Photo copy Google Maps Streetview
On the bridge, Ndori stared through his other eye. The creek was muddy, sluggish. The cursed water flowed slowly, mingled with fresh. To him, it shimmered: greasy gray streaks, soaking into the earth, invisibly poisoning the grasses.
Ahead lay another village, filling their buckets.
How to warn them? The last two villages had spurned Ndori. Spouting heathen lies, they said. Disputing their priests.
They couldn’t see the curse with their eyes. They wouldn’t accept the truth from his mouth.
He must show them something to believe.
Kneeling as close as he dared, he chanted spells, threw in the prepared dung balls. The streaks flashed purple, faded to black. Inky evil, visible to anyone. Avoidable by anyone.
Someone shouted.
Ndori grabbed his skirts and ran, using his last magic for speed. They’d say he’d cursed the water. If they caught him, they’d kill him.
But at least they wouldn’t drink it.
Word count: 150. Written for this week’s What Pegman Saw prompt. Big thanks to Karen and Josh for hosting this fun flash fiction challenge! This week Pegman takes us to Free State, South Africa. Click the link to see the images the other writers found, and read the stories those sights inspired them to write. And and always, feel free to join in — everyone is welcome!
FYI: Merriam-Webster provides multiple definitions for the word “ingenuous”, including both “noble, honorable” and “ingenious.”
I’m sorry I missed contributing a story last week. Things were super hectic at work. But we finally made the first of the big deadlines of the year this past week, so now I’m enjoying a relative reprieve. And facing a monumental to-do list that I was putting off for far too long! It feels good to have at least a few more things checked off that list.
I love what you have done here, Joy.
They are lucky he risked his life to save theirs.
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Thank you Dale! Yes, and hopefully they will later realize what he did for them, but he will still be feeling bad that he couldn’t save the people in the earlier two villages.
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To risk one’s life to save others… such an evil thing to do! Of course they must kill him… 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Yes, so true, Crispina. Never underestimate humans’ ability to completely misunderstand the outsider and react with violence and cruelty.
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Delete out all words, leave only To react with violence and cruelty. Though that is unfair, for not everyone’s like it 🙂
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Yes, but all that’s needed is for some people to be like it, and other people to stay silent and let it happen. 😦
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Yea, I know.
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I admire his want to save them after they have turned him away. They don’t deserve his kindness.
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Great comment Iain, thanks! I think he wouldn’t consider what they deserve or not, but what he is morally obligated to try to do for anyone, no matter how ignorant they are. There are innocent children in those villages, after all!
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