Variation on a Theme

Chantelle noticed something was wrong as soon as she came to full consciousness - her bokken wasn’t next to her bed where it usually was. Maybe it had rolled under her bed, but...she wasn’t in her bed, either. In fact, the fact that she was even in a bed was wrong, because she always slept atop the covers underneath a mountain of blankets.

Then she looked down at herself.

And shrieked.

She was shirtless.


And tall.


With hairy feet.

She was a man.

She staggered out of the strange bed and across what was obviously a hotel room and into the bathroom, ready to have a good, long scream at her reflection. But once she got the bathroom light on and saw just what she looked like, she paused.

She was kinda hot.

Or rather, he was.

Then she fainted.

(140 words)

A Night for Dancing

The level of light didn't change when Rose stepped from the twilit street into the Book of Dead Names. A quick glance around revealed a short hallway lined with coats, hats and shawls. Rose nervously slipped her own light jacket off and hung it up on a peg,the emerald green playing against a white fur coat that hung on the next peg over.

Rose moved down the dim hall towards the soft golden glow of the room beyond. As she stepped into the room Rose drew in a breath in wonder at what she saw. A magnificent chandelier spilled warm light over the large room, the very outer edges of the light just stopping short of private tables and nooks that were separated with heavy velvet drapes, tied back to reveal beautiful tables. The tables were filled with people talking quietly in twos and threes or playing a variety of games; each table was softly lit with a small candelabra that hung from a nearby pillar. The sections of wall that was not taken up with rich velvet were lined with books, many of them worn and valuable. Along one wall ran a short bar which ended in a small recessed area that was occupied by a four piece band. The music that filled the room was slow and had a slightly jazzy edge to it. The middle of the room was taken up by a dance floor, the wood shining beautifully in the candle light.

After a slight hesitation Rose moved along the perimeter of the room towards the bar where she slid into a seat with relief. A moment later one of the three men that staffed the bar approached, "What can I get for you Miss?" he asked.

"Just some water for the moment please," Rose said, trying to keep her tone level.

The man nodded politely and moved away, returning a moment later with her water.

Rose gratefully accepted the water and sipped at it as she turned to look at the room; she was sure that this was the place, he had described it so well that even had she had never come here she was sure that she could have pictured it in her mind. Rose set her glass down and smoothed the skirt of her green dress, her eyes continuing to watch the room. A nearby grandfather clock struck nine o'clock, its deep resonant tones carrying through the room. As it finished chiming the hour Rose felt a warm hand on her shoulder. Rose smiled and turned to the man behind her.

Warm pale green eyes looked out of a handsome face, the barest hint of red stubble shadowed a strong jaw and a soft smiling mouth. Rose quickly looked him up and down, revealing a well cut suit that hung perfectly from his slender frame.

"Hi," he whispered, his mouth quirking into a half smile that sent shivers down Rose's back.

"Hi," she whispered back, leaning into his touch as he traced her jaw.

"I wasn't sure you would come," James said; he couldn't stop looking at her.

Rose didn't want to tell him just yet that she would always come when he called her.

"Will you dance with me?" James asked as he took her hand.

"Of course," Rose said and let him lead her to the dance floor.

A familiar song floated across the room as James pulled her into his arms and flowed smoothly into the waltz; Rose following his every movement, though her eyes never left his face. They had the whole floor to themselves and they took advantage of it, moving gracefully around the floor in time to the music.

As the song ended another filled the room after a brief silence. James pulled Rose closer to him, one hand holding hers against his chest as his other hand softly stroking her hair.

Rose sighed in content as she let her eyes fall closed and her head rest on his shoulder as they swayed slowly. She breathed in his scent; letting him fill all her senses; his quiet heartbeat that she could feel in his chest, his warm body close to hers.

"Rose?"

Rose could feel his voice in his chest, "Hm?"

"Rose, Will you marry me?" James asked as they drifted to a stop with the end of the song.

Rose's heart skipped a beat and she raised her head to look into his eyes, wanting to know for sure that he meant it. Rose kissed him softly, "yes she whispered."

Tell You What's Next

They lay curled in each other's arms, basking in warm afterglow and waiting for their hearts to stop racing, for that stillness of silence when he breathed out and she breathed in.

"That was amazing," she said.

He blushed and ducked his head, pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder. "I love you."

