Happy New Year and welcome to Micro Bookends 1.19! Today is Chinese New Year, also called Spring Festival, and the beginning of The Year of the Goat. The Chinese calendar is lunisolar so the date of New Year varies according to the Gregorian calendar each year. People born in goat years (1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015) are said to be calm and gentle, creative, have fewer health problems, and prefer to be in groups though do not like to be the centre of attention.
New Year is a major holiday for the Chinese. It is traditional for families to clean the house to sweep away ill-fortune and make way for good luck. Houses are decorated with red lanterns and couplets expressing good fortune and happiness. Gifts of money are exchanged in red envelopes and fireworks are set off, at least in places that still allow it. Lion dances are performed to drive away evil spirits and incense is burned to usher in a prosperous new year.
Here is this week’s photo prompt:
Photo Credit: matthewwu88 via CC.
The Judge
Judging this week’s contest is Deborah B. Foy, winner of MB 1.18. Read her winning stories and what she has to say about flash fiction here.
What?
A story of between 90 and 110 words starting with SPRING and ending with FESTIVAL and incorporating the photo prompt.
Who?
Anyone, but especially you!
Why?
Why not! Because it’s fun. Because it’s a challenge. Because the winner will receive their own winner’s page, their story on the winning stories list, a ‘who is the the author’ feature to be posted next week, entry into the ‘Micro Bookend of the Year’ competition, and a copy of this year’s winning stories compilation.
When?
Now! Get your entry in BEFORE 5:00 am Friday (UK time: http://time.is/London).
Where?
Here!
How?
Post your story in the comments section. Include the word count and your Twitter username (if you’re Twitterized). Don’t forget to read the full rules before submitting your story.
Anything else?
Please give your story a title. It will not be included in the word count.
Please try to leave comments on a couple of other stories. It’s all part of the fun, and everyone likes feedback!
Remember, only stories that use the bookends exactly as supplied (punctuation is allowed) will be eligible to win.
167 Responses to “Micro Bookends 1.19 – SPRING [micro] FESTIVAL”
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Chao (word count: 108)
Spring round the corner. That’s what he said. Just spring round the corner and look as though you`re having fun. I held my tongue. I always hold my tongue. Have done ever since it happened … twelve years ago.
Look at that idiot Chao. Drooling over his precious fireworks. I can’t believe he was allowed to buy so many. Not after what happened the last time. And who gave him the money for them anyway? He squanders the little he manages to scramble together on drink.
If I had been to blame, I would probably drink too.
The Year of the Goat, it would never be my festival.
(@koebnig)
Intrigued. I’d like to know what happened 12 years ago.
CHRIS AND MIKE vs THE LESSER-SPOTTED DRAGON
Brian S Creek
110 words
@BrianSCreek
#FlashDog
“Spring,” said Chris, sniffing the vapours. “That’s what it reminds me of.”
Exasperated, Mike glanced over. “Would you stop lighting incense and give me a hand?”
“You’re doing fine,” said Chris as he saw his friend keep the Lesser-Spotted Dragon at bay with several sluggish sword swings. “Remember, you’re the muscle.”
“Zombies, ghosts and robots, you said.” Mike stepped to the left and dodged the dragon’s lethal claws, “You never said we’d be fighting dragons!”
The attack ceased then, the Dragon coughing and spluttering before it collapsed at Mike’s feet.
“What the hell?”
“Whispers Sticks,” said Chris. He held up a packet. “Picked them up last year at a festival.”
Love this one too!! Absolutely amazing!! When you publish the Chris and Mike’s adventures can I please have a signed copy as their devoted follower ? 🙂
Stella, you’re too kind. Glad you’re enjoying them. Of course you’ll get a signed copy. It’s the least I can do for their #1 fan.
I’d love some of those Whispers Sticks 🙂
Whisper Sticks – for when your dragon gets a little crazy (check with you vet before use)
So you did mean to say “Whisper Sticks” rather than “Whispers Sticks”, Brian?
Yes, yes I did.
Aw, but what if the dragon just wanted to talk?
Kidding! Great story.
