Wow, has it really been almost three weeks since I finished another short story? I really need to get back into the game. Still, this was a fun one, and I’m really looking forward to turning it into something great.
As with the two previous stories, I used the Mythulu cards to come up with this one. Here’s what I drew:
- STATISTIC: The face, pile, voice, or sacrifice that gives personal meaning to a problem previously encountered and ignored.
- EXPLORER: Enchanted by novelty. Energized by challenge. Brave, joyful, and resilient. Worst thing that can happen is for life to become too predictable.
- GHOST LIMB: When amputees receive nerve signals from non-existant limbs.
- MINE: Gleaning useful or shiny resources from the earth. Runoff from mines causes ecologically devastating pollution.
- DEBTOR: One who has received something they cannot yet repay. Leads to either accountability or slvaery. Not free to pursue their own heart until absolved.
- WATER: Currency of life. Symbolizes connection. Breaks boundaries. Patient, responsive, nurturing.
- VIBRATING: A gentle resonant sumble. Usually felt when some kind of energy is flowing freely, whether sound, electricity, or emotion.
- RECOVERING: Half-healed from some kind of significant damage.
- FUZZY: A soft, comforting layer associated with innocent living things.
- ADORABLE: Too cute to be taken seriously. Cannot intimidate others, no matter how hard they try. Their boundaries are frequently ignored.
- LOUD: Showy in a way that interrupts others. Uncomfortably irreverent, noisy, or insistent.
- HUNGRY: Ravenous and/or so desperately poor that they cannot afford food.
- TEMPLE: Home of the gods. Point of access where higher powers can be found and petitioned.
- MONK: Offers total forgiveness. Able to see through deception, especially self-deception. Invites, but never forces.
- THRESHOLD: A Doorway that leads to a new life. Once you cross a threshold, you cannot return the same.
- WIND: Represents connection to the unknown. Responsible for storms, pollinations, erosion. Influences evolution, spread of disease, and pollution dispersal.
For most of these elements, I ignored the flavor text altogether. With “statistic,” for example, all I did was start the story off with a random statistic I heard somewhere. No idea if it’s actually true, but hey, it makes for a great story. And with “threshold,” I traded out the card I’d actually drawn with one that worked much better. Also, I’m not entirely sure how “wind” fits in with the rest of it, but it feels right.
I’m going to keep going through with these Mythulu-inspired stories until I’ve used all of the cards. That definitely won’t happen until after Memorial Day, which I’ve marked as the end of this Spring Shorts challenge, but I’ll keep track of which cards I’ve already used and continue to write short stories on the side. With luck, I’ll be able to write at least one more story here, and I may keep it up for a while in the summer just until I’ve filled up the buffer in my publishing schedule. But more about that in a later post.
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