Shantih shantih shantih

The hopefully last British literature class writing. We had to write a story using the word "shantih" in it three times. Of course, first you have to know what shantih means. Fantasy piece.

The crescent moon shone through the thick branches of the ancient trees. Everything around them seemed to whisper of long gone times. The two men were as silent as human beings could ever be, but it wasn’t enough. Still the heads of small night animals popped up from their burrows; still the quiet sounds of night were disturbed by a stick cracking or leaf rustling. And the whispering continued. At some point they even thought they saw a ghostly figure of an Ancientling moving ahead of them, but the next second it was gone. The men exchanged an uncertain look but kept moving. It had to be done no matter what. The existence of the future depended on it.

Half an hour went past before there was any change in the dark view. Then the tight space over their heads started to widen bit by bit and the stars came into view once again. Both men stopped, took a deep breath, looked at each other and continued their road with renewed energy. After some time the woods ended abruptly and they came out to a riverside. Despite the obvious rush of the water it made almost no sound. Moonlight made the water shimmer more brightly than any normal river would have, making the place seem even more magical than the whispering voices already did. Even the smells of the creek were sweetly tinged. A way up the stream there was laying a huge white shimmering cradle. Moonlight was making it bubble all over and it was slowly melting away under their very eyes. The men crept slowly closer.

“It’s a luck we got here this early, Grie. I was afraid it would already be hatched,” one of the men whispered quietly to the other. Grie hushed the other impatiently, not daring to take his eyes off the unfolding miracle. They were less than 10 feet away from the creature now. Suddenly there was a loud CRACK! and the cradle shattered to pieces. The men held their breaths, not daring to move. With irritating slowness an immense wing unfolded from the shards, followed by two huge legs with deadly claws. The indolent sapphire dragon finally came up standing, not noticing the two tiny creatures behind it. Stretching and yawning widely the mystical being started to raise its wings to launch itself up in the air. The men finally came out of their petrified state and moved carefully away from the beast. Suddenly the dragon turned its head swiftly to the men, his one silver eye swirling in its socket as it considered the guys almost lazily. Grie was brave enough to raise his hands in the sign of peace and whisper almost soundlessly: “Shantih.”

Kory stepped beside Grie, raising his hands also and said a bit louder: “Shantih.”

The dragon slowly lowered its unblinking gaze until its head was leveled with the two intrepid men. Then it turned away from them, looking at the moon, and through the forest there echoed a deep humming.

“SHANTIH.”

Reviews

[PyroKitty24]

How interesting. I wonder what this class consists of, since you always seem to be writing such random things for it