The Beach - Fortnightly writing competition - Deadline August 13.

[Stupot]

Summer is here and my only trip to the beach probably this year has ended in ugly peeling sunburn.

'The beach' is the theme for this contest. Interpret it how you will.

Rules - there ain't no rules.
Voting starts midnight (bst) on August 13th.
Have fun :-)

Trophies:
Gold^* =
Silver^** =
Bronze^*** =

^{*yellow  **grey  ***brown}

[Ponch]

Trophies, sir! We demand trophies! 

[Stupot]

Trophies, sir! We demand trophies! 

There'll be some trophies in the next couple or few days :-)
Done (in a sense)

[Sinitrena]

That happens when I write stories instead of studying for my philosophy exam...

--------------------

A changing world that stays the same

There is a cross on the beach. It is black and burned. People stand on the dunes about a hundred metres away, watching the cross. They are waiting. Soon, soon the sun will rise on the horizon and travel the sky above the ocean. Soon the sun will bathe the cross in its light and the cross will burn again. Soon the girl tied to the cross will burn with it â€" soon the gods will claim their sacrifice and, hopefully, the sun will stop its ascent and not scorch the village just a few paces behind the dunes.

The girl stands against the cross, a gag in her mouth and with tears flowing down her cheeks. She will die and she will save her village and she even volunteered to be a sacrifice, but she is afraid nonetheless. The gods only ask for a sacrifice once every fifty years â€" or so the priests say â€" and she has nothing to live for anymore, nothing but the village she is about to save, but she does not want to die. She struggles against the ropes.

Red light touches the water far away from the beach as the sun slowly rises. It washes over the waves, bathing them in blood and fire. The villagers gasp and hold their breath, waiting for the sun to touch the sky, to reach the point where it is high enough to extend its rays to the blackened cross, to start the fire that will kill the girl. They wait for death to take the girl, for the gods to claim their sacrifice.

The girl still struggles. The girl is still afraid. She does not want to die. The sun rises higher and higher. There is not much time left. Soon, soon she will die. But she fights the ropes, she hopes beyond hope that someone, anyone, will come to rescue her even though she volunteered. She can’t help it. She can’t accept her own death. And there is still hope. The rope is not as tight as it was a few seconds ago. It is not biting into her skin so severe anymore. Maybe she will escape â€" but then the village will burn and maybe the villagers, her people, will die with it.

The sun reaches the beach. The rays of sunshine aren’t red now, they are yellow and hot. The wet sand dries slowly but it still starts to dry where the ocean has retreated due to the ebb. It is just a few metres now, just a short distance between the water and the cross, just a short time before the sun reaches the cross, before it is too hot for the burned wood to resist the scorching sun. Soon, soon the girl will die.

And then the ropes binding her snap and the girl runs and the shocked villagers chase her and the sun is about to touch the cross...

*

There are a lot of different versions how this story ends:

According to the first one the villagers raced after the fleeing girl. They caught her as the first rays of sunshine touched the cross. She fought but they brought her back, brought her back and threw her in the flames of the burning cross. She died and the villagers cheered. The village was saved like it was fifty years ago, like it was a hundred years ago, like it was all the times before. Nobody ever asked whether the sacrifice was necessary, whether the gods would have taken the village instead of the girl if she did manage to escape. Nobody asked whether the gods were real.

According to the second version the girl was caught and brought back and thrown into the flames of the burning cross, but this version mentioned that a priest had torched the cross while the villagers were distracted. Everybody who heard this version of the story knew that the gods weren’t real and the priests used the fear and superstition of the people to control them. Of course, the village did not burn in this version but that had nothing to do with sacrifices and gods.

According to the third version the girl was caught and burned but the village burned with her. Sometimes the priest torching the cross was mentioned, sometimes he was not. It wasn’t important because the quintessence was the same: the sacrifice wasn’t willing, the gods did not accept it, and so they punished the villagers. This is probably the saddest version because there was never a chance for a happy ending. Even if the girl hadn’t tried to run, she still would have been an unwilling sacrifice and the gods would have burned the village at any rate.

The fourth version at least let the girl live. She escaped but the village burned. In this version, too, the priest burning the cross was sometimes mentioned and sometimes not. If he was mentioned it was to show that the gods might be good or bad but the priests were definitely bad because they themselves did not believe in the gods and used them to control the people. But then the village burned and the priest maybe learned a lesson or he did not. Whether he was mentioned, whether he realised his mistake, this version depicted the gods as real and as powerful and as willing to destroy a village just because the villagers did not manage to bring them a satisfying sacrifice.

The fifth version isn’t much different than the fourth. The girl escaped and the village burned but it is clearly stated that he village did not burn because of the sunshine reaching the village but because of a cooking fire igniting a curtain or some bandits torching the unprotected village. It might be the gods working in indirect ways or an unlucky coincidence but the village burned and the girl lived.

And then there is the sixth version where the girl escaped and the village did not burn and the priests lost their power over the villagers. It is not even necessary to mention the priest burning the cross or the fact that the gods aren’t real. People say this is the happiest version but it is also the version nobody wants to hear, the version that is nearly never told.

There might be even more versions out there but no-one knows which one is real and so it isn’t really important. No-one knows except the villagers and the girl:

*

The girl stops running and looks back. She watches the cross burn and the village die and she also sees the village prosper and live. She sees herself tied to the cross or thrown into the flames, she sees the villagers catching her or sees herself escape. She looks at a changing world that stays the same â€" and darkness falls.

----------------------------

I'm glad the writing competition is back.

[Stupot]

Thanks Sinitrena. I hope you passed your philosophy exam :-)
Everyone else.  You have about 24 hours to get some kind of entry in.
If anyone wants another couple of days just say the word.

[Ponch]

Sadly, I've started two different stories, but I can't make either of them work to my satisfaction.

After pushing for someone to restart this contest, I find myself with nothing to enter. Oh, sweet irony! 

[Stupot]

Hmm. I didn't think it was such a bad topic :-(
In hindsight, the Olympics would have been more fitting.

I'd like to say it was a close battle and that I was up all night trying to decide the winner, but no one would believe me, but at least I can say 'everyone's a winner' and mean it.
Sinitrena, it's a shame you have to win by default, but I have a suspicion your entry would have done well regardless, so have yourself a gold palm tree:
And by all means help yourself to the silver and bronze ones as well... nobody else wants them apparently

[Sinitrena]

Thanks.
I hoped for at least some competition. It's just not so much fun to win by default.
Hopefully the next round has more entries. I'll start it soon.

[Ponch]

Hmm. I didn't think it was such a bad topic :-(

It was a good topic, Stu. But between MAGS and the coloring ball, I ran out of time before I could finish either of my stories.