Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Snippets III - The City Below The Mountain

Snippets are small pieces I am considering expanding into larger works.


In my youth I heard a tale of a lost world held in the depths of the earth.


"Something none of us have heard before, grandtha!"  There was a crash of violent thunder and a triple blaze of lightning.  The sky through the window lit briefly showing a rolling mass of blue black clouds bursting with energy stretching into the infinite horizon.  The storm was near its height, drunk with elemental power.

"Oh you've heard all my stories before."  The old man chuckled.  Boom.  Another peal of thunder.  The young one before him were wide-eyed, too old to be called children, and not yet men and women.  They had not felt a storm like this before.

"Please.  There has to be something.  The night is come early with the storm and the mood is perfect for it."

The old man gazed out the window, drinking in the physical presence of the gale outside.  It would blow for hours yet, drawing on the mountains for sustenance.  The next blast of lightning licked down from the bulbous clouds and detonated against a distance cliff face.  There came a far off rumble of fallen rock.

"There is one."  This was greeted with a cheer.  "But I warn you!" he said with dire emphasis.  "It is not a tale told lightly.  It is filled with horrors and wonders both.  A tale of a land you have never seen, one that holds treachery, danger, and mystery at every turn."

"Tell us! Tell us!" came the cries. 

"Very well."  he took a deep breath.  "Gather round and listen, for there are dark places in the world.  Deep places.  There are lands without sun.  And a city beneath the mountain that holds wonders of a time too far gone to recall." 

In my youth, not much different in age than you, I heard tales of a lost world that existed below the earth we live upon.  I thought them mere fancy.  Stories to pass the night.  And then, on a night much like this one, the violent rains and thundering strikes from the sky shook the world so vigorously that a piece of the mountain fell away.  There were floods of earth and water both.  And, after three days of such heavy forces, the elements relented and we were left mouths agape at the gateway etched into the mountain's side.


 

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About Me

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Geek - Gamer - Librarian - Writer. Only awesome at one of those things at a time, unfortunately.

About Fading Interest

After writing op-eds and travelogues for several years, after finishing a few books, and after failing to get the ball rolling with project after project I stumbled into an idea that might just hold my interest long enough to enjoy some level of satisfaction with my writing.