The Key to Undershore Along the shore one day I found, a little silver key, I held it in my hand and let my mind go free, I wandered up along the beach, Not dry-shod nor foot drenched, The soft and shifting sands of heat were not for me that day, Nor sinking down into cool mud, toes dabbled with tiny crabs, I kept my feet within the band that's neither sand nor sea, Where pebbles sit in pools of damp, Green weed in tiny clumps, Where shells forgotten by the sea and not yet claimed by sand, Sit side by side with man's unwanted bits of this n' that. I stopped and saw what looked to me to be a cast off drain, Resting at shore's edge as if drifted by the tide, Old iron, cold iron, rusting and forlorn, Letters faded, edges worn, handles rusted through, I sat down by that rusted lid, Beguiled by what beneath was hid, And tried to lift it up. Heavy iron, wet iron, wedged into damp shore, Sitting like some age old taunt, It would not budge at all, It seemed to say 'no cast off I, no lid, no lie, No window I, but door!' A sibilant sound, a susurrus, like foam on shingled shore, a muttering and murmuring, a sinking, mumbling sound, drawing down and pulling, down to underground. My hand unfurled, I bent my gaze, On that argent cipher there, Winking in the soft sea light, 'Me' it seemed to say. A wardrobe key? A cupboard door? My gaze bent back and forth at that, From iron to silver, sand to hand, So strangely odd they seemed, So unalike, so differing, So vastly far apart, So why did I with slow delight Transpose the key from hand to drain Some knowing did I possess? That led me so to place the key And thus, to change its compass point.... Far below, so far, so low A heavy, hefty thunk That echoed from some distant depth, And travelled up to me. A spring, a sproing, a latch undone, The cover now ajar, Revealing there to me alone The Key to Undershore. Just an idea I have, which might become a story, or might not, the seeds are there coiling in my mind, this image - (after a lot of trials and a lot of help from many people - Thunderstone in particular who has been of tremendous help in getting my stubborn brain to grasp the theory and practice of using Bryce terrains and PhotoShop to best effect. AgentSmith's expertise in this area, and old threads of his have also been of particular help. Two others who deserve mention are Skiwillgee and Quest - but others helped too and if I forgot a name here, I didn't mean to, I beg brain fatigue. This is the thread - or one of them, where this was thrashed out: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2774568&page=1#message_3471683 and: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2774709&page=1 The drain, the wet foreshore and the key were all made from photos taken by me, and turned into Bryce terrains - with some difficulty! Hopefully next time I'll know what I'm doing. There's no post, and an IBL from Paul Debevec supplies the only light.