2. He caught his foot on a root…
Today’s Prompt
2. He caught his foot on a root but managed to stay on his feet. He dodged a tree, leaped over a mossy stone, and then looked back just as the ogre reached out.
400 Creative Writing Prompts Workbook Story Prompts for Journaling, Blogging, and Overcoming Writer’s Block Compiled by Debra Chapoton All rights reserved Copyright © 2020 by Debra Chapoton
Response
The mantra rang through his mind, “never look back.” From his earliest memories, Adan remembered his older brother pounding into his head that expression. During every game they ever played outside in which Marquet would pretend to be one of the myriad dangerous creatures that roamed the Great Wood, he would tell Adan over and over every single time “never look back.” Whether Marquet was pretending to be a rogue fairy flitting through the air, instructing Adan on how to find the nearest burrow or hollow tree trunk into which to slip so the flyer couldn’t follow or he was pretending to be a gnome, scuttling low to the ground so that Adan needed to find a branch to swing up onto, he always insisted on the same adage: never look back.
So today when the ogre came crashing through the underbrush right in front of Adan, he knew how to run and what to look for, and most importantly to focus all his attention on the flight. Even after nearly tripping on a root and vaulting over a moss covered rock nearly as big as he was, Adan kept going. Slipping around a tree, to find a large clearing he poured on the speed and then in a moment of overconfidence he lost the motto, committed the cardinal sin, and looked back just in time to see the ogre reaching for him, since its much larger legs had brought it frighteningly close across the clearing. Adan screamed and immediately lost his footing.
