Today’s prompt: “You spot a worn inscription hidden on a stone. What is it, and what do you think it might mean for you at this moment?”
Today’s music: Stone Tower Temple by Tingle’s Jingles. 🎧 Listen on SoundCloud.
A Hidden Word
I found a cave.
It was accidental, but that seemed to be my life. I was cruising Hearthlight’s wilds and finally decided to let my stomach coax me back to town. It’d been a long-ass day of walking, but I’d survived an epic storm and an actual dragon, so the walking felt like a slice of normalcy I craved.
I mooched through the hamlet’s outskirts and spied a wee glen. It was probably the equivalent of a full civic park by Hearthlight standards, but it was too small to be an Avengers-level threat like that. I walked through the glen, hoping for a shortcut to Trudy’s gelato store and thus her ice cream, when the ground gave way beneath me.
It seemed that what I’d taken for a fairly robust foliage fitment was in fact a thin veil of ivy above a doom drop. Drop I did, into a dark cave, where I managed to land cat-perfect. And if you believe that, I have a very nice bridge for sale, too.
Dusting myself off, I looked around at the cave’s interior by way of the light from the hole above. It was cosy in here, not damp or oppressive. The walls were smooth stone, worn by time or a very diligent stonecutter, and there were only two ways out: if one had the power of flight, one could return through the hole in the ceiling, so that option was out, but luckily there was a vine drapery leading outside. I could easily push through those vines and no one would know that I’d fallen on my ass like an idiot.
However, this was Hearthlight, and Hearthlight held secrets, like the other thing in this cave besides me: a stone tablet. The stone was old. Older, perhaps, than Hollis. Certainly older than the hamlet; its face held letters, though the writing was smoothed by rain. I suspected the tablet had lived somewhere else before being transported here.
The letters were easy to read, which felt surprising because I expected writing from a couple of hundred years ago to sound very Ye Olde English, but the words were plain-speaking.
In every heart, a burden lies,
A wish, a tear, a thousand sighs.
We take what’s given, brave what’s lost,
We give with love, and count no cost.
A magic stone, both bright and old,
Can grant one wish, as legends told.
If need be true, then take it near,
But choose with care, and speak it clear.
Was this a wishing stone?! If I believed what it said, I should take it to where I needed something really important, and speak my wish, and boom, job done. I put my hand on the stone. How many people had found this stone? Had anyone used it? I figured my life could use some straightening out. I could take it to the bank and wish for a bazillion dollars. Fly it to Chase Manhattan and clear everyone’s credit card debt. Give myself the gift of flight and get out of this cave the way I came in.
I let my hand fall. I didn’t need wishes. Not really, not like some people did. I could solve my own problems once I… stopped causing them. It was probably best to quietly push my way through the vines and pretend I’d never found this place.
Then someone else whose need was true could find help.
Once I was outside, I turned back. You really couldn’t see the cave. It’d take a miracle to drop you in there.
Maybe that was the point. Maybe Hearthlight would send the right person when the time was right.
The stone would wait, just like the world sometimes waits for us to be ready. And I figured… I could walk on a little longer without needing it.
Roll result? One secret glen, one unclaimed wish, and a quiet step forward without magic.
XP gained: +1 trust in tomorrow, +1 heart carried lighter.
Not every treasure has to be taken, and not every story has to be missed:
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