Friday Fictioneers – The Scribe’s Scare

~ Neil MacDonald
PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

The scribe puts down his stylus and sends the clay tablet for baking. A good day’s recording of the village’s wheat yields, so he allows himself a cup of beer with his dinner.

In the tavern, villagers avoid him. He’s used to that. Scribes are never popular.

Voices at a nearby table rise as the ale flows. “Writing! What’s it good for? Spying on our harvest! And what does that get us?” “Bloody taxes.” “For the bloody king, may Ahura curse him.”

The scribe shivers at the next outburst. “We need to put a stop to all this writing business.”

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Writing seems to have been invented three distinct times. The cuneiform of ancient Mesopotamia and the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt are well-known, But the third, proto-Elamite from ancient Iran, is shrouded in mystery. One fascinating feature of the Iranian invention is that they gave up writing for 800 years around 5,000 years ago. We can only speculate why. 

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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

25 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers – The Scribe’s Scare”

  4. Very interesting story. Incidentally the early Sumerian writings on clay tablets were all about records of business transactions. A great disappointment if we thought writing was first associated with work of literary nature.

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  7. I get some funny looks scribbling away outside the cafes and bars, but I haven’t yet been threatened with death.

    I guess what we don’t understand is always scary.

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