A bit of blather, the gift of blarney… we all know what these mean. How can they help with our creative writing? For that matter, for a visual artist? Picture the Castle Blarney, a cool gray pile of stones arranged beautifully into a simple squared-edge tower, sitting in the middle of beautiful Irish gardens. Greens and pinks of blooms and then the granite, austere and unyielding. Now imagine climbing up inside the walls on a winding staircase, until you’re standing looking down at that soft garden, before grabbing onto a rope and leaning way, way over the edge, bending double, and pressing warm lips to cool stone…
| Prompter | Prompt | Promptee |
| Cedar Sanderson | An unprecedented time of peace | AC Young |
| Fiona Grey | The war came for us all, sooner or late. And with it… | Cedar Sanderson |
| Becky Jones | Who knew hell was so damp? | Fiona Grey |
| AC Young | The jewel bird glowed as it sang in the evening. | Becky Jones |
| Padre | “Clean up your room now, missie!” | nother Mike |
| Leigh Kimmel | “The House That Jack Built” by Aretha Franklin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmUXnQ_35-U | Padre |
| nother Mike | She was sitting in the corner, knitting hats for ducks… | Leigh Kimmel |
Silly, to think that kissing the Blarney stone would gift you with the ability to craft words any more than the simple act of practicing wordsmithery over many years. And yet… the motive inherent in trekking to kiss the stone is itself a dedication to art. Here, take a prompt. See what you can do with it. Dream a little, will you?
| Spare | The daily life of fruit flies was surprisingly complex |
| Spare | “Magic,” she said, “is all about anticipation.” |
| Spare | He froze at the unmistakeable snort of a dragon. |
| Spare | The pay phone spit 9 dollars in change into his hands… |
| Spare | When Mr. Ed talks, everyone listens to the talking horse. |
When you have done, post a link or your response in the comments (visuals, thanks to wordpress not allowing photo comments, will have to be hosted elsewhere and linked). Don’t forget to send your prompt challenge in! Or a spare.
More Odds Than Ends 
This week Cedar Sanderson prompted me with: An unprecedented time of peace
I went down a cynical route for this one.
—
It was an era of peace. Officially it was called the Imperial Truce. The various peoples of Taminier called it the Bully’s Peace.
Emperor Thomas II had conquered Taminier, but had chosen to leave the old royal houses in charge on their ancestral lands on condition that they paid him annual tribute and didn’t war with each other.
A few years later, Landris, Lord of Elnem, had tried to take advantage of some neighbourly weakness. It hadn’t gone well. Prince Harald (later Emperor Harald IV) had marched the imperial army into Elnem, destroyed Landris’ army, and conquered all his castles and cities. Landris was then executed on charges of treason, and Elnem was wiped off the map, its territories distributed amongst its neighbours.
That was seventy years ago. No-one in Taminier had declared war since.
But things were finally changing. Emperor Thomas III was ill, and was not thought likely to survive the year. His eldest son, Prince Simon, had a reputation as a soft man, an enjoyer of the comforts of peace, and no man of war. None of the current princes of the Imperial House had any experience leading troops in Taminier.
There were rumours that some of the noble houses back in the Imperial Lands were planning on rising up and trying to force their independence as soon as Simon ascended the throne. Many of the kings of Taminier were hoping that the rumours were true, and that the new Emperor Simon would have to recall the Imperial troops back to the Imperial Lands.
Kerios, Lord of Grethic, was putting a lot of his kingdom’s resources into rebuilding his armies. For the Imperial Truce had enforced peace, but the Emperors had never tried to solve the conflicts that would otherwise have led to war.
The port of Harlech was one such. Currently held by Grethic, it had been a bone of contention between Grethic and Delreb for centuries, with both kingdoms wanting the great wealth that came from the trade passing through the port. If war returned to Taminier, the Lord of Delreb would greatly desire to try to seize the port from its rightful owners. And Kerios would much prefer to have the border even further away from the port, to discourage such thoughts.
