Whispers - Two Stories! - Romantic Friday Writing Challenge No. 24 - 21st October 2011

Welcome to the Romantic Friday Writing Challenge, started and hosted by L'Aussie Denise and Francine Howarth, where participants share their own 300-400-word text on a given theme. This week's theme for Friday, 21st October, Challenge No. 24, is 'Whispers'. I have written two texts for this challenge. These are two separate stories with separate characters. They are complete in themselves, but could be part of longer works if I chose to keep writing. These are new texts, written directly for this REW-challenge.

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Here is text # 1:
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Source Wikipedia. This is the Public Library in Stockholm, where I think my story should take place.

Whispers

'How was it?' Charlotte asked Sara as the two young women walked up a long staircase and passed a desk where a middle-aged woman sat looking at papers.

'How was what? Oh, you mean last night? Simply divine,'murmured Sara and smiled.

'Shhh!' said the woman behind the desk quietly and held her index finger to her lips.

'Oh, we're sorry', Charlotte whispered, 'Sara, why are we here?'

'We are looking for a book about...'

'Shhh!' said the librarian and pointed to a sign that said: 'No talking in the Reading Room.'

'...a book about unusual sightings in the deep forests.' whispered Sara.

'UFOs?' asked Charlotte, 'Why would you want to read a book like that?'

'Not UFOs, the little people with wings, pixies, faeries.'

'Shhh!' said the grey-haired woman.



'Oh dear. Isn't there someplace we could talk?' whispered Sara as she pointed toward one of several smaller rooms along one side of the great reading-hall. 'Could we use one of those rooms to talk?' she asked the woman seated behind the desk.

The librarian made a sign for her to come closer, 'No, those study-cells must be booked in advanced.'

'Could we book one now?' asked Sara.

'No, I'm sorry but there are none available, right now.'

'But they're all empty.' protested Sara, raising her voice slightly.

'Shhh!' whispered the librarian zipping her lips with her thumb and index finger.

'Let's just go.' said Charlotte.

'Yes, but I really need to find that book.'

'Then we can't talk.

'Shhh!' said the librarian and continued to stare at them. They walked away from her desk toward the exit.



'So you had a good time last night; where did you go; what did you do?' whispered Charlotte.

'We went out to eat at a restaurant,' whispered Sara and in an even smaller voice, 'He proposed'.

'What did you say?' asked Charlotte in an almost normal voice.

'I said, HE ASKED ME TO MARRY HIM' said Sara in a strong voice, just before they reached the exit doors.

'SHHHH!' shouted the librarian.

'What was your answer?' inquired Charlotte in a loud voice.



'Yes!' bellowed Sara as they ran out the doors and down the long stairway toward the street entrance, 'I SAID YES!'

[Text copyright 2011 Christina Wigren]

Word count according to WordCalc: 400; FCA; Full Critique Acceptable. Write whatever you like. Constructive criticism is always welcome! Don't be shy. Say what's on your mind!

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This is an illustration by the Swedish artist-writer, Elsa Beskow (1874-1953) whose work I have admired since childhood. Take a look at more of her picture-books (in Swedish) here. Wikipedia has a page on Elsa Beskow in English here.

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Here is text # 2:

Whispers

Esmarelda, Aurora and Rosanna flew with their berry-baskets over the meadow and landed at the edge of the forest.

'Remember to be quick and quiet about picking the bilberries' instructed Esmarelda, 'I'll take first watch here at the large basket. You two fly around and gather as many baskets of berries as you can.' Aurora and Rosanna took each a smaller basket and sailed off in different directions.

Aurora, with her flamming red hair and moss-green eyes, landed by a plant that in proportion to her size, looked like a small tree with blue-violet, apple-sized fruits growing on it. She began to pick the blue fruits when she heard a soft whisper:

'Aurora!'

'Who's there?' she asked, somewhat frightened. Do I know the speaker?

'Aurora!' whispered the voice again when her basket was two-thirds full.

'Do I know you?' she murmured softly as she filled the basket to the brim and was ready to fly away.

'Please don't go. It's me, Petrus', whispered the voice that Aurora now recognised.

'What are you doing out here in the forest? I must return. Esmarelda will think I am taking too long to get back to the basket.'

'Please, Aurora, come closer', murmured Petrus as he hovered over the bilberry plants.

'Well, alright. Let me just put down my basket', said Aurora softly, putting her basket on the ground and flying up to Petrus. 'What do you want?'

'A kiss. Just a kiss,' whispered Petrus as he held Aurora's face in his hands and slowly pressed his lips against hers.

'Oh, Petrus!' said Aurora between kisses.

'Aurora, Aurora! I love you so much! Please say yes!'



'Say yes to what?'

'Marry me!'

'Petrus! What will father say?'

'I hope he will give us his blessings!'

'You must go now. Esmarelda and Rosanna mustn't know yet. Meet me at my father's house tonight.

