Saturday 20 April 2013

An A-Z Story - R

Still relishing the Challenge as we ride towards the end!

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.

A rollicking 136 Q words were suggested yesterday and today and from them these five have been randomly chosen:

Quark (suggested by Elise Fallson)
Quiver (suggested by Carol Kilgore)
Quartermaster (suggested by Cathrina Constantine)
Quell (suggested by C.B. Wentworth)
Quench (suggested by Christine Rains)

So the story rolls on...


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.
     By this time the congregation had gathered around the scene, and a man seemed to quiver as he stooped to retrieve a diamond ring before saying to Acatour, “Thank you, good sir, this belongs to my wife; I am a quartermaster, please accept this Quark cheese and flagon of mead to quench the mighty thirst you must have garnered in your quest to quell this monster.”

Really looking forward to your R words! 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'm currently away 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!

29 comments:

J.L. Murphey said...

retched
relief
roe
rower
roar
repeat
repent
rascal
rabbit

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

What does Quark cheese taste like?
Revolution, ritual, rodent, royalty, and rupture.

Jean Davis said...

Revolutionary
Rodents
Raid
Rice
Randomly

Cynthia said...

romance
recreation
recital
revenge
roar
run

John said...

random
ridiculous
reverberation
rosin
rebuke

Dee @ A Deecoded Life said...

Rose
Ridiculous
Rest
Romance
Rebel
Retribution
Rucksack

Deecoded

Trisha said...

some R words from me:

ramble
righteous
relevant
retroactive
reticent

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Nick .. I'll just add rhubarb ... red and the right time of year ..

Enjoy your few days away - cheers Hilary

Michelle Wallace said...

Here goes...
Racketeer
Rebellious
Recalcitrant
Rapacious
Rejuvenation
Recoup
Revolt
Ripple
Relish

Good Luck!

Writer In Transit

Al Diaz said...

roam
rival
roast
rivet
risk

Rhonda Albom said...

Still loving the story :)

radiant
riddled
reliable
ridiculous
Rhonda (sorry, I couldn't resist)
rum
relic
rumpled
running
reindeer
remarkable

Rhonda @Laugh-Quotes.com

Anonymous said...

Rolling
Repent
Remember
Revise
Restrain
Remain
Rewind
Regain
Ramp
Row
Rise
Roar

Julie Flanders said...

I want some Quark cheese now. I'm a total cheese fantastic so just reading the word cheese makes me hungry LOL.

Relish, regiment, rollicking, rendezvous

Anonymous said...

I'm so excited my Q word was chosen! :-)

Now for R:

relish
rotten
radiant
rudimentary
ravishing

Kristin said...

risque
reticent
rhetoric

I just found your blog. I think I will have to start from the beginning.

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

rant, ravish, regulate, rampage, romp

cleemckenzie said...

Quark cheese? Really?

You have to use READ, or RARE, or RIBALD. How about REVAMP?

Erin Shakespear said...

Ha! I haven't visited for awhile. I can't believe how much this scene has grown!

Ok, let's see...

radicated
reel
remuant
rollick
reef
ruche

Good luck!

Carol Kilgore said...

Cool for quiver!
On to R:
rouge
rigor
Rumpelstiltskin
rodeo
roundup
relax
rapids
Rosie
rice

Misha Gerrick said...

Resist

:-)

Ella said...

Quark cheese? Yeah, I am curious, too?!

Rough
righteous
road
rake
rash
rabbits
rabid
race
racquet
request

Jennifer Joyce said...

My R words are:

Romantic
Replenish
Robin
Race
Running

Michelle Wallace said...

Here goes...

Reverie
Ripple
Rhubarb
Rhapsody
Restoration

Good Luck!

Writer In Transit

D.E. Malone said...

You're still going strong - keep it up!

Restrained
Rebellious
Rank
Rich
Rotund
Rudimentary

Elise Fallson said...

Hope you had a good trip! (:

Mark said...

Alright, three quarks for Mr. Mark ;)

Unknown said...

Retched
Rich
Ridiculous
Ratified
Romanesque

Deniz Bevan said...

I'd like to taste some quark cheese! And it'd be fun to have a piece of gargendoyle in the wall...
Hmm, R words, okay...
Wait, before I forget, I'm going to give you a W word early, because I'm afraid I might miss my chance later - Wariangle!
It's one of Tolkien's words from his time at the OED.

Anyhow, R...

royal
rang
rama-lama-ding-dong
rigid
Rohan
runes
raise
raze
ribbon

Nick Wilford said...

OK, I'm running behind but I'm getting there! Thanks for all your R words, I don't need any more, look out for my post which will be a twofer tonight!