spirits. This night will be a rough one with choppy seas and razor sharp tongues. My hand is firm upon the railing and my body sways in rhythm to the waves. Eyes peer into the fading light as if to see land just beyond the horizon. I will get no rest this night...

Voices waft up from below; a harsh word muttered here and there as the men settle down in cramp quarters which reek of sweat and dirt from many months at sea with only each other and the moonlight for company. My body begs for rest, to lie on a down filled mattress and sleep for a hundred years. But my mind races. Crowded with memories and filled with the what-ifs and what-could-have-been of another life time. It's too late now to change things. The sea is my master and I am it's slave for I follow wherever it may lead me. I'm just grateful that tonight it leads me homeward bound...

My eyelids grow heavy as I struggle to stay awake. I can not leave my post for there are too many who are counting on me to lead them through the rocky maze which lie before us. One false turn and I doom this ship and it's passengers to a dance with Davy Jones. But I am confident. I know this path well, having traveled it many times. Truth of the matter is that I could steer this ship through these waters with my eyes closed. Every rock and shell are as familiar to me as the stars in the northern sky...

Finally, the maze is done and once again we are on the open sea. A solitary moon looms before me, the only other thing awake at this time of night. 

Midnight hour. 

Witching hour. 

A time when the portal opens between the here and now to stretch into the outer world. My heart races as if mere wishing could make these sails quicken the journey. At last we are homeward bound and another moon will not rise before we are once again in the arms of our loved ones. All that stands between them and me is the moon...

6 comments:

  1. I'm on the ship, too. Let's go home.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HI Janet! I know what happens on that ship...maybe you really DON'T want to be on it...lol...

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

      Delete
  2. Lunadar is off to a good start. Beautiful writing!

    Arlee Bird
    A to Z Challenge Co-host
    Tossing It Out

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, thank you, Arlee and welcome back to my blog! Lunadar is a YA fantasy novel I'm working on in my spare time. I'm about halfway done but you know how it is with writers. Try to get one complete thought written down and another one pops into your head begging to be heard...;~)

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. Hi Mina and welcome to my blog! I'm glad you enjoyed my little Lunadar 'tease". I'm about halfway through this YA fantasy novel...now to find more free time to write! ;~)

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

      Delete