Funny, like the way Chris keeps Mike fighting by flattery ‘remember you’re the muscle’.
Rebirth
110 words
@theshakes72
Spring brings renewal, but I want to keep this skin.
Once the parade was done the dragon was discarded, its body segmented, each part going their separate ways.
I miss the simplicity of dragon life. In the dragon we move as one, a living chain. In the world life’s jagged, lacking fluidity.
Today I saw Dani in the district. In the dragon we were soulmates, effortlessly linked. I would anticipate her every move and replicate it seconds later, just the smallest nuance of change. Out here, she looked confused, almost annoyed to see me.
I’m sorry for what came next.
I want to keep this skin, begin a new festival.
Even though it’s dark, I really like this.
wow this is dark Dave !!! Excellent tale, love it 🙂
I like the repetition of ‘I want to keep this skin’ 🙂
and the darkness.
Creepy atmosphere, great story.
Love this.
Great dark story. Particularly like the ‘I want to keep this skin’, hints at so much horror.
The shift of that repeated line from (seemingly) figurative to literal is so very sinister. And “I’m sorry for what came next” is the perfect hinge.
Oh so very dark! Love it.
Too Close
109 words
@sydney_writer
An: “Spring?”
Bai: “Just like that, isn’t it?”
An: “Hand me the lion mask, will you?”
Bai: “Do you see that dragon?”
Yellow eyes narrow to slits and smoke puffs curl from nostrils.
An: “Evil spirits don’t live in dragons, do they?”
Bai: “Won’t you hurry and take the mask?”
An: “Why hurry?”
Bai: “And do the dance?”
A black dragon scale plinks the tiled floor. Leathery wings flare.
An: “Is it working?”
Bai: “Does it look like it?”
An: “Do you think I can tell with my face covered?”
Dragon lizard body hurtles out the window. Too close.
Bai: “What if that had been our last festival?”
Sounds like a close shave.
word count 106
@susanoreilly3
Celebration
Spring has apparently sprung
Wish I was still young
That there was joy for me in the budding flowers
And that I could laugh in the face of Spring showers
Bitter is what I’ve become
No musical tempo in my hum
Drowning in despair
Losing mobility along with my hair
Old age no longer invites respect
I’m looked at by colleagues as If I have a defect
I’m not concerned with racism
To much on my plate fighting ageism
My boss is a flaming dragon
Says I’m always flagging
With my emotions I’m wrestling
I’ve been asked to organize the St. Patrick’s Day Festival
this is so cleverly written… love it… Judge Foy is going to have a hard time this week!!
thanks very much Stella glad u like x
Made me smile, thanks 🙂
glad it did thanks F.E. cheers x
‘My boss is a flaming dragon’, haven’t we all had those in our time!
bet we have thanks steph x
Lovely rhythm. Made me smile, too.
thanks Marie x
Sorry David an extra word if I could get rid of the me in the last line thanks x
Done 🙂
your are kind thanks x
@stellakateT
106 words
Father and Son
“Spring into action” yelled Mother.
Since Father died I was expected to fill his shoes. Trouble was I had small feet; his were the largest ever to walk this earth. I pulled the Dragon’s head on to my shoulders, how was I to learn the Dance? Father sent me away years ago; he thought a college education was my card out of slavery! We were never slaves but his Grandpa worked for the Shanghai railway, cutting through solid rock with his bare hands went the legend.
Smelling the incense, watching the Dragon Dance I prayed my Mother would think it was me and enjoy the festival.
love the twist at the end nice x
I too liked the twist.
Nice twist. Hope she doesn’t spot him.
A lot in this! Well done. Really liked the ending.
100 words
@feclarkart
Waking the Dragon Woman
‘Spring’ announced Jack, bringing with him a draft of icy air and a flash of daylight.
‘SPRING?’ she roars, her dragon hat flapping about her head.
‘Have you seen the snowdrops?’
‘Gah, sodding snow, still winter….leave me ALONE!’, the ragged dragon hat dips and Jack watches as she wraps the blanket closer around her, until she is a mound of swaddling with a dragon hat on top.
Jack sighs, lights an incense stick, moving quietly around the darkened space.
