Flash Fiction #1 – May 2022
I would like to offer a competition. Take inspiration from the photo and write 500-750 words (or less) and post your entry into the comments. At the end of the month: May 26th, the competition will end. I will post the winning entry to the home page of my website for a week with your name, as you’d like to be referred and mention you (and your website? an upcoming book?) in a newsletter.
Happy writing!
Cheers!
Huckle
Huckleberry Rahr - Author 
Oh boy! I’ll have to write something.
LikeLike
Calder entered the new coffee shop at a jaunty pace. It was a rare day a new coffee shop had such a large online following in only a few days. The last time he’d checked their social media page, he could have sworn he’d seen someone had written a warning about something involving the Perky Pixie coffee shop, but the page refreshed before he could finish reading.
Oh, well.
The bell above the door jingled, and a slim barista with a pale, hawkish face and brown hair stood behind the counter smiling. Other young ladies also flitted about the establishment, some dancing with patrons on a central dancefloor.
A coffee shop with a dancefloor? That’s new.
The words “beware the fairy ring” flashed through Calder’s head as he approached the counter. The hawk-faced barista batted much-too-bright green eyes at him.
“Welcome to the Perky Pixie. Would you like a sample?” Her smile reminded him of a dog’s snarl, toothy and wide. There was an inherent danger in that smile.
Calder grinned nervously, “No, thank you. I would like to buy a cup of…” he hesitated, reading through the drink names on the menu. “Autumn’s Eye Caramel Mocha.”
“Very well,” the barista’s grin shifted to one side. She seemed amused. “May I have your name?”
“Cal,” he said. His eyes shifted to her apron. Didn’t these places usually require a name tag?
Her eyes narrowed, and she pursed her lips. He placed cash on the counter, and waited several minutes as the barista prepared the drink. A small plastic rectangle set upon the counter caught his eye. Curious, he picked it up, thinking it to be a credit card left behind. It was a name tag. Keely.
Calder put the tag back as he’d found it a moment before Keely turned back from the coffee machinery. As she handed him the drink, he thanked her. Her predator’s grin returned, bright and vicious.
“Come and see me again, soon,” she said.
“You got it, Keely!” Calder nodded at her wide-eyed expression, suddenly feeling unsure of what had just happened. He sipped the coffee on his way out the door, oblivious to the threads that now tied him to this place.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Merrilee glanced over her shoulder. Yes, it was still there. No matter how many rose vines she’d enticed into growth, the slatterbeast remained in the clearing, its knobby claws stirring up last autumn’s leaves. She frowned and fluttered her wings irritably; roses were supposed to repel slatterbeasts. Why wasn’t it leaving? The button pixies would never come so long as the creature sat there, nostrils steaming with its naked, rat-like tail slapping against the ground.
Merrilee stood akimbo and glared at it. “Go away, you old nuisance!”
The slatterbeast snorted, blinking its rheumy brown eyes pathetically. It lifted its haunches slightly, as if it meant to rise, and then collapsed on its belly with a nasal whine. Mewling, it rolled on to its side and stared at her, clutching at its belly.
Merrilee huffed. “Honestly! You’re the biggest fraud I ever did see. There’s nothing wrong with your stomach. I’m not giving you any huckleberries; they’re for my guests.” She stamped a foot and pointed stiffly to her right. Silver sparks popped from her fingertips and descended to the forest floor. “Go on, now. I don’t have time to dally about with you today.”
Her unwanted companion groaned and heaved itself up on its haunches but made no other move. Scowling, Merrilee twirled her pointing finger and flicked out the other four. Green sparks rained from her hand. Tendrils extended rapidly from the nearest rose vines, sprouting leaves and tender buds that opened into fragrant pink blossoms. They snaked every closer toward the slatterbeast, who eyed their progress warily and then rapidly backed away. Whimpering, it turned tail and fled.
Merrilee dropped her arm with a gusty sigh. “Finally!” She ran her hands over her pristine white skirts although there was no detritus to brush off. “Back to business.”
Humming, she pirouetted around the clearing, rainbow sparks cascading from her wriggling fingers. The rose vines wove in a loose mesh fence around the clearing and wood violets sprang up at the base like shy little sentinels. Fiddlehead ferns unfurled and stretched their pinnae around the trunks of trees. Golden starflowers and pearly everlasting carpeted the forest floor, hiding the dead leaves.
Merrilee flapped her wings and launched herself into the air for a better view of the floral orchestra she conducted. She smiled, watching the plants grow and spread around the clearing. However, the center remained clear. She raised her voice into song and thirteen tiny bushes emerged from the soil in a ring. They grew larger, maturing, and when she sang louder purple fruit swelled on the branches. A ring of toadstools sprouted in the center of the bushes. A thrill ran through Merrilee and she laughed gaily; her guest would arrive soon.
Merrilee tapped her pursed lips. “Hmmm. There’s just one more thing to do.” She swooped down to collect a few handfuls of berries. “For the slatterbeast,” she whispered with a rueful grin, tucking them into a birchbark pouch which she hid in a tall maple tree.
She fluttered down from the tree just in time to see twenty button fairies pop into existence in the center of the toadstool ring. The little winged folk tinkled laughter, a group of them hoisting a skin filled with mead. Merrilee’s grin broadened as she drifted over to welcome her guests. It was time to get the party started.
LikeLike