There was only one table in the tent where Orley waited. She stood silently, hands folded, while Kranz helped the orderly strip the wounded swordsman of his plate mail. Under where the metal had been pierced: a great gash of a wound.
Orley stepped forward, placed her palm on the injury, spoke the words as she had a thousand times before. The gaping wound began to close as sweat dripped from her quivering brow.
Kranz reached out to steady her. "I don't know how you do this, My Lady."
She smiled weakly, wanly. "It's all I ever wanted to do."
I do like how you capture the essence of the prompt without having to use it. Well done.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I try to avoid simply using the word in some obvious or superficial way, but rather finding some interesting implication or connotation/denotation and exploring that. More fun that way. :-)
DeleteI agree with Tara. Love that you implied the word here. That alone won't make for great writing, but to not be burdened by arbitrary rules allows you to be fully creative.
ReplyDeleteGreat vignette here. You do a superb job of showing her commitment, willingness to sacrifice, and the pain she must endure to do so.
Thank you :-)
DeleteLove that you focus on the idea of her "calling" and never explicitly say it. I tried to do that with my piece...not sure if I pulled it off :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading!
DeleteA calling found for sure! So like the others, I like your idea of using the prompt without having to throw it right out there.
ReplyDeleteThank you! :-)
Delete