Too soon to wake this hibernating dragon woman, too soon for light and air – not quite time here for Spring Festival.
Jack (Frost I presume) -“mound of swaddling…” is powerful, suggesting earth’s fertility – the doubling of nature and of personal relationship…
thank you 🙂
Nice. Just by her movements you’ve shown how much she wants to be left alone.
great love mound of swaddling as well x
Culture Clash
@geofflepard 108 words
‘Spring fever.’
‘Do you think it’s a phase?’
‘It’s his sap rising. Nothing to do with tides.’
‘He’ll want a party.’
‘Sacrifice a goat then.’
‘Aren’t they vegans?’
‘They’re from China not Venus.’
She stacked the plates. ‘I’ll need a hat.’
‘At least they don’t wear ties.’
‘And some shoes.’
He cracked his fingers. ‘They bind their feet, you know.’
‘Maybe it stops corns. Will he want fireworks?’
‘No 76 will complain.’
‘We could do pineapple and cheese.’
‘They’ll want MSG.’
‘I’m sorry but we will not be having drugs, not even for his wedding.’
‘You sold his cannabis cookies, remember?’
‘That was different; it was Harvest festival.’
Funny stuff, Geoff! Love ‘I’m sorry but we will not be having drugs…’. And ’it was Harvest festival’ is a LOL use of the final bookend. Brill!
Thanks Geoff. I can breathe that you haven’t found a rule breach!!
Great dialogue on this. Like a couple well into the groove of marriage.
Thank you Brian
lol nice x
thanks Susan…
Funny, so many excellent lines, ‘they’re from China not from Venus’, the vegan reference, the drugs … all so good.
thanks Steph!
Spring Cleaning
Spring bleeding cleaning hate it any time but all of a sudden everyone’s in a panic. Dusting, weeding, window wiping is the queen expected or something. My wife’s humor is nonexistent her insistence I get up and help, persistent.
I don’t know why I only get in her way, think today is another, do it wrong on purpose day. The dog has escaped to the back yard, the hoover a step too far. I’m better of out of here she’s turning into a dragon.
I run out the door, avoiding her flames, yelling that I’d volunteered to clean glasses at the beer festival.
Poor man. Like the last line.
thanks Steph x
For those who don’t know, this story captures the husband’s plight very well.
lol thanks Michael x
Spring Festival
(54 words)
@ladyleemanila
Spring of our life, a new beginning
Bright lights, flowers waking up
Birds crooning, snow’s gone
New energy forming
Giving hope
I wish for you to be happy
Forget the past, focus
On the now and
Tomorrow
Be brave
Party, party, what fun
The whole village
Looking forward
To have pleasure
In the festival
Uplifting poem about moving on.
110 words
@stu06bloc9
direction
“SPRING!” was delivered through sickly sweet sandalwood and spicy aroma sputtered through smokecreen smog of smushy project outline for auditional play.
The artistic director was a dragon of a man with beastly ideas for performance. Understudy suited me fine, but lipstick insistence and masked to boot?
And without thinking to have to practice in every role and action regardless of ailing and age and all things considered collaborations. Cursoring, collecting, caretaking, oh and prompt!
Staggering already with the weight staying me down and weak at the knees I did not fall but it was hardly Spring-worthy attempt. Not a fluke for a try-out for this free finking fickle fiends FESTIVAL.
‘Sputtered through smokescreen smog’ – great imagery here. Also like the indignant tone in ‘but lipstick insistence and masked to boot’.
love that line too and the alliteration at the end very nice x
What a brilliant use of the final bookend!
word count 110 excluding title
@susanoreilly3
For Sale
Spring is here and the goat gets all randy. Who knew it was a premonition when he called him that as a young kid. He’s around the block and back again Chinese whispering to all the Nanny goats, oozing oil from his beard down to his hooves.
We’ve just got a new kid on the block, fresh faced and slim, we called him Jim. Jealousy took over Randy when he saw Jim carousing with his favorite beau. He came over all dragon-like shooting flames from his nostrils and attempting to fly at Jim every chance he got. Poor Randy has to go he’s now up for sale at the Festival.
