I get a prompt, and I get to use that prompt to create a drawing. The prompt is from the Inktober challenge (https://inktober.com/), which has created both the annual Inktober event (a prompt a day for the month of October), and Inktober 52 (one prompt a week for the year). So, I am doing Inktober 52 now, and it’s on week fourteen. The prompts come on Thursday, and, every Thursday morning, I wake up feeling very excited about what the prompt might be. This week’s prompt is “Viking.” Well, I was gleeful about that because the mascot for the Grand Island, New York, school district is the Viking. And so, I drew him and then added the ink. Here is the Viking.
One day, a group of athletes from Grand Island High School were out for an early morning run when they took a wrong turn and ended up in a completely unfamiliar forest. They looked at each other a bit mystified and then spotted a red door that seemed to be connected to nothing whatsoever.
“I wonder where we are,” said a football player. “And if we will be able to get back to school for first period.”
“Maybe, if you run fast enough,” said a long-distance runner.
All of a sudden, the school superintendent and a photographer appeared in the forest, seemingly out of nowhere.
“Let’s take pictures of our future race track. We’re going to call it the Forest Fury,” exclaimed the school superintendent. “This is going to be great. No one will ever defeat the Vikings in forest races.”
The photographer touched the mysterious red door and said, “What’s this door? I don’t remember a door. Should I open it?”
The students gaped at the photographer as, without waiting for an answer, he pushed the door open. Everyone crowded in, and the door closed behind them and vanished.
“Wait, how are we going to find the door? I’m going to be late for class!” declared a student.
“It’s all right. You’re with me. I will write a note for you,” said the superintendent. “This is an adventure. Oh, look, and here’s our Viking.”
A Viking, resembling the Grand Island mascot, had just jumped in front of them from behind a tree. Oddly enough, there were no horns on his helmet.
“Where are your horns?” everyone asked in unison.
“Vikings don’t have horns. We aren’t aurochs.”
“What’s a aurochl?”
All of a sudden, an auroch, which looked like some gigantic type of cattle with very long and pointy horns, appeared, along with a little boy. The little boy giggle gleefully, and the auroch showed off its monumental horns. Without warning, the little boy shook his fist at the sky, and there was a booming blast of thunder. The little boy chortled gleefully. The photographer looked around for his camera, which had mysteriously vanished.
“Hi,” said the little boy. “My name is Thor. I’m a baby Norse God. I can make thunder and lightning. Want to see my lightning?”
“Um, no,” said the photographer. “Can you make my camera reappear instead?”
“No, that’s above my pay grade,” Thor said, as he pointed at the sky. Suddenly, lightning hit a tree, breaking it in half.
“Thor! Cut it out!”
All of a sudden, Odin appeared. The photographer continued to search for his missing camera. The students began a running race through the forest. Thor began to chase them, but he stopped when Odin appeared.
“Who are these people and where did they come from?”
“I don’t know,” said Thor. “But I wanted to show them thunder and lightning. Just in case they wanted to learn how to make it. Can I show them?”
“Um, no. Can you imagine if everyone had the power to make lightning and thunder? It would be a disaster.”
“Well, I can declare a snow day,” said the superintendent gleefully.
All of a sudden, everyone was back in school.
“How did that happen?” a basketball player asked.
“Can we go back? I have a test,” another student said.
“Maybe tomorrow,” said the superintendent. “We just have to make sure the photographer doesn’t lose his camera because picture or it never happened.”
At that moment, there was a huge boom of thunder and an almost immediate crack of lightning, and the lights in the building went out.
“Hahahaha,” laughed Thor from somewhere.
Tomorrow: we’re coming back from random lightning strikes to a craft project! Stay tuned!
What a storyteller you are, Alice! And what an imagination. I wonder how they got out of the forest and back to school without the red door.
I think it was the lightning!
I am more concerned about the camera, but, maybe that is just me. 🙂
Oh, me, too. The mysteriously vanishing camera was definitely a problem!!!
That story sounds like a dream. I like it.
From where do you get those prompts for InkTober 52? They haven’t updated their homepage since late 2021, I thought it was discontinued.
I get a weekly notice in my email from them with the prompts. Just click onto this link: . Then scroll down the page and subscribe to the inkktober newsletter, and you’ll get the prompts in your email.
Great story (and loved the Viking).
Donna: Click for my 2025 A-Z Blog
Thank you so much, Donna.