Category: microfiction

a sailor moon-esque amulet

The Champion

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The fox’s fur shimmered in the streetlights — not copper, but gold. Its disconcertingly blue eyes were fixed on his face. Its tail swept aside, revealing a bracelet of golden stars and heart gemstones.

‘Where did you get this?’ he asked. He should go home but there was something about the bracelet …

He picked it up and clasped it around his wrist. It fit perfectly, strangely warm against his skin.

He held it up to catch the light.

‘Finally!’ The fox sighed.

His eyes flew to the fox. ‘Holy shit –‘ Before he could fully register his shock, the wind picked up.… Read more

paint palette and paintbrush

Ritual of Paint

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The ritual began with paint.

Smeared across the eyes, across the lips, exaggerating the features, exaggerating the magic.

Then a nose to draw the eye: look here. Look at me. A mind-snare, but with a gentle purpose.

The rest varied: there might be hair, feather-fine and rainbow-hued. There might be shoes like flippers for land, to give the agility to fall *just* so.

But always, the paint and the nose.

Look at me.

It was a spell to fill a heart with laughter.

—

Another microfiction for Mastodon. Image by Ulrike Leone from Pixabay.… Read more

black pebbles covered in raindrops

Wishing to the rain

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It’s dark. Rain rolls and bounces through the forest canopy and chimes against the windows of their little hut.

They don their coat and hood, fill their pockets with pebbles, and trudge out into the wet.

As they walk, they whisper. Each whisper goes with a pebble: lodged in the roots of an old tree; dropped in a puddle, newly formed; buried in the dirt with muddy fingers.

Each pebble is a wish, and when lightning cracks the sky, they’ll know that one has been granted.

—

A microfiction for Mastodon! Even micro-er than usual. ^_^

Image by cpphotographies from Pixabay.… Read more

red dragon breathing fire at the camera

The Golden Queen & the Crimson Scourge

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The red dragon crumpled to the ground, her wings snapped, her heart bared and beating with a weak volcanic glow.

The knight limped up to that hulking, steaming body. His armour was scorched in places, and ripped free in others. With his bare arm –burned and wrapped in rags — he hefted a sword.

‘Time to put an end to this,’ he said, and drew back to strike.

He was knocked over by a whoosh of air from behind, the sword clattering across the floor.

‘Stop!’

The knight scrambled to bow. ‘Your Majesty.’

Her gaze was fixed on the fallen dragon.… Read more

black wolf

Her Loving Shadow

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She’d found him tied to a fence at the side of the road, a noose around his neck and no collar to be found. A large black dog with a thick ruff, long teeth, and eyes that gleamed red when they caught the light.

He’d gone with her meekly enough. Let her bathe him, feed him. Brush the tangles from his fur.

She never told anyone about the blood around his mouth — whatever he’d had to do to survive, she didn’t blame him.

He became her shadow, always at her heels, or watching over her shoulder while she played. If his eyes sometimes followed things she couldn’t see, then that was fine.

… Read more
frog

The Shock Frog

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There’s a crackle of electricity as you look up from your phone. Just as you realise it’s coming from your computer, something bursts from the screen in a flash of light and trailing lightning.

It lands with a plop on your desk. It’s a frog, lit up from inside like a firefly. It blinks at you slowly, first one eye and then the other.

Before you can move, it leaps again, this time vanishing with a hum and snap into your speakers. It emerges again a moment later.

You hold out your phone. It ribbits, chest bobbing, then leaps for you.… Read more

Into the Mirrordeep

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‘In the Mirrordeep, you will face your true self,’ the witch had said.

So she descended into that matte black lake, and not a ripple appeared at her passage. Down through the dark and cold that slicked her skin as she drifted ever lower.

Slowly, darkness gave way to light. At the bottom of the Mirrordeep, in glassy water on a bed of crystalline sand, she found a cat with fur in rainbow hues, curled and wet and alone.

She took it into her arms. It huddled against her chest and she kicked back up to the surface.

When she breached, the witch nodded.… Read more

black and white shot of leaves in rain

Fairytale Kiss

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It was a kiss with teeth, all hunger and bloody mouths as the rain soaked them to the bone.

The elf leaned back, pressing a finger to her wounded lip. The goblin’s answering smile was razor-sharp.

‘This isn’t how this story usually goes,’ said the goblin. She ran her hands down the elf’s sodden, wind-tangled hair, her every touch feather-light.

‘Then someone has been telling it wrong,’ the elf replied. ‘For you and me, this couldn’t have gone any other way.’

—

Microfiction! Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay.… Read more

a tabby cat curled up on a bed

A Welcome Metamorphosis

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They stretched and turned over in bed as sunlight streamed through the window. It was surprisingly luxuriant.

They opened their eyes and saw not hands but furry paws at the end of tabby-striped arms.

Startled, they rolled to their paws and took a quick inventory — their human body was gone, replaced by this unfamiliar feline form.

This should probably be cause for panic but … they were *extremely* comfortable. They circled twice, curled up, and went back to sleep.

—

Better than waking up a bug. Better than waking up a human!

This microfiction with thanks to Waldweg for supporting me on Ko-Fi!… Read more

Watcher

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He opened his eyes and there, white-smiled and wide-eyed in the midnight gloom, was the creature.

It hung back against the wall: long arms, long body, round head. Hairy, but in the way a shadow is hairy. A thing knit of night itself.

Before, he had closed his eyes and given in to fitful sleep. But now he gathered his courage and spoke: ‘What are you doing here?’

–Watching over you– Its voice was muffled and warped. –Rest now. You’re safe.–

After a moment, he did.

—

A microfiction with thanks to Quiet Rain for tipping on Ko-Fi. Image by StockSnap from Pixabay, used under Pixabay License.… Read more