Bad Idea- Flash Fiction

By: Etta Jean

"At what point is this a bad idea?" Eliana asked her cousin warily as they crept outside the castle walls.

"At the point where Alex and Maduin find us and yell at us." Mai felt no fear as she trudged into the trees. She had wanted to go exploring, and at thirteen, she was finally starting to really develop in her angelic gifts.

Eliana didn't feel quite so confident. Not that she didn't have faith in her magical gifts as a Wizard, or her younger cousin's gifts as a Shaman, but, well, she always felt a tiny bit more comfortable when Maduin or Alexander was around to babysit. "At the risk of being the voice of reason, I kinda don't think we should have ditched our guardians. Also, Alexander knows everything you do, Maitena. He's going to tan your hide."

 "If he can catch me."

 "He'll clip your wings and have no problem."

 "For the love of the elements, Eli, you wanted to explore too!" Mai swung around on a glower. "Just go back if you're uneasy."

 "And leave you alone? Oh, hell, no. Then my hide is toast." She closed her eyes on a sigh as a growl rose on the air. "Do I get to say I told you so?"

Mai turned quickly and scowled as several monstrous beasts lumbered out of the trees.

Her sword appeared in her hand, and though her heart tripped madly, she kept her nerves down. She had to protect Eliana. Wizards were much squishier than their Warrior and Shaman counterparts. "You blast. I stab."

Eliana drew her wand and gulped back a yelp as a beast lunged at her. Mai cut it down first and then went after the others. Eliana started casting Sun spells, and the energy blasts either obliterated beasts entirely or made them easier for Mai to kill. The cousins seemed to be winning, but Mai looked a bit bloody. She did not have time to heal herself.

One beast made it past Mai and knocked Eliana flat. She threw her arms over her face as it lunged for her, but it never landed. She cautiously lowered her arms and saw a familiar figure standing in front of her. He turned and narrowed his red eyes on her, and she gulped.

"Uhm. Hi, Maduin."

Mai thought she had gotten all the beasts only to hear a growl and jerk around sharply. The monster never reached her; a bullet took it down first. She slowly turned around and found her guardian looming behind her, and his violet eyes had turned black with fury. She winced as she realized the sight she made. "Uhm."

"We found the point where it was a bad idea," her cousin muttered. "And I definitely told you so."

###

~ Thank you for reading! This story comes to you from a dear friend of mine! She is celebrating the release of her newest novela called Shadow On The Sea. While the story you just read above is not actually IN the book it IS about two of the characters in the book. Think of it sort of like a deleted scene! 

I know it has been about a week or so since my last post. My school started and I am preparing for a Sci Fi Convention so I have been a bit busy. I hope to get back to blogging regularly by June though, once I get into the swing of these electrical engineering courses. 

We hope you enjoyed the mini story and please take a moment to check out Etta's links before you leave! ~

-----

Shadow On The Sea

The world of Ceres has been ruled for millennia by the winged race known as Lightlings. When the Chalice Kingdom celebrates the birth of the next crown princess, they have no idea just what events have been set into motion. The beautiful angel has a special, shadowy, gift, and only by learning to control it will she be able to claim the lover rightfully hers by destiny, and save her world from an evil bent on consuming them all.

Find it on Amazon!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WDEMR6Q

Also check out Etta's website and blog!

http://www.ettajeanfantasy.com/ (signed copies available)

http://ettajeanfantasy.wordpress.com/

You can also find her on Facebook as well as sign up for her mailing list: http://www.facebook.com/ettajeanfantasy/

Alternatively, you can send her e-mails to: ettajeanfantasy@gmail.com

Rocks Are Not Alive- Flash Fiction

Edward knelt, trying to console his crying son. Jacob held his knee and rocked back and forth, tears making streaks down his dusty cheeks.

 “Son, I told you not to run out here, there are too many rocks.” Edward said, carefully trying to hold his voice steady. 

A trail of blood ran down Jacob’s knee and pooled around the rock beside him.

 “Jacob, please let me see your knee. I can’t stop the bleeding until you let me see your knee!” Edward pulled his son’s bloody hands away from his knee.

