Today I received a message from the lovely Eilis Niamh stating that she’d tagged me to take part in a freestyle writing challenge. The rules are as follows:

1. Open an MS Word Document
2. Set a stop watch or your mobile phone timer to 5 or 10 minutes, whichever challenge you think you can beat
3. Your topic is at the foot of this post BUT DO NOT SCROLL DOWN TO SEE IT UNTIL YOU ARE READY WITH YOUR TIMER!!!
4. Fill the word doc with as much words as you want. Once you start writing do not stop.
5. Do not cheat by going back and correcting spelling and grammar using spell check.
6. You may or may not pay attention to punctuation or capitals. However, if you do, it would be best
7. At the end of your post write down ‘No. of words = ____” so that we have an idea of how much you can write within the time frame.
8. Do not forget to copy paste the entire passage on your blog post with a new topic for your nominees and copy paste these rules with your nomination (at least five (5) bloggers)

My topic was: If you could have the experience of living as a nonhuman animal for one day, what would you be? What would you do? Why?

Hmmm. I think I managed to address the first two parts, but not the last. I set my timer for ten minutes and this is what I came up with:

I run.

Through the woods, branches snapping under my hooves, leaves brushing my coat as I lean forward, faster and faster, breath blowing through my nostrils. I can hear the thud of my passage, feel the wind as it streams through my mane and tail, long fingers ruffling.

Other animals run with me at times. I see a fox. A rabbit. The rabbit runs faster and I think of the old tale, of the fox chasing the rabbit and two men wondering which will run faster. The answer is always the rabbit. The fox runs for his dinner, the rabbit for his life.

They are gone, silver grey and orange flash through the trees as I keep going, urging myself faster and faster, the thrill of running for the sake of it running through me. Birds swoop and chatter around me, a pheasant breaking from the ferns as I thunder through, fluttering flash of irisdescent colours and whirring wings.

I can see more light ahead now, the trees starting to thin out, no longer catching at me. I am straight, like an arrow in flight, hurtling towards the edge of the forest. I reach the last trees and burst free…

Into thin air.

The cliff is tall, the rocks grey and jagged as I fall, legs flailing vainly as though I could reverse my passage, run back up to the top of the cliff. But I hit the water with a mighty splash, barrel body sending plumes of white spray to splash against the rocks at the base of the cliff.

And I change.

Silver grey coat and flowing mane shrink, legs flattening and pulling in to my body, my two back legs fusing into a single tail, two flukes. My velvet nose is no longer – instead a beaky shape takes its place, smooth grey flesh forming over my reformed bones.

And I leap from the waves, twisting and turning for the pure joy of it, landing with a splash and diving deep down into the darkening blue, spinning like a barrel as I dive low. A shoal of fish scatter and divide around me, silver flashes in the murky blue. I dance with them, moving my body through the patterns they make, chasing and dividing and shooting through. Then I make for the surface again, my powerful tail propelling me almost straight up so I shoot out, aiming for the stars above, riding the silver path of the moon across the rippling ocean as I head out to sea. I see others of my kind, hear them call to me.

And I am home.

435 Words in Ten Minutes!

Not too bad in terms of word count, though if I’m being picky there’s a bit of repetition and one or two spelling mistakes (but you can’t change it, them’s the rules!)

Okay, so I now need to tag five more bloggers to take part (though you don’t have to if you don’t want to 🙂 – none of this is written in stone). My nominees are:

Louise Allen

Louise Taylor

Nicholas Rossis

Paola Crespi

Sacha Black

And your topic is…. (Don’t look until you’re ready to start writing!)

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You went to sleep in your own bed but have woken up somewhere completely different. Where are you, what’s happening and can you figure out how you got there?

Good luck! xx