Tuesday Tales: From the Word GREEN

So far, summer has been promising with heat, sun, and the occasional shower, but not everyone is experiencing good weather and my thoughts are with those who struggle with the heat, the rain, and storms. This week, the authors of Tuesday Tales are writing to the prompt GREEN. I’m continuing with Listen to the Stones as Marina gets her first look at the Standing Stones.

Returning to the circle, she spent a few extra minutes studying the central stone and the prone one at its base. A memory danced on the far reaches of her mind, but before she could focus on it, it vanished. The excavated opening in front of the central stone raised even more questions, especially when she felt more energy than ever coming from it. She wanted to step down into it, but not now, not with all these witnesses. As she inspected each stone, it was remarkable to see the striations on them that gave them human-like faces. There were tiny patterns in the rock face, each one distinct from the other. Some resembled flowers, others geometric designs, but one thing was clear. There was an energy here, and yet it came not just from the stones but from the very earth surrounding them.

Moving from stone to stone, she soon found the one that resembled the mitten, the one in front of which her parents had posed. It was taller than she’d thought and wider by far as if the man frozen in place here had been overly fond of his meat and mead.

Licking her lips, she turned her back to it and leaned against it to look out at what her parents had seen.

Heat filled her, and as she watched, the barren landscape in front of her became a lush, green forest similar to the one depicted by the wallpaper in her bedroom. Over on the far right, a whitewashed cottage with a thatch roof waited invitingly for its owners. Hanging from a tripod over a fire was a large iron kettle. In the distance, a man in a white tunic, his face bearded, his long, red hair billowing over his shoulders, played with two young boys. Was that a cat sitting on the doorstep? It turned to her as if it sensed her watching it, reminding her of Raven.

“Sorry about that. I didn’t expect to be occupied for so long. Are you enjoying your visit?”

James draped his arm around her shoulders, shattering the vision, and yanking her back.

She blinked, but the lush forest was gone, replaced by the grass-covered hills and moors once more, its only occupants the sheep grazing in the distance.

She thought again about what the woman had said. It was easy to let one’s imagination run wild here, but the man she’d imagined bore a definite likeness to the one by her side.

That’s it. Come back next week for more. Don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.