Old Words

A piece I did for the Carrot Ranch Rodeo #3.  As I recall it needed to have a septolet in there and be on the subject of magic or some such and be 299 words .  It was rather a long time ago I can’t quite remember.

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Ma-lach stirred to the sound of waves slapping against the sides of his small wooden boat.  Head spinning he peered over the edge to see large swells on all sides as the strong current dragged him away from the disappearing silhouette of land in the distance.  White horses reared atop the cold grey waves and the sound and smell of the sea filled his senses.

He winced as he fingered a large wound on the side of his head, and as his boat was tossed on the heaving waters he grappled with vague images and half thoughts trying to remember how he had come to be here.  Dark shadows clouded his mind but somewhere in the confusion and pain there was the memory of an attack on their settlement and the screams of his children.

Hours passed as he drifted in and out of consciousness, the skies darkening and the wind driving the seas into a violent frenzy.  As lightning fizzed across the skies, thunder rumbling, he awoke once more as rain began to fall.

Instinctively he reached for the amulet around his neck and with rain running down his face he remembered the face of his grandfather, now long returned to the earth, and he recalled the words the old man had taught him as a boy.

Eyes closed face to the skies he instinctively called out:

 

Silver seas

Cold blue Ice

Rain and river

We are

Of you

always

Yield

 

The waves roared and then, almost instantly, the wind ceased, the storm was calmed and the frenzied crash of the sea was replaced by the sound of rain falling onto the calmed waters.  He collapsed back into the boat as eddies swirled around the stern and it slowly began to drift against the current back towards shore.