Welcome to a new posting series! I will be continuing to use various writing prompts from Janeen Ippolito’s Weird Writing Prompts to help better introduce the characters from my book Sacred Tears: The Dance of Iris. These prompts will show you guys exclusive scenes of the lives of these characters before the inciting events of Sacred Tears, along with some fun “what if” type of scenarios.
Prompt: It’s midnight on an average night. Where are each of your characters?
This installment will focus on the secondary main character Darren Turner.
Crickets battled in their symphonies against the mating notes of the river toads, swallowing up the hushed breathing rising and falling from Darren’s chest. He smiled to himself. Nature had finally dropped its wariness of him, meaning he might at last be successful this night. This had been the longest time he’d kept camp in one place. It was never wise for him to stay in a singular location for long, but that incessant childhood dream won out this time. Only one week extra, surely an additional week wouldn’t do him in. He’d just make sure to travel twice as far this time around. Still, he knew if he didn’t see them tonight then he would finally have to just push on in the morning.
Darren’s eyes strained over the opposite river bank. The last tendrils of luminescence amongst the reeds were breaking down. The path of the Lightfoot Deer would soon vanish, and with it his chance to finally seeing those rare creatures with his own eyes. Nothing like over hunting to ruin it for the rest of us. Darren’s face scrunched in disgust. And for what? The glow of their trophies always faded. By then they appeared as any other deer carcass. If the poaching wasn’t handled soon, these gentle beasts would disappear from Fitsengea forever. A low-pitched thrumming caught Darren’s ear.
Casting his eyes upwards he could just barely make out the outline of a Star Sparrow stretching its wings. Time for your midnight patrol? Darren questioned inwardly as he studied the bird’s hops along the branch. A slight splash in the water catapulted Darren’s attention back to the river. His eyes widened as his heartbeat trilled in his chest. His mouth went slack jawed. The hairs on the back of his neck and down his arms all stood on end. Just across the way stood four Lightfoot Deer. No bigger than a common street mut, everything about them appeared as a dwarfed white-tailed deer. Everything except for the brilliant blue-white glow around their hooves. Each step among the reeds at the water’s edge left behind an echo of their luminescence.
Darren tried to swallow around the dryness in his throat. How had they approached so soundlessly? He sat in stunned awe, taking in every moment of their beauty. Darren desperately fought to silence his breathing, worried any sound from him might frighten them away. He wished this night could go on forever. Definitely worth the risk, he smiled to himself.