Prompt: And then Azadeh said…
Courtesy: Umbreen
And then Azadeh said something I just couldn’t make out. Or more so that I didn’t want to make out. I groaned, hoping she’d take a hint and let me continue trying to sleep. It was 5 am, I had to be up in three hours and gotten back home around 2 am. I was in no mood for a conversation, let alone decoding the mumblings of a precocious two year old who seemed hell bent on talking to the strange woman in the bed across from the room from her.
But my throated groan did no good; Azadeh was relentless as she kept having a rigorous conversation that I strongly felt was beginning to hint at the second coming of Christ.
“Okay, listen Azadeh. I realize you’re almost two years old and won’t understand a word I’m saying but while I realize this is your room, your sanctuary – your native land, if you may – and I am the Canadian settler-colonist just parking her butt in this bed for a couple of weeks, you gotta let me sleep. I’m meeting a cute boy tomorrow and your babbling is ruining my just-barely-beauty sleep.”
Azadeh went silent. It was, I swear, the longest 30 seconds I’ve ever experienced with a two year old just staring in the dark; a piercing look of wide-eyed anticipation and challenge.
I cleared my throat slowly.
She then burst into tears and screams. Blood curdling screams. My eyes pushing out of their sockets and terrified, I uh‘d, laid down, turned towards the wall and heard her mom burst softly into the room to save the day.
After a few minutes, quiet re-conquered the room and I smirked as I began to enter sleep induced paradisio.
“Sana? Can you watch her around 6? I have to run out for a bit.”
Off with all your heads.
Contribute your own #Prompted below in the comments section using the prompt above or submit one for me to play around with. Challenge yourself by not thinking and just letting your writing take you wherever it goes; try limiting yourself to 5-10 minutes and 5-10 sentences. And if you can’t stop writing, then don’t.
The Cool Table 
And then Azadeh said something! The scientists weren’t sure of the exact words, if words were really what were being used, but the killer whale was clearly explaining to a podmate where to find the fish. The same sounds, made earlier to Azadeh from another podmate, Rachelle, were now being repeated, almost sound for sound, to the rest of the pod. Soon, the killer whales swam towards the fish, ready to consume a new meal.
Scientists had known for a long time that killer whales seemed to have something like separate cultures, and that they handed down hunting methods through generations, but now had by far strongest evidence of actual language ever collected. More tests would come soon, further recordings from this and other pods, but for now, the scientists worked with focused energy to catalog and record what they had found.
(disclaimer: the descriptions of killer whales above may be obsolete/not quite right. It is written by someone who reads about killer whales casually, and probably reads as such to someone with a better knowledge. )