Day 346 Writing Short Stories

Scorched

The valley underneath her feet was scorched black. She smoothed her hand over her dragon’s neck, feeling it get restless underneath her. It knew what “scorched earth” meant. It meant her kind were enslaved and forced to commit crimes.

“We will free them,” she whispered to it as she lay her head against its scaly skin. “We will free them.”

As long as they had each other, there was hope. Her heart would carry, and its might and wisdom would deliver. Together, they were invincible. Together, they had liberated themselves from the slave masters and were now carving a new path for themselves.

Once, the earth underneath her had been her home. Once her mother and father had been scorched dead by the dragons, and she and her brothers had been taken into servitude. Her brothers marched in the army now, stabbing and killing those who didn’t comply. She had been meant for other things. Things that she didn’t want to remember, but one day she would have to.

And the dragon had done the burning, remembering to be bound to humans.

“No more,” she said, as if reading the dragon’s mind.

It tilted its flight, following the marks on the earth. They would soon reach the army, and then they would have to deliver.

Lazy Day

Moment of nothing. The slow-moving clock hand. The drifting clouds. I yearn for those lazy days. Those moments when there is no purpose to fill. Just boredom.

Treasure

The storms can be good. That was what she had learned when the storm took her family’s house. It destroyed every room, every piece of furniture they owned, every memory they kept, but it gave them fortune. There in the foundations, someone had hidden stocks and money, leaving them rich for life. They had taken it. She had taken it. And now, everything was supposed to be good.

It wasn’t. While storms can be good, the human mind can sometimes be bad. Contempt never resides there. That much she had learned when she became rich. She and they wanted more and more. Nothing to satisfy the justification for their new lives. And he had wanted more, too. So did the kids.

And now, as she looked at her family, they were spoiled and ill-tempered. It didn’t seem like the storm had been there to prove that something good could come out of the bad. No, the opposite was true. She wished they had never found the treasure. That she would not lose her husband. That her kids would know what boredom and patience were. That she would know those things too, that she hadn’t made all the mistakes she had.

Thus, she was doing something that would make them hate her. She would destroy the money after she had bought them a cabin far away from here. They could come with her or not. But there would be no money left. No fancy homes. No gadgets. No new clothes or toys. Just the cabin and the new, quiet job she had gotten from the nearby town.

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

I was sure I couldn’t write a single word today. I feel restless. Too many silly thoughts are swirling inside my head. But once I got to write, the words did their work, and stories were born. The first one was meant to be cuter, but then it became more about revenge and justice than about the bond between the girl and the dragon. I have never cared for writing about dragons. They don’t appeal to me, but now that the bond was formed and I could see what could be done with it, I would love to see where the story might lead. It could be a real fantasy story, unlike the ones I usually write. That’s the good part of writing these prompts; I get to play and test things I normally wouldn’t.

Now I’m off to work.

Thank you for reading ❤ Have a day full of stories!