The boomslang slithers from beneath the canopy of acacias, the nearest hunter in its big-eyed sights. Aquila cries out, letting his powerful talons swing forward to pluck the serpent from its thorny perch, as a group of startled magpie shrikes rise from the trees in a shrieking cloud of black and white feathers.

The snake thrashes while the eagle’s talons tighten, spearing the serpent’s skin. Ruby beads bleed across its sapphire scales and the snake slumps. Aquila spirals back to the waterhole, dropping the vanquished snake at Owab’s feet.

They will feast tonight
but the journey continues:
mauve mountains beckon.

Previous episodes of this little African adventure are here.

Photo credit: © Koshy Koshy / Flickr

Written in response to two challenges:

– Di of Pensitivity101‘s Wednesday’s Three Things Challenge – MAGPIE, OUTLET, NEAT
– Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge‘s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt – POWERFUL

I also set myself the additional challenges of confining my piece to 100 words exactly and writing in the haibun form. Just for fun!

Click here for more Six Sentence Stories – or bring one of your own to the party!

Yesterday the hunters ate only roots and grubs but now, in the fading light, they chance upon a lame bokkie. Hunt and kill are over quickly. Careful for the tinder-dry veld, they make a fire within a ring of stones and each eats their fill, leaving a portion for Aquila, who guards their improvised camp from a hungry howling wolf until dawn spreads her golden fingers.

The sun climbs and the dry savannah shimmers. A green smudge rises from the ripples and the hunters hasten to the acacia-shaded spring.

The eagle calls out
Owab attends the warning:
beware the serpent!

In case you’re wondering what in the world is going on, the previous episode of this little adventure is here.

Photo by Juanita Swart @ Unsplash

Written in response to two challenges:

– Di of Pensitivity101‘s Wednesday’s Three Things Challenge – YESTERDAY, CARE, HOW
– Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge‘s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt – IMPROVISE

I also set myself the additional challenges of confining my piece to 100 words exactly and writing  in the haibun form. Just for fun!

Click here to join the #SSS Link Up Party for more Six Sentence Stories!

Aquila flies over the desiccated veld, periodically checking on the hunters who march like ants across the dry savanna beneath his substantial eagle wings. Owab is the youngest of the band; it is to him that Aquila carries the mystical connection.

Now in early autumn, the earth still waits for the rains. The ground is dry and the game has scattered. They travel east to the purple mountains in search of the great beast who, with a nod of his gracious head, will call the storm clouds.

Over the parched soil
the eagle leads us onward
seeking the Rain Bull.

Photo by Nigel Whitehead, on-safari.co.za

Written in response to two challenges:

– Di of Pensitivity101‘s Wednesday’s Three Things Challenge – NOD, SUBSTANTANTIAL, PERIOD
– Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge‘s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt – CONNECTION

I also set myself the additional challenges of confining my piece to 100 words exactly and writing  in the haibun form. Just for fun!

Pop over to the #SSS Link Up Party for more Six Sentence Stories
why not bring along one of your own?

I fall through a shower of effervescent light particles and land with a jolt, my nostrils filling with the simple scent of sandalwood overlaying the smell of decay. My uncle’s kindly face comes into focus, he sits in his library, surrounded by his cherished possessions; the lines on his face are entrenched, his shoulders stooped; he has aged – a decade or more. I glance at my hands, the still-smooth skin suggests I have not.

‘Hasten to the Stones,’ he commands. I rise and approach him, but I’m dismissed.

Megaliths murmur:
On the Eve of the Dawning
Gaia greets your return.

Photo by unsplash.com/@artifactflash

Written in response to two challenges:

– Di of Pensitivity101‘s Wednesday’s Three Things Challenge – KIND, POSSESIONS, SIMPLE
– Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge‘s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt – EFFERVESCENT

I have also set myself the additional challenges of confining my piece to 100 words exactly and writing this, now ongoing story, in the haibun form. Just for fun!

Pop over to the #SSS Link Up Party for more Six Sentence Stories
– or why not bring along one of your own!

Back in my corporeal form, my sense of self reasserts itself. I pick my way through the detritus of another ruined city, the remnants of a multinational conflict: the world’s leaders have destroyed each other and, in a mad orgy of annihilation, almost the whole of humanity has perished. My world has been burnt to a crisp and I take no pleasure in the part I have played.

Am I the only one left? I long for my home, my uncle and our secret pact with Gaia – but where is she?

Abandoned, alone
I trudge the blackened back-roads
seeking redemption.

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

Written in response to two challenges:

– Di of Pensitivity101‘s Wednesday’s Three Things Challenge – TAKE, CRISP, TIN
– Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge‘s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt – HOME

I have also set myself the additional challenges of confining my piece to 100 words exactly and writing this, now ongoing story, in the haibun form. Just for fun!

Pop over to the #SSS Link Up Party for more Six Sentence Stories!

Gaia’s mantle shifts; I gear up for another astral transformation. I multiply, the same being, my very essence, replicates exponentially. Shimmering but not silent, the words of suggestion well up in my mouth as I creep into the consciousness of the rich and powerful that govern so-called humanity; the privileged who instigated their own rescue from the Great Wave that destroyed lesser mortals.

I unleash insidious whispers; spilling into seductive thoughts, temptation floods their avaricious hearts. Now’s the time to strike: the world can be mine!

Hypnotised by greed
they’ll unleash the dogs of war:
which one will strike first?

Image credit: Håkon Grimstad on Unsplash

Written in response to two challenges:

– Di of Pensitivity101‘s Wednesday’s Three Things Challenge – SAME, WELL, TEMPTATION
– Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge‘s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt – GEAR

I have also set myself the additional challenges of confining my piece to 100 words exactly and writing this, now ongoing story, in the haibun form. Just for fun!

Pop over to the #SSS Link Up Party for more Six Sentence Stories

Threaded with trails of ruby magma, blackened viscous air enfolds me; far beneath me the ocean seethes and thunders, rising up in gargantuan walls of water and yet, all the rage passes through me, washes over me. I am immune, while fun-filled bars and sun-kissed beaches are obliterated.

The devastation spreads. Coastal conurbations, north, south, east and west are drenched with deadly, dripping force. Forests flatten, creatures flee; my only thought is for them.

The human infestation is weakened, badly damaged, yet not even decimated; I am still not done.

In Gaia’s service
as rival to Pandora:
her jar is emptied.

Image credit: Emiliano Arano on Pexels.com

Written in response to two challenges:

– Di of Pensitivity101‘s Wednesday’s Three Things Challenge – TRAIL, FUN, DRENCHED
– Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge‘s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt – SERVICE

I have also set myself the additional challenges of confining my piece to 100 words exactly and writing this, now ongoing story, in the haibun form. Just for fun!

Pop over to the #SSS Link Up Party for more Six Sentence Stories