‘Chinese whispering to all the Nanny goats’ – great line. Poor Randy,
cheers steph glad you like that line x
105 words
@stomperdad
Fight of the Year
“Spring forth and send Nian back to the sea!”
“He’s too strong, too big!”
Their swords slashed. They dove and dashed.
Nian roared, intent on a human meal tonight.
Darkness over took the two warriors as they fled for safety.
The ground shook, their ears rang as Nian hunted.
In the safety of the hut, eyes adjusted to night then flashed with the brilliance of an idea.
The horned lion searched the village for the two warriors. Suddenly, from a shambled hut burst forth a red dragon. Fireworks exploding from its maw.
Nian silenced, disappeared in a black cloud of smoke.
“We saved the festival!”
The dragon always wins.
The Risk of Living
(109 words)
Spring came after months of huddling together with generators, fires, and blankets. They explored, invading the privacy of the dead, looking into houses and yards.
Leah believed they’d found treasure.
“But you know nothing about this.”
“Paul, it’s human tradition.”
They looked out the window at the empty streets. It had been two months since they’d seen another person.
“It’s risky, Leah. It could attract attention.”
“I miss people.” She donned the intricate lion head and danced toward Paul.
He removed it. “You don’t know what kind of people will come.”
Leah took a precious match and lit a stick of incense. “Tonight, fireworks. We need them—a festival.”
@Emi_Livingstone
Sometimes you have to take a risk and feel alive. Nice story.
I agree–thanks!
any company is better than none nice x
Messages in a bottle; fireworks in the dark.
Nice!
ohhh, this made me think of 21 weeks. Well done.
97 word count
@susanoreilly3
Seasonal
“Spring”
“Yes, Mam”
“Get winter, ready will you?”
“Will do, and ask Autumn to help with Summer.”
Cringe worthy is all you can say about my mothers choice of names for her children. She’s a good witch so feels she is at one with Mother Nature. I’m blessed I was female I don’t think I could have handled been called Snow if I’d come after Winter who is the only warlock in our little Family.
Funny thing is I’m expecting and male or female I think I’ll be bringing a little Rain to next year’s Festival.
lol, all children think their parents’ choice of name is cringeworthy and asking Spring to get Winter ready made me smile 🙂
thanks stu glad you liked and that I made you smile x
Clever take, Susan – very original. Enjoyed it.
(You certainly are prolific!)
Or, given your penchant for rhymes, perhaps I should lave said:
It’s hats off to you, S. O’Reilly!
Flash fiction you don’t approach shyly –
You’re very prolific
And this one’s terrific:
It left this guy feeling all smiley! 😉
flash fiction is new to me and I find it so much fun I’m so glad you like thanks for the lovely comment you’ve made smile right back at ya x:)
Very clever. (Talking with friends last night revealed knowledge of someone who’d called their children Tesco and Asda!)
lol really thanks Steph x
What a fun story. And to make it better, they all have adult performer names (or so I heard on tv)
really Michael i wouldn’t know LOL glad you liked thanks x
Supreme Dragon
@hollygeely
106 Words
Spring meant that the humans would be imitating his form, donning a fabric carcass created in his image. Every year he was outraged by their presumptuousness. They had his looks right, leftover from a time when humans gave him due respect, but they did not know him. They did not know how he moved.
He was Dragon.
They would dance the night away, light their firecrackers, perform their rituals. None of them would look to him. They no longer believed.
He was Supreme. He was beyond their mortal ways.
But if he was completely honest, he was bummed that they hadn’t invited him to the festival.
I liked this but disappointed by just the final sentence 🙂 But then I wondered if that was deliberate, to join the reader to affinity with the Dragon and decided it’s what clever writers can do intentionally. 🙂
Ha! Wonderful bit of bathos at the end, Holly.
Bathos. Exactly the right word.
Delightfully done.
Fantastic last line.
Thanks!
Poor Mr. Dragon. Fun how much the tone changed for the last line.
