Rumours

Rumours Marcel Admiraal Beneath Dark Waters Rumours (sample) Lost in his musings, Father Swart stopped to stare at the flock of birds for a moment. He had now reached the end of his circle around the lake and stood at the advent of the sandy path that would lead him back into the village.

The birds seemed to be larger than he originally expected them to be. Although still silhouettes against the night sky, he saw their shapes better now and especially the unexpectedly long wings. He heard them flapping in the quiet spring evening as the rest of nature died down and he strained his eyes to see them better. They must be geese or swans or something, although the flapping sounded somehow strange and unfamiliar. There were maybe ten or fifteen of them and they were coming his way. Their demeanour was certainly odd! They flew not as a flock, but more in a seemingly random pattern, alternating the one that flew in front with the ones that flew in the back. There was no sign of the usual chevron shape which is so common in geese and other large birds.

In the dusk of the evening and with his tired, old eyes, the priest squinted to make out any other shapes or even colour as they flew overhead, but he could not. For a moment he stared at them flying away from him, but soon he shook his head and decided God's creation was wonderful and held new surprises every time. It was then that the flock turned again.

Suddenly, an uncanny feeling befell the old priest. The hairs on his neck stood on end and he felt goose bumps crawl over his arms. It wasn't only their general direction that made Father Swart so apprehensive. It was also their altitude that changed. For at first they had flown overhead at quite a large height, but now they were obviously descending! He could see their strange, dark shapes become more and more pronounced as the flock lost altitude and turned around and around in the colourful sky. At one point they seemed to hover over the small village that the priest knew so well, flying in circles, as if taking in the ground, assessing the damage they could do.

Full story available from Floating Robes as of the 1st of March 2011. http://floatingrobes.blogspot.com