 Pulling out a cloth from his pocket he wiped away the blood only to realize that his son’s knee wasn’t even cut. Sure, a little red maybe... but there was no injury to be seen.

 “Odd.” Edward looked at the pool of blood that had collected around the rock. “Jacob, can you tell me what happened?” 

“I... tripped, on that rock, coming up the hill.” Jacob said between sniffles.

 Edward picked up Jacob’s foot and inspected every inch of his leg.

 “Nope no injury.” He commented matter of factually, tousling his son’s dusty hair. “Slow down, next time ok.”

 “But dad, where did the blood come from then if it wasn’t mine?”

 “Did you notice it on the ground on your way up here?” Edward asked. Jacob shook his head. 

“Hmm... maybe we should take some of the blood back to your mom, there’s some on this rock here.” Edward passed the rock to Jacob who held it gingerly with disgust. “Mom can put it through the scanner and figure out where the blood came from.”

---

 Back at the campsite Edward’s wife had set up a laboratory in one of the big orange tents. Recon had sent them to catalog the species indigenous to the planet to see if it was a candidate for terraforming. Edward placed the blood drizzled rock on a plate and slid it across the table to his wife who was intently peering into a microscope.

 “Take a look at this honey. This is the oddest thing I have seen in a long time.” Edward said, waving his hand under the microscope to get his wife’s attention.

 Marrisa eyed the rock out of the corner of her eye and rolled her eyes in exasperation. “You and your rocks! Must you bring them in here? And what’s up with the bloody mess all over it anyhow?”

“Thats what I wanted you to see! I just ran a few tests on it. The bleed is coming from the rock!” Edward explained.

 “Rocks don’t bleed dear.” Marrisa said chuckling, “It’s probably Jacob playing a joke on you again.”
“Watch.” Edward insisted. He picked up the rock and gently wiped it clean with a soft cloth.

The rock clinked against the plate as he set it down once again. Marrisa eyed him suspiciously. Then suddenly she heard it!

Marrisa’s eyes widened in shock as she realized a delicate song was coming from the rock. Almost as if in gratitude.



photo credit: MB Balances Rocks via photopin (license) 


This post is part of the 52 week flash fiction challenge on facebook
Week 7 word prompt: Bleed
Word Limit: 20- 500
This one tops out right at 500 words.

This one is a bit late (was due last friday) but I took a bit of a break after the AtoZchallenge to catch my bearings again.
Readers: How do you think you would react if you were suddenly faced with real life aliens? Would you be shocked? Scared? Would you panic? What if the aliens were part of the very ground you were walking on?

AtoZ Challenge Reflections

Oy! This month has been a blast. I realize now though, that writing a new short story every day for a year (was my original goal- I just used AtoZ to get me started) is just not on the books for me. I've got so much going on that taking the time out to pull together an original story every day has had me going to bed at midnight most nights this past month.

• So- My first reflection is that I will probably scale it back down to writing one MAYBE two original short sci-fi posts a week. I also blog along with the twice yearly 52 week short story challengers on facebook so I will have at least one sci-fi story to show you a week!
• I've found some really interesting bloggers- and found that I am certainly not alone among bloggers who have chosen blogger.com as their blog host over wordpress. For a while there I was starting to feel lonely. Wordpress has always given me problems, whether it was posing comments or munching my posts. -.- I have been SO much happier with blogger. It's free, and I can use my own url for free too! No regrets!
• My next observation is that my visitors doubled, dare I say almost tripled during the challenge! Where I would typically see 30 views, I was reaching almost a hundred on most days! Thank you, EVERY SINGLE one of you for coming to check out my blog! I hope I have entertained you a little. That's what I'm here for ;)
• Google also really rather enjoyed my posting every day. When googling my name, my website now shows up third rather than 7th on the list! (under both of my book's goodreads links)
• I gained some new followers- and I completely appreciate every single one of you! I hope to get to know you more!
• I realized about two or three posts in that writing short stories won't get you many comments because the readers don't have anything much to say except for "good job" or "interesting". So I started trying to make my posts more interactive by asking a reflection question at the end of every story. So far, everyone seems to be enjoying commenting on those!
• For all those who commented on my posts, every single one of you are angels! You guys are the ones who kept me going when I was fresh out of ideas, when it was pushing 11pm and I still didn't have my post up. THANK YOU!

