I ran behind on all the things I wanted to do yesterday due to errands and a meeting, so yesterday was productive to say the least. With that said, I will be combining some of my challenges from yesterday. Also, please join all of us that do these word challenges by clicking on the links within the creations made from the words. My pingback links open in a new window, unless I forget the tick the button to make it open in a new tab. This way you don’t lose your place *smiles*
This will be the start of a story or a chapter of one I have already started. I hope you all enjoy it!
A day came when she decided to take a trip and make it an adventure. There was a place Meredith would always go to explore, and she figured today was a great day to take a break, especially since she had worked for 10 consecutive days straight on a difficult legal case. She needed a break, and it would be worth it to get some air in her face and some nature in her bones. An adventure would satisfy her exhaustion from a very long week and a half. She needed to hear the melody of the trees rubbing together with nature singing to her soul. She knew just where to go, and it was about time she got back to her happy place.
She grabbed an apple from the counter along with her overnight bag and her cell phone, and through the door she went to head out to her secret place. She had always found some euphoria in that location, and she never told a soul where she would disappear to, even though her friends would always ask where it was or if they could go with her. It was a noble attempt for them to always be persistent to share time with her. The problem was that she was liking the fact that she could have a place that no one could invade or take over, and she enjoyed that it bothered them that they could not find her. As that thought crossed her mind, she opened the trunk and used her hand to jam her bag into the trunk, shut it, and was on her way.
Everyone should have that one place that set them free from the big world, and her place was like nothing she had ever seen before when she found it. This was not an open field full of flowers but rather a darkness that was so beautiful that it overwhelmed her to a point of pure elation. As she approached the entrance to the forest, her happiness grew immensely. The feeling was effectual to what she wanted to accomplish by taking this hiatus away from the real world.
As she drove down the narrow path, the trees began to encapsulate her SUV. It was a little more overgrown than she remembered, but the path to her hiding place was still intact. She drove until she could no longer safely navigate the path, and then she went to foot, leaving her vehicle behind. She knew there would come a point to where she would have to walk to her spot, but it did seem like it was sooner than she was used to.
She grabbed her bag, walking stick, and some other essentials and headed out on her adventure through the thick layer of trees and vegetation until she reached the rickety little bridge that she had built years ago when she first found her secret hiding place. It was in pretty bad shape, but it lead to a hollow in the hillside where she had her lanterns and supplies stashed for her adventures. She had to make haste to the other side of the bridge before it got dark, so she navigated the unstable bridge.
She was pretty agile when it came to climbing and navigating through dangerous areas, and this was not any different for her. The bridge was made of two by fours and strong rope, but some of the planks were missing. She just had to step carefully, with a little shirk of a side-step from time to time when she would slip a little. She made it across with an unmistaken ease and decided to have a little bite to eat before she entered the hollow.
As she nibbled on the apple she brought from home, she listened to the sounds of the forest. She was so hungry that it almost made her regurgitate a little bit of stomach acid due to the stress of crossing the bridge. Her stomach was rumbling loud enough to wake the dead, but the forest was a mixture of sounds. It was so quiet at times, but other times the animals were so loud along with the wrestling of leaves on the trees. She was leaned up against one of the biggest trees she had ever seen in this forest to have her bite, and it was very old with a gnarl that almost sent it sideways. It was a bit creepy looking, but she loved the ancient look of the tree. She thought to herself for a moment that it would probably have seen more changes than she could ever imagine. Time…a mysterious thing it was, she thought, as she pushed up off the tree root and carried on to the entrance of the hollow hillside.
A handmade ladder was seated at the opening in the rocks of the hillside, and it also had taken some wear and tear from its environment. She gave the ladder a wiggle to test the durability…”It’s good. I got this.”, as she stepped off onto the first step down with her flashlight gripped by her mouth. The ladder seemed to be more stable than the bridge as she approached each dark step down, but the last step broke when she reached the end of the tunnel.
She shined her light to her supplies, which were still in the spot she left them, and she lit the lantern with the matches from her satchel. As the cave lit up, her eyes could not believe what she saw before her…
© E.M. Kingston
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