The Cave – Part Six

To quickly recap: Friends Eve and Sara were rock climbing and stumbled across a fissure in the rocks. They checked inside and discovered a large cave with primitive drawings on its walls. As they venture deeper inside there’s a tremor, causing a cave in that traps them inside.

Having little choice, they go further into the cave, hoping to find another way out. They come to another chamber, this one with mosaics embedded in the walls, and then find themselves following a ledge alongside a chasm. With little food and water remaining, things aren’t looking good for the pair.

Sara hadn’t felt thirsty before, but now that she knew their water supply was almost gone, she felt a raging thirst.

The two women were exhausted, and stretched out as best they could to try and get some sleep. This time, however, they left the light on, but turned it down as low as they could make it without turning it off.

Sara slept fitfully, awareness of their lack of water, the desperateness of their situation, keeping her from relaxing fully. But at some point she must have dropped off for a bit because she woke with a start to find herself alone in the chamber.

“Eve?” she called, scrambling to her feet. “Eve? Where are you?”

Her heart was pounding, and she took deep breaths to keep from panicking. The situation was enough without adding panic to it.

“Eve?” she called again. Where could she have gone? It didn’t seem likely she’d have gone back, but why would she go forward alone?

“Eve, where are you?”

Sara turned up the brightness of her light and played it over the arched opening they’d entered through, and then in the opposite direction to the opening beyond.

“Eve? Talk to me?”

What if she’d gone forward and gotten hurt? Or worse, gone back and fallen off the ledge?

“Eve!” Sara called out, a little more sharply than she intended.

“Oh, stop your caterwauling,” Eve said, emerging from the dark tunnel ahead. “I’m right here.”

Sara wanted to chide her for her thoughtlessness, but bit back the angry words. “You had me worried,” she said instead.

“For crying out loud, I was only gone a minute or two. I was checking ahead a bit.”

“Did you find anything?”

“Not really,” Eve said with a shrug. “If you’re done with your hissy fit, we should get going.”

She turned and led the way into the passage. Sara stared at her back, filled with misgivings. Something was happening to Eve and it wasn’t anything good. It had started in the cave with the mosaics. Something more than just being mesmerized by the mural. What Sara couldn’t figure out was why she wasn’t affected.

No, that wasn’t true. It had affected her too. She’d felt the pull of it but instead of filling her with awe, it had filled her with fear. Deep down in her bones she felt it was evil. She thought Eve would get better the further she was from it, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. And now she had a new concern.

“Hey, Eve. Can we stop for a minute? My sock has slid right down into my boot.”

“No,” Eve said, not even pausing.

“C’mon Eve, I don’t want to get a blister.”

“Not my problem. You wanna stop, you stop. I’m not waiting.”

Cursing under her breath, Sara stopped and switched on her own light so she could see. She couldn’t risk a blister, especially if it became infected.

“You couldn’t pick something mundane, like a walk in the park, could you?” she muttered as she unlaced her boot. “No, you had to go hiking at Spirit Rock.”

She fixed her sock and retied her boot as quickly as possible, then half-jogged down the passage to catch up with Eve.

It took her several minutes, fear rising in her with every step, before she caught up with Eve, who was standing in a more natural looking cave that had several exits.

“Great,” Sara said, slightly out of breath. “More choices.”

“Life is full of choices,” Eve murmured.

Sara felt a shiver go up her spine. “Tell me, Eve,” she said.

Eve looked at her without interest.

“If I hadn’t caught up with you before you decided which way to go, would you have waited for me?”

“I guess we’ll never know,” Eve said with a thin smile. “You seem to like making decisions, which way should we go?”

Ignoring her misgivings, Sara stepped closer to the openings. She was positive she could feel a faint current of air from one of them.

“This one,” she said.

