SEPTEMBER 2017 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge -- VICTORY TO URSA MAJOR!

[LittleStar]

RULES:

Write a story inspired by the chosen theme and genre in no more than 75 words, not including the title

ONE entry per person


NO links, commentary or extraneous material in the posts, please -- the stories must stand on their own


WHEN WRITING YOUR STORY, PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS A FAMILY-FRIENDLY FORUM



All stories Copyright 2017 by their respective authors
who grant the Chronicles Network the non-exclusive right to publish them here



The complete rules can be found at RULES FOR THE WRITING CHALLENGES


Contest ends at 11:59 pm GMT, September 23 2017


Voting ends at 11:59 pm GMT, September 28 2017



You do not have to submit a story in order to vote --
in fact, we encourage all Chrons members to take part in choosing a winner



The Magnificent Prize:


The Dignified Congratulations/Grovelling Admiration of Your Peers
and the challenge of choosing next month's theme and genre



Theme:

The Real Story Behind Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales


Genre:

Science-Fiction or Fantasy



This thread to be used for entries only
Please keep all comments to the DISCUSSION THREAD



We invite (and indeed hope for) lively discussion and speculation about the stories as they are posted, as long as it doesn't involve the author explaining the plot




** Please do not use the "Like" button in this thread! **​

 

[Ashleyne]

Waggin' Their Tails Behind Them


Cackling, Bo Peep had set Jumpy's friend on fire. She often ate his daughters in front of him.

A fairy appeared and led Jumpy and his flock away. What if Bo Peep comes looking? They followed the fairy to an enchanted stream.

#​

Bo Peep saw her sheep returning. “Wait 'till I get my hands-” Her stomach juices flowed side to side, in motion with the sheeps' wagging tails. She screamed, her insides bursting open.

 

[Cathbad]

The Red Hood

The Red Hood took off her riding cape and shook out her locks. “Whew! You sure cut it close that time, Daniel!”

Daniel smiled, looking at Herman Wolfe’s prone body, shorn down the center. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head any, Red. You keep luring these fools into this shack with that sweet smile, I’ll keep dispatching them.”

“What’s the take?”

Daniel knelt and took Wolfe’s wallet out of his pocket.

 

[Luiglin]

Folderol

He rose from the depths full of fury and tossed the pail at their feet. The pail that had hit him square on the head. Their pail.

He tapped a sign — ‘Well dry. Please, no pails.’

Terrified, the boy caught his foot on the pail, head hitting the ground with a crunch. The girl tumbled backwards over his body and down the steep hill to the bottom.

The troll sniffed, “Damn kids... serves ‘em right.”

 

[Vaz]

The Wolf at The Door

Rom leaned against the brick house, his back stinging and wet from the kiss of the pigs lash.

"Action," called the Sow holding the camera. This was how pigs stayed in power. Twisting peoples fear's into a physical being. Him. "The Big Bad." No one ever wonders if the lone wolf is just lonely.

He huffed and puffed. Three pigs squealed from behind the door.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Perfection

After decades, the probe reached its target star.

The system had six planets. The outer four were gas giants. Even if they had been solid worlds, they were far too frigid to support life. The innermost planet was an airless rock and much too hot.

The other planet was suitable. The telltale sign of free oxygen in the atmosphere activated the probe's communicator. One word sped back to Earth at the speed of light.

Goldilocks.

 

[Danny McG]

Dinner Bell.

The Overlord’s auto-gatherer trundled down the street, scanners whirring and spinning.
The August sun still hot and bright but all house windows were firmly closed, no child for the hungry squids this evening.

Willy Johnston, as usual since Invasion Week, jogged ahead of the mechanical behemoth.
Clanging a hand bell and shouting warnings to parents, his left eye twitching furiously since the night his little Lucy was dragged screaming to the ravenous beaks.

 

[BigJ]

They'll never see it coming

Rare is the system that has so many habitable worlds; rarer still to be inhabited by pacifists, wholly preoccupied with antiquated notions of romanticism and ignorant of the greater galaxy, lost in their flowery plays and poetry.

From the bridge of his flagship he surveyed the seven planets encircling the rosy hue of the sun. The whole system, easy pickings for his raiding party. Plentiful salvage, slaves . . .

He smiled.

“And they all fall down.”

 

[nixie]

Is The Grass Greener?
​

The queen sat on her throne, eating curds and whey in came a spider changing shape to become the poisonous reformationist.

Terror gripped her heart, would no one save her from this evil changeling who turned her people against her.

Flee she must but where? South she thought, my sister queen, usurper that she is will still not allow a common being to terrorise royal blood.

