Muse 115: Fasting

Fasting is when people don't eat to regain their focus on what's important. I tried it once for 30 hours for the sake of starving children in Africa. It was a school event, sent home and notified on fliers. Our teachers locked us up in the gym, a room completely enclosed with bright lights and closed windows, so we couldn't know the time. It felt like a desert of empty buffet tables. We played games until our stomaches started to hurt. Some girl, tall and skinny, blamed it on laughing too hard, and so we forgot about eating again. There was a chase of boy and girl, and for a second we forgot about time and hunger. All I thought about was how I hoped Jake to chase me. Even if I was already seventeen years old these times were good excuses for wishes. When all this was done, someone meekly asked for the time. The teacher looked at his watch and grumbled, annoyed and hungry, "It's only been two hours." There was a community groan, but we were locked in and could do nothing about it. Our parents signed release forms for us to starve. So we played games, talked, gossiped and taped each other to the walls pretending they were enemy zombies. I don't remember praying once, but I remember hearing a teacher respond, "Yeah, I'm going to drop into bed once this is all over."

Muse 14: White Knight

This was meant for yesterday (21st). I got caught up in flickr and forgot. Sorry!

Conception Art for Disney's Rapunzel.

From her anonymous tower, she looked precariously at the dark knight in the polished, shadowed armor. The thick foil wrapped around his body flattered his power form as he determinedly headed towards her with loud, clumping steps that held a musical tune of jangling keys to freedom. She watched with her cheek resting prettily in the groove of her palm as the knight approached right before her window. "Hello," she called out, her voice slipped through her thin swan-like neck, as if the word was a liquid dripping down. Smiling with the grace of a princess, she tried her best to look glowing in the twilight gleam.

There was an elongated pause as the light disappeared completely from the canvas sky like water muddling the tonal colors into pure darkness. She nearly sighed as there was no response from the rustic knight. Yet the clunking steps, for she could barely see, came closer with trepidation pressed into the ground.

"Hello," she tried again as soon as she saw the glint of his tin.

"Hollow. Hollow."

The roar was monstrous.