The current of air became stronger as they continued on, but Sara didn’t say anything about it. She didn’t want to get her hopes up, nor did she want to set Eve off. She stumbled, the footing becoming rougher. “Look,” she said, casting her light downwards. “The floor is littered with crystals like the ones in the mosaic.”

Eve was already on her knees, gathering up as many as she could, stuffing them in her pack. “Mine,” she muttered. “All mine.”

“You’re just going to weigh yourself down,” Sara said. The stones made her feel uneasy though she couldn’t have said why.

Eve looked up at her, a strange light in her eyes. “Mine.”

“Fine,” Sara said, backing away a bit. “Look, there’s an opening just ahead. I’m going to check it out.”

Eve made no reply. Shaking her head, Sara stepped through the opening and found herself on another ledge. But this time she didn’t get the same sense of space, and there was definitely a cool breeze.

“Hey, Eve. I think we’re close to a way out. Why don’t you leave those rocks – we can always come back for them.”

Suddenly, there was a tremendous shove from behind her. Sara didn’t even have a chance to scream as she fell.

“Oops. What a shame,” Eve said with a snicker.

Done!

Finishing something will give you satisfaction. Finishing something important to you will give you meaning. A meaningful life is a good life.
— Maxime Lagace

Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.
— Theodore Isaac Rubin

To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now.
— Samuel Beckett

Apparently, having a new chair was all the impetus I needed to get that final push on to finish my office. My office is finally cleaned and organized. Woot! I guess there was just something about that brand new chair behind that messy desk, sitting on a floor covered in paper shreds and junk.

So, just to jog your memory, here’s what my desk looked like before:

And here’s what it looks like now:

I thinned out the keepsakes on the back of the desk, and dealt with all the papers, etc. on the desk. There’s only one of the cloth baskets on top of the printer, but once I get it emptied again it should look a little neater.

And here’s the view from the other side of the desk before:

And here’s what it looks like now:

Quite the difference, eh? You can actually see the floor now. LOL

And finally, we have my reading area before:

And after:

So much more appealing!

I’d like to say now that my office is livable again I’ve been going to town on the writing, but that would be a lie. While I have been spending more time in there, I haven’t been doing a lot of writing, at least not the creative kind. I’ve been doing letters and emails and catching up on my journals, and a lot of puttering around.

I’ve been fighting off a bug that’s making me super tired and head-achy, which makes it really hard to focus.

Hopefully, this week I’ll do better.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

Once again I did more crocheting and reading than writing, but like I said above, I’ve been tired and head-achy. I don’t know if it’s the weather, a bad sinus cold, or heck, maybe it’s COVID. But whatever it is, I’m getting tired of it.

I got Monday’s post done, but nothing on Wednesday so far. I’ve had a couple of ideas, but nothing I want to commit myself to yet.

I had an epiphany regarding a series I started many years ago and then kind of got stuck and abandoned. It’s science fiction romance and bodes to span multiple volumes. In fact, my elemental series is an offshoot from it, as is one of my NaNo novels. So at least my mind is headed in the right direction.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1043+492+962=2,497

Three minute words – 121+140+131+137+109+114+117=869
Total words: 2,497 words

EDITING:
*sigh*

Once again the only editing I did was the story for Friday’s post. I have been thinking about Elemental Spirit though, as in considering ways to start it and who the main focus is going to be.

WHAT I’M READING:
I finished Shelter in Place, by Nora Roberts, and then picked up Growl (Feral Passions #1), by Eve Langlais, Kate Douglas, and A.C. Arthur. I love me some alpha shifters! Then I read the Liar, also by Nora Roberts.

On the Kindle I finished The Dragon Prince of Alaska by Elva Birch and started Wings of Stone, by J.D. Monroe, which is also about dragon shifters.

GOALS
Last Week’s Results:
Well, I think the three-minute-words are a given, considering I’m serializing them on my blog. And for crafting I started a new afghan. And that’s pretty much it, but the upside of the crocheting is that it keeps me from wasting my time gaming.

