Mondays Finish the Story – August10th, 2015– The Mute Witness

Mondays Finish the Story flash fiction challenge for August 10th, 2015– 150 words based on this image–

Ruins – © 2015, Barbara W. Beacham

and this initial sentence–

“Where did they go?”

Copyright 2015 Douglas Daniel

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“Where did they go?” Syban asked.

“Nobody knows,” Kour said.

The red-stone ruin lay in tumbled silence before them, as if a mute witness to an ancient crime. Hills beyond sported green foliage, but hints of other structures peeked through the growth.

“These ruins extend for many kilometers in every direction,” Kour said. “Here, and in many other places.”

“To come so far, just to find this,” Syban said.

One of her feet stubbed on a stone. “Look,” she told Kour.

Together they dug and scrabbled away the earth, to reveal a stone tablet, meters long. On it were incised sigils– not random marks, but the symbols of some language unknown to them–

N RTHGAT M LL

They stood back to contemplate the symbols, as this world’s shattered moon rose.

“Cryptic, indeed,” Kour said.

Syban sat back on her hind legs. “I wish I could have met them.”

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