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Post 1527. Saturday May 6


April's  A-Z Challenge 2017 is now behind us and so it's back to business as usual - at least, for the next eleven months!

A short story in 160 words, 23 of which are from three of this week's prompt sites.

Twigs crackled and snapped beneath his feet, as he dashed twixt naked ash trees and rushed through the thick green grass. He clambered up a clover strewn slope, then slithered down a muddy river bank. Gasping for breath he lay motionless in the shallow water, his thin aching limbs throbbing.

Just hours before, he imagined he’d perish in that tiny cave. He’d heard stories of those that had suffered before him. There had been no happy endings. Hungry, parched; his spirit was gradually draining away. But his captors erred, so he seized the chance to break free. Tomorrow they’d  find him gone.

But for the song of a robin, silence prevailed. He gazed at milkweed flowers drifting by. Suddenly a thousand diamond coronets began dancing on the surface of the water as leaden lumps of rain pounded down from the slate grey sky.

A ring of hope radiated from within him as the past washed away. He felt born again. Soon, a different identity, another life, a new beginning.

At The Sunday Whirl the given words are - born, radiates, rings, snapped, rain, cave, limb, spirits thin, origins, stories, ash.

At Sunday’s Whirligig -  tiny, old, flare, gaze, month, clover, thick, milkweed, drifts, melt, parch, perishes.

The single word at Sunday Scribblings 2 - endings

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