Write On Edge: Location, Location, Location

Here's what Write On Edge had for us this week:

The prompt for this week is to use setting to deepen the development of your story. You can use it to give insight into a character or a conflict or simply to evoke an emotional mood from your reader.

You have 250 words, so make them count!

Once again, I went back to visit Shawn's world.  If I can get my act together enough I am going to write his story for Camp NaNoWriMo this year.  I'll let ya'll know how it goes.  But, in the mean time, here's another glimpse into Shawn and his life.

Shawn caressed the worn, tattered photograph.  That it was paper and not electronic was almost unheard of anymore.  But it was the image that captured his mind.  He closed his eyes and sighed.

He could hear the inexorable wooshing against the slate grey rocks.  He always believed it was her heartbeat – steady, soothing.  Small pebbles like drops of blood dotted the shore.  He loved the occasional discovery of those semi-precious gems, even though it’d been years since he’d been there.  Shawn could smell the dampness, feel the crisp air against his skin, even though he was currently on a different planet.  He remembered the icy bite against his skin when he waded in despite the heat in the air.  It was a beautiful greenish blue.  Not the turquoise of the tropics, but darker, more fitting with the woodlands of the north.

Staring at the photo, he remembered how deceptive that serene calm was.  She’d get angry in winter.  That gentle, steady heartbeat became ferocious, beating against the immovable shore.  The greenish blue transformed into a turbulent grey mimicking the storm clouds above.  She was lethal at those times.  Many an old sailing ship went down on her, all hands on deck, when her mood went that way.

Shawn tucked the old photo back into an inner pocket.  There was no use daydreaming about a place he’d never see again, a time he’d never get back.  He stood up, shouldered his pack, and slung his rifle.  It was time to go.