New Ones For the Week Ahead:
The whole “hour a day” thing I mentioned at the beginning of the year sounded good in theory, but it’s just not happening. Instead, I’m going to create Marketing Mondays, where I spend part of the day, probably the afternoon, investigating markets and/or submitting my work.

And I admitted to my best bud Jamie the number of electronic devices I have that are just sitting around collecting dust, and she advised me to suck it up and learn how to use them. LOL Realizing she has a point, I’m also going to initiate Techno Tuesdays, where I learn a new skill or how something works. Last week it was Zoom – I met online with my stitchery group and not only was it easier than I expected, it was kind of fun.

1. Crochet in moderation.
2. Expand Christmas story
3. Come up with a Wednesday post
4. Start the edits/rewrites on Elemental Spirit

Wish me luck.

The Cave – Part Five

To quickly recap: Friends Eve and Sara were rock climbing and stumbled across a fissure in the rocks. They checked inside and discovered a large cave with primitive drawings on its walls. As they venture deeper inside there’s a tremor, causing a cave in that traps them inside.

Having little choice, they go further into the cave, hoping to find another way out. They come to another chamber, this one with mosaics embedded in the walls, and then find themselves following a ledge alongside a chasm. But something has stopped Sara in her tracks.

“What is it now?” Eve asked, voice filled with resignation.

“I’m not sure. There’s a … gap.”

“A gap? How big a gap?”

“I—I’m not sure.” Sara played her light over the ledge-like path they were on, and then followed along to the gap, trying to see beyond. “It looks like it’s only a couple of feet. I think we can step across, but it might be easier if we were facing the wall.”

“I’d feel a lot better if we know why there’s a gap,” Eve said as they cautiously turned around. “It’s unique to the path, at least I hope it is. But did the stone just crumble away, or did someone break it deliberately?”

“I kind of hope someone broke it deliberately.”

“I was being facetious,” Eve said. “Why would someone break a chunk out of the path?”

“I don’t know, maybe they were being chased and were trying to slow their pursuer down.”

“I think it doesn’t really matter. The real concern is, are we going to talk it to death or are we going to suck it up and cross over?”

Sara didn’t make a sound, but taking a deep breath stepped across the gap. To her great relief, the ledge was solid under her feet on the other side.

She moved a little further along and then shone her light back to guide Eve.

“Is it just my imagination or is the ledge wider on this side?” Eve asked, joining Sara.

“I think you’re right,” Sara said.

After another few minutes, the ledge was wide enough they no longer had to sidle along, and shortly after that it became wide enough that they were no longer hugging the edge of the chasm.

“How many miles do you think we’ve walked so far?” Sara asked suddenly.

“I can’t begin to imagine.”

There was a whisper of movement and Sara stopped so suddenly that Eve almost ran into her.

“Did you feel that?”

“Feel what?” Eve asked, irritably. She was getting a little sick of Sara hearing things and feeling things and deciding which way to go. She still felt the pull of the mosaic and regretted not turning back when they had the chance.

“There! You can’t deny feeling that. It’s a breeze, a cool breeze. It must mean we’re close to a way out!” Sara said excitedly.

“It could just be the air being stirred up by a really big bat,” Eve said waspishly.

“What’s going on? Why are you being like this? Don’t you want to get out of here?”

“Let’s keep going,” Eve said, ignoring her questions.

Sara didn’t know what was going on with Eve, but considering the chasm edge they were following, she figured it was best not to argue with her or upset her. But she also couldn’t understand why she wasn’t more excited about the possibility they were getting close to an exit.

To her great disappointment, she didn’t feel the breeze again and she worried that the exit was on the other side of the chasm. They continued on in silence. The ledge began to widen and at the same time gently slope downwards.

Twice they paused for a protein bar, washed down by sips of water, but they didn’t dare rest with the abyss so close.

Their feet were dragging when the ledge ended abruptly in a large, arched opening.

