Cedar Sanderson

Week 42 of Odd Prompts: 2023 Edition

And this week is the answer to the year. What has your year looked like? When you stop and reflect on it, how do you feel about it? Would you liked to have done more, less, gone in a different direction? Now, make a plan for changing your direction if you weren’t satisfied with all those answers. And don’t forget to build in creative time.

Who?What?The Answer!
Cedar SandersonHe closed the shutter slowlynother Mike
AC YoungDo antelopes like roses?Becky Jones
Becky JonesThe Guardian was napping in the fall sunshine.Cedar Sanderson
Leigh KimmelAhead the road turned sharply, then went up a steep hill.Padre
Padre“A spot of red in the wind-driven snow drifts.”AC Young
nother MikeThe blood in the chalice was green…Leigh Kimmel

If you didn’t remember, there are always spares. Get your brain moving with a prompt, and come back in the comments to account for your mental exercise.

SpareHis consistent use of the wrong word irritated me, but I said nothing. I spoke no language beyond my own, whereas he spoke his own and was almost fluent in mine.
Spareas dark as the sun
SpareNecromancy ain’t cheap.
SpareUse a long fork when dining on elf…
SpareWhen the bleach turns your laundry pink…
SpareSomeone left money in the pages of the magazine.

If you’d like to join in on the challenge, send in a prompt! If you want to send in a spare, make sure you note that in the subject line of your email. See you next week…

Visual Prompt (image by Cedar Sanderson, rendered in MidJourney)

20 comments

  1. This week Padre’s submission cycled ’round to me: “A spot of red in the wind-driven snow drifts.”

    —

    The blizzard was over. But Joleon and Petron hadn’t returned from their routine visit to service the automated scientific equipment at Mount Kashleg.

    They had sent the signal back to the base that they were on their way back a week ago. But the snow had come in, making communication impossible, and no pair of snow-covered hikers had made it through the storm.

    The assumption was that the pair had hunkered down to wait out the storm, but their equipment and supplies would only last them so long. So Sermak had been sent out to see if he could find them – if not then the Scientific Corps would probably have to write the pair off as lost in the snow, probably dead.

    Sermak wore full cold-weather gear, with ski boots and cross-country poles and skis. He had a large and heavy rucksack on his back. On skis he could travel faster than if he were on foot, but if he couldn’t find them today, he didn’t have the supplies to search any longer. He had set out east (the direction from the base to Mount Kashleg) but took many detours to the north and south just in case the pair had got lost on their way back.

    He crested the next ridge. The valley beyond was full of snow, piled up into drifts carved by the winds of the storm past. At first glance the view was various shades of white, with only the shadows caused by the near noonday sun creating any variation of shade in the scene. But something caused Sermak to look again. There was a dark spot on one of the far drifts.

    Sermak set his skis down the slope and skied down into the valley, traversing back and forth across the slope to keep his speed under control. Then he skied across to the spotted drift. The spot became clearer as he approached it. It was a deep red hue, not quite circular, and had the appearance of being something that was in the drift, uncovered by the wind.

    Sermak came to a halt next to the drift, and unclipped his skis. He reached out and explored the spot. It seemed to be some sort of fabric. Sermak set about uncovering the object.

    As the snow came away, it became clearer what the object was. It was a tent. Sermak recognised it as being a two-person winter survival tent – the same sort of tent that Joleon and Petron had taken with them. He hurried up, and tried to find the entrance.

    It took Sermak a good hour to find the entrance. Irritatingly, he had uncovered the back face of the tent first, so the entrance was on the far side, buried deep into the drift. It took another hour to clear enough snow in order for Sermak to open the door and see what was inside the tent.

    The outer layer was freezing cold and the zip was extremely stiff. The outer door opened and Sermak looked inside. His heart sank as he realised that there was a thin layer of ice on the inner layer of the tent. That only happened after the inside had cooled to a dangerous level.

    Sermak rushed in and ripped open the inner door, not even trying to avoid ripping the zip or the fabric, not caring if he had or hadn’t. Inside the tent were Joleon and Petron, each in their own sleeping bag, with their supplies and a heater. The heater had run out of fuel.

    Sermak didn’t hesitate. He checked his colleagues as quickly as he could. To his great relief, both of them were still alive. But for how long?

    Sermak rummaged in his pack and extracted a pair of blankets, the only ones he had brought with him. He wrapped one around each of his colleagues, outside their sleeping bags. Then he got out his radio, and called back to base. He needed help. Without more supplies and some means to transport two almost frozen people, he couldn’t save either of them.

    The next task was to warm the tent back up again. He tried to close the outer and inner doors once more. The outer he could close, but the inner – he’d damaged the zip in his hurry to get it open earlier, it would only close halfway. Drat! The heat would seep out into the snow-driven scene outside much more efficiently now.

