A Travelling Path | 5-Minute Freewrite: Mishap

It was a dark silent night. Not a sound to be heard but the faint chirrup of a whippoorwill. A star could be glimpsed through the slow moving clouds above a cluster of stone and wood houses. On the edge of this small town was a small wooden cottage with an identical cottage across a beaten dirt path. Unwanted ears heard the faint slumbering of a man within one of these houses.

Don Getts laid on his cot, the only sign of life was the slow rising and falling of a pile of blankets. There was a small clicking echoing through the house. The smell of smoke, then a mad cackling accompanied by the scurrying of small feet came from a broken-pained window on the side of the cottage was touching the forest.

Don’s eye’s flew open as he sat up. It was too dark to make out a lot; he reached for his sword on his bedside table and nicked his finger on the sharp blade. It was mishaps like this that could cost him his life. He must remember to sheath it. But there was no time. The cottage was filled with smoke. He could see flames through the window, licking hungrily at the weathered wood.

He knew he must get out; smoke was burning his lungs and singing his eyes. He leaped up, sword in hand, and rushed into the night. He looked wildly around. There was nothing but the infernal 0never-ending whippoorwill singing.

Thank you for reading my first official 5-minute freewrite! Thanks @mariannewest for the prompt.