This weeks Flash! Friday has us incorporating the theme of Freedom into a story about the following prompt:
Earth goddess. Imaginary Worlds exhibit, Atlanta Botanical Garden. Photo by C. Joey Ivansco.
Around the bend
My roots splinter and break with a final crack. This is it. Without them I am doomed to wither away from an insatiable thirst. It is supposed to be the worst way for our kind to go, the most agonizing. They say it makes you crazy.
At first I remain still, because that is all I have ever known. As the thirst sets in, the madness takes over. It occurs to me that without roots, I can go where I please. I stretch my limbs, they creak in protest. I take a tentative step, then another. My view changes for the first time in a century. Around the corner I find a stream, overflowing with nourishment. I stoop down and listen to the babble of the water. I could put down new roots here, but then I would be incarcerated once more. The stream rounds a bend, I cannot see what is around it. I am going to find out.
