Friday, 19 April 2013

An A-Z Story - Q

This story is turning out to be quite a challenge within a Challenge! I've no qualms or quibbles though, I'm still really enjoying it.

My theme is as follows: each day I will ask for words beginning with that day's letter, which I will randomly select five from to use in a sentence in an ongoing story. That sentence will be posted the next day when I'll ask for words for the next letter. So my Z sentence will appear on May 1st.

Thank you for the excellent quotient of 163 P words yesterday, and from them random.org has picked the following five for the quest of continuing the story:

Precious (suggested by Julie Flanders)
Paramount (suggested by Nutschell)
Potato (suggested by Al Diaz)
Privileged (suggested by Jianne Carlo)
Pixie (suggested by Shell Flower)

So now we have:


Angels had always had a certain ambiguity, being both human and divine, reflected Acatour with an acute sense of malaise as he looked down on the arable fields of medieval England. A bird flew past making a belligerent shriek, unnerved it seemed by a boggart; Acatour descended, thinking it would take a brainiac like him to unravel the poor soul’s beginnings and why it had not reached Heaven.
     York Cathedral hove into view, shrouded in wooden scaffold as part of the local bishop’s campaign of restoration; but before he could challenge a carpenter over whether any of his colleagues had fallen to their doom, his presence was announced by the crawdad he’d eaten back in 20th century New Orleans repeating on him. He wiped dribble from his chin as the remains of the crustacean narrowly missed the workmen to land in the dew of the graveyard, berating himself for his debauched and unangelic behaviour the previous night; why did that dame have to desert him? The effervescent Ella had always been eager for exciting adventures, but when he’d asked her to accompany him on this esoteric time travel mission, she’d called him a crazy drunk and left.
     It did sound rather fabulous, in the true sense of the word, he thought to himself as he descended further before landing on an empty area of scaffold, all the better for making himself visible; next to him was some viscous fluid, making him think that any fall from this precarious structure would surely be a fluke. Stepping away from the gel-like substance, he felt something watching him and turned to see a Gardengoyle on the wall next to a carved bunch of grapes, which caused the gregarious sounds of the workmen to die away as two thoughts rang clearly in his head: what was it doing here, and did he detect guilt in the creature’s eyes?
     That horrendous stare was starting to give Acatour a headache when a workman with a harried expression shimmied up onto the platform via a hemp rope, his arrival causing an apparently hilarious reaction in the Gardengoyle. “Hey, you!” said the workman, stomping towards Acatour, but something seemed to interrupt his progress, drawing him inexorably towards the island of iridescent liquid, which seemed entirely illogical to the angel until he sensed the impish carving’s illicit intentions.
     The workman slipped on the puddle and waved his arms frantically like a jester, trying not to fall over the edge; in that moment Acatour sensed the wickedly joyful mirth of the Gardengoyle and grabbed the man’s arm, saving him from jeopardy and causing the creature’s joy to dissipate as it contemplated a future in Paranormal Jail.
     “Thank you,” said the man, “my darling Kate is too young to become a widow,” but upon saying this he started to keel over as if affected by his own version of Kryptonite; Acatour had been ready to show kindness to the grotesquely kitsch Gardengoyle, but now saw the only solution was to destroy it. While struggling to hold on to the lanky workman - who had become rather loquacious and kept babbling about his wife and lover, who Acatour hoped were the same person - and stop him from being lost over the edge of the scaffold, he cast around for any tools or discarded carvings he could use as a weapon and finally alighted on a rather hefty rock lobster, which, it occurred to him, would be much more effective than a crawdad.
     A look of merriment crossed the creature’s face that was quite deranged considering it was about to be smashed to smithereens, before it melted into the rock leaving nothing but smooth stone - it was magic, of course - and Acatour quickly descended the monumental structure, past more workmen and a rather flustered merchant, and burst through the main door just as matins was beginning. Two hundred heads turned towards him in a space as quiet as a nunnery, and he felt like a numbskull for interrupting, but he had a need as urgent as a junkie looking for his next narcotics to get that Gardengoyle before it did any more mischief; the next thing he knew, a numbing pain and squeezing sensation on his head told him the Gardengoyle had found him.
     “Oh Father, hallowed be thy name-” began an officious bishop, quickly interrupted by a loud “Ouch!” from Acatour and an earsplitting shriek from the monster at an octave which must have been unreachable by humans as the besieged angel finally wrestled it off his head, before pitching it to the black- and white- tiled floor which looked like pieces from an Othello set, where it smashed into a thousand pieces.
     “Your Holiness,” said Acatour before the stunned bishop could speak, “it is paramount that the remains of this wretched creature are scattered as far as possible, otherwise it will reassemble; and I suggest the privileged members of your congregation would like to take a piece home, one to perhaps repair a dry stone wall round a potato field, another to form part of a whimsical garden frequented by a pixie,” but before he could go on, his eye was caught by the twinkle of precious stones among the debris and he realised the scoundrel had been a thief as well as a murderer.

