The August 8, 2023 99-word story challenge from Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch is to: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about roots like a mountain. Feel free to play with both concepts of roots and mountains. How can you create a story from the combination? What character (or traits) come to mind? Where and when does the story take place? Go where the prompt leads! Be sure to go to Carrot Ranch to read the complete “Immature” collection from last week’s challenge.
This was a tough one. My first thought was that I had already written to this prompt, but no, that was a #SixSentenceStory, and 213 words. I got it down to 99 words, and decided it would do. (Click HERE if you want the longer original; I prefer that version.)
The Path by D. Avery
She appears as a mountain. She knows your unspoken words: I am lost. Her gentle laughter is dappled sunlight.
She twirls a rope braided from your experiences, woven with your stories; a labyrinthian coil, wide as the mountain, wide as the world.
Again, you set upon this long and winding path. Again, the mists descend. Acceptance replaces expectancy.
You come to a tree cloaked mountain, to where a tossed pebble ripples the center of a sun dappled lake.
You know that it is all yours, that it is you, that even the gentle laughter you hear is your own.
Then I got another idea:
Seeing by D. Avery
Some saw a young girl in a bright green dress, others a woman in brightly colored robes. Still others saw an old woman, sharp-featured, stoic in her thread-bare grays. Most disbelieved and saw nothing at all. Yet stories persisted of a woman-girl born and raised on the mountain. True believers said she was borne of the mountain; said her heart was granite, her eyes sparkling quartz, clear snowmelt streams her veins. True believers just nodded when there was another lumbering accident, when another gold panner was found drowned; nodded, then shuddered in the cold wind gusting off the mountain.
Then another:
Plain Facts by D. Avery
Stories are rooted in mountains, and mountains are rooted in stories.
It is good and important to share your stories with a mountain.
Doesn’t everyone know this?
Mountains have stories of their own to share of course, stories of time and timelessness. Often they let Wind and Water tell their stories for them.
Sometimes ravens barter with mountains, exchanging one of their stories for a pebble. For a mountain, a pebble is a small price to pay.
Once there was a mountain who did not hear stories. Finally, one dark night, it slunk away, never to be seen again.
And finally:
Uprooted by D. Avery
His roots ran deep. He and the mountain bore the same name. Folks joked they were the same age too. Said they were equally tough. Formidable even.
“We been through hell and highwater,” he’d exclaim. Fires had roared over and around the mountain. Flood waters fomented in its streams had cut the mountain deeply. Wind storms sometimes took out swaths of trees from its flank.
“She’ll mend,” he’d say. “Always has, always will.” Then he’d tell about another time, a worse disaster, and people both rolled their eyes and sighed relief.
They watched him now, unnerved by his silence.
In addition to what I post here for the Carrot Ranch challenges, there’s always the Ranch Yarns with Kid and Pal’s responses HERE.
And be sure to go to Carrot Ranch to read the complete “Immature” collection from last week’s challenge.
ShiftnShake 