#basil's persimmon persevere

[projektserenity]

Write a story told through entirly a chase scene (prompt i)

If you wanna try, go to the submitions page (linked below if ya can't find it) and use the tag "p. i"! Keep reading for mine <3 Winner will get featured!

I had one thought as I sprinted through the forest: I’ve made it this far, there’s no way I’m dying now. The sun had just gone down and the overstuffed sack slung over my shoulder was getting heavier and heavier. As I pushed my way through the dense underbrush, I wondered if it could hear my footsteps. I couldn’t help but to think of my mother. What would she think if she could see me like this? As I ran, I saw flowers. Petunias: resentment, anger. I probably deserved it too. Yellow carnations: disappointment, disdain. Such a shame I never got to explain it to her. Someday, I just might be able to see her again, to tell her that I truly did love her. For now, I just had to get out of this forest. I could hear it getting closer.

My tangled hair whipped across my face, making me stumble over a fallen branch. I fell, getting dirt on my no longer white dress. The hem was tattered and torn and the soles of my bare feet were bruised and sore, as heels were impossible to run in. I’d thrown them in the opposite direction before in an attempt to confuse it, but by now, it must have realized that i didn’t go that way. The sword stuck in a scabbard slung over my shoulder felt like a leaden weight, and I could barely keep running with it. The last person I had spoken to was the inn owner, who had given me a shepherd’s pie (the real kind) with lamb, not beef. That had been three days ago, and the last time I had a full stomach. Canary grass: perseverance, Cedar: strength. Getting back up, I knew that I couldn’t run forever. I have to fight. I thought to myself.

I heard it rustling through the leaves, just a few meters away. I turned to face it, standing up slowly. Adrenaline shot through my body, giving me strength that I didn’t know I still had. Pulling out my sword, I felt a wave of confidence wash over me. The creature was beautiful in a gruesome sort of way, a flowery silhouette of the man I had once respected, like joyous mugwort rotted to the blackest ebony. The only feelings that lingered in it were the worst humanity had to offer. Basil: hatred, yellow roses: jealousy. The air was sweet, subtly floral, the scent of witch hazel left in its wake. He had loved that smell.

As I swung my sword in wild abandon, I saw petals scattering, coloring the air around me with memories, faint slivers of the past floating through the air, and falling down. It was warm and nostalgic, everything washed down to grainy old photographs, forgotten in the dust. bittersweet nightshade: truth, lesser celandine: joys to come, The trees around us seemed to be closing in, trapping us in a wooden cage. There was nowhere to run from here. Butterfly weed: let me go, buckbean: calm repose, Michaelmas daisy: farewell.

She fell then, amid the wildflowers, and the creature exploded into a thousand persimmon flowers, her final request: bury me amid Nature's beauties.

#p. i #writing prompt #you try #have fun #good luck