She smiled. "I love you, too." She sighed happily and snuggled closer to him. "We have our whole lives together. I'm excited. And a little scared. Mostly excited, though."

He sighed. "If I could tell you what's next --"

She grinned impishly up at him. "Go ahead. Tell me what's next. Make a prediction. I want to know my future." She waggled her eyebrows and giggled.

He laughed softly. "All right. What's going to happen next is..." He trailed off, and his gaze went dazed, unfocused.

She prodded him in the shoulder. "Dave, what's wrong? Come on - tell me what's happening next for us." She laughed, but the sound was unsure.

Dave said, voice flat, almost mechanical, "What's going to happen next is that they're going to break down the door. They're going to shoot me and take you, and in twelve hours they'll ask your father for half a million dollars."

She stared up at him, pale. "That wasn't very romantic."

Dave blinked. "What? I'm sorry. I must have spaced out." He leaned in and kissed her again, and he smiled. "I think, what's happening next for you and me, is we're going to have kids, lots of them, and --"

"That's not what you said before," she said.

He blinked. "Before what?"

"Before you started in about kids," she said. "You said --"

Someone kicked in the bedroom door.

Wishing and Hoping

Annie had always wished, vainly, that she was taller. At a solid 4'11", she was doomed to Seven Dwarf jokes from the age of twelve onwards, and she had watched with emerald envy as her guy friends - of whom she had many, for she overcompensated as a vicious tomboy - grew all through middle school and high school and broke the 5'8" barrier with ease.

When Annie first got her wish, she didn't even realize it. She just rolled out of bed, cranked out the requisite crunches and push-ups in a half-awake daze, and then stumbled into the bathroom to brush her teeth. It wasn't until she looked at herself in the mirror and saw a pale-faced Irish boy staring back at her that she realized something was different.

She stared down at the strange, large pale feet, so far away, and realized she was much taller than before. Her wish had come true.

She screamed.

Opening Lines

"Deena, we have kind of a weird favour to ask."

Deena looked at Audrey, then JJ, and felt a touch of fear twist in her
chest. Nothing good came after someone opened with that line.

"What kind of favour?" she asked.

JJ said, "We'd like you to be the witness at our wedding."

Deena dropped everything she was carrying.

Audrey sighed and shook her head, crossed her arms over her chest.

"This is such a stupid idea. If you weren't so uptight, we could move in together until this whatever wears off, and then we would just go back to our own lives."

Deena blinked, confused. JJ was many things, but uptight wasn't one of them. Between JJ and Audrey, Audrey was the one who was uptight. That she would even consider unmarried cohabitation with someone like JJ was utterly confusing.

"What's going on?" she asked finally. Perhaps it was some sort of prank.

"We should just tell her," JJ said.

Audrey shook her head. "Everyone will think we're crazy."

"Not Deena," JJ insisted, and Deena wondered if they thought she actually couldn't hear them. "Deena's one of my best friends. We've been through weird things before."

Now Deena was genuinely confused. JJ was a close acquaintance at best, seeing how they saw each other on a regular basis but didn't spend enough time together or know each other well enough to be called friends. In fact, Deena didn't even know who JJ's best friend was; she just knew it wasn't her.

"What if she calls the dudes in the white coats?" Audrey asked.

"She won't," JJ said, "once we prove it."

"Prove what?" Deena asked, and now she was genuinely alarmed.

Audrey sighed again, the sound uncharacteristically loud and impatient. "That we've switched bodies."

Mod Post and Apologies, Take 2

I am so, so sorry. Finals and belt testing and graduation have swallowed my life. We will get this business back in place when I'm settled in my new place.

In the meantime, feel free to post whatever strikes your fancy. Starts of a story, ends of a story, scenes that would make you smile. Go ahead and write them. Share them. We want to know what's going on in your head.

Stand

I stand on the edge of the abyss; staring off into the blackness of the night and the darkness of my own soul. I can not see the future and the past is lost in the mists of time.

Shadows and dreams swirl around me; morphing and twisting, first beautiful then horrifying, tantalizing and repellent. I raise my hand to touch the future and there is nothing there, nothing to feel. I look in vain for anything to latch onto, anything to save me.

One wrong step and I fall to the enticing darkness; yet a shift the the right brings bliss; a dance along the razor edge of life. Is the price to high to pay for such darkness, or can I attain that promised joy?


(Random I know. This is just what flowed from my mind to the keyboard)

How Bad?

