Ocean Ghosts
A cloud of fragile spectres drifts through the darkness.
A slow, clumsy whirlwind moves through them, carving a path through the helpless motes.
They are left battered and torn in the giants' wake, forthwith replaced.
A repository of writing by Lachlan Marnoch - short stories, fantasy, science fiction, science fact, and adjacent opinions.
A cloud of fragile spectres drifts through the darkness.
A slow, clumsy whirlwind moves through them, carving a path through the helpless motes.
They are left battered and torn in the giants' wake, forthwith replaced.
Here at the chains of the world, the bonds that hold existence intact, you see everything. Everything becomes clear. You see the stars growing and shrinking as they draw ever nearer to their eventual collapse. You see the gases moving between nurseries. You see the rocks hurtling through the void, and clinging to them in earnest, the races, with their wars, their treaties. You can see the hate, the love, the loss. You see, and you understand.
Read MoreSpearshafts of light punch a hole through the cloud, and below a wisp of cloud shines a new orange. Then the sun emerges from its vaporous womb, flooding the sky with brilliance.
Read MoreThe rain was falling, but it wasn’t a sad rain. It was a cleansing rain. Birds flitted through the air, singing and ruffling their feathers at the welcome bath. Old trees greeted it with open branches: eucalypts, bark burnt to iron-black by bushfire, already sporting new growth. Fresh bright leaves sprouted into the clean air, from branches cleared for them by the fire. The ground below was already layered with crisp undergrowth, clamouring to fill the emptied spaces between. And below even that were the shoots of baby gums, germinated by flame.
Read MoreThe ambiguous fish mocked me from the rock. A forgotten skeleton, not bones anymore, but stones, taunted me with intermediate features. The empty eye socket stared smugly into mine: “You don’t know what I am.”
Read MoreMorning, all! I thought I'd post another short story to my short story blog. This is a piece I wrote in 2011 for Extension English, when we were studying Cormac McCarthy's The Road.
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