Vision Quest

Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.

The prompts: This story must contain the words: Black, Fire and Spring

Vision Quest


Diliahla dragged her left hand along the wall of the cave; it came away black.

A smell confirmed what she suspected – smoke.

Her pace picked up in anticipation. She’d been following the tunnel for an eternity as her physical body rested elsewhere. Sure, she seemed to have arms and legs as well as all of her senses; but she knew that was just a mental fabrication. The body that needed food and sleep and such lay in a trance in hut at the edge of a jungle village.

The underworld did not allow passage of other than a soul.

At first, there was nothing. She’d envisioned the hole and dropped down it to find only darkness.

Now that had all changed. There was light somewhere up ahead and she could see. Again, there was the strong smell of smoke. Together, these small nuances urged her forward. She could feel a memory struggling to be realized.

It was right there at the edge consciousness as she hurried around another bend. She could feel the truth coming to her…Where there is smoke…there is..

A spring?

Around the bend all edges of the forever tunnel fell away and she found herself in a paradise of lush forest surrounding a spring.

What does this mean? She thought. The answer had been so close and now it was gone. Something do to with…smoke?

The pulsing wind was as sudden as it was strong. And yet, Diliahla felt only the warm embrace of familiarity. She now knew what she had always known but, for a while, had forgotten.

Where there is smoke…there’s… “Fire!” She said aloud.

She spun and rushed to hug the neck of her love; her power animal.

The dragon lowered its head to accommodate her. It had been a long time. Too long.

Word count 300