“Okay, this arch definitely isn’t natural,” Sara said.

“No shit, Sherlock.”

Sara rounded on Eve. “What is your problem?”

Eve scrubbed a hand over her face. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what it is – being trapped in this place, the oppressive darkness. Maybe I’m just tired.”

Sara played her light around the chamber beyond the arch. It was more like an alcove than a cave, but it was big enough for the two of them to stretch out in.

“We’re both tired. Why don’t we rest here? We can have a bite to eat and maybe get some sleep.”

“Sounds good.”

Eve shrugged off her pack and sat on the ground, Sara joining her. A moment later, Sara made a sound of frustration.

“What is it?”

“I can’t get my pack open. This clasp won’t co-operate.”

“Here, let me try,” Eve said.

Sara passed the pack over and after fiddling with it for a moment Eve was able to get it open.

“Thanks.”

Sara rooted inside it until she found the jerky. They made themselves as comfortable as possible on the ground, passing the bag back and forth until it was gone.

“We probably shouldn’t have done that,” Sara said with a sigh. “We should have saved some for later.”

“It wouldn’t have done us much good without water to wash it down,” Eve said. “We can last a lot longer without food than we can without water.”

Filled with misgivings, Sara checked her water bottles. One was empty, and the other only had a teeny amount in the bottom. They really needed to find a way out of here!

Trusting

Trust is built with consistency.
— Lincoln Chafee

Trust dies but mistrust blossoms.
— Sophocles

Trusting our intuition often saves us from disaster.
— Anne Wilson Schaef

So . . . I finally figured out why I’ve developed an aversion to working at my desk. I cannot trust my chair.

When I set up the larger room across the hall for my office, I had a big L-shaped desk with a hutch on it. And a big desk deserved a big chair, so I had a really comfortable executive office chair. But no matter how often I rearranged the room, it just wasn’t comfortable to work in. So eventually I moved back across the hall where the feng shui was better.

It was a smaller room, and I got a smaller desk for it, and unfortunately it was too small for my spiffy big chair. However, the hubby had a couple of office chairs that he didn’t really have room for, so he offered me one of them.

It wasn’t the prettiest of chairs, but it was comfy, and it fit behind my desk. Everything was fine until one day one of the wheels fell off and my world tilted. The hubby fixed it and assured me everything would be fine. And it was – until the wheel fell off again.

At this point I suggested maybe I should get a new chair, but though the hubby was a little puzzled as to why this was happening, he assured me he could fix it. When it happened again I got fed up and switched the chair with it’s twin, which we still had. It worked out fine . . . until it didn’t and the wheel fell off.

I found if I sat carefully, the chair would be fine. But every once in awhile I’d forget and I’d sit down and find myself listing to one side. It got to the point where I was almost afraid to sit in my chair. I certainly didn’t trust it when I did.

I finally had enough, and this week I went to Staples to buy a new one. And I tell you, that in itself is a story. They have a whole office furniture section with a large display of office chairs. I tried out a few while I waited for a salesperson to notice me, and wouldn’t you know, the chairs I liked best were the ones without a price on them.

So I went looking for a salesperson. The first one I found told me it wasn’t her department but she’d send the correct person to help me. Twenty minutes later a different salesperson asked me if I was being looked after and I told her I was looking to buy a chair but half of them didn’t have prices on them. This wasn’t her department either, but she’d ask one of the managers to help me.

Five minutes later, she was back to tell me that the manager for this area was with another customer, but he’d be with me as soon as he was finished. Fifteen minutes later, after testing pretty much every chair in the department, I’d settled on the one I wanted, and about 10 minutes after that the store manager came to help me.

I told her which chair I wanted, and even though she didn’t usually handle the stock, she got the forklift from the stock room to get one of the chairs down for me – they were all in boxes piled on really high racks.

