NaBloWriMo Day 2 – Coldstone

Well, it’s day 2 of National Blog Writing Month and so far I’m two for two!  This is a celebration to be had as I’ve not fallen behind once…in the last two days.  However, we will all probably revisit this in a week or so to see if my track record is indeed as strong as I believe it to be.

There is hope at least that I can make it every day.  And hope is good enough.

Every Friday (a tradition started last year) I write a short-ish creative writing piece and put it up here.  Last year there really wasn’t a theme from week to week but I think this year in an attempt to help prepare me for National Novel Writing Month I will make it a story that is tied together.

This specific story has actually been rattling around in my brain since high school.  It tells the story of a family back in the gunslinging days.  Of a grandpa sheriff cut down in a hail of gunfire and the pleading of a town in need of a defenseman/woman.  And so the various grandchildren are called back to the town where it all began to continue the legacy of the proud and powerful head of their family.

Anyway.  Read on.  Every Friday I’ll continue this story in some fashion.  I can’t promise greatness, but I can guarantee text!

Untitled Story

The cold October night drifted across the sky.  Old Man Winter was stumbling through the mountains and over the plains slowly and inconsistently.  The day before it had been warm and wild with the feeling of summer.  As if a switch had been flipped the change had begun across the fields and scabbard hills.  Winter was coming.  Soon enough the snow would fall from the sky and the freeze would grip the ground within its hard grasp.

Resting at the base of the scraggly Gold Mountains was the town of Coldstone.  The mountains had been mined for the precious resources many years ago and the rush had long gone.  Surviving on various other lesser minerals the town had survived the fate of most other populaces on the frontier.  Things were far from the perfection and prosperous times of old.  With the rapid growth had come an increase in population. Without the steady stream of money flowing through the community things had taken a turn for the worse.

It was over this town that one man had held his watch since anyone could have remembered.

That man was now dead.  Murdered by his enemies.

The town was now unprotected.  Unwatched.

The moon shifted from behind the drifting clouds and shown down on the city of Coldstone.  When their protector had gone down in gunfire a letter had been sent out to surviving members of his family.  The good men and women of Coldstone hoped that the apple didn’t fall too far from the good and courageous tree.

The family of Otto Dahl would respond and return home to the place that had bore them.  They had spread out across the land. Some had run away while others had drifted.  Now it was time for a reunion.

Dysfunctional was only the beginning.