“Is everything all right, My Liege?” Elaine asked.

Arcturus knelt beside his horse, tested its leg. “I felt Hengroen slip. There’s something wrong --”


Elaine dismounted smoothly and knelt beside him. She reached out and smoothed a hand over the joint. Hengroen whinnied and started, jerked away from her touch. “I think it’s just a sprain,” she said. “We can stop here for the night.”

Arcturus looked up at her. “A sprain? How bad?”

“Not so bad that Hengroen will have to be given mercy.” Elaine smiled at him gently. He was sixteen and barely a year into his reign; sometimes he looked like the child she’d met in the woods, muddy-faced and racing through the trees.

Arcturus rose up and caught Hengroen by the reins, steadied him. He patted Hengroen’s neck and murmured softly, soothing wordless sounds.

“Let’s rest here tonight,” he said to Elaine.

She nodded. She understood.

Owner, Jailer

“Does it have a name?” James asked.

“Finley,” Tobias said, and sprinkled a few flakes on the surface of the water.

Finley, all blazing blue and violet tail and fins, swam a swift flurry of a circle, trying to chase down his food.

James, sprawled across his bed with a copy of Waiting For Godot open on his lap, shook his head, amused. “Doesn’t it realize it should just wait till the food drops beneath the surface?”

Tobias closed the jar of fish food and sat back. “Finley’s a fish, not a genius. If it amuses him to swim like that, I won’t deny him the pleasure.”

“You’re such an accommodating owner,” James said, and then he turned back to his script, studying the lines, imagining tone and inflection and gestures.

Tobias peered in the bowl at Finley, and he knew he wasn’t an accommodating owner as much as jailer.

(150 words)

Isn't It?

“Is it a pet?” Ciaran asked.

Brenna cast him a dark look and continued walking through the trees. The massive raven perched on her shoulder cast him a similarly dark look and then tipped its head back, let out a caw. Brenna didn’t even flinch at the sound; Ciaran jumped. It made his skin crawl.

“Does it have a name?”

“Depends,” Brenna said.

“On what?”

“On what I need it to do.”

“Oh. What does it do?” Ciaran knew he wasn’t supposed to be out roaming the woods with a woman painted blue, but she’d rescued him, and he was...curious about it.

“On same days it is Thought, on other days Memory, on same days Death, on better days War.” Brenna reached up and stroked the bird’s crest; it preened and pressed its head into her touch.

Ciaran blinked. “That’s...a lot of names.”

Brenna smiled. “Isn’t it?”

Springtime Run

Wind whipped through Ariana's hair, invisible fingers tugging at the long blond strands, and her stomach seemed to drop through her feet as she briefly became airborne. She laughed with breathless joy at the speed and the freedom she felt. Long silky strands of black hair brushed her face and her body rocked rhythmically in time to the thundering of hooves.

Ariana released one hand from the reins to let her fingers rest against the surging muscles of her favorite stallion, Skychaser.

She pulled back gently on the reins and Skychaser immediately slowed down to a trot as they came to a wide, shallow stream. Ariana jumped down from the horses back and patted his neck as he bent to drink from the stream, laughed when he snorted and shook himself out.

Ariana breathed in deeply of the springtime breeze and wished life could always be this simple.

In Heaven

Steve couldn't stop crying as his father held him tightly. "It's alright son," his father murmured as he stroked his young son's head, "It's alright. Dash was an old dog. It was just his time to go."

"But Dad," Steve sniffled, "who's going to keep away the monsters from my room at night? Dash always slept right at the foot of my bed so that no monsters would dare to come in. Who's going to run with me, or play catch, or hunt for bunnies?" Steve's eyes filled up with tears again at the thought of his best friend in a hole in the backyard.

"I know it hurts son, but sometimes those that we love the most have to leave us so that we can grow and become stronger," his dad said as he wrapped Steve in a tight embrace.

"Dad?" Steve asked.

"Yes Steve?"

"Will I see Dash when I get to heaven?" Steve asked

"I know you will," his father said and hugged him again.

As Much of a Pet

“She doesn’t like you,” Keith said easily.

Gabriel drew his hand back from the rumpled orange tabby that was curled on the arm of Keith’s recliner. Keith was curled up with a blanket and a wireless controller, enjoying the mindless destructiveness of Assassin’s Creed.

