Present Tense Practice

With Select Words:

vale	simper	fling	cranberry
kioske	winsome	prey	quacky

Deep in the Vale of the River Roaming, a traveler journies on the whispered promise of adventure. To his right, Roaming runs shallowly, splashing and spilling along fen and bog. He stops, plucking a plump cranberry, and popping into his mouth, reacting bitterly and casting his gaze about him, reflecting on what has been. Heading north, the Fringe Mountains lay far in the distance to his left, while to his right, the Smoking Range towers high above and closer. Focusing now, he inhales the scent and sound of the bountiful flora and fauna surrounding and accompanying him on his adventure. Lush grasses and ferns and strong maples fling about with quacky birds, all nutured by Roaming and her waters. Only further south do the ranges gather together, strangling the valley and collecting more influxes; there, Roaming it is not called, but Bounding – a deep, raging torrent.

He’d been walking down the road – a state highway – with cars whipping past him without a second glance, each one striking the fear of God into him. He’d then crossed the street, preferring the sight of the projectiles coming at him over the ominously crescendoing hum of speeding drivers. It was only then that he’d noticed the small kiosk hidden among the brush of the small valley next to the road. It certainly looked abandoned, he’d thought, with its few remaining glass shards occupying the windows and door hanging off its hinges. Now, in this blossing vale, he realizes that something had compelled him toward the kiosk – some force he can only scarcely remember, like the ghost of a memory long ago recalled.

Shifting the door, as its last rusty hinges begged for mercy, he had found himself entering this curious structure. It was utterly dark inside, somehow no light of the outside world piercing this seemingly self-contained universe. He pulled out his phone and prepared to press the flashlight button, when suddenly, lights snapped on all around him. Blinded, he jumped at the sound of a voice and his skin crawled. As his eyes adjusted, there before him he saw a pallid woman and immediately detected the disingenuous simper she wore on her face.