Picturesque Prompted Contest: Maxine Vee
Prompt 1: The art piece by Maxine Vee. A woman in wedding-like attire ascending a grand staircase with lampposts to either side. The higher floor has massive arched windows, a set of double doors, and a framed painting.
Silence lay in the foyer like the ashen regolith surrounding the exterior of the great lunar palace. One would almost think that the hab-bubble that kept the icy vacuum at bay had been lifted. Almost.
As dawn approached, guests were beginning to arrive, and with them came the rolling murmurs and greetings he would expect those attending a wedding would have. Some of the voices he recognized; family, close relations, members of his court. Others, rough and raucous, gave him no point of recollection. Her side of the guest list perhaps.
The Lunar Prince’s eyes swept over the candlelit hall, the warm light doing little for the chill of nerves that crept over him, and a small breath escaped. There, on the steps, her dress glowing like starlight…
But what was she doing? An alabaster arm stretched toward the rays trickling through the thin glass panes that lined the wall. One caught her skin, and as she held it in place, the Prince heard the soft tinkling of laughter.
“It’s so warm…”
As if feeling his eyes, the Umbral Princess turned to look up at him with a smile whose radiance seemed to pale the cresting fiery orb.
Prompt 2
Prompt: The art piece by Maxine Vee. A horse-riding woman crosses a bridge over a river through an autumnal wood. Foxes, rabbits, and birds run alongside her.
As Dala prodded Blaze forward, the foxes playfully skittered between the horse’s legs. She wished the canines would take the situation more seriously. Their rescue was hard enough without them frolicking about.
Dala grimaced as a bugle sounded behind her. Though she couldn’t hear the hounds’ baying, the hunting company was definitely closer.
“Hey!” she snapped. “Unless you want your heads mounted above my father’s mantle, you’ll stop your lollygagging. The gnomes are waiting across the river. They can’t help you if you’re dead!”
A kit sniffed a bush.
Sighing, Dala clicked her tongue, and Blaze quickened his pace.
As they reached the river, the hounds’ bawling began echoing off the trees.
A red capped, bearded fellow popped up on the opposite bank. “Hurry!”
Dala facepalmed when the foxes ignored the bridge, plunging into the river. Still, they made it across just as the hunters appeared. Lifting a hand, the gnome bent light around them.
“Where did they go?” the king asked, halting his horse beside the riverbank.
Dala blinked. “Where did who go, Father?”
“The foxes! A whole skulk just vanished!”
“Sorry, I don’t know what you mean.” She shrugged. “Perhaps they were a trick of the light.”
~ Rachel Dib (@rj_dib)
Prompt 3
Prompt: Art piece by Maxine Vee. A blue-haired fairy places a lotus into a pond, whose reflection shows a house not part of the background.
Neverland was dying.
For so long, it had been kept alive by the hopes and dreams of children, but now, as darkness crept into the world, the young ones often tossed aside their childish fantasies.
Neverland needed a new host. A child who would be content, happy even, to forsake childhood forever and come to the land of make-believe. To be the protector of the fairies, swim with the mermaids, fight off the pirates and their grown-up views of the world.
“Hush, my child,” Blue whispered to the sleeping infant. She placed her daughter in the flower bassinet as it drifted on the river. This would carry the babe right over the Never-Falls and to London below.
Where the last hope of Neverland might reside.
Such a weighty goal to put on a newborn—to save the world. But if no host, no one innocent soul could be found…
Perhaps Blue’s daughter would find a new home. Love. Safety.
Blue placed a kiss against her daughter’s soft forehead. Tears dripped into the Never-River as a mother bid one last farewell. “Sleep well, my little Tinker Bell. May you someday come back to Neverland with a savior for us all.”
