Eventually, they
left the dead forest and the flat sands with odd dunes returned.
Copper recalled when this area was all farmland.
Iron titled her
head, listening to the faint sound of Rolling Stones music. “There
used to be dancing cow here,” remarked Copper. “It would spend
its days grooving to Paint it Black and Gimme Shelter. The music was
then adapted into a series of cow noises.”
Iron nodded in
appreciation of the moos like Jagger.
They climbed back
into the car and continued their journey. Iron noticed the seats were
smaller and closer to the steering wheel. Copper sunk into her seat
when she noticed the car had shifted from left-hand drive to
right-hand drive. The duo looked to each other in silent
acknowledgement.
With the turn of a
makeshift key Iron continued driving while Copper rummaged through
the glove box. She pulled out a leaflet with a skull and crossbones
logo on the top. ‘Sea Sick Sams meal deals’ read the top of the
leaflet. ‘Chicken pie, £12; vegetable pie, £9; beef pie, £15.’
Copper lamented the high prices and grumbled to herself, “ruddy pie-rates.”
Copper noticed some
dried fruit half buried in the sands. She reached down and picked up
what may have once been a lemon.
She’d never been
keen on these yellow fruits. She’d heard a story about a cat
that’d climbed a lemon tree. It fell out, hitting its nose on every
branch on the way down. It took enough knocks to the face to give it
a permanent angry scowl.
Another few hundred
miles and they found themselves in what was left of a forest. Most of
the trees had sunk into deep into the sand. Even those that hadn’t,
had lost all their leaves.
Iron nudged Copper
and pointed out a cabin just off the road. They pulled up for a look
and could see it had a banks décor inside. Tellers windows and a
large vault door set further back.
Copper reached out
of the car door and picked up a sign that read ‘Old Forest Bank’.
“What a strange place for a new branch,” pondered Copper.
Looking at my calendar and having a ponder on my desire to move onto new projects (ref, online serialized fiction). I think I’m going to post the last thirty’ish tales, two per day.
Not only am I eager to move onto new projects, but the serial has also become more of a continuous story. It makes a bit more sense to bunch it up when I’m asking people to come back continuously for each new episode. I’m neither Netflix or a TV station. Dragging the story out now is more frustrating than engaging.
The bonus to you, my good ladies, fellows and others, is that you get double the groaners every single day. Heck, Saturday and Sunday you’ll be getting three stories a day as I’m still collaborating and doing the Colour Collective portraits.
Double bonus to anyone who buys me a cuppa this next two weeks on Ko-Fi. I always give cuppa buyers a shout out with a link to their own site in the next days’ posts. So for the next two weeks, you’ll get at least two shout outs the following day.
Karma opened the
blinds to her dorm room, signaling the sun’s rays to drape her in its
warmth. Classes had resumed. Summer break was now a thing of the
past. She had her assignments, her books, other supplies, and her
boyfriend’s heart.
What would he do
without her at home now that she’s traveled back to finish her last
year of college? Under his mattress was a letter. In it, she’d
written:
“I told you not
to fall for me. I only wanted your heart. Now, that I have it, you
have nothing.”
Poor Jesse, his life was full of bad karma.
Story by Tre of ACorneredGurl.com. I’m pretty confident y’all know the legend that is Tre. If ya haven’t, check out either her WordPress blog or Medium. She also takes submissions on weekly themes if you’re interested.
Straight up, I don’t do elves. The fancy ones are always ‘considerably richer than you!’ The woodland ones are always naked running through trees and eating berries. The dark ones… Well… They eat peoples hamsters.
I can read stories with them in, just fine. But I can’t write them myself. Heck, I can’t play them in games either. I was never an elf in my 80s Dungeons and Dragons/Heroquest/Warhammer quest days.
I’ve tried giving elves a go in computer games. In Morrowind, Ultima Online, Everquest, Second Life and recently Skyrim. I just can’t jive with them. Though weird thing, I can jive with other non-human critters. Skyrims lizardmen and cat-people (argonians and khajits?) I can piddle about with.
So, yeah, for this weeks #Colour_Collective I’d like to present a trouble of elves. That’s what a group of them is called right?
Oo and the terror-dactyls flying overhead are quite a popular tee on my Threadless store.
From the theme park
gates onwards, neither Copper or Iron saw anything resembling the
world they had known for the next few hundred miles. Flat sand in
every direction occasionally rose into dunes where there had once
been dense forests. Townships were absent wherever marked on the map.
The lack of
distractions let Copper’s mind wander back to the creature that had
been watching them. It reminded her of a bird. Its piercing eyes was
about all Copper could make out. It would certainly explain how it
got onto the roof it was perched on.
Whatever it was, it had ruffled Copper’s feathers.
They drove on through the night, stopping only to scavenge fuel from other abandoned vehicles. They’d occasionally pass driving and recharge time between each other. They polished off a bottle of oil between them, leaving them refreshed for the day ahead.
As morning broke, a curious sight got Irons attention. The head of a cartoon mouse laid on the ground next to the gates of a theme park. Copper knew what it was and she wasn’t stopping for a look around.
It was a trap for humans owned by a mouse.
Sorry folks, I missed yesterdays tale and today I’m super late. Been sat about with only a mobile this last 24 hours. Great for browsing social media and blogs. Terrible for actually posting, haha. Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.
I’m one of those people who believes in educating themselves. I don’t go as far as reading a book a day, but I try to take in one complete course a week on Skillshare,Udemy or CodeAcademy. Today, browsing the writing classes, I realised the Wattpad team now have four 100% free writing courses there.
Well, stone me. That’s awesome! I’ve mentioned two of these before, and they are really good quality courses.
Join writer and Wattpad Star Rebecca Sky for a new Skillshare class on writing fiction today! You’ll peel back the curtain on online writing and learn frameworks, techniques, and strategies for establishing, engaging, and growing a community around your work.
Starting with a blank slate is daunting, and in this class, Lindsey shares her favorite tool for overcoming writer’s block and starting your writing process: the character study.
This class will inspire you to look at your everyday encounters and simple interactions as helpful starting points for developing a unique character. It’s perfect for everyone new to writing as well as writers looking to broaden their creative writing toolkit.
While writing is a creative art form, using a structure is essential for execution. In this 20-minute class, Ninya takes one of her top stories on Wattpad and walks through how she turned one creative idea into a full serialized story using a creative brief to organize her ideas. You’ll also learn how to identify your voice in writing that makes your work unique.
Whether you’re a writer looking for a fun exercise, or just starting out with a fun idea in your head, this class will help you turn that idea into the beginnings of a story based upon your creative inspiration.
While writing a draft is a feat in itself, revising and editing your work is when your story takes shape and the real writing begins! In this 25-minute class, Ali walks through the process of polishing a manuscript for publication. She works on strengthening each part of her story, examining plot holes, pacing, and character structure — all to help you learn a set of techniques to level up your writing and make your work clean, concise, and clear.
Whether you’re a writer looking to get your work published, or you just enjoy writing and want to improve your critical eye, this class will help turn your ideas and drafts into well-developed, polished stories.
These courses are all completely free. Sign up through any of the links above, skip anything that asks you to subscribe, and you’re away. Though, hey, if you do want to subscribe, it’ll cost $0.99 for 2 months and will give you access to thousands of courses.
Little Fears 