WIP Wednesday: In the Beginning: Papa's Little Sprout

 



“People see what makes sense to them, reality notwithstanding.”

A swarthy, handsome man with sleek, dark hair framing his angular face and flowing down beyond his shoulders sat down on the ground beside his daughter, a lovely child clad in an eye-catching patchwork dress emblazoned with embroidered flowers. The child waved her hand, and a sprout pushed its way up from the grass, growing and blooming into a lovely white daisy. The youngster’s magical abilities alone would have been impressive. They were infinitely more so considering that the child and her father were on the dwarf planet that would come to be known as Pluto in an infant planetary system coalescing around its juvenile star.

The girl had a miserable look on her face as she tried to hide behind her plentiful waves of coal-black hair. She turned to her father and threw her arms around his neck, clinging to him.

“Papa, I know this,” the child replied in a quavering voice that went straight to her father’s heart. “I didn’t intend to be contrary. It’s just that I’ve thought about it and thought about it, and I simply can’t make myself understand, no matter how hard I try.”

“Yadira, my special little sprout, you’re not contrary at all,” the Cosmic Trickster replied tenderly. “Can I tell you a secret?”

“Anything, Papa,” the child declared, drying away her tears and sitting cross-legged facing her father, a conspiratorial look on her face.

“Well, as you know, this Universe we find ourselves in now was born of the tragedy that befell your homeworld, Zaïs, on the day that you were born.”

“Of course, Father. I know that you had to race through time and space and countless wormholes and dimensions to keep me safe from the evil responsible for the destruction of Zaïs. I also know that you were not native to Zaïs but that you arrived there in the time between winter and spring. You brought hope back to my mother’s soul. She had waited a long time to find you.”

“Yes, my pet, and for me, it seemed that every journey from the past led me along the path to my Nathicana. She was like water to my thirsting soul. Alas, the path back to her does not lie on a straight line, but arduous though it may be, we will one day find our way to her again. My point in telling you this is that some things are not readily apparent, even to an immortal. Even I, the mighty Nyarlathotep…”

The God scooped up a handful of dust, tossing it into the air. The particles sparkled, grew, exploded, and raced into space to become companions for Pluto. Yadira laughed and clapped her hands at her father’s exaggerated performance and manic grin. Nyarlathotep’s expression softened as he took his daughter’s hands.

*************

This is the first segment of a new chapter in my WIP, In the Time Before.

Yadira Root is the creation and intellectual property of Team Netherworld Creations/Naughty Netherworld Press. Those of you who have been coming to this juke joint for a while may know the older, snarkier version of Yadira. This tentative new novelette, novella, or novel introduces the young Yadira and illustrates the close bond that she has with her father, the Outer God Nyarlathotep.

Nathicana, the Gardens of Zaïs, Dzannin, and the white nephalotë are the creations of H.P. Lovecraft, initially appearing in his 1927 poem Nathicana.

The bolding of certain words is simply to indicate where words from the Sunday Whirl Wordle were used. The remainder of these words were used in the second segment of this chapter.

The full chapter is available for purchase from Odysee for 15 LBC (approximately $0.45). 

https://odysee.com/@naughtynetherworldpress:d/The-Teaching-of-Terrible-Truths:5

If you don't have an Odysee account, you can get one here:

http://bit.ly/OdyseeWithMe

Full chapters are also available to patrons at the Cultist ($5 per month) and above tier level on Patreon.

http://bit.ly/NNPPatreon

The story was also submitted on 1 April 2021 for the weekly Reedsy short story competition. If accepted, stories generally appear on my Reedsy author page a week following submission and are available to read free of charge. I've never had a submission rejected yet, but I make no guarantees.

http://bit.ly/CieYouOnReedsy

If you haven't subscribed to the Naughty Netherworld Newsletter yet, you can remedy that error in judgment here:

http://bit.ly/NaughtyNetherworldNews

Prompts Used

The Daily Spur

Path

https://thedailyspur.wordpress.com/2021/03/25/path-2/

Pluto

https://thedailyspur.wordpress.com/2021/03/25/pluto-as-seen-from-the-new-horizons-spacecraft-in-2015-at-a-distance-of-476000-miles/

Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie

First Line Friday

https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2021/03/26/first-line-friday-march-26-2021/

Ragtag Daily Prompt

Cling

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2021/03/18/ragtag-daily-prompt-thursday-cling/

Sprout

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2021/03/19/rdp-friday-sprout/

Reedsy Prompts

https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/

Write about a mischievous pixie or trickster god.

The Sunday Whirl

Wordle 496

https://sundaywhirl.wordpress.com/2021/03/28/wordle-496/

evil

hope

inhumane

line

race

shame

soul

spring

suppress

vote

wait

water

 The Icky, Sticky, Nit-Picky Legalese If You Please (Or Don't Please)



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4 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thank you. I always appreciate your comments on my work. These stories and the poetry are the things that I really love to write.
      I may try to do a poem for the WEP challenge this time. I'm not feeling right about trying to make up a story related to the painting.

      Delete
  2. popped in via Elephant's Child. This was lovely to read, I like the idea of the sparkles becoming our planets.

    ReplyDelete

I try to get comments published as quickly as possible. I have ADHD and anxiety and sometimes I need to work myself up to be able to respond to comments. I don't always reply to comments on my blog, but I do try to visit as many people as possible when I participate in blog hops. I share your work on the monthly Roost Recommendations posts at ornerybookemporium.blogspot.com so others can discover your work. I do read and appreciate your comments.
Sorry, the Captcha is back and this time it's staying. I was inundated with spam comments when I turned it off. I wish butt rash on all the spammers out there.

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