 It was awesome getting to meet you and hanging out with you on my blog!

I also wanted to come back and add some reflections on the challenge itself... real quick I promise:

A) Wordpress users- it can be sorta difficult to comment on your blogs unless you allow guest comments - otherwise the guest MUST make a wordpress account. Not everyone wants to do that (I already have one from when I used to use wordpress, so it was no biggie)

B) The lack of ways to subscribe was also apparent on many blogs. I don't always want subscriptions filling up my e-mail box... its filled with too much spam I can't find anything I want anyhow lol. Networked Blogs is a great app to add to any website so you can always keep your followers with you. For readers- Digg.com is really easy to add rss feeds to. Unfortunately that is just another site to have to log into just to follow your blogs.

C) I LOVED visiting everyone's blogs lol ;)

XYZ: Dietary Needs During Intergalactic Travel- Flash Fiction

 Pam spotted her friend as soon as she walked through the mess hall doors.

 “When did you come aboard!” Pam asked.

 “Just a few hours ago. I had to get some things set up in my quarters first.” Gail replied.

 “Oh no worries! Where are you headed this time?”

 “Mmm, I’m thinking I’d like to be let off someplace warm and unindustrialized.”

 “Eros perhaps?” Pam suggested.

 “Yeah, Eros might do the trick. I dunno, I’ll know the planet when I see it.” Gail answered while signaling the ship’s concierge.

 “Yes, ma’am, what would you care for this evening?” The concierge asked politely.

 Gail shook her head, taken aback.

 “Evening?” She said with a sigh, “Great now I’ll have to readjust my sleep cycles again.”

 “Water please,” she added, remembering the concierge who promptly headed off to fetch her water. 

“Aren’t you the least bit hungry? Here try one of these apples, we just got in a shipment of them from the colonies!” Pam suggested as she grabbed a yellow apple from the basket on the table behind her. “Just smell the zestfulness of it!”

 Gail took the apple, and sniffed it hesitantly. Pam eyed her curiously.

 “What are you doing?” She asked.

 “Does this apple have xylitol in it? I’m highly allergic to xylitol.” Gail said.

 “What? What’s that?” Pam asked confused.

 “From the colonies huh; I’m assuming its host plant was genetically modified to survive in different environments. Ugh, nope, that means it does have xylitol in it.” Gail answered.

Pam laughed.

“Gail, almost all of the food we eat nowadays has been genetically modified! How do you survive if you can’t eat it?”

 “Your water ma’am,” The concierge said, offering Gail the glass of water which she promptly drank.

 “I am sorta hungry though, come on Pam, I’ll show you how I eat!”

 Pam followed Gail out of the mess hall and down to her quarters.

 “The captain was a little reluctant to allow me to bring my entourage but I told her that I would set it all up myself so the crew wouldn’t have to.”

Gail explained to Pam before opening the door into her quarters. The door swished open to reveal the fact that half of Gails room had been taken over by a plastic sheet room of some sort. Pam looked at her friend as though she was considering referring her to the ship’s doctor for a mental examination.

 Gail walked into the room and unzipped the door into the plastic tent and Pam followed her. Out of habit Pam fluffed her hair as the humidity rose once she stepped through the second doorway. She gasped once she saw what was on the other side!

 Trees and plants of all kinds! Carefully grown and manicured to produce just enough food for one person.

 “Now THAT’s zest!” Gail said, tossing a fragrant yellow apple from a nearby mini tree over to Pam. “No additives, no genetic tampering, and no xylitol!”

 photo credit: Greenhouse via photopin (license)

 ###

I am terribly sorry, I got behind on two days of stories this week and JUST realized that today is the last day for the Blogging From AtoZ challenge!

