Day 258 Writing Short Stories

Lacquer

I tried to wrap my head around this one. All I get is a hum. Hummmm. Hummm. Humm. No story about lacquer. Just images of things like wooden floors and people sliding on them, ancient vases and their shiny, but no stories.

Karma

Death and dying had been her business for a long time. She was a necromancer after all. Her job included pest control, meaning getting a loose undead under control, banishing nasty spirits that had taken over the house, and occasionally summoning the dead for loved ones to find out where they had hidden their rainy day funds. All tedious and needing social skills that she didn’t lack exactly, but she didn’t like to dispense willingly.

She had started to think that it was time to quit and move on. There was this sneaking suspicion that all that she had been doing lately was starting to come back to her, and not in a good way. It was the dead who seemed to mind all the interference she had made in their business. Karma had come back in little things: missing spoons, lost keys, stolen tomes, wrong mail. But something in her told her that something big was coming, and it was better if she changed the scenery.

She lit the candles around the ritual circle she had drawn. She took her seat in the middle of the symbols and cast her spell, tuning into the world of the dead. The chatter was loud. It was clear. And it was nasty. They were coming, and the village would soon be flooded by the dead.

She cut the connection and ordered her zombies to back her things. She was skipping this one. It was not as if the villagers appreciated her necromantic business in the first place. She would try a bigger city.

Insult

She was pretty sure that she hadn’t thrown the first insult around, yet that seemed to be the understanding here. Swords were drawn, and she was outside the tavern with her knives out. The enormous woman looked as if she were ready to cut her head off with her sword if she said or did the wrong thing.

“We can solve this?” she tried.

The woman let out a tremendous groan. This was why Beatrice didn’t like barbarians. All their food went into their muscles, not their brains.

“I take that as a no, then?” she let out.

The barbarian lunged at her, sword drawn high. Beatrice hit her weight down and avoided the enormous blade coming at her. She rushed past the barbarian and was ready to stab her in the back, but the woman was faster than she looked. She swung the blade down and faced Beatrice, letting out yet another groan.

Beatrice figured out that the sounds weren’t for a show. She was using them to breathe. She watched the barbarian in awe. Why the fuck did they have to be out and fighting? She could use the woman on her next quest. There was this wyvern up in the mountains, and the legend went that there was a horde of loot.

The barbarian swung her sword again, and Beatrice ducked, but the woman wasn’t stupid. She had learned, and she dropped her body weight down to make a sweep with the sword again, forcing Beatrice to jump backward. She made a backflip, landing barely on her feet, almost twisting her ankles.

The barbarian was already coming toward her, giving her no room to use her daggers. Beatrice saw in her eyes that she was expecting her to duck again. She didn’t. She launched at the enormous woman, leaping into her embrace. The woman was stunned and didn’t move for a second. Beatrice hugged the woman tight, not letting her shake her free.

“You know,” she whispered into the woman’s ear. “You seem like a sensible person, and I’m truly sorry for whatever I said to offend you, but let me pay it with gold rather than my life. I know a great place that lets us live our lives comfortably from now on. What do you say?”

The barbarian stopped her shaking and lowered her sword.

“I take that as a yes and as an okay to let you go.” Beatrice dropped to the ground. She barely came to the woman’s chest.
The barbarian looked down and said, “You mean the wyvern?”
“Yeah?”
The woman seemed to measure her from head to toe. “You need to learn to fight better than that, but I can teach you.”

The prompts are from the book A Year of Creative Writing Prompts.

I’m standing on a balancing board, feeling a lot better than yesterday. Okay, the thoughts are still there, but I think the worst edge of the flu is gone. Today, the prompts let me write a fight scene. I’m so happy about that. I still have so much I need to learn, but I will get there. I’m sure I will.

Now I will start reading game design documents. I have a meeting on Friday, and I might freelance as a game writer. I really hope they will let me work the junior position. This could be a wonderful start I have been looking for.

Thank you for reading ❤ Have an excellent day!