 

[Dave Barsby]

Hey Diddle Diddle​

In the space race Skiddle

Kat's in the middle

But Lau’s ship jumped way too soon

Now Mad Dog’s crashed

So Kat has won

The dosh should pay for a moon

 

[Calliopenjo]

A FATHER'S THOUGHTS

Pinocchio, my son.

I should have been more strict with him so he would not run off and be played a fool. We suffered so much heartache, but so many lessons learned. I watched him outside run around and climb the trees without a care in the world.

I wish I knew then the trouble he got himself into. Maybe too trusting of others. Maybe too naive. Maybe too real to start.

 

[hopewrites]

Jack's Last Request



Rumor has it finding a Christmas Plum is good luck.

There's not much luck left in a life when you're waiting on death row, but I gave it a go.

"Last meal?"

"Christmas Pie."

As I pulled out my thumb, a genie appeared to give me one wish.

---

Now I'm out. Turns out I didn't comment those murders after all.

 

[Culhwch]

Not So Fair

She was fair, though not the fairest, sweet, kind, and undeserving of her fate. What she was, mostly, was in the way.

Her stepmother was no witch-queen. She loved her husband, and simply wanted the best for the unborn child quickening in her womb.

The woodsman felt pity, true. But he had a family to feed, so he hardened his heart and took hers, apple red and steaming as the winter snows fell.

 

[Travis Woodward]

The last voyage of the Mouse

Commander Richard Hickory had to defend Ganymede’s dock. The evacuation needed more time. But the Mouse was built for recognisance, not combat, and the enemy cruiser's defence screen obliterated anything that threatened it. Anything it could see.

He accelerated: the speed clock showed 0.2C, 0.4C... "Dickory!" squawked the radio."What…?” He muted it. He'd always hated that nickname. 0.9C... 1C. He killed the engine and let the Mouse coast. They wouldn't know what hit them.

 

[Wruter]

Mirror for a Bell

The priests came begging one spring morning. A new bell was to be made for the temple. Would Lady Mugen consider giving up one of her old bronze mirrors for bell-metal?

"Do you not know the old saying," she replied, "that a mirror is the soul of a woman?"

So Lady Mugen refused, keeping her soul locked away for none other to behold.

And when she died, there was only silence.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Downsized

The invisigown glows an opaque, fluorescent orange. I caress its supple, nano-optical weave.

“Beautiful.” I cut the activating light.

Tonight the emperor – under ultraviolets and amongst throngs of dull townsfolk – will gleam the sherbet of imperial majesty.

A message cannister *thunks* into its cradle:

From Floubesson, Emperor’s valet,
Tailor Reinblouz – You’re terminated after tonight. The emperor will thenceforth wear imported hue suits.

I sigh, retrieve an unprogrammed invisigown, and send it up the return tube.

 

[Parson]

2016 Commentator’s Personal Recording​

Off mic: That man is such a “dumpty.” How did he get to be president?

(Reply) He won on a technicality.

Now we have to deal with a dumb rotten egg.

On air: Mr. President how are you going to cut taxes and lower the deficit?

“In my administration, everybody wins.”

Off mic: Way to sit on the fence.

------

2516 “History of Nursery Rhymes Class”

“That recording was the basis for Humpty Dumpty rhyme.”

 

[Peter V]

Like a Teddy Bear

It’s hunting for me in the garden; round and round, blindly sniffing me out. It looks like a bear but instead of claws it’s got these tendrils. Apparently it doesn’t hurt when they feed but maybe it would be better if it did. It tickles, unbearably so they say. So bad that some people’s hearts give out before the alien has even half-finished sucking out their life force.

Damn, it’s only two steps away.

 

[Shyrka]

@MagicMirrorVideoBlogging/Dr_Evelyn_McQueen

Entry #236

She ignored my pleas. Hardly surprising – she still blames me for her father’s death.

I have no choice. The colour has already leached from her skin – the incubation period is almost over. When it spreads, those seven ruffians she hides behind will be first. The infection rate...

---

Entry #237

It’s done – I rigged her iPhone. It should be quick, God help me.

Is that fair? One life for thousands?

I’ll let you decide.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Mythic

My father was always fascinated by those lights that shone like pin-pricks in the night.

What were they?

So, he accrued magic of all descriptions, constructed a golden boat drawn by twelve silver swans.
Up into the darkness, toward the distant glimmering stars. Then gone. I never saw him again.

Years later I look at those nocturnal illuminations and gather what magics I can. I will follow father, find out just what they are.