So, she’s manoeuvring this forklift along the rack, looking for the right box. The first salesperson that I spoke with comes out of the stockroom to help and directs her to the wrong box. There is one stack of boxes that have the illustration of what’s inside – looks like the chair I wanted to me – but they both ignored them.

Finally, the department manager finished with his customer and took over and I finally got my chair. Honestly, if I hadn’t had such a bad experience with the file cart I would have just written the information down and ordered it online, but I no longer trust their online service.

I got my chair home and put it together all by myself. It’s pretty and comfy, and I envision spending much time in it going forward.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

I freely admit that the whole chair thing was not the only reason I didn’t get any writing other than my three-minute words done last week. I got a bad case of the winter blues and I just didn’t wanna. What I wanted to do was read – and I did. *sigh* I’m hoping to do better this week to justify getting my new chair.

I skipped Monday’s post on the other blog, but honestly, I didn’t have anything to say. And I still haven’t given any thought to resuming my Wednesday posts.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1074+935=2,009

Three minute words – 13+116+125+123+125+108+96=816
Total words: 2,009 words

EDITING:
*sigh*

Once again the only editing I did was the story for Friday’s post.

WHAT I’M READING:
Like I said, I was in the mood to read last week. I read Under Currents, by Nora Roberts and I’m about halfway through Shelter in Place, also by Nora Roberts.

On the Kindle I read Holly Jolly Lycan Christmas by Alicia Montgomery, and I’ve just started The Dragon Prince of Alaska by Elva Birch.

LAST WEEK’S GOALS
I’m starting to see a pattern with these goals of mine. And I’m not altogether sure I like calling them goals. I did okay on the three-minute words, and I finished my mother-in-law’s afghan, but that’s as good as it got. *sigh*

THIS WEEK’S GOALS
1. Continue with the three minute word, and continue the cave story.
2. Finish my mother-in-law’s afghan.
3. Start the edits/rewrites on Elemental Spirit.
4. Look into online courses.
5. Work on expanding my Christmas story.

Happy writing.

The Cave – Part Four

To quickly recap: Two friends, Eve and Sara, were rock climbing and stumbled across a fissure in the rocks. Upon further exploration, they discover a cave with primitive drawings in it. They venture in further and there’s an earth tremor that seals them inside.

Having little choice, the delve further into the cave, hoping to find another way out. They stumble across another chamber, this one with mosaics embedded in the walls. Eve seems oddly mesmerized by one of them and Sara gets a bad feeling about it and drags her from the chamber. Just when Eve is herself again, they hear a noise.

“I don’t—” Eve paused, and cocked her head. “It’s some kind of clicking noise, or tapping maybe.”

Sara shuddered. “It sounds like the clicking of a beetle. I had a close encounter with a swarm of them once – it’s not a noise you forget.”

“I think it’s stopped now,” Eve said. “Do you want to go back and take the other passage?”

Sara thought about it for a moment. Which was worse, the other passage which reeked of evil to her, or continuing on with the possibility of running into a swarm of beetles?

“Let’s keep going,” she said finally. “As you said, the noise has stopped now.”

“And if it starts up again?”

Sara shuddered. “Then I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

As they continued on their way, Sara slowly relaxed as the noise wasn’t repeated.

“I’m kind of sorry you heard the noise too,” she said.

“Why? It proved you weren’t hearing things.”

“Exactly. If I was the only one who heard it, then I could believe it was just my over-active imagination.”

“Maybe my imagination was just spurred on my yours,” Eve said. “This place is enough to make anyone start hearing things.”

“At least we’re not seeing things.”

“Not yet,” Eve muttered. “But I have noticed something odd.”

Sara paused to take a drink of water and waited while Eve did the same. “What’s odd?”

“The space in this passage is uniform.”

“I don’t follow.”

“If this was a naturally made tunnel, it would vary in shape and size, but this passage is more or less uniform.”

“So you think it’s man-made?”

“I’m sure of it.”

