Flash Fiction / writing prompts

The Jade Camel #5

Chris Hall81 Comments

Previously

The sludgy stern wave of RMS Redemption smudged over the peach-coloured sands of Crosby Beach as she made her entry into the Port of Liverpool. Two figures stood silhouetted against the backdrop of the dismal docklands, the woman’s steely glare raking across the city, reaching out for something within its smoke-darkened dwellings.

Not 200 yards away, on the other side of the iconic Liver Building, Joey’s bus lurched to a halt, while a deafening blast from the Redemption’s horn, heralding her arrival, rumbled through the fabric of the towering edifice; Joey looked up, almost expecting the two birds that graced the building’s twin clock towers to take flight in alarm, and a quiver ran through his hand, as if the little camel statue had briefly flickered into life.

Cullen’s ears pricked at the distant sound of the ship’s horn and Ceridwen glanced up from the tarot cards in front of her. Troubled by the aura she’d sensed around her young neighbour, she turned to cartomancy in an attempt to divine its source. She turned over the Knight of Wands, mounted on his rambunctious steed, rearing up over three pyramids in the distance: not a card she’d normally associate with Joey.

next episode

Written in response to two challenges:

Di of Pensitivity 101’s Wednesday’s Three Things Challenge: PEACH, REACH, BEACH
Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge’s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt: RAMBUNCTIOUS

Read more #SixSentenceStories here

Three Things Challenge and Six Sentence Stories logos

Photo credit: illustration from a book somewhere on my bookshelves which I STILL cannot locate 😉

81 thoughts on “The Jade Camel #5”

  18. Indications of a soundly-constructed (contrived? imagined?) locale, you go and look up features*
    Nice work with the minor/slightly-discordant theme growing in the soundtrack… foreboding much?
    very visual Six

    *as I did with the Liver Building… which works so well because I am familiar with harbors and ports, and with the clue about the ‘atmosphere’, i.e. …sludgy stern wave and now a true-to-life image of prominent buildings, I’m totally there.

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  24. I’m curious about the two silhouettes now, Chris. And about where Joey’s going. And about what the cards have to say to Ceridwen. And if the ship is linked to the Jade Camel somehow. And if the silhouettes are linked to the ship.
    I know I have to wait until next time to see if any of my questions are answered… 🙂

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    • I have to let you into a little secret, Ford. I don’t know much about Tarot cards, but I had a feeling that Ceridwen might, although I haven’t seen her with them before. The pyramids on the Knight of Wands came as a complete surprise – but how well it fitted with the story!

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      • I used to (or attempted to) do the Tarot back in the early noughties, and still have some of my decks – though I prefer Oracle cards than Tarot. I wonder if it was the Tarot working its magical way into your narration – as in the pyramids art detail matched perfectly your story detail?

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