Freedom drove the boat down the night river. It never ceased to amaze her how beautiful it was. The night river glowed with the magic of the stars that powered it. A dazzling light show radiated from the prop of her boat. Freedom’s ancestors had sacrificed a solar system to power the night river. It gave Freedom and her people the ability to travel between worlds. The journey was not without perils. There were stab rabbits in the ether waiting for her to drift too close to the edge of the river. She had lost her best friend that way. Penny had always been reckless. Now her spirit was trapped on the shore with the stab rabbits and often materialized to taunt Freedom. Freedom had not seen her tonight and she prayed that she would have peace on tonight’s journey. She needed to collect palm milk and pomegranate seeds for her mother. Her mother was a wise woman, trained in the arts of healing. The palm milk was to help a sick child. The pomegranate seeds would help another woman conceive the child she had wished for. Freedom was the gopher. Doomed to spend the next century gathering ingredients for her mother until she would finally be able to apprentice out to the vocation of her choice. Freedom sighed and continued navigating the river. The song inside of her longed to be released. Some days it felt like the next 100 years would never end. She would never be able to make the beautiful music that played through her soul into a reality. She hoped the master bard would take her on as an apprentice. But Freedom was doomed to 100 years of silence. She had taken a vow to be her mother’s silent helper. Penny appeared on the edge of the river. She sang a beautiful song that nearly mirrored the one trapped inside of Freedom. Freedom was drawn by the song. Her boat began to drift towards Penny. Freedom’s boat was less that an arms length away from the edge when the stab rabbits appeared. It snapped Freedom from her reverie and she drove her boat back to the center. 100 years of silence might be frustrating but an eternity trapped with the stab rabbits would be far worse. Freedom focused on gaining the ingredients for her mother and continued on her journey.
The prompts for today’s short story:
night river
light show
freedom drive
palm milk and pomegranate seeds
make beautiful music
stab rabbit
Copyright 2020 Klaudia Grady
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