GoT Writings

WK 5 1. Writing Challenge GoT wk end 8/31, word count 566

Prompt 1: Write a story that includes the words ice, sun, fox, ship and fire

The New Ones

Ice crystals glisten in the morning sun, waking the fox and the bear who will soon go into a long winter’s slumber. There is excitement in the air, the light of a new dawn. The fox, clever and sly, hunts along the shore for small game. The bear, voracious and fattened up, fishes in the shallows on the shoreline. The fox looks at the black bear, waiting patiently for him to catch all the fish in the pool at the water’s rocky edge. Surely, Bear won’t miss one small fish. Fox takes his patience prize and returns to the shadows of the woods and commences his feast.

He soon finishes and licks his chops, but is not quite satiated. He ventures out one more time to find more edibles that the bear has left for him. What’s that? His ears perk up, he stands alert, trying to make out the new noises he hears. The People do not make such a commotion unless they are preparing for battle.

Attention drawn a distance in the water and sees three ships. These must be ships for they are floating, but they look more like the wigwams of the People. Soon a canoe is lowered from the roof of the wigwam and two sticks propel it to shore. The New Ones did not speak words that Fox understood. He just knew that one man put his foot on a rock and shouted curious words like, “praise Lord” and claimed this land for “king.” Fox did not understand this. How could the New Ones think they could just take something that was given by Creator to use and then return. If Creator gave them a small bit of land to use, they should use it for their needs and be done. Why did they need to take more than their need for a “king” who was not here to use it? Fox did not understand. Fox watched for many days and heard many lies. Fox was sly, he knew truth and he knew falsehoods. Fox wished he could warn the People of the harm the New Ones would inflict, that the gifts were not sincere, and that they would take all the treasures the People offered, like the fire and the feast and the teachings of how to grow plants on this soil, and would abuse it to great degrees.

Fox could not think about that right now. He needed to finish the Big Sleep preparations. He would think about it or dream about it when he burrowed underground to sleep through the harsh cold. The People would find out for themselves how trust for the New Ones was quite foolish.

When Fox awoke refreshed and quite hungry after the Big Thaw, the land was quite different. The People were gone. The once great Pawtuxet band of the Wampanoag tribe were reduced significantly in number from diseases brought by the New Ones, the Pilgrims as they were called. In silent tribute, Fox lowered his head and raised his right paw to the village that once held a great number of the People. He raised his eyes to the Hawk in the sky, cocking his head ever so slightly to listen intently to the message given. His home no longer a safe or beautiful place, he followed the instruction of Creator and followed the Hawk to the lands in the West.

[w.c. 566]


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