Short Stories By Me

The Cliff Diary

The prompt is from WispyHatter, there is a picture in the media.

Trigger warning, though this one doesn't really need one. I don't think, at least. As you can see in the prompt, the POV character falls off a cliff but doesn't die.

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24th of August, 2006

I was exited for the day to come, we were going to have a picnic at the top of the special cliff, just like Mammy and Daddy promised.

A month ago, for my 8th birthday, Mammy and Daddy took me to the special cliff for hike, and I loved it so much, the view was very pretty. It was the waves moving gracefully (a new word I learned!) but at the same time, dangerously. But it was too pretty to just go once, so Mammy and Daddy said we could go again!

31st of July, 2008

I forgot about my diary writing, but I just found it so I'm going to try again, I've decided that the first new entry will be a recap.

We've been going to the special cliff a lot more, especially during the summer holidays, I still love the view of the waves, it's beautiful, and really inspires me. In fact, I'm at the cliff right now, though it's a bit more cloudy than usual (we used to only go on sunny days) but it's still overall nice, the small bits of sunlight poking through the clouds makes it even more beautiful.

19th of December, 2009

It's a very dry day and the sun is out, but the December air still makes the air cool, mam and Dad said that we could go to the special cliff again, which is surprising, we don't normally go in December.

A few days ago I got a watercolour painting set from the pound shop, granted, it was five pounds instead of one, I was still excited because today I'm going to try to 'put it to paper.' (Dads words)

A twenty year old sat at the cliff, smiling at the very first time that they painted the magnificent beauty that is the waves, they personally think that, back then, they didn't do the waves justice, as the painting appears to have crippled the printer paper that it was bestowed upon.

10th of June, 2010

I come back to this diary from time to time, I've decided to label it the cliff diary, though I forget to bring it a lot, I think I should give an update in the art I've been doing, I've decided that pound shop watercolour trays were not my thing, so I've tried sketching in graphite for now, it's going good, I'm tempted to try charcoal.

There were a few rough graphite and charcoal drawings of the waves attached to the page. The quality had drastically improved, though it was still in desperate need for improvement. The aforementioned pictures caused a chuckle from the young adult as they flipped forward quite a lot through the old, battered diary.

31st of October, 2013

I've been horrible at remembering to do this, but I thought that I should make an entry for Halloween this year, I used oil pastels to do the waves this time, I've taking a liking to them, but they're very messy.

I coloured the waves a few different shades of red, the base being crimson, and I did a moon in the night sky rather than what I'd usually do, which is a sunny sky, maybe a few clouds here and there, and, of course, the breathtaking wave filled oceans.

Again, there was a picture attached to the page, the pastels had unfortunately smudged, though. They, again, flipped passed a decent chunk of pages.

3rd of March, 2016

I've decided that I don't like graphite, charcoal and pastels as much as I had originally thought, the mediums are prone to smudging, and that ruins the image of the ocean that I put on the paper, besides, I'm a lefty, so it makes it just a little bit worse.

On the upside, I think I've found my choice of mediums, them being acrylic and oil paints, I feel like it helps me perfectly capture the glistening waters in the sunlight, and I can get the details of foam that looked more like blotches of chalky white before now. I've been trying different angles, too.

Unfortunately, since the paints needed a canvas, there was no painting that showed their progress attached to the page. This caused a sigh, they would have loved to see the progress picture, even if it had only been two years, since progress can happen over the course of mere months.

They shifted, looking at their most recent painting, made just earlier today, actually.

They moved their diary and painting, before grabbing a bag that contained food, they pulled out a packet of prawn cocktail crisps, and began snacking on them.

They noticed that the point of a jagged rock had protruded its pointy stub into their behind, so they began to shift, attempting a comfortable position.

They did not expect to slip and begin a terrifying decent towards the violent beauty of the chaotic waves and foam below.

They closed their eyes, fully expecting death, it was impossible not to die from the height, it had to be about a hundred foot drop, and after about half a minute, they did not at all expect to feel the sensation of being hugged.

Slowly, they peeled their eyes open to see the waters swarming around them with wiggling appendages, forming seemingly out of nowhere.

"No," they heard, "it would be foolish to allow someone who loved us so dearly to get destroyed by us."

They were in shock as the appendages lifted them to the top of the cliff, placing them down next to their stuff.

After recollecting themselves, they pulled out the battered diary, it was almost ancient at this point.

24th of August, 2018

The ocean will forever be my most idolised force of nature, and nothing will ever change this.