One Word Prompts

Tread - The Stone of Miralis

The two of them trudged down the path, rain falling in buckets around them.

"We're lost, aren't we?" he said.

"What?" she said, shaking her head. "No, look, there is the Stone of Miralis just ahead." She pointed at a stack of boulders in the distance, a silhouette barely visible through the downpour.

He had, however, anticipated this answer. "Wasn't that what you said an hour ago?"

"What! No, no chance. That there," she pointed at the rock formation again, "Is undoubtedly the Stone of Miralis, where Saint Miralis received her divine revelation on the nature of the universe. Are you suggesting I'm leading you in circles?"

He shook his head, pulling his hood a little lower, hoping to keep a little more of the weather out. He knew they weren't going in circles, even in the blinding rain, his sense of direction was better than that. Moreover, this Stone of Miralis looked absolutely nothing like the one they approached now. If anything, he was suggesting she did not know her landmarks particularly well.

"No," he said aloud. "Just, remind me, so I can find my own way next time, what are the distinguishing features of the Stone?"

"The Stone of Miralis is shaped almost like a low seated chair, with a wide seat and a high back that curves up into a bird-like formation."

"I see," he said, squinting through the sheets of water between himself and the unremarkable stack of rocks.

"And it is all one rock?" he asked.

"Naturally," she said, "That's why it is called the Stone--notice the singular there--Stone of Miralis. Not the Stones of Miralis."

"I see," he repeated. He had learned the last time they had passed a "Stone of Miralis" not to point out the obvious differences between the rocks before them and the descriptions she gave.

"And from here, how far was it again?" he asked, again.

"Oh, not too much farther," she promised again. "Probably another hour, less if the rain lets up."

"And next we should see?" he asked, as they put the supposed saint's stone behind them.

"Airdiel's creek." Exactly as she had told him last time he had asked. "Which we will want to keep to our left until we find a fallen log bridge."

"And from there?"

"It should be a straight shot to the village," she promised yet again.

"I see," he said nodding. He was almost certain she was right. She had listed off these same instructions four or five times now with no variation. Yet, from the start, he had been suspicious of the path she led him down. Too few of her landmarks matched the descriptions she gave.

Ahead the silhouette of a great tree loomed through the rain. His heart lifted, but a glance in her direction and it fell again. Still, he couldn't help asking again, "Perhaps, we might step out of the rain for a minute and wait there?" He pointed to the tree.

This was at least the third time he had suggested stopping for the weather to pass, and just like the previous times, she shook her head, "No, we're almost there. If we just push on, we'll be there before we know it!"

He sighed, watching the distant tree pass them by, weighing the option of ditching the girl and waiting out the storm. He had memorized all of her landmark descriptions at this point. With clear weather, he suspected he could do a better job of finding his way there on his own.

"Ah, look, see!" she exclaimed, pointing ahead.

He groaned. Ahead of them, a large stone, bulbous and ugly like a troll, appeared from the darkness of the rain. He prayed she wasn't about to say the words he knew were on the tip of her tongue. Begged the gods of travel, the gods of fools, the spirits of stones and saints alike. He pleaded that any other set of words would escape her lips. Anything but--

"The Stone of Miralis!"