“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Maya stared at the cavern. Crystals hung from every inch of the ceiling. Her feet crackled on minute crystal shards as she approached a six-foot thick structure that gleamed at the entrance. She reached out a shaking hand.
“Don’t touch it!” Malcolm snatched her hand away.
“Why not?” She stretched towards the stone again.
“Because those who touch the Mother Stone never leave it. Listen to me!” He spun her around to face him.
“What?” She mumbled.
Malcolm shone his light on the floor of the cavern. Gray bones lay strewn around them.
“Those weren’t crystal shards under our feet. They were the ones who touched the stone.”

(I write these micro-stories from a prompt word in one minute. I can edit as much as I want after the one minute, but the bones have to be there before the alarm rings.

The challenge behind today’s story was wording. I ended up working on it for longer than a minute because the wording and description proved challenging. If I were to don my editor hat, I would cut it further still, but for now, this is where it stands. I’d love to write a movie about this one. It’s just begging for an Indiana Jones type of scene. 🙂

I did this same, “micro-story a day” skill-building project in 2010. It revolutionized my writing and prompted the development of my “Flash Your Fiction” workshop for writers. To see the stories from that project, go here.”)