This week, Pegman takes us to the Sambor Prei Kuk Temple in Cambodia.
Thursday 4th April 1901
The sun is setting. Naive European as I was – not now, after everything that’s happened – I imagined the evenings would bring some relief, some respite in which energies could be restored. Now, when I lie under my roof of sagging canvas – mosquito nets hung around me like a cocoon – I feel the nights are as hot as the days, hotter even. No respite. Never that here.
It is at night that the forest yearns to overtake the temple, snaking back over the leafy ground and that circle of bare earth cleared by Chanda and the other men. I imagine her – the Forest – sending out her lieutenants – gibbons, snakes, that velvet pawed assassin the tiger – to reclaim what I have stolen.
The men are gone. Have I written that before? I am losing track.
It occurs to me – if the nets are my cocoon, what am I becoming?
Written for What Pegman Saw, a lovely prompt using Google Streetview as its source. See here to join in and to read the other tales.
Word Shamble 
What a gorgeous delirious tone, Lynn.I would pay to read more of this explorer/adventurer’s diary. Spellbinding story!
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Well, Kelvin, what a truly lovely comment! I am drawn by the theme, those explorers losing their minds to a nature they think they can master and can’t. Thank you so much for reading and leaving such a kind comment
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I love how you adapted the explorer journal style here. Adapted expertly I might add.
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Excellent. I especially like the question at the end.
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Thanks Josh, Not sure I know the answer to that question! 🙂
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Stunning piece. Love the perfect metaphor and the timing of the reveal is wicked good!
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Ah, thanks Karen. I enjoyed writing it – a venture into the darkness of someone’s mind is always fun … when it’s fiction anyway 🙂
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Splendid final image you’ve given us here, Lynn, and as usual you’ve made the scenario so vivid I feel I’m there.
(Curiously, apart from the tiger this could almost be a scene from one of the Dido Twite books!)
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What no tigers for Dido to fight? 🙂 Thanks Chris. So glad you found the scene a vivid one. I suspect the cocoon and the changing may be of his own imagining, but real enough in its own way. Thanks for reading
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Nature is fighting back and entrapping her along with the cleared land. Excellent.
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Nature will have a tendency to turn round and bite you on the bum! Thanks Iain 🙂
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Hopefully someone or something better.
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Let’s hope so. Thanks James 🙂
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I imagine her – the Forest – sending out her lieutenants – gibbons, snakes, that velvet pawed assassin the tiger – to reclaim what I have stolen. How I wish I’d thought of this line. It is beautiful, as is your entire journal entry. More please!
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That’s a great story, Lynn. Beautifully captures the scene, the mood and the period.
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Thank you Penny! I think I could happily sit at my laptop, living around 100-150 years ago. Dangerous, thouhg as I might never return to the present!
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Great story, Lynn. Some wonderful lines in it.
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Ah, thanks so much Chris. Glad you liked it 🙂
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Dear Lynn,
You are most definitely the maven of description. The sweat rolled down my back with the heat and anticipation of the velvet pawed tiger. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Ah, thank you for that kindest of comments, Rochelle! And for introducing me to a new word. Maven – I love that! Thanks again 🙂
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A very fevered dream…
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Yes, indeed. Not a happy camper I think
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What are you becoming, indeed! Had me in the grips of your story’s vine today. Remembering nights on the islands wrapped in mosquitto netting, and praying that the local lizard-life’s did not find a way to creep in…. and hot.. humid… yeah, I remember that, too. Thanks for the memory, btw.
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Ah, thank you Jelli. I’m glad you thought I captured something of being somewhere so extraordinary. Thank you so much for reading 🙂
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Hauntingly written.good write Lynn.
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Thanks so much 🙂
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Absolutely beautiful. It offers an insight into the “outsider” mindset. Also tells us they never learn… Brilliant Lynn.
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I wonder, wiill your protagonist be conquered by the nature around him, will he succumb to his own fears, or will he morph into a creature of the forest?
Anything is possible when the ink squeezes from Lynn’s supernatural pen …
Love it!
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So vivid and a bit sad too.
Lovely read
Click Here to see what Mrs. Dash Says
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I imagine her – the Forest – sending out her lieutenants – gibbons, snakes, that velvet pawed assassin the tiger – to reclaim what I have stolen. I am delirious with joy. Have been reading all the comments and they are going ga ga over this superlative descriptive story.
I am a huge, huge fan of your writings. But have i said that before. Well, i don;t care. I am just over the moon.
Take a bow, Lynn.
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My what descriptions! Brilliantly penned.
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