I haven't played Three Word Thursday in ages but I'm playing today. Each week, Quilly gives three obscure and challenging words to be used in a story.
Here are this weeks' words:

ponask – to cook game by splitting it and roasting on a spit
stiricide – the falling of icicles, as from the edge of a roof
ruricolous – Living in the country or fields


I remember them well- etcentric and laconic, two brothers, a pair of crusty old bachelors, Earl and Loren. They lived a ruricolous life, to be sure, way out in the middle of nowhere. A long driveway led up to a rambling, weathered old house that had once perched watchfully on the knoll. Now it just slouched. The two brothers had long stopped caring for it, and come winter, they seldom ventured outside. Perhaps they feared becoming victims of stiricide, for the ice would build up into massive columns, reaching from the eaves to the window sills. Consequently, the porch sagged tiredly, gradually falling away from the house. But in the summer the brothers could often be found sitting on that porch.

Of the two, Loren was the more outgoing. Earl's vocabulary consisted mainly of "ayup" and "nope". He wasn't rude- just didn't have much to say. Loren, on the other hand, could and would talk all day. We used to rent their farmland and had learned to scoot past the house a bit quickly if we didn't want to get caught by Loren and detained for hours in conversation. But, on this particular day we were the ones who stopped and initiated a chat.

As we pulled into the driveway we noticed Earl on the porch and waved to him. Then, we spotted Loren stalking up the driveway with a gun slung over his shoulder. For an old guy, he was storming up through there rather quickly. It was too much- we had to ask. "Whatcha doin', Loren?"

The Carmer brothers never swore, but on this morning Loren emphatically stated, "That damn woodchuck ate my garden!" We just assumed he was going to shoot the woodchuck, but then he added, "And now we're going to eat him!" He continued on his way and so did we.

After we'd finished tending to the fields we headed home and there, as we passed the Carmer brothers' house, out in front of the porch, was the woodchuck- ponasked.