SwiftFicFriday – Week 30

I know much of what I’ve been going on about on all my social media lately has been my sci-fi series, but I also love fantasy and have a story that has just been driving me crazy demanding to be written. Part of me wishes it was a different one because I do have one I REALLY need to finish drafting. But I do love this world and these characters. And this week’s SwiftFicFriday prompt of a busy street corner generated a super clear scene in this particular fantasy story. I know it’s not quite what the image initially paints, but what can I say? My characters are pretty poorly behaved that way. Anyway, I give you

The Crossroads

Maroshek glanced around, his heart thumping so loud in his chest he struggled to hear anything over it. He’d found the crossroads the innkeeper described with ease.

“Take the path to the left, he said,” Maroshek muttered to himself, searching the tall grass. “But don’t tell me anything about whatever it was stalking me in this infernal grass.”

But even atop his mare, and she was a tall horse, he couldn’t spot anything. Maroshek kept one hand on the pommel of his sword as he urged his mount down the left-hand road.

The odd rustling came again. Maroshek yanked his sword out of its scabbard as he reined in his horse. Just as before, the rustling stopped. Maroshek dismounted, scanning the grass, hoping to glimpse something. Yet again, though, he found no evidence of any living thing besides him, his horse, and a never-ending plain of grass taller than his horse.

With a growl and the faint scent of salty sea air in his head, Maroshek remounted and spurred the mare into a gallop.

“If I can’t spot this thing, maybe I can outrun it to the Cartiene Sea. The grass will have to give way at the coast.”

The rustling kept pace with him, just behind him and off to both sides of the narrow dirt road. It never drew close enough to see anything, nor did it ever drop back further from them.

Maroshek burst out of the tall grass onto the coast of the sea. Sand dunes rolled for almost a kilometer before sloping into the sea. Once he was at least a hundred meters past the edge of the grass, he wheeled around to catch whatever stalked him so relentlessly. But nothing was there.