Join in my daily writing prompt! I don’t promise to respond to them all myself, but will try my best! Here is my response to the latest prompt.
She had to find the necklace, before …
She had to find the necklace, before Moira discovered it missing. What on earth had Elle been thinking? To simply take it like that! And then … Disaster!
She had tried to ease her nerves. It might take Moira a while to find it gone. After all, that jumble of chains, lockets, pearls and beads hid dozens of necklaces, bracelets too.
The attempt didn’t work. Elle had rarely seen the necklace off her friend’s neck. Which is why, when left alone in Moira’s bedroom today, she was surprised to find it lying on the dressing table, close to but not among the higgledy pile of other jewellery.
Elle had often wondered why it was a favourite. It wasn’t an especially beautiful necklace: a simple chain of dulled silver with a tiny pendant of a flying beast hanging from it. Elle knew the beast was a gryphon. This one was gorgeous, intricately detailed despite its size, with sapphire blue wings folded against its silver body, green emerald eyes and a speck of ruby for a tongue.
She had asked Moira about it, often. All the answer she got was narrowed eyes and the comment that it was ‘special’.
‘Special, how?’
‘Just special. Now …’ and Moira would change the subject.
Elle had given up asking, but the sight of the pendant was too tempting. She had hung it around her neck and slipped out of the house before Moira returned from the kitchen with a drink for each of them. Elle had walked the snowy footpath, fingering the little gryphon.
How was it special? Did a genie live inside, like Aladdin’s lamp? She had rubbed the delicate jewelled wings. Nothing. Perhaps she had to say something, like Open Sesame or Abracradabra. Nothing.
Elle’s deep concentration had been broken by a sharp voice.
‘Girl, where did you get that?’
A tall, dark-haired woman with skin the colour of golden honey and wide, deep green eyes, had scowled down at Elle. She wore a long velvet cloak of deep blue, with silver trim. It looked warm, in the chill of the winter day.
‘Um … um …’
The woman reached out a gloved hand. Before Elle could scream or dodge away, she had grabbed the necklace, tugged hard. Elle hadn’t secured the clasp properly. The silver chain slid from her neck.
‘Give that back!’
The woman stared into Elle’s eyes. ‘But it’s mine,’ she purred. ‘That girl stole it from me, but it’s mine.’
Elle instantly knew the woman was right. How could those eyes lie? Moira was a thief.
The woman turned and walked swiftly away. With every step she took, Elle’s doubts grew, grew, grew.
What had she done? Who was the woman? Moira would be furious.
Elle HAD to find the necklace before something terrible happened. She ran.
PS. I may have the opening to my Guardians of the Forest sequel. Those of you who have read the series will have had memory pulses as you read this!
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