The sunlight continued to bore down on the trees below. Green turned brown before their very eyes. No one knew where to go. No one knew how to solve this mystery. Set in front of them, the empty well loomed with their demise. But where? how? why? Only one previous twilight proved existence of this one true need. Now it eluded them, nowhere close held the key. They could be sure of nothing. The journey, blurred before, now seemed invisible. Without this resource, they were helpless, stuck, soon to be surrounded by enemies. Every side would be blocked. However, pilfering this position would be entirely futile to both friend or foe. Even so, impossible odds, inexperience combined with innocent young, brought grief and loss upon them. Where would be the sweet rest which Nikuko promised them? For it would not be here! Doubt rippled through the tired minds of her followers. Why were they fixed in position? Why didn't they run? She promised.
Suddenly, huge vessels surrounded the soldiers, the children cowered in their mothers' skirts. Guns, knives, swords, bows, then men, dropped to the ground in clouds of dust. "It is finished," whispered his wife. When, from one vessel, sounded the song of redemption. They were rescued! Nikuko, correctly predicted their coming. The Colonel spoke, "it is true then. Our rescue is timely, for the well brings forth no more."
"Indeed," replied his redeemer. Then, turning to the crowd he rejoiced, "Friends, we surely found the world of Eden. It's rivers flow freely, midst forests, providing plenty of food for our people. Come. We must move swiftly, before the enemy returns."
"It is written, the world of Eden will be found, then the enemy lost."
The Colonel divided them between the vessels. Joining his wife, he spoke with much joy, "We will live in this desert no longer. We move on, to the riverside of Eden where we will find our true fulfilment. Kikuko will reign for evermore. Our crops will prosper ten fold. Our children will grow, then go forth to rebuild. Kikuko's children will study her guide and continue to rule over our new home for centuries to come! Surely our future is bright!"
Okay, now you have read the story.... something is missing. Something very important. It is quite small and seemingly insignificant, but to the budding writer, the blank page becomes far more forboding, when this tiny tool is no longer at their disposal. So... can you guess? What is it? What is this whole story (minus this little paragraph) missing? Worked it out yet?
This was written during a writer's block exercise. There are a few tricks of the trade that I've picked up along the way; one of which, is to write something (anything) with one simple rule.... you must delete a single vowel from your vocabulary. Therefore in the entire paragraph/ letter/ story, the chosen vowel will not appear, not even once. So now all you have to do, is figure out which vowel was deleted.