    Still, it was better to do the needed task badly than not attempt it at all. Sermak extracted some spare heater fuel from his rucksack, and filled up the heater. With some effort he got the heater started – not too much for it was designed to work in very cold conditions.

    Sermak had a spare heater in his pack. Under normal conditions one heater would be enough to heat up a tent like this, and two would be significant overkill. But with the damage to the thermal lining, the additional heat would be extremely helpful. Sermak extracted it, and set it up. Before long there were two heaters heating up the tent. Now he could do little more than wait.

    Sermak kept a close eye on Joleon and Petron. They were still breathing, and he hoped that they were slowly warming up. The temperature in the tent gradually climbed, but seemed to stop doing so just above freezing.

    Finally, sounds from outside. It was Gathlin and Lonran, responding to his call for help. After a quick conversation a plan was hatched.

    Gathlin, Lonran and Sermak unloaded the sled that the pair had brought with them to carry the needed supplies. Then the spare tent was erected on the sled. Once it was up, a heater was installed in the sled tent and lit to warm the air within.

    Only then were Joleon and Petron carried in their sleeping bags one by one from their damaged tent to the sled tent. The inner and outer doors of the sled tent were zipped up and secured.

    Finally, all the remaining supplies, including those that were salvageable from the damaged tent, were split up and put into one or another person’s rucksacks.

    Now they were ready. Each member of the rescue party clipped their skis back on their boots, and collected their poles.

    Lonran took the first shift. He strapped himself into the traces for the sled, and the three set off.

    The party took the straightest route back, not following Sermak’s original ski tracks. Every half an hour they stopped to check on their near frozen colleagues, and to swap out who was pulling the sled. Each of the three took their equal share of the burden.

    As night fell the base came into sight, and Sermak felt a great sense of relief. One last slog and they were all home again. One last slog it was, and the lights of the base were needed to enable all to see where they were going, but finally Sermak skied into the equipment bay, and as the sled behind him passed inside the bay doors closed.

    At this point others took over. Sermak was almost dead on his skis, and was sent straight to bed to sleep off the exhaustion of the rescue mission.

    He awoke the next morn, and the first thing on his mind was how Joleon and Petron were. The base had contacted the doctors back at headquarters, it was still unclear how much frostbite they would suffer from, if at all, but they would both live. Sermak rolled over and fell asleep once more filled with much relief and contentment at a job well done.

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  3. Cedar Sanderson postulated…

    He closed the shutter slowly

    [hum, a window shutter, the shutter over the front of a shop, perhaps even the shutter on a camera? There seems to be a slight hesitancy or regret in that slow closing? Let’s see…]

    [from the edge of a dream this morning…]

    He looked out at the forest, dim in the falling darkness. Odd lights flashed and glimmered, here and there, in the undergrowth. Then, as he watched, his hand on the shutter, ribbons of light wove from place to place, tying it all together in a vision of wonder. He shook his head, and he closed the shutter slowly, his eyes on the lights, his imagination filled with thoughts of what wandered out there, weaving those lights across the forest undergrowth.

    [ooo, that’s kind of spooky…]

    [sorry, busy week, so… more words next time?]

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  5. And now mine is up on my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/1424692.html. It’s just a bit, but it’s a beginning. Maybe it’s in the same world as “The Shadow of a Dead God,” or maybe it’s in the world of “Vengeance Is Mine” — or maybe they’re both in the same ‘verse, just on different planets. Once I get through show season and a few other things off my plate, I’m hoping to finally get to explore it in more depth.

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  6. Leigh Kimmel tossed me “Ahead the road turned sharply, then went up a steep hill.”

    Drak looked back over the wagon train. His guards were alert, hands on their weapons, looking outwards, away from the wagons and towards any danger that might come. He was proud of them. He had trained them well and they had responded to his demands, building a good cohesive team around the solid core that he had kept from their last couple journeys.
    He paused for a second, then surveyed the lands around him. It was rough country, the type of place that bandits felt it was safe to operate, far from the well-guarded civilized lands of his employer’s home land. Ahead, the road turned sharply, then went up a steep hill, switching back and forth among the rocky outcrops before cresting the hill and diving down into another small valley.
    He knew that they were not near any towns or villages. They would have to camp out again tonight, which meant setting a watch. Normal life for a guard on the road, but one never knew what was out there.
    Bandits were the least of their troubles. Wolves, lions, and bears would be interested in the camp, particularly the oxen that pulled the carts. Still worse, this was the type of country that drew sorcerers, cultists, and other unsavory types who relied on the isolation to hide their activities. One could never be too careful.

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