You know this fire thing you’ve invented? Good for tenderising food, sure. But great for lighting up the dark. Tak and I used flame to explore the deep earth. The tunnel goes a long way back, a long way. Maybe forever. Maybe into the other world. It got too narrow to squeeze through. Listen, here’s the big thing. There’s a body at the end, a dead badger. And it hasn’t decomposed. If we bring our dead to the shaft, they can live on in the other world.
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Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here
Neil MacDonald Author 
A parallel world exists?
I often wonder…
Living on in other part is interesting.
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Thanks. Anita
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How the ancestors saw it. Shame the underground doesn’t work both ways.
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Maybe it does
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Wouldn’t that be something?
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Hope springs eternal
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Ain’t that so!
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The idea of tunnelling into a warmer after-life sound inviting at the moment.
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Doesn’t it, though?
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Dear Neil,
Fire good.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thank, Rochelle
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Who’d have thought half a million years later what trouble their discovery would bring. I’m not talking the fire discovery, but the idea discovery…
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Thanks so much, Trent
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A little fire and a long, long tunnel . . . I can see it now. Hope it works!!
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They’ll probably win higher status than the firemakers
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But would we WANT to live in a parallel world? Would our bodies–or whatever still lives–adapt to the dark, the cold? What an interesting idea!
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We probably wouldn’t, but by then it would be too late
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Do you know something we don’t? Interesting!
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We all know something other’s don’t That’s our joy and our tragedy
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The tunnel goes a long way back, a long way. Maybe forever. Maybe into the other world.
You really set the tone here.
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Thanks so much, Reena
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Excellent storytelling, Neil. I wonder how many myths involve fire as a central character?
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Thanks so much, Jade
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You’re welcome.
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I wonder how long it takes until the first one of them licks the walls back in the tunnel. Otherworld has tasty stone…
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It’s quite possible they’ve already been licking the walls
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What await them in the other world?
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Eternal life? Feasting? Joining the heavenly choir?
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Wow! This one goes to a concept that although macabre, still has a sweet note to it. Wildly creative.
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Thanks so much
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Didn’t it occur to them that the badger might be newly dead? I guess not.
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They’re on a roll, so it doesn’t matter
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Dead bodies and badgers in caves. That will confuse archeologists for years. 🙂
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They will probably conclude there was a cult of sacred animals
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Living on (and on…) in this or another world has never appealed to me – but I might be in a minority. My mother is 93 and hasn’t been feeling so energetic lately, but tells us all the time she’ll be much better soon…
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Thanks for reading
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What an ingenious explanation for cave burials! Linking them to fire is a great idea.
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Thanks so much, Penny
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This one makes you think. I can always use that.
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Thinking is good
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The dead always get the shaft. Maybe a second chance at life in the other world will make up for it.
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I see what you did there
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🤣
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Sounds like a plan to me.
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Thanks, Sandra
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That’s interesting… how would they get the dead badger to the other world when the tunnel’s too narrow? 🤔
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They may not have thought this through
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Agreed. Maybe they’ll find another way. 🙂
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Interesting! Nicely done 🙂
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Thanks so much, Fleur
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You are welcome, Neil 😊
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Oooooo I love love love the mystery here. What is on the other side? It draws us all toward it. I really enjoyed this.
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Maybe all that’s on the other side is belief. Thanks so much, Laurie
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