I await your Q words with quivering anticipation! You can offer as many as you like, and they can be as obscure and outlandish as you like (feel free to use a dictionary for inspiration). The more words you suggest, the more chance you have of one being picked. It doesn't matter if you suggest the same word as someone else (as I know not everyone always has time to read all the comments); each will count as its own entry.

NB: I am going away today until the 23rd. I won't be visiting any blogs during this time, but rest assured I will get back to every commenter on my return!

We're actually going to stay in a cottage in Yorkshire, which is why I chose the setting of this story. My parents are travelling up and meeting us there. No doubt we'll be visiting York Minster at some point - I'll be keeping an eye out for any Gardengoyles!

32 comments:

Elise Fallson said...

Oh I thought I'd get here early today!

Quick
Quest
Q-tip
Question
Quark
Quack

:)

Suzanne Furness said...

What about;

quote
quibble
quota
quidditch

Anonymous said...

quintuplets, questionable, quandary, quagmire

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

quantify, quality, quake, quack.

J.L. Murphey said...

queen
queue
quickly
quarter
quaint
quid

Heather R. Holden said...

Love how random today's winning words were!

Some Q words:

quail
quotient
query
quarrelsome
quilt
quarantine

Anonymous said...

Quarter,
Quinine,
Quilt,
Quack,
Quick,
Quiver,


I missed out on 'P' :(

Dee @ A Deecoded Life said...

Scoundrel - I love that word! Not sure why.

My Q words:

Querulous
Quit
Quintessential
Queen
Quote
Querida
Quench

Anstice Brown said...

Wow, this is such a wonderful and unique A-Z idea. I'm glad you stopped by my blog so I cold find yours.

For your Q words, I suggest:
Quagmire
Quarrelsome
Quail
Quince
Quarry
Quaverer
Queasy
Quay

~Tizzy @Creative Therapy

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Enjoy your day away!
Quasi, quibble, quota.

Unknown said...

Congrats on using those P words so well. The others took all the good Q words, and I'm sure you'll come up with something great.
Have a wonderful trip. See you on the 23rd! :-)

Carol Kilgore said...

Have a great mini-vacation! See you next week :)
quintessential
quote
quirk
quiver
quench
quadruple
quadrangle
query
quest

Mark Means said...

Going to be a tough one, today, in not duplicating other entries...hmmmm


Quiz, Quantum, Quasar,

cleemckenzie said...

Thievery and murder! The plot thickens.

Well, with a thick plot you might have a QUAGMIRE or two.

Cathrina Constantine said...

Good story, Nick.

Quartermaster
Querulous
Quintessential
Quiver
Quirky

loverofwords said...

quisling
quixotic
quench

Have a wonderful respite (an "r" word?)

Gwen Gardner said...

Have fun on your getaway, but be nice to the Gardengoyles!

Quiz
Queen
Quarter
Quill
Quall

Julie Flanders said...

So excited one of my words was chosen!

This story gets better all the time. Can't think of any Q words but I will look forward to reading the next segment. :)

Rhonda Albom said...

Questioningly
Quizzes
Quintessential
Quiet
Queen

Cynthia said...

quote
quick
question
quest
quirky

Keep up the great work, Nick!

Anonymous said...

quirk
quell
quarrel
quip
quarry

:-)

Unknown said...

quandary
quill
quietly
quit
quake
query

have a great weekend.

Jules
A Dose of Jules

Mark said...

I like the quill...and have tried writing with one (no joke). Sometimes it's cool to change up the writing style every once in a while:)

Christine Rains said...

Have fun with your family! :)

Here are my Q words: quadrangle, quarrel, quay, quench, and quiver.

Jean Davis said...

Quick
Quails
Quack
Queerly

Unknown said...

Quartet
Quintessential
Quilt
Qanat (this really is a word)
Questioning

Rachna Chhabria said...

Queasy
Qualm
Quango

Alcina said...

That was such a nice read.I was gripped by it till the end.
Quincy
Quarrel
Qualms
Quit
Quintessential
Quark
Quick
Quill

Ella said...

Quartz
Quasimodo
Quiz
Quick
Quack
Quip
Queen

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Nick .. you're doing great .. Quarter (as in sleeping quarter), querulous, quagmire .. I had Queen ..

Good luck - cheers Hilary

Nick Wilford said...

Great suggestions! I've been out and about today - will have the update up soon. :)

Shell Flower said...

Yay that you used one of my words and another shell's. LOL. Sorry I'm late!