Milky sunbeams danced around fat heads of passionately fuchsia peonies.
The flowers leaned lazily, allowing light to wash over a sighing boy’s asparagus-green flesh, exposing its glorious opalescent glow to the inky eyes of calico-feathered birds perched above.
Lean fingers fiddled with slick blue blades of grass growing at the water’s edge.
Embarrassed, he tossed a pebble into the pond, scattering the school of lemony fish that had witnessed him weeping.
Ripples calmed.
He couldn’t stop himself from leaning forward.
He peered into nature’s mirror as he moved, watching the watery scene of another cloudless sky fill with a face.
But his own reflection was hidden from sight.
The sad boy only saw the image of his tribe, the same large, heavy-lidded hazel eyes, long planes on either side of slim flat nostrils. The family mouth, wide and soft, filled with hundreds of immaculately golden teeth.
The face of the foes of the girl in pink.
He had been hunting and was stopped in his silent tracks by a giggle in the shadows.
“Why so serious?” she asked.
No one ever caught his kind off-guard. They were a serious lot, venomous of tongue and spirit.
Yet she had lightened him when she stole a kiss that day.
In her delighted eye he saw a future. When her mottled red hand retracted delicate claws and reached for his, he accepted.
They didn’t want to part, but when the moons rose they wouldn’t be safe from the night creatures. So they did with regret in their hearts and eyes locked until the hills rose too high.
Back home he couldn’t ignore that everyone, every coupling, every child was the same.
Reds were not a part of his world.
If anyone knew of what he held inside for the girl in the pink dress, she would be hunted, slain, made an example of.
So he hid his tears behind a bursting flowerbed and allowed himself one day to mourn the love he could never fully know.
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This post was in response to Trifecta Writing Challenge Prompt.
The prompt went like this:
You must use the third definition of the word below to craft a piece of writing of no less than 33 words and no more than 333. The chosen word should appear in your writing exactly as it appears below. For more information, please check our instructions page.
This week’s word is: image noun \ˈi-mij\
I saw the little green creature crying at a water’s edge, knowing he had his heart broken because of who his family was. This is what came from that.
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Perfect for the prompt – great imagery.
There’s a lot of little detail words that really provide depth.
good writing
Lance recently posted..Idioteque
Thanks, Lance! I just saw this guy when I could finally think about the prompt. Saw him at 4:30am after my kid woke me up. I laid there, thinking of him and seeing those first lines over and over again, knowing why he was so sad.
This is unlike anything i’ve ever posted here, but it had to be done.
I’m so glad I stumbled upon Trifecta. This is friction’ FUN.
What incredible imagery and description! I was taken right into this world, dazzled by it. But so often, pretty words will not have any emotion behind them…and this does. Oh, does it! Beautiful in more ways that one.
This paragraph?
The flowers leaned lazily, allowing light to wash over a sighing boy’s asparagus-green flesh, exposing its glorious opalescent glow to the inky eyes of calico-feathered birds perched above.
Dazzled me. With your words, you painted the scene.
Katie @ Chicken Noodle Gravy recently posted..Ode to Katney: the Odd Couple
Uh-oh, I dazzled Katie. Now I’m tickled pinker than that alien girl’s dress.
You’re always so generous with compliments & sharing my posts. Thank you!
I swear, I suck at comments. When I learn how to write a decently worded comment, without repeating myself or my descriptions, I’ll have really made it as a writer.
You’re welcome, though
As long as you get what I mean, I guess that’s the important thing.
Katie @ Chicken Noodle Gravy recently posted..Ode to Katney: the Odd Couple
I love your comments and always appreciate them! I know what it is you like or don’t understand or your interpretation of what I wrote. This is what I’m looking for: what works, what doesn’t, am I getting better, am I stuck in a rut. Your words answer these things for me. So keep ‘em coming, girl! Pretty please?
Beautiful imagery in this. I love imagery.
Pamela
Thank you, I saw it and hoped I could write it to come across as it was in my mind.
Lots and lots of great images. Especially the first few colorful paragraphs. And more great surprises. You’re really in your stride with the surprising images, the ones that pop up just when I think I know what’s going on. And that’s what makes me keep reading. Everything gets kind of pretty and mesmerizing and lemony and milky and furiously fuchsia, and then I thinking, “Oh! Science fiction? Fantasy? Interesting . . .”
What’s just as great is that this little piece is hinting at a huge theme. It’s got some Romeo and Juliet, some of the danger of The Hu ger Games, and a huge helping of social critique. Should this poor, lovesick green boy not be allowed to follow his heart? What kind of people are these that would kill a little girl? There just be more to the story . . .
Another note, try Jasper Fforde’s (not a typo) Shades of Grey. This piece, not only because of the heavy dose of color, but there is that, reminded me of that book, although you’ll find it’s very different than what you wrote here. It’s a fave of mine. I pinned it if you want to reference it.
Huggles and shizz.
Ninja Mom recently posted..I screw up because I care.
THIS is why I love having friends, people who know me, read my stuff.
The names Capulet and Montague were on the tip of my tongue as I typed away at this, racism danced around those words, and the violence was an accepted part of society but not what the Green Guy wanted. For you to pluck those things out of my words, makes me feel understood here. You got it, sister. Got. It.
I’ll dash on over to Pinterest now to re-pin that book, add it to my collection of stuff I’ll buy next time I think I can get away with adding to my book collection…thanks!
I love the color. Each word just adds to the image, the scene has come alive with vibrancy. The poor little green boy and his love. So sad
Carrie recently posted..Apparition
“The little green boy and his love. So sad.” <– This sums it up perfectly. This is what I kept feeling when the image came to mind, over and over. I was so, so sad for him.
Thanks for coming by.
I was just going to say: I like how you worked with colour in this but then I read Carrie’s post and apparently it all has been said before.
I’m going to say it anyway. 
Satu recently posted..Buttermilk and spit
Ha, thank you! You’re allowed to repeat things here. Especially compliments
My favorite part is the lemony school of fish scattering. Something about his behavior in that moment made him acutely real to me.
Jessie Powell recently posted..Fiction: Or Else
I felt it was a human reaction, and I’m glad that stuck out to you.
Loved this – universal theme – people divided by hatred and circumstance.
kelly garriott waite recently posted..The Contours of a Man’s Heart
Exactly, this is how I felt when I was writing it. His pain is so much more than just the loss of a chance at love.
Thanks for coming by.
The comments before me say it all. This piece is packed full of beautiful imagery. You really bring your writing alive and bring us all with you. Hope to see you back over the weekend.
Trifecta recently posted..Trifecta – Week Twelve
Thank you. I saw him, his world, so fully and blindingly, that I had to trim this piece down a little to meet the 333. I’m really enjoying your prompts this week, and will absolutely be back.
That was a lovely snippet. I love the fact that you never told us one fact about his world, and we got it all anyway.
I had to think about this. I guess I didn’t, though it’s all so fully formed in my head. I appreciate your pointing this out to me – thanks!
Oh my goodness, I love it. I feel like this is right out of the middle of a book.
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