“That’s a good thing though, isn’t it?” Sara ventured. “There must be some purpose to it, it must lead to somewhere.”

“I hope so,” Eve said. “Oh, great. What now?” she asked, coming to a dead stop. She held the light up but it wasn’t powerful enough to penetrate the darkness of the chasm in front of them.

“I can’t even begin to figure out how to measure this,” Eve said. “We have no points of reference to tell how big it is.”

The darkness of the void pressed in on her, making her shiver. Sara came up to stand beside her. They both stared at the abyss in front of them. Eve swept her light downwards but it didn’t even begin to touch the darkness. “I guess we don’t have a choice,” she said, with kind of a grim satisfaction. “We’ll have to go back and take the other passage.”

Just then, the clicking noise started up again, this time coming from behind them.

“No way,” Sara said, and switched her own light on. She pointed it downwards, hoping to see hand and footholds that would allow them to climb down, but there was nothing. Then she played the light over the walls on either side of the opening they’d just come through.

“Look,” she said. “There’s a path along the edge.”

“That’s a pretty narrow path.”

“But it’s still a path, and it’s better than having to deal with whatever’s clicking.”

Eve was shaking her head. “You can’t expect us to just sashay along a path we can barely see. What if the rock isn’t as solid as it looks? Or worse, what if it peters out?”

“Then we back track and you get your way about the other tunnel,” Sara said. “I can’t explain why, but I just have the feeling we need to go this way.”

“Fine,” Eve grumbled. “But if I fall to my death I’m coming back to haunt you.”

Since the narrow ledge/path was on Sara’s side, she took the lead. It might not have been the brightest idea she’d ever had, but facing the dark unknown was preferable to facing whatever was making the clicking noise. The thought of running into a swarm of beetles terrified her.

“You know,” Eve said as they slowly edged their way along. “It’s too bad neither of us thought to bring a flask. I could really go for a stiff drink about now.”

“Make mine a double,” Sara said.

“At least the clicking has stopped again.”

“Small comfort.” Sara wished they’d been able to take a break before starting along this ledge. Her feet were sore and her calf muscles were starting to cramp.

The ledge that had started out so comfortably wide in the beginning began to narrow. Sara no longer needed to keep a hand on the rock wall beside them, now they were forced to turn so the wall was at their backs.

This slowed them down even further, forcing them to sidle along, facing into the void of the chasm. Sara thought of how far they’d come and quailed at the thought of having to backtrack.

“You know who would have loved this?” Eve asked suddenly.

“Who?” Sara asked, grateful for the distraction for the downward turn her thoughts were starting to take.

“My father. He loved adventures like this.”

“That must be where you—uh, oh,” Sara said.

Taking Note

Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever.
— Will Self

I keep threatening to keep a formal journal, but whenever I start one it instantly becomes an exercise in self-consciousness. Instead of a journal I manage to have dozens of notebooks with bits and pieces of stories, poems, and notes. Almost every thing I do has its beginning in a notebook of some sort, usually written on a bus or train.
— Walter Dean Myers

Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up into your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter. And lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.
— Jack London

While one of the previous weeks was all about getting my filing system organized, this past week was all about notebooks.

So . . . at the beginning of my organization blitz one of the things I did was gather up the various notebooks I had laying around my office and throw them in a bin. Some of these notebooks were untouched, but a lot of them were in various stages of being used.

I started my writing career using notebooks, writing in long hand, and I’ll still use a notebook to work out an idea or a poem, or to play around with writing prompts. Once the idea (or whatever) is used, I just put a line through the page (or pages) so I don’t accidentally re-use it.

Unfortunately, I don’t always use the same notebook, hence the stack of partially used ones. So if there were only a couple of pages used, I ripped them out (filing them in the appropriate folder) and then saved the rest of the notebook. But some of the notebooks had too many pages to do this with, so these ones I put in one of the drawers in the wire cart to be used up.

