Midnight Sun 4

/ Liz H-H

Six Sentence Stories

The challenge? Write a story in exactly 6 sentences based on Denise’s one word prompt: PANEL. Visit, comment, and write & perhaps post your own on SIX SENTENCE STORIES. The Café is open. Come as you are!

The sun set extra late and rose extra early in this northern clime, and the journeywoman rose, the normal energic exhilaration that accompanied such long summer days thin in the shadow and grief of her mother’s passing.         

Patting her chest pocket to ensure the relic remained safe from any night humors and demons, she glanced over at Horse, who’d risen early to nibble at the abundant strip of green lining the creek’s edge.

Sated still from the previous night’s late dinner by the fire, she brewed a simple cup of dark Claron and studied the panel of ingredients needed for the relic’s final ceremonial return; the forest, westward, was still dark and thus dangerous, though the fields eastward glowed bright in the sunrise.

Most of the listed items would be easily gathered from the wood – humors and demons notwithstanding – but one item would have to be charmed from a liminal waterfall at the mountain’s base, and another carved from the peak where her mother had been born.

The journey woman smiled; as usual, Mother had chosen the most opportune time to die, and ensure that her daughter’s task would most likely succeed.

Her father’s birthplace may have been the sea, but her mother’s was definitely the mountain; the couple had created a life and balance in the space between, but upon both their deaths, it was critical that before-time balance be restored.

© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2024)

Earlier episodes, if you wish to visit: One, Two, Three

 

22 thoughts on “Midnight Sun 4”

  1. Pingback: Midnight Sun 5 | Valley of the Trolls

  2. Nice use of the word “panel.” And a lovely story. I love the visual descriptions and could so imagine the journeywoman using her knowledge of the natural world do to what she needed to do. Bravo!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. engaging and that crucial (magical) element of drawing a picture, describing a world that we Readers find a short step to become a part (in the background only, of course) of as your story unfolds
    cool

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. “…it was critical that before-time balance be restored.”

    That is a heavy burden the Journeywoman as been carrying, although I suspect she doesn’t consider it a “burden”.
    I’m glad this series is continuing, Liz.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Hello!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.