Transition
100 words
Spring awakening. I feel suppleness return to muscle as the air around me begins to warm. I am lithe with light, stretching unfurling from endless night. Hibernation over. My senses come alive once more. As layers of cloth are shed, the scent of fragrant dewy flesh bleeds into the air. The procession spins its many colours, and its dragons are unleashed.
The hunger growing. I discard with the man and become again the creature I was born to be. My blood hot like sun fire thunders through my veins. I am cannibal, and this is my festival.
“lithe with light” is a fantastic little phrase… this piece conjured an image of a voodoo practitioner (but they’re not cannibals i assume!) and the use of “cannibal” didn’t disturb me at all as I assumed from the overall flavour of the piece that the cannibal is the earth, especially from “I discard with the man and become again the creature I was born to be.” That’s a wonderful piece.
Ooh, great dark piece. Love the imagery and that last line.
great write Marie reminds me of when my aul joints get a reprieve when winter’s done love the ending also x
The Awakening
100 words
“Spring up, Oh Mighty One, and let Thine enemies be scattered.”
Long has he slumbered, ages upon ages. Long have the petitions of mortal man fallen upon deaf ears.
No more.
“Spring up, Oh Mighty One, and let Thine enemies be scattered.”
He blinks his eyes open. Screams ring out as he lifts into the air. He breathes, and rockets shoot into the sky, heralding his return.
The dancers stampede. A lone woman falls to her knees, tears in her eyes.
“Spring up, Oh Mighty One…”
With a roar, he wheels and sets upon the crowd assembled for the festival.
@haikufictiondju
What fun. I guess the dragon doesn’t like chanting.
Or was the dragon awoken in response to the chanting?
Be careful what you pray for – nice take.
Opportunity110 words
Spring right on the heels of New Year bore down hard on Chongun. He considered his added role as he pulled the cart of fireworks past the rice patties etched into the side of Kunlun Mountain. With his brother drafted by the People’s Liberation Army now, he was not only in charge of the family fireworks business, but the rice paddies also.
Another man might complain. Chongun saw only opportunity to fulfill his destiny as head of the richest family in the valley. Provided of course, his brother did not come back.
Chongun smiled and said, “Enough daydreaming, I need to get these fireworks to the temple for tomorrow’s festival.”
I really liked the bounce of “Spring right on the heels…” and a whole story’s painted in so few words 🙂
I often become frustrated finding the right words. I will walk away, forget about them and then come back. And there they were all along. The first line was like that. Thanks for reading.
Nice story with excellent opening line. Not sure if it was intentional but I felt a real hint at the sinister with the line ‘Provided of course, his brother did not come back.’
Actually I had written words that expanded the “sinister” aspect of the brothers’ relationship. had to cut them. Glad you caught some of the feel here. I appreciate your feedback. Thanks
Finding Fen
109 words
@laurenegreene
“Spring it forward.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“It means hurry up. You look completely ridiculous in that dragon costume,” Chao said with a giggle.
“Shut up. It’s the Year of the Goat. My birth year. Good things must come.”
Chao held a handful of fireworks in his hand, half burnt, half not, as they made their way through the crowd.
“What was that girl’s name you met last New Year? And you’ve wasted a whole year looking for her. How are good things going to come if you’re still stuck in the past?”
“Fen,” I said, quickening my step. “Come on! Maybe she’s at the Festival.”
I liked that one and I was at the end of the passage before i wondered how can fireworks be half burnt and half-not, but another one that made me smile 🙂
I have a literal mind, too. At first I had the same thought. Then I assumed it meant that half of the number of fireworks had been burnt and half hadn’t. But why keep spent fireworks in your hand?
Leaving aside the nitpicking, I thought it was a lovely story,Lauren. I hope that Chao managed to find Fen – it isn’t wise to carry a torch with half a handful of live fireworks!
Yes…half the number of fireworks had been burnt. I did it that way to indicate they had already been celebrating. Didn’t realize the way I wrote the words made it confusing. This is why I need an editor! 😉
Strong sense of hope in this story.
nice x
Who Says Youth Is Wasted On The Young?
Spring break 2007… Yee-haa!
