Wordsmiths Fiction Week 3: Season 24 – The Last Photo"

mhizta (64)in #fiction-s24wk3 • 3 months ago (edited)

Good day story lovers, it a great day to participate in this contest organized by @. As we all know the contest begins with a prompt about a beautiful young lady who was a photographer and she mainly focused on nature. One day, as if it was her fate something happened that makes everyone amazed about her on her adventure into a deep forest. The prompt goes like this:

Nadeesha loved wildlife photography. Every weekend, she carried her camera and went deep into the forest near her village. She waited silently for many hours to capture animals in their natural behavior. She has so many collections, like a leopard yawning, a deer drinking water, or a bird feeding its chicks.

One bright morning, before sunrise, she left her home. “Today I am going to explore a new trail. I heard that there is a hidden lake deep in the forest,” she said to her brother.

That night she didn’t return. Her family worried and asked for help. A search crew went into the forest and searched for her everywhere. She was nowhere, but one of the members of the team found her camera lying near an old tree.

When they checked the camera's memory card, they found something strange. They were frightened to see the last photo of the lens. There was a small wooden hut and a half-covered tall figure stood at the door of the hut.

The search crew looked everywhere again and again but no success.

Her family member finally came the a certain place where there's a hut, but what they see makes them sense that something might have happen to Nadeesha. They stood there for some second and stare at the Nadeesha camera on the ground. But that's not all, there's also and an unusual picture, which created even more questions. It was the last image Nadeesha capture on her camera. The picture looks scary; a wooden hut and someone, maybe a creature standing in front of it. Who or what stood outside the door of the wood hut? "We must find Nadeesa even if you have to put our life in danger" they said as they decide to move closely to see what's inside the hut to rescue Nadeesha.

But in each step forward they began to notice something strange, something unusual. This even make it more scary as the sense even more danger. As they move closely to the hut, they noticed that the hut's door was partly open, meaning that someone or something must have entered or passed through it. The three of them stopped, looked at them themselves in dismayed. "What should we do? Should we move in? This might be a trap, how can this happen. There must be someone in the hut and we need to be careful... This might be a mysterious hut, what if we move in and the door close automatically that means we're finish.

After a long thought and suggestion they deciding to enter the hut but with precautions, two people can enter while one person will be outside to watch the environment and signal other in the hut. But as they about to execute their plan here comes a surprise to them; a slowly breeze that lifted the leaves on the ground and there as something murmuring, an inaudible noise.

But they couldn't find anyone as they searched the surrounding the last time, they looked up to the tree; it might be hiding on the tree...maybe it's a spirit. I think this is just a distraction, let check what's in the hut said by Allison.

Allison walk closely towards the entrance and cautiously pushed open the creaky door. They inspected hut, peeping to see if there's someone in there. The interior was dark but with sun ray from windows. There was was a smell of decaying leaves. Allison and mhizta entered the hut while Abubakar was the one watching the surrounding. While still searching they noticed that there was a small fireplace in the middle of the room with ashes still warm. Allison turn and said to mhizta: whoever was there recently had used it. He added, "Be careful, we have no idea who or what may have been here."

Before the Allison could finish his sentence mhizta sighted something that began to raise his heartbeat, he tapped on Allison shoulder and pointed at Nadeesha's broken camera strap, hung upon the wooden peg on the wall. It seemed that she was here, and something must have pull it out from her camera. Maybe someone took her away, or is it a ghost?

They searched and looked closely on every corner of the room, searching for Nadeesha but here comes another discovering. They were pictures plastered on the wall, a picture of the forest and the creatures that inhabit the forest. As they looked closely to the picture there was one photo that caught their attention - Nadeesha, with her camera slung over her shoulder, looking joyful.

Allison and mhizta look at each other with a feeling of worries in their face. Who could have taken the photo and why. As the watch each of the picture they realized that the picture was in chronological order, telling a story of Nadeesha's journey into the forest. The last photo showed her standing in front of the wooden hut, with a mixture of curiosity and fear of what's going to happen on her face. Allison was confused as he questioned mhizta...it's so complicated, Does it means someone has been plotting a bait for her?

They continue watching other pictures but it seems this whole scene is about Nedeesha adventure, they found Nadeesha's concealed diary. Allison looking more confused of what Nedeesha diary is doing in the deep forest decides to open it. The entries of the dairy talks about how she loved the forest and wildlife there but a quick end disclosing her recovery of "the guardian of the forest"

Outside the hut, the breeze came slowly close to the hut with an audible sound. Alex became frightening as he bounced on the door 3 times to call the attention of other in the hut. Allison and mhizta rush out immediately to meet Alex but they were startled by the soft noise outside. They went again to watch the surrounding while Alex asked them if the found anything in the hut. As Allison was trying to explain what happened the door of the hut close and open by itself. They sense as if someone have just pass through it. They walked slowly towards it, gentle push and opened the door but they couldn't move because of what they saw. There stood an extremely tall individual but they couldn't see her face because the interior of the hut was dark. At this point they were as if they're dead, unable to move.

The figure stepped forward, and it identity was reveal. They saw a woman with long, flowing hair and piercing green eyes. She introduced herself as Nadeesha but Nad for short, the guardian of the forest. As soon as she mention Nedeesha, Allison turned and look at Alex and mhizta with curiosity in his face. What's this whole story about? Why is this creature bearing the same name of her sister? He was confused but the creature looked at him and said she had been watching Nadeesha from afar, impressed by her passion for wildlife photography. This makes Allison belief that Ned set all the trab to harm her sister. He asked: Our sister is missing and we haven't find her for some days now, where is she? Is she okay?

But instead of Nad answering his questions, she explained to them that Nadeesha discovered a hidden world in the forest which few people realized existed and that she assisted Nadeesha in introducing her to the beauty of this world with small hints and clues through photography. At this point they were relieved as she doesn't sound harmful. But still, Allison still insisted on seeing his sister before he believes what she said. Nedeesha told them to follow her and they moved from the hut deep into the forest. As they were going they said to themselves: no matter what happened we must save Nedeesha.

After walking for some mile they discovered another hut in the middle of the forest but since Ned is with them they were not scared. Ned open the door and they all moved into the hut but to their greatest surprise they found Nadeesha there, safe and healthy, with equipment around her shoulder. She had been assisting Nad in documenting the forest's secrets. As soon as she heard the sound of the door open, she suspend what she was doing but to her surprise there stood her brothers, Alex Mhizta and Allison.

With so much joy and happiness to meet her alive they ran to gave her a tight hug. "Hey kitten" as they fondly called her, "we thought we have lost you, we were so worried about you" but she reply with tears of happiness in her eyes. "I'm all right, and guess what, I found something incredible."

They went home. The story of Nadeesha became popular. Her family decides to sponsored her hobby. Nad the creature because so close with Nedeesha, she enjoyed staying at home with her family, and it made her want to continue snapping photos of all the lovely things surrounding her.

I invite @sahmie, @josepha and @joymm to participate.

Image sources: generated from meta Ai

Cc;
@senehasa

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