Next Word Five Words Mash-Up - writercize #142

Time for a twist on the next word game. For those of you unfamiliar with next word, it's a fun little word association game where I give you five random words and you write down your instinctual "next word" - the first word that comes to mind.  It's great to see how different minds can come up with vastly different thoughts out of the same word.

example - If I give you the word "grass," you might say green, or fed, or smoke, or picnic, or cow, or hula ... all can be traced back.  You could also think of something more obscure, like "kiss" or "love" if you had your first kiss in a field.  Some explain the connection, and others leave the back story blank.

Next word is a game I like to play every month or so.  As Tara Tyler, one very talented writercizer, once commented, "i love these! you should give us a state of mental health reading from them =)"

For the twist tonight, read on to the writercize below.

writercize: Look at the list of words below and type your instinctual response to each word. Feel free to simply state the next word or evaluate your response.

• word
• tape
• train
• small
• pack

Now for the real twist ... if you're up for the challenge ... create a short story or poem using your five new words. You do not need to reference any of the original words, but you should include all five new words.

As always, leave your writercize attempt as a comment, or link to your blog if you post it there. I love to see what you come up with!

Click "read more" to read writercizer sample response about wolves.

writercizer sample response:

word - agreed
tape - record
train - teach
small - change
pack - wolves

my new words:  agreed, record, teach, change, wolves

Story:

Melissa knew she never should have agreed to meet Anthony here, in the woods, under the waning light of the moon. She'd heard the distant squeals and howls at night, seen the maroon-tinged tips of his canines on the mornings he stank of unbrushed teeth and tongue. Those mornings he always arrived just moments before the customers at the coffee shop, looking tired and disheveled, while she took customer orders and made the coffee. 

But then, as the day progressed and he snapped out of the early morning daze, he was so charming and strong and flirtatious that she'd forget and forgive his earlier misgivings.  So when he'd invited her out for a walk in the woods, it sounded romantic and she'd decided to come.

Now, the markings on her forearm would stand as a firm reminder that even as they take on human form, wolves never change.  Her grandfather used to teach her the tribe's stories, but enthralled as she was by his words, she had never really believed human wolves existed.  Now she knew better; now she knew there were things in the world that she'd never understand, things that defied science and reason and made the myths seem like fairy tales, and she felt her calling, that which her grandfather had implied when she was young.

It was her duty to record the oral stories of her people with a pen and paper and make sure the world not only remembered the stories, but understood with one glance at her arm that the stories were as real as the clouds in the sky. This was what she was born to do. Record. Protect. And slay.