Day 25: A Quiet Hum






There was a hum to the ancient city, erected between the mouth of Florentine and the edge of the Pigmeyhorns. A faint whispering of people who hadn’t yet evacuated, a quiet song of nerves as the civilians avoided eye contact with the fleet of soldiers. It resounded through the tall white walls, past the columns that had been standing for centuries, and were now at risk of destruction.

The battle wasn’t here, but it was to take place not too far away. People had left for their own good, to avoid seeing or hearing anything, preferring to live in ignorance to what was going on.

The castle on top of the hill would be the stronghold. A place for forces to gather, to eat, sleep, do whatever they had to in order to prepare.

It wouldn’t be enough though. Not nearly.

The sun would rise and in a matter of hours it would be over.

The city would take lead in the clean-up. The white walls would never be as pristine as they were, and the reek of blood, sweat and whatever else would probably linger for months. But soon, the villagers would return to their homes, the shops would reopen, and everything would continue as normal.

The nervous hum before battle would become an ordinary bustle of a town on a normal day. There would be no reminders that the battle had happened, not a single boot-print would remain.

Except perhaps a gentle hum on quiet days. A noise that could only be heard by the people who wanted to hear it. The people who had been there, had seen the battle rage on, or at least had known someone that had been in the thick of it. A little sound, a quiet voice that said nothing other than “we were here.”



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Today's prompt started with me turning to a random page in a book, grabbing the first line I saw and letting myself just kind of go for it. This is what resulted.

I basically modified the line that looked a little like this;

"There was a hum to the ancient city, erected between the mouth of Florentine and the edge of the Pigmeyhorns."

And continued the story.

I'm not entirely sure where this came from, and I don't have more time to spend on it tonight. But I like it! I LOVE when your brain just kind of takes an idea and runs with it, when you aren't really thinking about words or what happens next, but sentences form on the page and you don't stop for a second, just keep letting your imagination do all the work.

Being so connected to a story, but so distant where you can barely feel yourself type is incredible and I really miss that feeling. It's been a while since I've let myself go like that.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this! I'm not sure if I can take it further, but I /like/ it and that's good enough for me.

Thanks to my good friend @awibee for the pic!

This was Day 25 of my NaNoWriMo project where I am writing a new short story every day in November! Originally all of these were posted to instagram, but the 300 word limit was a little confining so I've come here to post everything I've written and a little bit more! 

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