But it was better to wait. Delreb had disputes with its neighbours on all sides that had festered for nearly a century. It was surely only a matter of time before one or other of these flared into war. All Kerios had to do was wait until that war was in full swing and then swoop in and drive the border back a few tens of miles. The valuable farmland that came with this was merely the icing on the cake.
It was an era of peace. But that era looked to be coming to an end, and few lands in Taminier would be able to avoid being dragged into one or other of the resultant wars.
LikeLike
Padre stirred the pot with…
“Clean up your room now, missie!”
[Hum? So who is giving this command, and to who? And, of course, what has happened that the room needs cleaning? Or does it? Hum…]
Belle was thrilled! Her birthday was yesterday, and her daddy got her a busy bee! It’s not a real bee, of course, just a tiny drone painted like a bee, but it talked to her! Time to get up, don’t forget to brush your teeth, all kinds of cute little things to help her remember everything. Her daddy said everyone should have one to remind them about things to do. It sat on her shoulder, most of the time, but it could fly up. Or sit in her hair, or on the little hair band that came with it. She talked with it all the time now! She grinned as she started to close the door of her room. That’s when the busy bee buzzed up and hovered in front of her.
“Clean up your room now, missie!”
What? The busy bee had barked at her, telling her to clean up her room? Who… oh, wait.
“Mom? Is that you? I’ll clean up my room after breakfast, okay?”
The busy bee hummed around her, and she heard her mom’s chuckle.
“Well, that’s okay this time! See you in the kitchen!”
So, her busy bee settled back onto her hair. And she giggled, wondering what it would say next!
[that’s interesting. I wonder what kind of trouble Belle and her busy bee could get into?]
LikeLiked by 1 person
[…] quite as hoped, but out of time for now. This week’s prompt was a trade with Cedar Sanderson. Go check it […]
LikeLike
Whoops. I posted before coffee, then didn’t review before finally approving the comment. Inspired by Becky this week – fixed now!
LikeLiked by 1 person
[…] This week’s prompt challenge came from AC Young: The jewel bird glowed as it sang in the evening. My prompt went to Fiona Grey. Hop on over to More Odds Than Ends to see what everybody came up with! […]
LikeLike
Finished it. This is a follow on to my snippet with Jake and Serena and their daughter a couple of weeks ago. https://ornerydragon.com/2023/05/23/a-rare-bird/
LikeLike
Oh! Very, very nice!
LikeLiked by 1 person
And now mine is up on my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/1343838.html.
LikeLike
Actually, it’s over here https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/1343838.html I think. There was a quote stuck on the end that made LiveJournal hiccup! Good snippet!
LikeLike
Leigh Kimmel prompted me with one of her song prompts, The House that Jack Built by Aretha Franklin.
This one ended up being a stream of consciousness word dump. I may have to play a bit with this one later.
It takes a heart of stone to walk away. They can cry and try to keep you there, but sometimes you have to go. What do you do when you are torn between your life and your duty? You walk away.
You can feign madness. You can try to thwart the prophecies. But in the end, you are called and you must walk away.
She understands. She is the daughter of warriors and the leaders of men. But twenty years parted seems too much to bear when that is a quarter of your life, if you’re lucky.
Others are leaving. They have left many times over the generations. But this is us. This is my wife and my son.
Why do the gods ask this of us? Why can we not be left to live our lives in the simple joy of being with our family? Watching our children grow to adulthood, sitting beside our wife through the regular rhythm of the seasons as the years wash over us and then we turn around and find that we are the elders; we are the ones that the rest look up to now. Before the gods come to us and summon us to cross the river and we go with them to answer for how we have lived our lives.
But that is not given to us all. Some of us are called to walk a different path for a season. To be parted for a time to serve a greater purpose for the gods or for our country. Some do not return. They blaze bright in deeds of death until they, in turn, are cast down, taking their legend to Hades and leaving stories that thrill young men for generations to come.
So, which am I? The seer told me that I would return, though I would be long on the road. And I cannot avoid my destiny. So I turn my face from hearth and home and wife, towards the sea and Troy. And walk away.
LikeLiked by 1 person