An extra post today. Another story beginning, in response to the Write On Edge prompt this week which is : Flavour. You can track the challenge down here.
Hetty dawdled out to the vegetable patch in wellingtons two sizes too large.
Her brother Franz was needling her father with new angles on old spells the family had been using for generations.
Franz’s voice had become rather hard as he suggested using a few mind altering hexes to smooth the way during negotiations at the town market. “Dad, you have to be one step ahead of the game these days. This doesn’t hurt a single corner-shop proprietor but it will block some of that suspicion which hinders our market share.”
Hetty stood feeling the rain on her skin in great purging droplets, kneading the mud beneath her wellies. She knew Franz was right: suspicion shrank profits. The family stall looked different to all the others at the Farmer’s Market, with all those warty roots, and jars which squeaked perceptibly despite the Alchemist’s Guild soundproofing.
To the right of her feet, above the gentle percussion of the rain, she could hear the mandrakes murmuring appreciatively as the rainwater minerals leached into the soil; to the left, the dazzling white flowers of moly illuminated the half-light.
Her father was immoveable. Enchantment could be invasive: it was totally unacceptable, even during a recession, elbowing into minds for profit.
Somehow, this dilemma needed to be solved, like an old cantankerous padlock which must be oiled. But how, puzzled Hetty, does one go about unlocking men’s hearts, without interfering with their thoughts?
Why, with the right flavour, of course.
Hetty scanned the neat rows of herbs and plants in the little market garden, each a remedy for some and poison to others. Her mother, father and their forebears had spent generations cultivating the quiet wisdom necessary to husband lively crops such as these, some of which thought for themselves.
And then, as the first flash of lightning silently rent the twilight, she gasped.
That package from Serbia which had arrived yesterday! The raskovnik. Its potent enchantment would unlock fortresses, impenetrable prisons: and the stoniest heart.
The tiny lime-green clovers, harvested by Serbian hedgehogs were citrus-sweet, traditionally frosted in sugar. Unquestionably, this would be the flavour to unlock her brother’s stubborn resolve, her father’s unmoving traditionalism and the goodwill of the local retailers.
Her eyes lit in the gloom. Shrugging the sodden droplets from her shabby raincoat, she squelched off in the direction of the greenhouse.
Kate Shrewsday 
Nice take, it’s definitely the beginning of another story and your imagination knows no bounds. 🙂
Thanks 🙂 Thought your take was incredibly perceptive, I was right with you! Flavour is more than just a taste…
Very cool, a mythical plant to unlock minds and hearts, this sounds like the beginnings of a fun adventure. Just who are these folks and what spells shall they weave??
Now I’ll be thinking about this all day awaiting installment one. I wonder if Friday the 13th is in play here??
What a good day to start, Lou 😀 I’ll probably go for a three-day stint over our half-term holiday to complete this one: that’s in early February, the 10th onwards I think.
Wonderful, I shall be spellbound, of course.
‘Harvested by Serbian hedgehogs’! What a flash of genius! I love your take on this. It was vivid and very original.
Thank you 🙂 And as for Michael and his onions: I laughed out loud!
Love it.
Thanks EB 🙂
Wonderfully imaginative, and hooks one in very thoroughly, to the stage of yelling, ‘More!’ as soon as the last word has been tasted.
At which point I can enquire what plans you have for that amazing story you published on your site? I hope it will see the light of day in children’s nurseries everywhere?
What can I say? Any story that includes hedgehogs is a winner, almost by default! I loved the detail of murmuring plants, and the touch of modern concerns in the family’s worries about the recession and their stall’s profits.
I wish I could claim the hedgehog as my own design: but is Serbia, where this mythical plant is said to come from, they say hedgehogs are god at sniffing it out! Thanks for coming over to have a read 🙂
Fantastic, in the blog world I tend to speed read, but the moment I began to read you writing, i became very conscious and slowed right down to enjoy the words. thank you.. mm.. c
Your writing has the same effect on me, C 🙂 Getting addicted to those visits to your farm.
Oooo — I want to know more about Hettie and her family. It sounds like her father and brother’s relationship is contentious, and it’s hard to say whether Dad’s grounds for objection are more solid than the kids’ grounds for wanting him to cast mind entering spells. The flavor of this story is absolutely delicious.
Thank you! Fathers and sons have always been a complex subject…I shall probably be writing a short story about the family in about a month. I hate leaving characters unfinished 🙂
What’s with today? Everyone is writing wonderfully sensory posts. I loved the details you included about the writing. For example, this is a great sensory line, “the gentle percussion of the rain, she could hear the mandrakes murmuring appreciatively as the rainwater minerals leached into the soil; to the left, the dazzling white flowers of moly illuminated the half-light.”