So, today's post was inspired by X Y and  Z!  X is for: Zylitol, Y is for Yellow Apple, and Z is for zipper   all part of the Blogging from A to Z April 2015 challenge! Click on the letters to join on in the fun!

Every day this past month (excluding Sundays- and the past two days I also missed) I wrote a post about something that begins with the letter for that day. Most of the time it was a sci-fi flash fiction piece and the occasional 5 sentence fiction.
* I've really enjoyed this challenge- but I've discovered that blogging every day may not be for me. I will certainly continue to bring you new flash fiction but I think I may be scaling it back to 2-3 times a week tops. WHEW!


For Readers: What is your favorite fruit? If you could bring its plant along with you on a space ship, would you?

W: Everyone Needs Water- Flash Fiction

“You are weak and worse yet, you do not even realize you are weak!” The Aruk named 12 hissed at a group of children as he marched them along a grueling sandy terrain.

 Back inside the station the Aruk leader, called 1, glared through the window as he watched the children’s progress. 

“Why haven’t they given up by now?” 1 asked his 2nd in command beside him.

 “They’ve only been here for just a short time sir, but we do need to figure out how to break the human species’ spirit soon if we are going to have a chance at winning the war in the future.” 2 replied, his body flickering and never gaining solid form.

 1 huffed. 1 knew, being a temporal histographer, 2 could see how much longer they had if they had any hopes of changing their future.

 “This species gaining our powers is NOT in our best interest. If they fight this hard now to keep going, they would have been an unstoppable foe if they had been allowed to develop to their full potential on their home planet.” 1 said, his voice dark and brooding.

 Outside, the children were growing tired and thirsty. The sun high in the sky burned on their exposed skin. Still the Aruk guards shoved them on.

 A young boy by the name of Nathan stumbled a little in the sand. His guard shoved him and ordered him to keep up. His mind felt like jello, his stomach churned in the heat, his muscled weak from dehydration and yet he continued on.

 I won’t be the one to cause my friends pain because I failed the test, Nathan thought about the rest of his friends still back in the cells.

 If only I had some water!

 Spreading his arms out beside him, being careful not to disturb his fellow runners, he wished for a breeze to take away the heat.

 Or maybe even some rain! 

There was no rain or even the slightest breeze on this desolate planet the Aruk lived on though. Nathan’s eye was suddenly drawn to the forehead of the Aruk guard running beside them where sweat beaded on his purple skin. The guard wiped his three fingered hand across the red and black tattoo’s and flicked the sweat to the ground.

 Water! Nathan’s mind reeled.

He stopped running and held his hands out toward the guard in desperation.

 1 leaned closer to the window and watched in horror as the purple skin of one of his guards faded with almost instant dehydration. The guard stumbled back horrified. 1 waved his hand over the window to open it and called out to his guards.

 “Dispose of him quickly!” He ordered, The children mustn't be allowed to develop those powers!

The guards circled around the children and two guards pulled the kicking and screaming boy from their midst.

 “How, in the midst of all this, did he manage to develop the ability of a healer?” 1 demanded of 2 after he closed the window once more.

 2 didn’t answer. His form flickered even more feverishly now as he scanned the timeline.

 “Don’t dispose of him just yet,” 2 told the guards as they dragged the terrified boy past them. “Sir, the timeline has changed. If we can develop these humans’ abilities we can use them to fight FOR us in the coming war!”

This flash fiction piece takes place before the events of The Alien Mind. Just something I am working on to help me analyze my antagonists motivations and frame of mind. Bear in mind that none of this is edited or finalized- just me doing some free range writing ;)



photo credit: When nothing will do via photopin (license)

Today's post was also inspired by the letter W. W is for:   as part of the Blogging from A to Z April 2015 challenge! Click on the letter to join on in the fun!

Every day (excluding sundays) I will be writing a post about something that begins with the letter for that day. Most of the time you will find a sci-fi flash fiction piece here.


For Readers: I leave you with this quote: The best weapon is your mind. Without it you are defenseless. Without it you are weak and worse yet you do not even realize you are weak.

Tell us about a time that some fast thinking got you out of trouble...