This post is inspired by two things.
First, my dear husband, who was quoting "A Knight's Tale" the other day. Please tell me you love that movie as much as I do. We quote it all the time around here. "Can a man change his stars?" And "How would you beat him? ... With a stick. While he slept. But on a horse, with a lance, that man is unbeatable!" Chaucer kills me. "I will eviscerate you in fiction. Every pimple, every character flaw. I was naked for a day; you will be naked for eternity!" and "My lords, my ladies, ... and everybody else here not sitting on a cushion!"
(Ok, I'll stop. But seriously, if you haven't seen the movie, you should.)
Second, because of something that happened last week. One of my friends mentioned to me that her son writes a lot. He's young, and she said he's written lots of first chapters, but never gets further than that. I looked at him and told him that was fine. I wrote lots of first chapters, too, when I was young. I told him, "... and someday you'll write a second chapter, and go from there." Now, I realize as a yet-unpublished author, I'm not a lot to look up to, but I do have 5 completed novels, and he knew from his mom that I've written a lot. (I am getting to the point ... wait for it ...) The next day, my friend told me I'd inspired him. He'd brought it up later, "... your friend said she wrote a lot of first chapters when she was my age, too."
What an awesome feeling to think I've inspired someone! When you inspire a child, they have so much potential, and so much time to fulfil their potential. I think every child deserves support, encouragement, and inspiration to show them that, YES, You Can Change Your Stars!
So, in honor of that, this week's prompt:
"Can a man change his stars?"
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My response:
Dina didn't last long before she ditched me. We'd just barely walked in. Dee had the stereo set up in the wide, formal foyer of MaKenzie's parents' mansion, the walls around us thudding with the bass of some rap song he had turned up so loud I couldn't even make out the lyrics. Dina danced off, writhing and twisting and pressing her body up against Dee as she made her way back to the kitchen, where the football guys would have the kegs all set up.
It was supposed to be fun and exciting, but it was always the same thing. MaKenzie's mom was a lawyer, her dad was a hot-shot banker, and she had the house to herself every other weekend or so. We partied out of habit, because we were teenagers and it was expected of us.
Jared wove through the throng, passing out cans. "Hey Kiley, got yours right here!"
I waved him off. "Maybe later."
I followed Dina's tracks towards the back of the house, but avoided the kitchen, slipping out onto the back patio. Chris's voice rang in my head. "There's more to you than all that. I can see it. I wish you'd see it, too." He'd invited me to go downtown with him to hear some orchestra play in the park. Seriously? Me? Just because we'd spent time together working on the annual service project, he thinks he knows me, thinks he sees something deeper in me than just your typical, vain high school girl.
I am Kiley McGuire, head cheeleader at Mountainview High School. My hair is always perfectly streaked, my nails always manicured, my wardrobe the envy of all my friends ... I know my place, and I know it's not downtown listening to an orchestra with the new guy who only moved into town two weeks ago.
And still ...
I sat down on the stairs, pulling my phone from my bra. "2 L8 2 go with u 2night?" I hold my breath and push send.
I suck air, then will myself to keep breathing while I wait.
Then answer comes. "Never too late. U at the party? I'll be right over."
I can't deny the thrill of excitement that flashes down my back. Maybe I'll like the orchestra.
***Ok, forgive me for this one. I'm really awful at contemporary - the slang, the text speech. But I won't let myself delete it because this is supposed to be a stretching exercise. I wish you all better luck with your responses this week. :-)
“The clans will gather when the two moons converge,” the medicine woman pronounced in a heavy voice. She looked away from the pool of still water that allowed her to See Beyond and squinted up at the three boys, anger etched into every line of her shriveled face. Adun sighed, sweeping his matted black hair from his eyes, and straightened to his full height, which wasn’t much compared to his companions, Tok and Irun.
ReplyDelete“At the Gathering, the Stars will decide your fate,” the woman intoned. She turned her rounded back on the trio and limped inside her hut.
“This is your fault, half-breed,” Irun hissed into Adun’s ear before he seized Tok’s arm and dragged the other boy away from the pool. Tremors shook the young boy’s wiry frame as he watched them go, feeling an impotent rage inside that gnawed at his very bones. His fault? Tok had wanted to steal the Harvest Stone and try to use it. Irun fell as they fled, and the stone had slipped from his fingers. Adun tried to run after it and seize it before it fell into the River, but his short legs weren’t fast enough.
And now the Harvest Stone is gone, deep in the river that heads to the Shadowplains. Will Mountain Clan starve?
“You’re nothing but an unwanted Shadowplains welp!” shouted Irun as he ran off.
Then, as it had only once before, something strange stirred inside Adun. He felt as if a strange creature were inside him, burning and tearing and grinding; some wild thing fighting to get out. Opening his mouth, he let out a howl. The sound was filled with agony, and a loneliness so deep that Adun thought his heart was tearing in two.
When the cry died away, there was silence. No Cheetal birds sang in the stillness of the surrounding trees. No child cried out from any of the huts. No wild beasts stirred from the base of the nearby mountain.
Adun hardly dared to breathe. He felt as if the strange creature was still inside him, still, but waiting. A bony hand gripped his shoulder.
ReplyDelete“You were born under the sign of the Blood Star,” murmured the toothless medicine woman. “That is why your mother left you outside my door.”
“But—” stammered Adun. Deep inside, the creature shifted uneasily. Mountain Clan had told Adun that his mother had fled with her lover from the Shadowplains. When the burning sickness came and her lover died, Adun’s mother, herself near death, had no choice but to leave her son with her own clan to be raised, knowing he would be shunned.
“No!” the medicine woman said. Gripping Adun’s arm, she pulled him into her hut. Through the opening in the low roof, the two moons glowed with a soft purple light, nearly grown together in the convergence that only occurred every two centuries.
“Look!” the woman grated, thrusting a smooth, polished bronze mirror into Adun’s face. Adun read fear in his slanted grey eyes that seemed far too wide in his nut brown face. “Do you not see it?” the woman said. “Who in our clan has grey eyes? Who of the Shadowplains Clan possesses such eyes? No one!” the woman shouted, dropping the mirror to the hard-packed earthen floor and seizing Adun by both shoulders and peering into his face.
“Your mother fled after you were born because she feared what you might become. At first, I thought she was wrong that the Blood Star gave her the sign at your birth. You were always so puny, so small! But now, now that I have heard your cry...” The woman suddenly released Adun and stepped back, as though she were afraid.
“You will leave,” she grunted, rummaging through the piles of skins on her bed. “I shall give you food for your journey.”
“Leave?” Adun breathed. “But where will I go?”
The old woman thrust a bundle into Adun’s arms and shooed him to the door.
“To the Shadowplains. Follow the river and find the Harvest Stone. If you do not, the prophecy will be fulfilled, and the Stars will complete your transformation.”
Adun shivered with cold. The descent from slopes of the Mountain into the Shadowplains brought no relief from the harsh Dark Season winds that swept him along. Inside him, the creature slept, but Adun felt its presence.
What am I? he wondered as he trudged along the tall, dried grasses of the plains. How will finding the Harvest Stone change anything? If the Stars have determined my fate, I cannot change it. Can a man change his stars?
Adun felt the creature stir from somewhere within.
Can he?
oh, I'm all tingly! I love it! I want to read the whole story! Does he find the stone? Is he a werewolf? Does he become whatever is inside him, or succeed in stopping it? If he can't stop it, can he use it to some higher purpose, or is he doomed to some kind of animal evil? LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!
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