Well done. I also enjoyed how imaginative this writing was. It was clever and fun to read. It does leave me wanting MORE:~)
Excellent, just what any writer loves to hear, Sara, as you know! I guess the title – flavour – lends itself to writing about the senses. Lovely going round seeing what everyone has done!
Franz reminds me of Felix . . . while playing “My World.” 😀
Echoes of Harry Potter as well . . . with mandrakes and potions and spells.
Write on!
Franz is very alpha male 🙂 Clever but opinionated. Mandrakes: they’ve been around for thousands of years….as have potions and spells. What fun to cobble them together into the beginnings of a story!
I love the possibilities here. This story can transport us anywhere from where you left it. My imagination is cooking with possibility.
I think the key is going to be in just what raskovnik can unlock, Andra. It’s a mythical Serbian plant, as real as mandrakes. Hedgehogs are said to be able to sniff it out like pigs find truffles. It is a magical lock-picker, in essence, but there is the undertone which intimates that it can unlock attitudes and locked minds too.
But think of the unsolvable conundrums of the world. The impossibilities. Which one to unlock first?
Great beginning! I look forward to reading more
Thanks Carrie! The next instalment will be a little while: February 10, 11 and 12 is my next scheduled short story. Might see you then 🙂
Oh, hooray!
Another Kate Fiction! So atmospheric, and packed with whimsy – and I had to google something. I love that!
It’s a start, Cameron 🙂 The path of magic and spells is like a dog walker’s super-highway: downtrodden and overused. Fresh angles are hard to find: but Eastern Europe still has a few last legends to harvest, hedgehogs and their rasknovinik among them. Thanks for the prompt!
Very intriguing story! Leaves me wanting to know more, about the girl, about the father, the brother – all of the magic and such. This was really neat you have quite the imagination!
Neeks, just been over to yours and can only echo your comments. Loved the space story, what an opening: I suspect you must be quite habit forming for your readers! Thanks for coming over to take a read.
What an amazing imagination you have! I love the pace and the imagery. New follower here 🙂
Thanks Debseeman- great to have you on board!
This made my face twitch with anxiousness. I felt every word. This was outstanding writing.
Bravo, Kate
Thanks, Lance! Now all I have to do is write the other 79,600 words 😀
“Led There Be Gold”!! Said Sir Isaac…Great post, powerful projection, as usual.
Bless You
paul
Thanks Paul 😀 Just the beginning….
I love the imaginative whimsy here. I feel as though great adventures have been put into motion here.
They are about to be! Thanks for reading, Angela 🙂
Though comments eluded to Harry, I thought more Practical Magic mixed with Witches of Eastwick…must be about how to catch a fellow’s fancy (tra la la) . A wonderful tale, Kate ~
It certainly looks that way right now, doesn’t it? But I have great plans for that little clover-shaped locksmith. Oh, the things it could unlock!
Didn’t that spark a bit of genius, Kate? Flavour is, indeed, much more than taste as known by your wise Hetty girl!
Thanks Amy! If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from this exercise, it is how evocative flavour really is…
i see a hat in the future of this family
This is possible 😀
I seem to be playing a lot of “catch up” these days, Kate. What a wonderful place this was to start with. Looking forward to reading more and seeing where Hetty goes with this.
It’ll be a little while, Penny 🙂 Don’t feel you have to slog through every post! It’s lovely to see you whenever you come! Hmm. Hetty and the greenhouse: what possibilities.
How on earth do you know of raskovnik? I want to follow Hetty.
I started with mandrakes and then my daughter said, “Oh yes, Mandrakes. they grow in the Harry Potter Novels!” Rowling has been virtually everywhere. But not, it seems to Serbia to kidnap their hedgehogs.
You write with such a beautiful conviction of words that sometimes I have to stop and consider whether their is something mythical/magical afoot, or I’m just not in the know 🙂 I think there’s a little of both! Real or fantasy…I could picture it all! Charming beginning. Debra
I love, love, love this! It has everything I adore in a story: magical herbs, magical gardens, magical people, and magic, lol! I can’t wait to read more…
Thank you, Elizabeth. So enjoying that unsettling little Rumplestiltskin of yours.
Nice job on this! I assume you regularly write fiction?
No, its a departure for me, Mollie. Journo background, strictly non fiction as a rule.
Another feisty feminine heroine in the Tiffany-of-Discworld vein, Kate. What do Maddie and Felix think?
They haven’t heard it yet! I’m saving it until its complete…