Chicken Bones (Thursday Prompt 13/9/12)
This one is admittedly very short. I was experimenting with just how many words it would take to get a story conveyed, but at the same time still make it feel like a story. I'm concerned that so much happens in so little time that it might be a tad confusing or jarring for the reader. Thoughts? Leave a comment below.
Chicken bones are well worth the scavenge if you can get to them. They seem to predict much better than others. To this day they've never made a mistake. I've been using them for years and they never let me down.
Of course, the universe has a way of raining on my head. I had forgotten the most important rule of my magic in my lust to reveal the future: do not divine one's own path. I was blinded by love, but love also has a way of pouring rain down onto me. At least, when you use chicken bones.
He would choke on his words, I said. The jaguar would mourn the loss of every person he held dear unless he left my poor wolf alone. The tip of his sword was held to my throat as I said these words. Fear has a funny way of disappearing when confronted with the prince who would keep my wolf in chains, a concubine for life. Let me tell you what is to come, I told him, we shall see who will have his love. I shook my bones and read them in the blood soaked dirt. Just as I had thought: It was I.
Prince Yunde swore at me, spat my name. He vowed to let me suffer alive and never let me see my dear wolf again. My chicken bones begged to differ. I hadn't told him what other blessings for me they had to offer. They told me I would kiss him before I died.
I promised my wolf that tonight would be the night I kissed him. I snuck through the gate. Silenced a guard or two (a small price to pay on the path to love), and whispered into the ear of the prince as my knife cut his flesh that he would never live to make the same mistake again.
He was easy to spot in the quarters of the other concubines. I told him to follow me and he obeyed. Blood shown on my paws in the moonlight outside the castle walls.
"What have you done?"
"I have saved you my love."
I pressed my lips to his and felt the metal of my blade slide into me.
"You are no better than the prince."
My eyes shot open. I felt like I had slept an eternity. My eyes were dry and my heart ached for my wolf. The chicken bones sat next to me still in the pattern of my last casting. I began to speak to them.
"This premonition will not be taken for dust. Thank you my friends." At once I picked them all up in a paw and through them into the fire.