The little notebooks/notepads at the front are blank. They’re intended for quick notes of stuff I want to keep track of/remember but they’re not important enough to go into one of the larger notebooks – names, phone numbers, book titles to look for, etc.

But I still had a bunch of empty notebooks/notepads of various sizes that I didn't know what to do with. I had a box of unused notebooks in my closet so I figured I'd start by seeing if I could just add them to it.

So I take the box out of the closet and see behind it a large plastic bin with the word "Notebooks" taped to it. No ... tell me it ain’t so!

From left to right we have: Cambridge top wire bound 8 X 11 lined pads, Hilroy 8 X 11 single subject notebooks, lined notepads (to be used in a clip board), extra thick steno pads (top), hard bound 6 x 9 notebooks, and the bottom has a couple more hard bound notebooks and some 5 x 8 lined notepads. Beside that bin is the original box of notebooks I had in the closet.

There was no room in either box or bin for the extra, partially used notebooks I’d collected, so I generously stashed them in the black cabinet we use for more supplies in the hubby’s office across the hall. They go nicely with all the plastic report covers, stack of wire bound single subject notebooks, and 8 x 11 notepads I’d already stashed in there.

Mental note: I am not allowed to buy another notepad or notebook ever again. Well, you know, unless I really, really can’t resist. But it’s comforting to know that if we ever get hit by that solar storm that’s supposed to wipe out all electronics, I’ll be set for life with writing supplies, because I also have a drawer full of pens. :-D

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

Last week’s excuse for not getting any writing done was spending so much time duplicating Pillow Cat for the grandbaby (see that story HERE), this week it was working on an afghan for my mother-in-law’s birthday. But I still managed to do my three-minute words every day, so I guess that’s something.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 829+781+928=2,538
Three minute words – 111+119+111+127+129+110+115=822
Total words: 2,538 words

EDITING:
*sigh*

Once again the only editing I did was the story for Friday’s post.

WHAT I’M READING:
Despite the fact I tried to read slowly, I finished Stop the World, Snapshots From A Pandemic, edited by Lise McClendon. This was a combination of personal essays, anecdotes, and fiction, all centered on the pandemic. It’s a powerful book and I think in the years to come it, and books like it, are going to be an important reminder of what life was like during the pandemic.

On the Kindle I’m reading Ember’s Curse, by Gena D. Lutz. This is a yummy book with both werewolves and vampires, and the only reason I haven’t finished it already is because it’s the book I’m reading while riding the exercise bike and I’m exerting a great deal of self-control by limiting my reading to bike time only.

It’s a double edged sword, reading the Kindle while biking. The more I’m enjoying the book, the more likely I am not to skip my workout. But if I enjoy the book too much, I’ll keep reading the book (after my workout) until it’s done and then I’m stuck having to find another interesting book.

LAST WEEK’S GOALS
I nailed the first two goals from last week: I aced the three-minute words and I worked diligently on my mother-in-law’s afghan. But alas, once again that’s as good as it gets.

THIS WEEK’S GOALS
1. Continue with the three minute word, and continue the cave story.
2. Finish my mother-in-law’s afghan.
3. Start the edits/rewrites on Elemental Spirit.
4. Look into online courses.
5. Work on expanding my Christmas story.

Happy writing.

The Cave – Part Three

To quickly recap: Two friends, Eve and Sara, were rock climbing and stumbled across a fissure in the rocks. Upon further exploration, they discover a cave with primitive drawings in it. As they venture further into the cave to see if there’s anything else of interest, there’s an earth tremor – they race back the way they came and reach the fissure just in time to see it fill with rocks.

They decide their best bet is to explore further into the cave and hope there’s another way out. Hours pass before they discover another chamber, this one with sparkly walls, and decide to take a break

Eve had a few empty zip lock bags with her and divided the granola into two of them, handing one to Sara. The bags were handy, and in fact all her food was kept in them to keep it fresh.