“She might like me,” Gabriel offered. “She didn’t hiss at me or anything.”

“Doesn’t mean a thing,” Keith said, and shrugged, killed a guard.

“Actually,” Tobias said, “the fact that she didn’t hiss means she’s feral. If you’d actually gotten a hand on her, she’d have had your eyes.”

Gabriel winced and took a healthy step back. “I thought she was Keith’s new pet.”

“As much of a pet as a feral cat can be,” Tobias said.

(121 words)

Can I Keep It?

"He followed me home Sir," Joe said in response to his commanders questioning look. David had stopped Joe as he tried to walk quietly through the dining room and to his own room. He was holding a small ball of fluff and petting it gently with one finger.

Joe had tried to sneak it past his commander and into his room, hoping to keep the little creature a secret for a while. He held the kitten close to his chest, cupping it in both hands as if to protect it.

"Can I keep it Sir?" Joe asked in a small voice, his eyes large and pleading.

David stopped and carefully considered his answer before he gave it. He knew how hard their job was, how much it was important to having something to care about, something that cared about you. Cared unconditionally.

"Alright Joe," David said, "You can keep it."

Cafall

“What should I name him?” Christian asked.

Anna shrugged. “Him who?”

“My new hound,” Christian said. “Hunter didn’t survive his encounter with that boar.” He looked mournful, but Anna could see hints of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth as he held the brown pup.

Anna reached out and scratched the pup behind the ears; it wagged its tail and licked her hand. “How about...Cafall?”

Christian blinked, sounded it out. “Is that...Welsh?”

“Perhaps.”

“Why would you suggest that?”

“Cafall was the faithful hound of a mighty king,” Anna said. “Perhaps naming your dog after him will make him a better hunting companion.”

Christian hummed thoughtfully. “All right. Cafall it is.” He scooped up the pup and headed toward the kennels, calling for the lead houndsman.

Anna smiled and watched him, remembered the original Cafall, bounding at his master’s heels. Christian’s dog would be fine.

(149 words)

Project Assignment # 68 - Pets

If you characters were to have pets what would they be? what would be their reasoning? Do they even have a reason?

This week let's go for fun in 150 words

Overview #67: Mythology Remix

This was short and sweet. Like so many in the western world, my best sense of mythology is Greco-Roman mythology, so I had to fight hard to pick mythologies from other traditions. It was fun to see how things could be remixed and rewrote. The cheap thing about having such a limited wordcount is that I didn't have to play out the consequences of a remix, especially when I hit up epics like the Iliad and the Odyssey. I had fun researching other mythologies, though, so that was good times.

Of course, where there is mythology and me, there is a nod to Arthurian legends. I'm just sad I didn't think to try for anything Norse.

Defeated

"I will avenge you, my brother in arms," Owain vowed solemnly, slicing open the palm of his hand to let his blood drip on Cynon's grave, "I will bring you justice; your soul peace. I will find the Black Knight and kill him," he whispered.

......

Sir Owain staggered back from the Black Knight, a sword through his chest, his breathing wet and labored as he struggled to rise from where he had fallen.

"No," he whispered, "it's not supposed to end this way," Owain said.

"No one defeats the Black Knight," the Knight declared as he delivered the final blow.

Sun and Moon

“Well, this is a fine mess,” Amaterasu said. She perched on the edge of a cloud and stared down at the mortals who were blearily going about their day, dragging their feet.

“They haven’t been sleeping,” Tsukiyomi said. He balanced a silver globe on one palm, spun it idly. “They’re not very good at sleeping when it’s so bright outside.”

Amaterasu tossed her head, and golden rays shimmered on the ground. “I can’t change who I am.”

“Neither can I,” Tsukiyomi said.

“What are we going to do? We can’t go through eternity never seeing each other.”

“Indeed.” Tsukiyomi sighed.

Calendar Reshuffle

“This is all your fault,” Ox said.

Rat perched on the bank of the river and cleaned his whiskers with delicate paws, shrugged innocently. “How?”

“You couldn’t even figure out how to lie to Lion?” Snake asked.

The rest of the Animals were scattered across the garden while Lion had a long chat with the Kitchen God about being the first animal in the calendar for the humans.

“I didn’t want to,” Rat said.

“She could have eaten you,” Rabbit pointed out.

“She didn’t,” Rat said.

Tiger shook her head. “Two big cats in one calendar? That’s a terrible idea.”