The Stones on the Shore
A flash fiction inquiry into the unknown
FYI: I wrote this version of the story, then decided to expand it. You can read the longer version courtesy of Lit Up.
Tendrils of fog crept down the mountain, slid over the chill surface of Ipasha Lake, and penetrated the forest beyond. Sky, water, rock, and foliage grayed at its touch. Crouching on a slip of granite at the water’s edge, Shawna Givens tightened her coat against the fog’s chill fingers. She peered across the lake, imagining shadows breaking its surface.
It was out there.
Before her, two small cairns marked her previous sighting. Just last week she had watched, eased the stones from her pocket, and built the cairns to frame the sleek black form across the water. If she focused one eye dead center between them, she could almost see it again.
Shawna stood and moved on, circling the lake clockwise, passing slow and silent, a mountain lion stalking her prey. More stones weighed down her right coat pocket, just in case. A notebook slumbered in her left, remembering dates, times, locations, and distances, concealing the secret she ached to discover: where and when the creature would next appear.
A quarter of a mile on, she paused on a broken shelf of rimed rock. Thickening fog obscured the shore…
