Gateway to the Otherworld
- Posted by Laurie Ashton on August 26th, 2006 filed in Uncategorized
No moon, and by Annabelle’s calculations, this was a propitious day. A black cat with white feet brushed up against her leg. She gave him a reassuring pat. She looked out. “Now,” she whispered to her familiar. She ran across the path towards the stone circle.
“There’s a hidden switch here somewhere, Socks. Help me find it?” Socks rubbed against the old stone retaining wall and purred. Annabelle felt for indentations, depressions, the trigger to the gateway to The Otherworld, her only hope. Socks stretched his long body as he gripped the top of a stone. Annabelle heard a faint click, then a rumble as stones shifted behind her.
“Thanks, Socks.” She faced the stones recessed in the ground. “By the powers of earth, wind, and fire, open the door to the second tier.” The outer ring, worn from centuries of weather and covered in moss and lichens, turned counter-clockwise and stopped. The center ring turned clockwise, grumbled, then halted. Annabelle peered at the interior of the circle. There was nothing to see, nothing but a void.
“What does this mean, Socks? This is supposed to be a gateway. How do I summon the Mother of Light?”
Socks stood at the edge of the void. Bright green light flashed and hundreds, thousands of cats streamed out onto the stone rings, into the clearing, and beyond. Annabelle stared in horror, shaking.
“You don’t, Annabelle. But thank you for freeing my brethren,” purred Socks. “Now we can take over this tier.”
***
This is my entry into Flash Fiction Friday #1.
August 27th, 2006 at 1:52 am
Nice ending!
I would have loved to enter this, but my blog topic is just too constricted. I can’t wait to see the other entries, though…
August 27th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Um, Nancy, you could always start a second blog… :p I know, I know, I’m a trouble maker.
Thanks for the comliment! I wasn’t sure how to end it, and my original was really really weak, but I whined at Fahim (the hubby) to read it, and, uh, he made some suggestions and, uh, I made some changes. And I tweaked it.
It was an interesting exercise. I think flash fiction might prove to be good for this leetle brain.
August 28th, 2006 at 10:17 am
Okay, I tricked it into letting me see :).
Still debating on wether or not I want to enter this week. Love the picture..having problem with how to do a flash fiction for it LOL
August 28th, 2006 at 10:23 am
Glad you can see it, bk, although I still don’t know what the problem was.
I say do it. Do it! Do it! Hey, it doesn’t have to be a work of art, just give it a whirl and see what happens. I’ve never done flash fiction before - this is my first attempt. I’m doing it as a way to, I don’t know, jump start the muse or something.
You know, it’s kinda like cross training. A long distance runner will still weight lift to build up muscles or might use sprinting exercises or… Well, I’m not an athlete, so my analogy is probably weak, but hopefully you get the idea.
I’m looking at flash fiction as a form of cross training.
August 28th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
I KNEW it was the cats. I knew it.
Well done.
August 28th, 2006 at 11:48 pm
WHOA! Cool Laurie! Love the ending!
August 29th, 2006 at 9:01 am
Thanks, DT & Simran.
I love compliments. Makes me feel all warm and gooey inside. *gushes*
August 29th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
Cool story. I like the ending. Cats always look like they’re waiting to take over the world!
August 30th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
Very good - love the ending. How typical of a cat!
August 31st, 2006 at 2:33 am
Love the atmosphere intoned here. Right, we all know how devious those feline critters are! Great piece of writing!
August 31st, 2006 at 11:07 am
Laurie, I came up with the saying, “if cats could type, they would take over the world.” I guess that isn’t too far off from your story.
September 4th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
Aw, shucks! Thanks!