Joan had told everyone to stop walking, as they looked around in the first magnificent chamber, while Francis consulted his detailed map, but the two gargoyles began to take some interesting snapshots on their smartphones.
Meanwhile, the red-headed woman had recovered her composure, “no more quivering,” she muttered to herself, “and no quitting either,” she continued, “even though this huge underground catacombs place is more than weird and still pretty scary,” as she started to take more notice around the walls.
“There are so many bones down here,” said Scatty, “and all those skulls often don’t match, so many of them don’t belong together,” – “but that seems so sad,” said the red-headed woman, as The Old One joined them.
“I’m afraid we will have to pass all those wretched monarchs,’ said Francis, “there’s no other way,” – “oh well, not to worry” grinned Scatty, “I’m always happy to say this – off with their heads,” as she giggled a lot.
“Quite right too,” agree Joan, “no cakes for her or anyone else any more, you know who I mean, that Queen, Marie-Antoinette,” – “indeed no,” chipped in one of the gargoyles, “actually I believe that Queen has to continue to make quilting things, she must make them every day, and then she must undo them again,” – “well, that’s bizarre but there it is, how did you know about that?” – “no idea, but I do.”
So several of them said about that Revolution: Vive la France! – as Scatty and Joan linked arms and grinned.
we’re little aliens, and we’ve found a big balloon, we are going up!
this is wonderful, but how high can we go, since we need a plan.
where’s the mothership? we are looking all around, ahh, we can see it!
we will jump across, lucky that we can do that! soon we’ll be back there.
happy days, we grinned, as the mothership moves off, a new galaxy!
~~~
Image credit: Jean Carlo Emer@Unsplash
In this image, we can see a huge hot-air balloon being filled with hot air. The balloon is shades of orange and red. We can see the big flames of air heaters. In the background we can see other balloons already in the air.
Val‘s Scavenger Hunt – 10th prompt Write a Scifaiku, that is a science fiction/fantasy themed poem that follows the haiku structure of 5-7-5 syllables.
is the damsel in distress? well, we don’t think so, smart and beautiful she is.
shall we get closer to her? she’s magnificent, oh, but off she goes, bye then!
~~~
Val‘s Scavenger Hunt – 8th prompt Write a Kelly Lune. (Created by Robert Kelly) This American form of Haiku consists of a tercet. There is no rhyme required but it is allowed.
She’d been kicking a football around the yard. She was a pretty good kicker, well, she thought so. She’d been dribbling a bit, then she would kick the football as hard as she could by the tall wall.
But this time, she kicked the ball too high, and it sailed over the wall. She would have to go next door. And that place was very grand.
She should just walk over there and look confident, and not get her knickers in a twist.
She rapped the door knocker loudly. But nothing. However, the football bounced back to her. Lucky, eh?
~~~
Thanks to Rochelle for hosting Friday Fictioneers Genre: Historical Fiction Word Count: 100
“Okay, we’re here,’ said Mr Cushing, as he gently stopped his wonderful limousine, and surveyed everyone behind him, apart from The Old One who always rides shotgun, “however,” as he continued, “I’m not sure I want to go down there, not my cup of tea (as I would say), but you can take your provisions – some rather runny brie and some crusty bread – but I think I might feed all those feral cats just over there instead.”
“Is everyone else coming down to this particular place in Montparnasse?” asked Francis – as all of them nodded; so they made their way to the nearest toll gate.
“Ooh,” grinned Scatty, “this is going to be fun, as she pulled a large bell to see who would open the huge gate, and a moment later an ancient janitor appeared.
“You may enter,” he muttered, then pointed to the left, and said, “go past those jailbirds, and don’t look at them, and maybe close your ears too, they are kind of monsters, so just ignore them – they’ve only had some misdemeanours but they’ll stay there, and probably forever.”
So they walked rather quickly, and nobody looked at those strange beings whatever they were, and that red-headed woman became pretty jumpy with all those spooky things around there, still the two gargoyles walked either side of her, and she felt rather better.
“Just a little stop here,” said Joan, “this part of those catacombs will be more than interesting,” as both of the gargoyles grinned.
Arches, arches… there are so many, and they are huge, more than huge. This is wonderful, magnificent in fact, but it’s strange that there’s no-one around. I shall continue to walk, slowly of course, I’ll stop almost halfway, it’s all ways good. But then I’ll have a ponder since it’s most appealing, and then I will wander again.
and now I am there, and the great door is open, so now I’ll move on.
~~~
Image credit:Ayşenur@Unsplash
This photo shows arches in a hallway that are dimly lit. At the end of the hallway, there is light, as if coming from a window or an open door on the side. The consecutive arches give this image a sense of depth.
“Shall we stop for a bit?” asked one of the boys. “Yes, good thinking, we’ve been riding for ages.” “Such a good place here, and right by the nice village pond.” So, the two of them got off, and put their bikes down, then walked down to the pond.
“This is great, isn’t it,” grinned one of them. “Should we have a little paddle?” “We could, although it looks a bit deep, or at least a bit uncomfortable.” “Okay, let’s walk a little further.”
“Now look at this, this is fab!” “Gosh, this tree is ancient, isn’t it?” “It’s called a weeping willow tree, I think.” “Well, it looks like the Whomping Willow in Harry Potter’s Hogwarts school grounds.” “I do like that idea of that – a magical tree…” “… although that could be pretty dangerous.” The two of them grinned for a bit, then said together: “we’ll ride again.”
We had been spying from another building for most of the morning. There was something going on down there. That large open-air swimming pool was the target. Definitely.
We continued to watch while eating and drinking, but not moving our eyes. Everything must be tangible. Real… really real, as we peered down. Whatever would occur, we would be ready.
That must be the actual target. Both of us were in agreement. It was time to go.
It wouldn’t take too long. We’re not deluded. Definitely not. But something had gone wrong. Still, we would be fine. We’ll just deny everything.
~~~
Thanks to Rochelle for hosting Friday Fictioneers Genre: Just the facts Word Count: 100
“Magnificent!” said Mr Cushing, “Wow!” said Scatty, “Amazing!” said Joan, “Awesome!” said The Old One, and then the red-headed woman grinned and said, “What a wonderful wall!” as Francis seized his violin and picked several interesting chords.
The two gargoyles nodded and then said, “this is the best way to bring art and music together, as all of them smiled, while several of them did a couple of high fives, then they all looked at that fabulous wall again including the two gargoyles.
“It’s all very well but what are we going to do now?” wondered the red-headed woman, as the two gargoyles were clearly happy to move on to do something else.
“I know, and this will be good,” grinned Scatty, “and I don’t think we have been to this place all together before; it’s great, it’s interesting, and a tiny bit scary, it’s not too far although transport is very useful to go there, but then it goes down… down… down.
“Aha, I’ve got your drift,” grinned Francis, and then he said: “it’s not dangerous but we do need to be cautious, it’s very dark naturally and the walls and the floors will twist and turn, they go huge sometimes and then they go rather small and tight, but we shouldn’t get lost, since I have my very useful compass,” as Francis pulled it out to show them.
So off they went with Mr Cushing with his excellent limo, and the two gargoyles happily sitting at the back.