An, Cheng, Jian and me decided to blow off Chad Hogan’s lame house party (he’s a Mormon… no alcohol!) and head for THE place to be – South Padre. It’s a small island off the coast of Texas. Its permanent population is only a few thousand but every year it attracts around 100,000 spring breakers – Party Central!
Beach activities, wet T-shirt competitions, drinking challenges, all-night raves… Sun, sea, booze, drugs, sex…
It… was… AWESOME!! Like Chinese New Year – every day!
Can’t wait for fall. We’re heading back there for the inaugural South Padre International Music Festival!
@GeoffHolme
Word Count: 103
David.
Can you sort out my entry, please?
Thanks, David.
(Note to self: try not to write entries with S-E-X in them.)
So much energy in these words, made me feel my age!
sounds like a fun place to good write x
Wicker Dreams
Spring summons fear to our settlement. The fertility celebration soothes some of our worries, but tomorrow we must attend the fields if our families are to survive the year.
—
My brothers and I race for the caves. The dragons pursue us closely. Jared trips. Momma made me promise to protect him.
Summoning rage from my losses, and anger from my shame of fleeing, I engage our attackers. My hoe carves into the beast. Something hits me in the head.
—
I wake, unclothed, in a wooden cage. Around me are screaming men from other villages. My own panic starts when I see the torches coming.
I’m the centerpiece in their festival.
@michaelsimko1
110 words
Ooh, creepy. I love it!
Thanks Lauren
Memories of the ending of The Wicker Man (the original by the way). Chilling.
Thank you for the wonderful complement. The Wicker Man (original movie) certainly came to my mind when writing, as well as the Germanic tribes that used to get their sacrifices the old fashioned way — by capturing them.
yep the original for me 2 great dark write x
Thanks. Funny to think of that being dark, what with the paper mache dragon attack. But, they look so festive.
Love the build through the three-part structure of this one as his destiny twists. You manage to generate so much sympathy in that second section so I cared about his demise. No good deed goes unpunished, poor guy.
Thank you much Rowdy. Sadly, there’s normally a reason why people who flee others flee.
— Penhold —
“Spring! Always that damnable spring!”
Danny Ping flops among crushed Red Bull cans.
“Relax. Hours left yet.” Is that birdsong?
Everything reset, Danny strides to the far wall.
“Year of the bat, Rufus.”
Stroking his goatee for luck, Danny fires the ball over his shoulder. One bounce, over the net and into the bowl. Spinning madly, it drops into the gutter and – yes! – that ever-dependable spring propels the 40mm sphere at the funnel to trap Roland, the furry rat.
“Get in!”
It’s then that I realise there’s no red light on the camera.
“And that, Rufus, is this year’s winning entry in the Trickshot Festival.”
—
109 words
@edbroom
Oh dear, when he finds out it wasn’t recorded …
The Gaps (110 words)
@brett_milam
Spring signified the cycle; the carcasses of winter became today’s blooms.
Jonathan existed in this milieu beyond the cycle, lost somewhere in the gaps. After all, those of us, like Jonathan, that had stopped trying to bloom had in effect become carcasses.
They just walked among us without the maggot bite marks to indicate their decay.
He’d done the usual things that you’re supposed to do (and not); the psychiatrist with the pen she couldn’t stop clicking, the medication that shredded his brain, made him paranoid, and the paper mâché that had become his wrists.
To find his way back into the cycle was too daunting, the far-off, unwelcoming festival.
Dark, psychotic story. The sense of him decaying, the ‘paper mâché that had become his wrists’, all great imagery.
You’re too kind, thank you!
brill got me from the very first line which I loved x
Thank you!
You have such a way with visceral imagery–maggot bites and paper-mache wrists running up against the pen-clicking psychiatrist. You bring us right into Jonathan’s tortured, suffocating world.
Such a high compliment coming from you, thank you!
Leave it Alone Mrs Lee
A.J.Walker
Spring rolls out of bed and brightens up the morning view from the window whilst I get on with the shit, shower and shave thing.
The kettle bubbles away excitedly for me. The second coffee will be more important than the first or third – it’s a truism which I just accept.
