This is today's offering (day 156) for @mydivathings' #365daysofwriting challenge (click here to see her current post)
Today's picture prompt (below) is a Photo by Nicki Eliza Schinow on Unsplash
This can be read alone or, if you missed them, you can find the first five parts by clicking the links below:
Part one: @felt.buzz/outwitted-a-little-bit-of-fiction-for-365daysofwriting-challenge
Part two: @felt.buzz/outwitted-part-2-a-fictional-tale-for-365daysofwriting-challenge
Part three: @felt.buzz/outwitted-part-3-some-fiction-for-365daysofwriting
Part four: @felt.buzz/outwitted-part-four-a-work-of-original-fiction-for-365daysofwriting-challenge
Part five: @felt.buzz/outwitted-part-5-original-fiction-for-365daysofwriting-challenge
Part six: @felt.buzz/outwitted-part-6-an-original-fictional-tale-for-365daysofwriting-challenge
The serving girl asked me if I wanted more tea - not using words, but with gestures and smiles that were not really smiles - but I declined with a shake of my head. She bowed her head and left me alone in the room. I strained to listen beyond the walls of the room. There were people talking, I thought, but I could not distinguish the voice of my sister. I pondered, again, the mural depicting our father’s funeral, wondering again if it was put there for her benefit, or mine. Did she blame herself for his death, as I surely did?
My father was not at breakfast that morning, Mrs Karn said he hadn’t come back from the magistrates, his horse wasn’t in the stables. She was sending one of the boys into town to see if he needed anything. My mother - as was her habit since her illness began - took tea and toast in her room, so I was alone with my thoughts. I was obsessed with the strange cloud-like substance that turned to dust, and was determined to sneak back into the tutor room to see if it still hugged the floor and, if so, if I could procure more of it. When we had left the room, before the search for my sister began in earnest, my father had banned anyone from entering it. It could be dangerous, he had said. Jake’s father said that this morning, he would repair the door, make it inaccessible. I needed, therefore, to get to work before he did.
I ate more rapidly than normal, and after making sure I was not observed, made my way to the room that Grevyl and my sister had been using for their studies.
The layer of cloud was still there, but appeared thinner than the day before. Fearful that it would disappear completely I collected as many empty jars and bottles as I could and scooped as much of it into the containers as possible. Then - making several journeys - I took them to my room and hid them as best as I could.
I returned to the study for one last look. The strange machine with cogs, wheels and chains fascinated me, and I prodded it carefully with a finger. What could it be? I could not see that it produced anything. There was a small lever to the side of it and I pulled it but it was stiff and I could not get it to move. Then I heard voices - that of Mrs Karn, and a deeper voice, probably Jake’s father - outside in the corridor. I looked around me for somewhere to hide, the cloud still swirling around my ankles. There were cupboards at the side, perhaps I could hide in them, I thought and I began to run towards them, but there must have been something hidden beneath the cloud, for I tripped on something hard, heavy and unmoving and fell face down into the cold white fluff.
I could feel the cloud pushing its way into my mouth, my nose and my ears, I tried to push myself out of it but it clung to me, holding me tight. And then my vision shifted.
I was floating in a sea, not like the ocean that surrounded our kingdom, cold grey and unwelcoming. This sea was warm and beautiful. Mountains pushed their way out of the shore, towering above me, and I lay bobbing in the salty water, gazing at them in wonder. Not far, just out of reach, was a strange structure, architecture I had not yet seen - not even in the picture books I loved to read in my father’s library. It was a place to moor boats, I thought. And it was significant for some reason, I knew that much - although I did not know why at the time.
Suddenly I felt myself being grabbed by something beneath the ocean. I was being pulled under! I tried to take a breath but my mouth was filled with salt water. I was drowning, I realised. I thrashed, kicking with my legs, fighting whatever had hold of me.
“Steady on, boy!”
As I coughed and wriggled and fought I suddenly realised I was not being dragged down into the ocean by some creature from the deep but being pulled out of the cloud by Jake’s father.
“Is he alright? Tell me he’s alright!” Mrs Karn’s anxious voice seemed near and far away at the same time. “First his father, and now this!”
I blinked rapidly, and my vision cleared. Jake’s father carried me over his shoulder, out of the cloud room, Mrs Karn followed behind him looking frazzled.
“Father?” I croaked, looking around.
Mrs Karn looked sad for a minute. She chewed her lip, and looked as if she couldn’t decide what to say next.
“Your father has had an accident,” she said, at last.
...
The next part is available: @felt.buzz/outwitted-part-8-an-original-fictional-series-for-365daysofwriting-challenge