This flash piece was written for the 3 April Flash!Friday weekly competition. The prompts were the photo and “blunder”.
Sand of the Gods
The gods’ mountain towered in the desert, spilling sand from its peak. In hidden furnaces the glass life-shell hourglasses of mortals were formed before being sent into the scorching sun to be filled with the falling sand. And the Fillers at the foot of the mountain became immortal as life seeped from the sand into their pores.
He poured a few grains into a tiny glass and handed it to the sightless Gatherer. He knew what such a tiny hourglass meant – mother and child would run out of time together. At his age he could no longer stop the tears. Knowing how much time a person had to live wasn’t right. Just last week they’d filled thousands of life-shells belonging to those who’d all die in the same war.
How many glasses had he filled of people who would die in their sleep?
That night he scooped sand into a bag, swung it over his shoulder, and headed out to where the Gatherers kept the hourglasses.
Rows upon rows of life-shells were hidden inside the Gatherers’ caves. He took the first hourglass and added more sand. When he came to the tenth, the hourglasses rattled, cracked and then one after the other exploded.
He dropped the sand. And ran.
