Mini Story, Word Challenge, Word Prompt, Wordle, Writing Prompts

Beneath the Southern Cross: Love in the Outback

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written for Sunday Whirl Wordle . Our host is
Brenda Warren; her prompt words for this week are
shown below. Here’s where the prompts took me.

rifle, grass, flush, steam, radiance, beetle,
perfume, drifted, swaying, hypnotic, hiss, and skin

Image by Me & Copilot

The Queensland sun had long surrendered to dusk when Amelia first noticed him …. tall against the swaying gum trees, a rifle slung across his back like an afterthought.

She stood barefoot in the grass …. unmoving, watching …. her skin warm from an afternoon of work, a flush of color rising in her cheeks as he approached through the amber haze.

“Lost?” she asked, though she hoped he wasn’t.

He said nothing at first, just watched her with those dark, hypnotic eyes …. the kind that drifted over a woman like smoke over still water.

The air between them carried the ghost of her perfume: wattle blossom and something darker, wilder. A beetle clicked somewhere in the scrub. Steam curled from the billabong at the property’s edge.

When he finally spoke, his voice was a low hiss …. supple leather and gravel in equal measure.

“Not anymore.”

The radiance of the dying light caught his jaw, his collarbone, the dangerous curve of his mouth. Amelia felt the world tilt …. the scent of eucalyptus, the warmth of red earth beneath her feet …. and stepped forward into whatever recklessness the night promised.

NAR©2026
#MLMM
#Wordle

This is “Throw Your Arms Around Me” by the Australian group, Hunters & Collectors

Wordle 753

Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.

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