Welcome one and all to the second episode of our brand new collaborative story!
If this is your first time taking part or reading, you can find out more about this regular feature here.
Every week, you will all have the opportunity to continue the story by leaving a comment on this post. I will then choose my favourite entry and add it to the story for next week, at which point I will continue the story from where you left off.
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~Last week’s chosen entry is highlighted in blue.~
Fiction Friday: The Story
In Last Week’s Episode:
It was a grey day. Grey in mood, in weather and in prospects. A light drizzle fell over the small coastal town as mourners flocked to the beaches to pay their respects. A young man named Aleksander, a fisherman’s boy from further up the coast, watched the scene with a mixture of anger and guilt. He hadn’t attended the funeral earlier that day, or the ceremony of cleansing afterward. He was a spectre, doomed to observe from a distance and never feel a part of the real world again.
‘Grim, isn’t it?’ a gravelly voice muttered. ‘Too grim for times like these, anyhow.’
Aleks saw a huge bulk set itself down beside him and immediately knew who the voice belonged to. He smiled.
‘I knew you’d come,’ Aleks said.
‘Couldn’t let it go by.’ Pebbles ground under the sea lion’s bulk as it twisted its thick neck around to scratch the middle of its back. ‘One less hunter with a harpoon is all to the good. There’s few enough of our kind left, as it is.’
The lad kept his eyes on the procession at the water side. ‘Did you mean to kill him?’ he asked somberly.
Episode 2
This week in Fiction Friday: The Story…
The sea lion considered the question a moment and slowly nodded its head. ‘Aye, I did. The red rage came upon me… I just couldn’t–’
‘It’s alright,’ Aleks said. He placed a comforting hand on his friend’s nape. ‘Come on, we should make ourselves scarce.’
The odd pair took their leave and proceeded across the dunes, away from the beach and back onto solid earth. As soon as they were out of sight, the sea lion let out a cry and started to change even as it waddled along. Slowly, its features began to twist and morph and it started to resemble a human. Whiskers retracted and the leather-grey skin smoothed to a supple pink. The strange girl that now walked beside Aleks gave him a wry smile, her eyes dancing and impossibly black.
‘At least you decided to wear clothes before you shifted, this time, Naia,’ Aleks said.
‘Yes,’ Naia replied, flushing. ‘That was an awkward moment, wasn’t it?’
Now it’s your turn! Just leave a comment and continue the story from where I left it!
Hey, I'm James. I write fantasy fiction, I'm an all-round fantasy geek and a proud resident of the United Kingdom. I'm in my early twenties and currently plugging away at what I hope will be a half-decent novel in the hopes of becoming a published author. I have run Fantasy In Motion since the start of 2012 and have enjoyed (almost) every moment of it.
Eee, you liked mine!!
Aleks smiled wearily as the familiar fields stretched out before them. There was precious little energy left to take from the soil beneath them. The grass was already beginning to brown and die in patches.
“We’ve been too long in this place,” he said in a low voice.
Naia breathed deep, searching, and frowned. “We’ve still not found it.”
The two walked a while longer in silence, contemplating their predicament. They had to move on soon but if they did… would they ever be able to return? A hunter was dead. Soon more would come to see what had happened.
Yet that for which they searched was somewhere in these lands, perhaps hidden in a villager’s home, perhaps forgotten in some cave in the mountains.
Naia sensed his struggle and put a comforting hand to his shoulder. “Come,” she said. Aleks could hear the dull clicks of bones changing as Naia began to shift. “Let us continue.”
I like it!
Teehee, thanks