Matadel stood overlooking the
valley, arms lifted in prayer, wings outstretched.
What am I watching for? She had asked the Great One when he placed
her there, so many countless days and nights ago. She had been so very young,
afraid she would not recognize her charge. He had smiled and cupped her cheek
in his warm palm. You will know.
How long? Young and naïve, perhaps foolish to think she could
measure time in any way compared to Him. As she turned to stone, the cold
creeping through her body, she heard his answer in her heart. You will know.
So many long days, hot, cold, dry,
rainy. She liked the weight of snow against her hard body. She liked feeling
washed clean by the rain. Birds kept her company, and little creatures sometimes
ran around her bare toes, or under the sweep of her windblown skirt.
People had come, stayed, gone,
returned, built, built more. And more. The air began to corrode her outer
layer. The rain had an acid bite that stung as it splashed, burned as it washed
over her time and again.
What was she watching for? Waiting
for? The sun rises, sweeps in its broad arc across the sky, sets the horizon on
fire, sinks to reveal the night sky…what if she missed it? What if she let Him
down? There might have been a moment, a year, a century, when she was lost in
thought and not paying close enough attention.
Was that it? The cruelty of one
person to another? Many people to many? Many to one? Tears mixed with rain on
her cheeks, an extra sting that burned out from her heart.
Was it the gentle moments she saw
over and over. Mother or father with a child. Lovers. Strangers.
Was it the beauty of His creation
itself? Great and small, she marveled over every moment, every act, every
emotion. But how would she know what she was waiting for?
This day, the sun blazes in
brilliant colors as it sinks below the horizon. Golden light flares in streams
across the clouds, and they reflect dozens of reds, orange, pink, purple,
colors that have no name, no definition.
There! So far away! Her eyes
burned through the veil of age, through the stone that imprisoned her. Yes, her
heart sang with fierce joy. That is what she was waiting for. She had always
wondered what would happen, would the stone fall away in chunks? Would she be
weak? There was no time between the thought and freedom. Her wings fluttered in
the evening breeze, and she stretched them wide, feeling the muscles across her
shoulders and back. She leaped into the air to carry her message.
Well done, He spoke in her heart. Now it begins.
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Time writing:
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20 minutes
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October word
count:
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8,383
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Prompt: Angel at sunset
ReplyDeleteI held my breath. The sun was closing in on the horizon, a giant yellow ball that had somehow became larger as it lowered. The sky was a palette of reds, oranges, and purples, with faint clouds reflecting colour on their undersides, looking more solid for the hues.
It was the moment of touchdown, they said, that the angels could be seen. Sunset angels, so much more elusive than sunrise ones, who remained illuminated as the sun rose into the sky. Sunset angels burned forth only for an instant – that instant in which the sun’s disk touched the horizon.
“Kaaa-tiiiie”
Not now. Not now. The sun was almost there. I would see them.
“Kaaa-tiiiie”
If I ingored her, I could watch just a moment more. Just a moment, is all I wanted.
Time writnig: ~15 min