Light and Shade
Eliza Howe
Three descriptive passages:
I: It was dark and empty of life here. Thick, barbed limbs of bleached skeletons of dead trees dominated the landscape like ghostly stooped figures. Ivy choked the twisted trees that had roots like enormous wooden tentacles. Everything was covered with the mist’s frosty breath. Rotting leaves and dead branches littered the ground, a carpet of decay. A dark, tangled maze of tunnels and secret paths strangled the pathway and pressed in on all sides. Thorns knotted amongst trees and bushes grasp at your ankles like bony fingers. An eerie, greenish gloom shone with patches of misty light.
II: A magnificent forest of tall trees like a crowd of vivid green umbrellas. Bright red rhododendron flowers framed the deep blue sky. Lilac Budlias were covered in butterflies surrounded by dew- soaked grass like a field of liquid diamonds. It was dotted with flowers like a carpet of jewels – rubies, sapphires and opals.
III: Her smile was as hollow as a cavern and she had her usual sly look in her demon-haunted eyes. She had a splinter of ice in her voice as her mocking tone said the words. Her unblinking eyes burned with a cruel light. She beckoned the girl to her with a tense jerk of her pale fingers. It was obvious that she had given orders many times before, as her tone was a cold one, and one that wanted to be obeyed without question. Her order was given in a low, viperish tone. She stared with eyes that sparkled like frost – cold and dangerous. Her expression suddenly changed to a dramatic one of obvious mock concern and sympathy, and then all of a sudden, she glided away like a dark ghost into the shadows. She turned and directed a look of pure venom and cold, arrogance at the girl’s retreating back.