There was no sign of him is a writing prompt taken from Winter of the White Horde. The book is the standalone sequel to my middle grade (read that as aged 9 to 90 in terms of the small but enthusiastic fan base) Guardians of the Forest series. The section the prompt comes from is shown below.
Winter of the White Horde, and the other four books in Guardians of the Forest are all on sale at 99c/p throughout August, for the summer holiday. Find them here. (You need to scroll down the Amazon page to get them all!)
Lucy pulled her cloak tighter, running along the dark lanes, past cottages where gaps in the drawn curtains glowed warmly with yellow candlelight. Wood smoke scented the air, overlaying hints of roasting meats and bubbling stews. The familiar homeliness gave her no comfort.
She had beaten on the doors of every child in the village who poked fun at her son. Irate mothers and fathers had glared when Lucy demanded their children tell her where Connor might be. At last, one young boy confessed.
‘The old oak, the one on the ridge. We left him there at suppertime.’
Lucy had run to the ridge. Connor might have fallen, be lying unconscious. There was no sign of him.
There was a sign, however. The glint of a stone had drawn her to where a tiny blue sapphire mounted in a silver clip lay in the damp, rotting leaves. Her stomach had somersaulted and sent her racing along the rutted track which joined the two villages, guided by the rising moon.
An owl flew low, its wings skimming Lucy’s hair. She startled. The owl hooted softly, flew alongside her briefly. Lucy stood, panting, watching the bird. It rose into the sky, faced west, returned to Lucy, circled her, flew up, and west, hooting as it went.
While she couldn’t understand the wild creatures like Callie could, Lucy had no need for a translation. West. She opened her clenched palm and stared with wet eyes at the jewel resting there.
Blue and silver. West. She swallowed bile.
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I emailed you a couple of photos yesterday of young James digging in the garden. Hope you got them. Also noticed that the couple of times I have texted you in the last month or so the messages have failed to deliver. Have you changed your phone number by any chance?
My contribution to There was no sign of him:
THERE WAS NO SIGN OF HIM
She gazed anxiously into the distance as an evening haze descended over the landscape.
There was no sign of him and he should have been back by now.
How long did it take to go and find one lost sheep on a farm the size of ours, she wondered. Certainly not the five hours he’d been gone.
Cathy knew it was more than time to go searching for her husband because, in her heart of hearts, she knew something dreadful must have happened to keep him away for such an extended period.
However, she couldn’t leave the kids – they were too little. Tom was only two and Gerry four, and they were not big enough to accompany her on such an arduous trek.
If her husband hadn’t taken their only tractor, she could have used that, and there was no other appropriate vehicle to cover the terrain.
“Nothing for it than to phone Sue and ask her to help me,” she muttered and, picking up the phone she dialled the number.
“Hi Sue, it’s Cathy,” she announced to her neighbour. “Harry went searching for a lost sheep but he’s been gone for five hours and I’m worried something might have happened to him. Do you mind looking after the children while I see if I can find him?”
“Oh, that doesn’t sound good,” Sue’s concern was evident. “Of course, I’ll be right over. Do you want me to bring Dan to help you search?”
“Would you? That would be great!”
Ten minutes later Sue and Dan were on her doorstep and without further ado the two neighbours set off in search of Harry.
They had climbed the first hill and were peering through the gathering gloom down into the valley when they spotted the tractor lying on its side.
“Oh no!” an involuntary gasp from Cathy, as they both sprinted down the slope.
Harry was lying underneath the vehicle, conscious but in a great deal of pain. Both his legs had been pinned under the back wheel.
“Hang on, mate, while we get you out of there,” Dan said, looking around for something to use as a lever.
A copse of trees was some distance away but, as luck would have it, he hadn’t brought a chainsaw and there was none in the tractor.
“I’ll have to go back and fetch a chainsaw to cut down some branches that hopefully we can use as a lever to prise the tractor off Harry,” Dan said to Cathy, who was finding it difficult to control her tears. “You stay with him and try to keep him as calm as possible while I do that and also phone for an ambulance. Promise I’ll be as quick as I can.”
Cathy nodded, meanwhile cradling Harry’s head in her lap and whispering words of comfort and encouragement.
Darkness was fast approaching and the last thig she needed was to spend a cold night in the open with her badly injured husband.
“Please hurry, Dan,” was all she could manage. “I’ll be waiting.”
Just saw the photos – they came through last night. No, not changed, not received.
This piece is a real slice of life for farmers’ wives I suspect.
Indeed. Would you mind trying to send me a test text to see if I receive it. Thanks 😀
This sounds terribly fraught. Hope she finds him.
Better read the book – Beron, then Connor – what is the evil lady up to??
Yes I’ll have to get a copy of it. Probably should get all your books and have a Cheryl fiesta😂