The Carrot Ranch Challenge:
In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story inspired by “Across the Water”.
Click here to hear the author read his words:
The Wind
I arrive at the headland, exhausted.
The wind-driven snow in my face has made the trip long and hazardous.
These hills can be dangerous even in calm weather.
Across the water I see the lights of home.
Where she is, with the children, my love, and my life.
Not far by boat, but I am on foot.
Another fourteen miles hard trek.
Suddenly the wind lifts again, and I am instantly alert.
My hunter’s senses are keen.
Something is not right.
Bad tidings sweep across the bay.
The sound of misery.
The scent of fear.
The smell of blood.
Sound Bite Fiction 
You started slow and brought us to a harrowing ending. I’m not really sure what to say other than if a story touches all the bases (baseball idiom) then this is it.
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Thank you, Michael, that is high praise, and much appreciated.
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What a horror to be so close yet too far to help one’s family in mortal danger. Well done.
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Thanks, Charli, not a nice situation…
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Whew… intense. Powerful. Well done!
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Cheers, Kate, I like a good ‘Whew’!
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Oh. My. What a homecoming, how awful to be close enough to sense the danger but too far to do anything about it. Well told.
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Thank you, D, glad it worked for you
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Hopeful homecoming, comes with a sense of dire foreboding. We imagine the rest…
So well done!
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I heard you the first time!
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(Damned computers!)
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Hopeful homecoming, comes with a sense of direr foreboding. We imagine the rest…
So well done!
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Thanks, Liz, I love when the Reader gets the point and finishes the tale…
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The master at work!
You tell a story, a happening, yes, but you also convey the sense of the whole life that this happening is part of.
And all without a superfluous word.
Powerful stuff.
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Thanks, Jenne, I quite like this one too.
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