Happy weekend, writers! I intend to rotate between the types of prompts we use, so this week let’s try another musical meditation. Our selection is the lost “boat music” from World of Warcraft‘s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Due to game performance issues, Blizzard later took the track out of the game, but YouTube has preserved it for your listening pleasure.
As always, I suggest closing your eyes before you start the song, and using headphones if you’ve got ’em. It helps! Let your mind wander, and write down whatever you see.
There are only two rules for Clarion Calls:
- If you choose to try the assignment, do not read the comments section before you post yours.
- This is a critique-free zone, and that includes critique of your own offering. Save your analytical skills for Mondays with Linda.
With that in mind, I invite all of you to give it a try. At the end of the year, I have a special honor in mind for the person who most often posts an answer to our weekly Call. So have fun, and stay inspired!
Clarion Blog 
Listening to this I was reminded of something that actually happened to me when I was thirteen. A friend of mine had come on vacation to Alaska with my family, and we signed up for one of those tours where you get in a tiny little plane and fly over a glacier. It sounded boring to me, but my friend had never been in a plane like that and wanted to do it just for that reason.
So the plane took off, and it was bumpy, and we were trying to pretend we weren’t scared by giggling and covering it with chatter. But then we caught sight of the actual glacier out of our windows.
It was a long time ago, and sadly, I don’t remember exactly what it looked like. But I remember the feeling it gave me. Two 13-year-old girls lost the ability to chatter (a minor miracle in itself), transfixed by the view out the window. It was something about the way the sun played off the brilliance of white snow and blue ice… it was alien and melancholy and obscurely ominous, and it went on -forever-. The rest of the plane flight was taken in absolute silence.
I don’t remember how long we were up there, but I remember feeling close to tears for no reason. Speechless, harrowed, and possessed by a strange feeling of longing. Even after we landed, we were both quiet for a while, and neither of us ever said anything about what we’d experienced up there. These are the sorts of things thirteen-year-old girls don’t talk about.
I really enjoyed reading this, I feel like I was there with you.
A side note… the instrument used is a nyckelharpa, which I had never heard of before this. The instrument looks like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs3aUCM8BX8
The longboat drifted through the mist, tattered sails clawing at the lethargic breeze. Death clung to the rotting wood, a scent, a feel of decay. Green litch light wormed across the deck, eerie and pale. The villagers huddled behind barred doors, prayers to their gods whispered in fervent belief that something could stand between them and the evil on the river.
Dead heroes stirred in their barrow tombs. Skeletal fingers clutched for rusted weapons. Empty eyes turned to the river, seeking the darkness creeping through their ancestral lands. Hisses of displeasure filled the dark earth warrens. Skeletal fingers clawed for purchase, striving to unbury the doors to the tombs. The dead rose to defend their homes.
The ship passed beyond, carrying its cargo of fetid death through the misty veil and into the lands of shadow.
The villagers sighed in relief, singing praise to their gods, while the ancient heroes settled into their tombs once again.
Nice! Welcome back!
This won’t be a story so much as a description of my response.
This song made me smile. It also, (and this surprises me), it made my heart beat a little faster. I imagine myself in a warm, cozy room with lots of relatives and close friends. We’ve all just eaten a delicious meal, and now it’s time to dance. Ooh, doesn’t this sound fun?
It’s snowing outside, or very, very cold, but it doesn’t matter. Here in the room it is toasty and inviting.
I kept thinking this song would break into a faster beat, but it doesn’t, and that too is perfect. Good times should never be rushed. I’ve never played this video game, have no idea who the king is, but mmm… I want to go there.
Good to have you back, Kari. And trust me when I say the world of your imagination is much more pleasant than the one in the game. 🙂