'I'll be there, Aurora! I love you!' whispered Petrus as he fluttered away into the woods. Auroras's heart beat faster. She picked up the basket of bllberries and returned to Esmarelda.

Sometime earlier, while Aurora was talking with Petrus, Rosanna was filling her basket when she heard whispers. She saw Petrus kissing Aurora. Tears filled Rosanna's eyes. She loved Petrus. Now she hated Aurora. What should she do?

[Text copyright 2011 Christina Wigren]

Word count according to WordCalc: 392; FCA; Full Critique Acceptable. Write whatever you like. Constructive criticism is always welcome! Don't be shy. Say what's on your mind!

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Best wishes,
Anna

P.S. These two stories are fictional.

First Commenter:

Ann Thompson



of

Ann's Snap, Edit & Scrap

To read other texts for Romantic Friday Writers Challenge No. 24, with the theme 'Whispers', please visit this site or click on the image below:

Anna's red heart earrings are in a RedTeam-Etsy-treasury by AnnaLela!

And here is a bag from AnnaLela's own shop:




Best wishes,
Anna



First Commenter:
xxx

Nils' First Love - Romantic Friday Writers' Challenge No. 23 - 14th October 2011

Source:Wikipedia

Welcome to the Romantic Friday Writing Challenge, started and hosted by L'Aussie Denise and Francine Howarth, where participants share their own 300-400-word text on a given theme. This week's theme for Friday, 14th October, Challenge No. 22, is 'First Love'.

Here is my text:
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Nils' First Love

Nils folded his wings, removed his clothes, donned his nightshirt, climbed into bed, drew the curtains, and pulled the covers up over his head. It was still twilight, but he was tired, after a long day and a long life. He closed his eyes and let his thoughts wander back in time. He remembered how his father always spoke proudly of their race at family-gatherings:

Source: Wikipedia

Quick and quiet the Fae doth bring,
Drops of dew to every flower,
Light and airy doth the Fae take wing,
At dawn or the evening-hour.

Nils took also great pride in his heritage. He was pleased that he could still remember the words to this poem. To remember was important.

He remembered Tintomara, his first love. Tintomara was the prettiest little winged girl. Her family lived behind a huge moss-covered rock under juniper trees. Nils knew nothing about the power of love. What was a girl? he thought. Girls were like his sisters - someone to play hide and seek with; someone to tease and taddle-tale.

Being a brother is not the same thing as being a suiter or a husband. When Tintomara came of age, she blossomed like a rosebud opening its petals at dawn. One day, Nils was dumbstruck by her beauty. She flew as if she ruled the air around her. Nils wooed her with bouquets of forget-me-nots and wild strawberries strung on a straw of grass.


Source:Wikipedia

Tintomara loved Nils too. They could have been a magnificent couple and the founders of a stunning dynasty of little people, if she had not taken ill and died before they wed.

Winter is hard on all creatures, but hardest on the little winged people who are so gentle, dreaming and fragile. They often perish, if winter comes too quickly. Tintomara was caught outside in the cold before she could take cover.

Nils was devastated. But he did get to kiss her once (and it was a magical kiss at that). But that was all.


Source: Wikipedia

Nils could have died of grief if he had not met Klara, who became his wife and gave him many children. He loved her too, as long as she lived. But since she passed away, he finds that it is not the image of Klara that comes to him on lonely, windy nights. No, when Nils closes his eyes, he sees Tintomara, and feels that one magical first kiss.

[Text copyright 2011 Christina Wigren]


Source:Wikipedia

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Word count according to WordCalc: 400; FCA; Full Critique Acceptable. Write whatever you like. Constructive criticism is always welcome!


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Best wishes,
Anna

P.S. This is a completely ficticious story with made up characters who have no resemblance to persons living or dead.
I have written the little verse myself. It is not a quote of some poem. It is supposed to sound slightly archaic to fit the ancient Faerie-setting.
You may perhaps recognise similar characters from my post for 'Bouquet' and 'Blue Moon', when I wrote about Carl Linneaus meeting faeries in the woods. In this story, I have removed Carl or any other normal-sized human beings and just kept the faeries.
Time frame: The young winged man who met Carl in the first two stories could feasibly be the old winged man who remembers his youth. This story, 'Nils' First Love' was written, as was 'Bouquet' and 'Blue Moon', directly for REW.

BTW: The name 'Tintomara' is a character from the novel Drottningens juvelsmycke of the Swedish romantic poet, Carl Jonas Love Almqvist (1793-1866). I love the sound of Tintomara, so I borrowed it from Almqvist! Sounds similar to 'Tinkerbelle' from J.M. Barries' Peter Pan (J.M. Barrie 1860-1937). But Almqvist's Tintomara was neither male nor female. I am letting Tintomara be a beautiful female faerie in my story.

Carl Jonas Love Almqvist (1793-1866)

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First Commenter:

Margo Benson



To read other texts for Romantic Friday Writers please visit this site or click on the image below: