Get inspired with this week’s Fantasy Art Wednesday, where fun fantasy artwork is combined with a writing prompt to get your creative juices flowing.

It’s not much fun getting caught in a downpour, especially when you’re carrying a bunch of stuff. That was me today–the minute I had to leave the house, the skies just opened up. I will admit, there was some grumbling as I, and all my belongings, got thoroughly drenched by a cold rain. This image made my soggy toes feel toasty again…and then hot, dry, dust-covered, thirsty. Very, very, thirsty. Looking at it for a while, and imagining myself there, I gained a sudden appreciation for the rain.

If a drop of rain has ever fallen in this place, there is no sign of it. Yet it seems that there was once a civilization, now buried beneath the shifting sands. Those stone fingers reaching upward, just breaking the surface, are full of longing and desperation. If they could only break free. Whom did this carved figure represent, and what else lies with him in his desert tomb?

Carrion birds seem to be following the poor person trudging along the barren landscape. How did he find himself here? Is he lost? Seeking treasure? Was he abandoned here as a form of punishment? Perhaps he found respite in the shade of those carved fingers for a while, but to stay there too long is certain death; there is no food or water to sustain him, and the birds know it. Can he make it to that rocky mountain he sees ahead? If there is anyone living in this desert, perhaps it is there–the entrance to an underground society with access to a spring. There must have been something good in this place, once up on a time, to warrant the carving of such a statue. Does that good remain, yet to be found, or is there now nothing but dust, unbearable heat, and eventual death?