The dragon from next door is banging on the walls again with her fists – or her sheep of a husband’s head – in protest at my morning tuneage. But no-one knocks Freddie Mercury so don’t stop me now, lady.
I’m in a good mood, it’s the weekend of the Liverpool beer festival.
(103 words)
@zevonesque
#FlashDogs
Love the Freddie Mercury and song reference.
this is so funny, made me laugh out loud… hope its the winner… its so refreshingly fresh 🙂
lol x
Chinese Whispers
“Spring rolls…” Jian moaned.”I told him they tasted funny! Cheung just texted to say he’s got the squits!”
“Chill out,” I said. “There’s three hours before we’re due to join the parade. I’ll call my friend, Wang.”
…
Fifteen minutes to go and now I had loose bowels. Finally Wang appeared, wearing a stetson, checkered shirt, bandana and cowboy boots.
“Why are you dressed like that?”
“To help you out.”
“But we need someone to join us in the New Year’s Parade. You told me last week that you’re a lion dancing expert.”
“No, I said line dancing. I wondered how that would fit in with the festival.”
@GeoffHolme
Word Count: 109
I’m reading from the bottom of the page toward the top. I was very grateful that this made me chuckle and smile again, thank you 🙂
You’re welcome! Thanks for that.
Hilarious.
brill Geoff made me laugh out loud hilarious x
Thanks, all. Always good to receive feedback – especially the very positive kind!
Fun. Just plain fun. 🙂
Good fun.
Thanks muchly, guys!
A Breakable Promise
@el_Stevie
93 words
Spring meant life to many but for this town it was not the case. There were no shoots of green creeping up through the ashes, no blossom to be seen through the smoke, no scent of early flowers, only the incense of charred flesh and scorched earth to break the grey monotony of winter. Yet in their suffering they were not alone as under a different sky in desert lands, others experienced the same truth, that a ceasefire is a breakable promise and that in times of war, man makes death a festival.
that’s powerful
Thank you.
wow steph fab write x
Thank you.
Whoa. Fantastic use of the prompt and bookends. The truth of the title made my heart sink. Well done.
Thanks. It wrote itself – too much going on in the world and all creeping closer and closer. 🙁
Gives a sense of the desolation and despair in a war zone. Good work.
Wow! So sad and I wish it weren’t so true. A poignant piece.
Supplication
110 words
@rowdy_phantom
Spring equinoctial rains chase my people off the floodplains back up here to the cliff-clung dens. Reluctance trudges their progress. They hate Her almost as much as I do.
I await within, soothing Her rage with incense and mantras. All winter long, I’ve tended the joss sticks, sucking in their spiky resin, chant over chant. May she welcome us within the harbor of her labyrinthine ribcage and not require too great a solstice sacrifice.
The first scout crests the lower ridge. A vast hiss gouts ash clouds out her myriad mouths. Bile floods mine. The shrieks of new mothers blister the afternoon. Her blood-price will be harrowing come Fire Festival.
Grim. I like your ‘cliff-clung dens’ and ‘myriad mouths’.
Thanks!
Ohhh, I love a good blood-price. Wonderful how the one who sates the creature hates her.
Don’t all servants hate their overlords just a little bit?
This is a brilliant story. Fantastic world building in such a short space. Your language, as always, rich and poetic. Loved this.
Spring in Jerusalem (110 words)
@howdylauren
Spring had come too soon. Clemency had given birth to a healthy kid, a male without a single imperfection. As always, Lina came in to milk at dawn, and paused to pet little Kippur. She hadn’t intended to give him a name, but she thought it suited him.
It wasn’t long before the smell of the incense crept intrusively through the air and crawled into her nose; her brother’s appearance in the doorway confirmed her suspicions.
“Time to go Lina–please don’t look upset. I warned you not to get attached.”
Eli tied a rope around Kippur’s neck and led him out of the barn. Lina sighed. Another year, another festival.
Sad little story.
ah sad but good write x
Always rough for the farm kids. At least she didn’t have to go watch it happen–or did she?
Oh David I missed this week’s Micro Bookends, I am going to claim Winter Storm fatigue from Octavia and preparation for Pandora. I will try to be more alert this coming week.