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Oct. 14th, 2009
NaNo Writing Prompt
Oct. 14th, 2009 02:42 pmI was doing a NaNoWriMo writing prompt: Describe a locale in your planned Nano novel. Here's what I came up with:
The Crystal Cave
You scramble down Gibb's Hill. Only a short way down the hill from the lighthouse you see a small black opening between the rocks. You enter.
You light the electric torch you find the near entrance to see spread out below you:
A huge cavern. A vast open area with crystalline stalactites dripping from the arching roof shivering in your lantern light. There is a narrow earthen path you scamper onto. It twists downward, narrow and dangerous. You have to grasp the limestone next to you at times to steady yourself. Finally the path brings you to the bottom of the cavern then leads around a wide still pool. The water is black in the darkness of the cave, except where the stalactites, glowing like diamonds, are reflected in the mirror of the pool. The air is cool and still. Off in the distance you can hear the sound of pounding surf: boom... boom.. Almost like a death knell. But then you hear something else. You walk on toward the sound.
The sound becomes more distinct. You swear you hear the thrum of machinery, a whoosh of liquid. What is it? The path begins to throb under your feet as you take a curve. You walk through a narrow opening in the limestone rocks and before you opens out a smaller cave. It is filled with something... Some sort of machine. It moves, lights play along it. It mutters to itself as it works its... magic. Worktables are arranged along one wall. The gleam of metal and crystal on the worktables is reflected, amplified, distorted, by the power of some sort of brilliant electric light. You blink nearly blind in the brilliance. A shape is bent over a worktable.
As you approach the shape resolves into a man, who turns to regard you. He pushes back a set of goggles that had briefly turned his storm gray eyes into things twenty times their actual size.
He frowns at you. You shiver.
The Crystal Cave
You scramble down Gibb's Hill. Only a short way down the hill from the lighthouse you see a small black opening between the rocks. You enter.
You light the electric torch you find the near entrance to see spread out below you:
A huge cavern. A vast open area with crystalline stalactites dripping from the arching roof shivering in your lantern light. There is a narrow earthen path you scamper onto. It twists downward, narrow and dangerous. You have to grasp the limestone next to you at times to steady yourself. Finally the path brings you to the bottom of the cavern then leads around a wide still pool. The water is black in the darkness of the cave, except where the stalactites, glowing like diamonds, are reflected in the mirror of the pool. The air is cool and still. Off in the distance you can hear the sound of pounding surf: boom... boom.. Almost like a death knell. But then you hear something else. You walk on toward the sound.
The sound becomes more distinct. You swear you hear the thrum of machinery, a whoosh of liquid. What is it? The path begins to throb under your feet as you take a curve. You walk through a narrow opening in the limestone rocks and before you opens out a smaller cave. It is filled with something... Some sort of machine. It moves, lights play along it. It mutters to itself as it works its... magic. Worktables are arranged along one wall. The gleam of metal and crystal on the worktables is reflected, amplified, distorted, by the power of some sort of brilliant electric light. You blink nearly blind in the brilliance. A shape is bent over a worktable.
As you approach the shape resolves into a man, who turns to regard you. He pushes back a set of goggles that had briefly turned his storm gray eyes into things twenty times their actual size.
He frowns at you. You shiver.