Sara took her bag with her to check out the wall that sparkled. As she munched her granola, she ran her hand along the wall. Surprisingly, it was smooth to the touch, not rough like she expected. It almost felt like a mosaic.

“Hey, Eve,” she called. “Bring the light over here.”

“What is it?” Eve asked, getting to her feet.

“It’s amazing, is what it is,” Sara said as Eve held up the light.

It was indeed a mosaic, embedded in the wall. The crystals, she refused to believe they were gemstones, formed beautiful patterns in the grey rock.

“What is it?” Eve asked again.

“It’s a mosaic, but it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I’ve never even heard of something like this being imbedded in a cave, have you?”

Eve shook her head. “No, but then my memory is pretty dim when it comes to the one class I took in archeology. I was there mostly for the cute guys.”

“I wonder who did this,” Sara mused. “And how. And why so deep inside the hillside.”

“I can see actual shapes,” Eve said. “There’s a tree,” she pointed. “And is this a sun?”

“I wish the light was better in here,” Sara said. “I think if we could see the whole thing at once we might understand its message.”

“You think it has a message?” Eve asked.

“I don’t know, why else would it be in here? It’s such a unique find – I wish we could find some way to let the world know about this.

“Maybe that’s why its creator made it in this place. So no one would ever find it.”

“That’s crazy. Why created something this beautiful if you didn’t want to share it?”

“For the joy of creation maybe?”

“Look, there’s more of it over here.” Sara directed Eve to the opposite wall of the chamber.

“What do you make of this one?” Eve asked, looking at the colors swirling in an abstract pattern. She held the light up and traced the pattern of color.

Sara shuddered as she glanced at it. “I don’t know what to make of that. It’s beautiful, in a twisted kind of way, but hypnotic.”

“I think it’s beautiful,” Eve said.

They both stared at it for a moment, then Eve gave herself a shake. “C’mon, let’s find a place to lie down. We need to get some rest.”

“Rest sounds good,” Sara agreed. “Maybe if we fall asleep we’ll wake up to find it’s all been a dream.

“I’m going to turn out the light while we sleep,” Eve said. “No sense in wasting the battery.”

“Just keep it close by,” Sara said. “I don’t fancy having to look for it by touch.”

“Me either,” Eve agreed. “Okay, here goes.” She switched the light off.

They were plunged into darkness. But after a moment, Sara spoke up.

“Am I crazy or . . .”

“No, you’re not crazy. The stones in the wall are glowing.”

“But not both walls,” Sara pointed out. “Just the abstract one.” She glanced over at Eve, who was staring in fascination at the glowing shapes. “Eve? Eve!” she said sharply, giving her a shove.

“What?”

“We have to get out of here!”

Sara gathered up their packs and pulled Eve towards the back of the chamber, away from the mosaics. Eve kept glancing back, making a half-hearted attempt to return to the abstract, but Sara’s grip was like steel.

At the back of the chamber there were two openings. Without hesitation, Sara dragged Eve through the one on the left, although Eve kept trying to go right.

Finally, after they’d gone several hundred yards, Eve stopped fighting her.

“What was that?” she asked in a shaky voice.

“I don’t know. It was like you were being hypnotized. It felt . . . wrong somehow.”

Eve shuddered. “I think you just saved my life.”

“So much for our rest,” Sara said with a sigh.

“We could just sack out right here if you’re tired,” Eve suggested. “It’s not like we’re blocking anyone’s way.”

“Nah, I’m good. The granola break did wonders for me.” But she couldn’t help wonder what was going to happen when they ran out of food and water. So far they’d seen no trace of either.

“I wonder why only one of the walls glowed and not the other,” Eve mused.

“Maybe it had more exposure to your light?”

“I don’t think so.”

Sara thought for a moment. “It was almost like a trap. Or a test.”

“A test of what? Our ability to resist it?”

“Maybe. Or maybe—” Sara broke off suddenly. “Do you hear that?”