December 2018 -- 75-word writing challenge -- VICTORY TO MAD ALICE!

[Tywin]

RULES:

Write a story inspired by the chosen theme and genre in no more than 75 words (that's right, gotta give those extra ten words from last month back!), 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 2018 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, 23 December 2018


Voting ends at 11:59 pm GMT, 28 December 2018



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:

Reindeer


Genre:

Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror



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! **​

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

No, Virginia

Ginny reached the front of the line. She spoke to the robot reindeer next to the fat, bearded man in the red suit.

"Are there any real reindeer left?"

"No. The last one died in Helsinki in 2053."

"Shouldn't let kids hear things like that," said a man behind her.

"Sorry," the fat man said. "That machine's too stupid to lie."

Ginny didn't mind. She was almost six years old, and knew Christmas wasn't real.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

No, No, No Merry Christmas​

They’d frothed while tearing my beloved wife apart. I’d whipped and cursed them aloft, those freshly dead things, till their hooves beat silently against darkness.

The winter air’s bracing chill; that brilliantly red nose guiding the laden sleigh.

Floggings and the corrupted instincts reanimating their corpses keep them racing senselessly ahead.
A scarlet-stained satellite, we’ll circle the globe till I transition from my wounds, and our decaying orbit returns us to the children of Earth.

 

[RJM Corbet]

SANTA CLAUS FOUND DEAD AT TOY FACTORY

Santa Claus, 1748 yrs, was found dead at his North Pole factory yesterday.

Police suspect Mr Claus was fatally beaten and his body trampled by a large herd of reindeer.

They are looking for several elves who may be able to help with their enquiries.

They say it appears the reindeer were driven into the workshop in a deliberate attempt to conceal the fatal attack.

Sources report dissatisfaction with austerity and unpaid overtime.

 

[Cathbad]

In the Dark, You Can’t See the Swastika

Captain Ford was stumped.

Sergeant Kyle saluted. “Eight in all, sir.”

“Eight dead krauts. No sign of who shot them.” Ford sighed.

“Only footprints we found in the snow were the German’s military boots, and a small herd of reindeer,” Kyle said.

…

Obergefreiter Kraus had the American Captain in his crosshairs. He reached for the trigger.

His chest exploded outward; he pitched over, dead.

“Fröhliche Weihnachten!” The red suited man behind the sniper said.

 

[elvet]

Rudolph’s Legacy

I knelt by the last reindeer in the Ark Zoological Compound. Her raspy breath signalled the end stages of pneumonia. I was here to ease her into a peaceful death and harvest tissue for cloning. We still can’t resurrect extinct species, but there is always hope.
I performed my task and placed the samples in nine small vials. With a smile, I placed a red sticker on top of the last one.

 

[Karn's Return]

Rudolph The Protective Reindeer​

Rudolph watched calmly as the elves, the Clauses, and his fellow reindeer fled the scene in horror. Massive, writhing tentacles shot out from the portal. The red-nosed reindeer stared as Santa’s life drain from his eyes as the fat man was constricted to death.

‘Serves the old ******* right,’ Rudolph thought to himself, stomping on the symbols he drew in the snow. No child should ever be fed Santa’s candy cane.

 

[Calliopenjo]

You Are The Winner

I made noise until I couldn’t make noise anymore. They chose me to help pull. If the old one didn’t die, I wouldn’t have been picked.

I’ll teach all of them what I, Burberry, the loyal and great reindeer can do. So what if I failed all of those skills. I could do much better than that. They will see.

I will go down in history like the great Rudolph himself.

 

[Luiglin]

The Reindeer

Once upon an eve of Christmas dreary, while I drowned myself in beery,

Due to being forced to watch some seasonal sentimental TV bore.

At once there came a tapping, upon my paving slabs overlapping,

As some creature came prancing, prancing up to my sturdy front door.

Thence a rosy nose, came impolitely thru the letterbox of my front door—

Quoth the Reindeer, “Is this Baltimore?”

 

[stevietee]

Day at the Zoo

“You call this a Reindeer? It doesn’t even fly!”

The boy stopped short of offering the animal a carrot and blinked at the miserable, thin man who spoke.

“Reindeer don’t fly”, he said.

The man snorted, “Kids today, think they know everything!”

“But…’

“Nicholas! Get back here. Sorry, luv” A rosy cheeked woman ushered the old man away, smiling at the boy. “He’s never been the same since Amazon put him out of a job”

 

[Daysman]

Sleighed

“It’s so small...”

“Unlike the sleigh on your front lawn.”

“The reindeer are tiny!”

“Well, Santa’s sleigh is small in the poem, the one with Donner and Blitzen?”

“But nobody will notice it!”

“Oh, they will.”

“And why put vertical slats on the sides?”

“Can't you guess?”

“How could I -- oh -- it's flying.”

“Silently… autonomously… it'll circle the entire yard!”

“Also explains the wireless charging pad on your roof...”

“Quickly! Get the door, will you?”

 

[D.A. Xiaolin Spires]

Reindeer need gifts, too

The asteroid grazed the sleigh, missing Santa completely, but Dasher and Prancer's reins tore off, sending the two flying away from Earth, hurling instead towards Enceladus.

In Enceladus, their magical trotting slowed as they slid across frozen landscape. They fell into a crack, into another dimension.

Stark black trees harbored webbed nests, catching the reindeer like baseball gloves.

Creatures greeted them, giving them gifts—the first time they were on the receiving end of presents.

 

[Justin Swanton]

Bright Christmas

The unheated cabin was cold. Olen glanced at his son. “Do not be afraid.”

“I'm not afraid.”

“We are too far north. The war cannot come here.”

Heijá nodded.

Olen gestured to the door. “Bring Liljá.”

“Why?”

“No more supply vans. We have no food.”

As Heijá led the reindeer to the cabin he glanced at the southern skies. We are safe.

On the evening horizon a second sun appeared.

 

[Culhwch]

The Thirst

The drought had a taste: dust, and death.

The heat shimmered, played with your mind. Gavin would stare into the distance, unseeing, but seeing.

The ground was dry. Dry, and thirsty.

It was the only way, he knew. He didn’t want to do it.

Sarah begged, and cried. And then screamed.

Gavin cried, too, as tears and blood seeped into the dry, thirsty ground. ‘It’s for the rain, dear,’ he muttered. ‘It’ll bring the rain.’

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

The Hunt for the Mysterious Meh-Teh

The herd of reindeer had been torn apart, limb from limb, claw marked carcasses enveloped by snow stained dark red. This was no ordinary wolf or bear, Keill thought, to have slain so many reindeer so quickly, the creature must be frighteningly quick. Vaguely human shaped footprints, but too large and spotted with blood lead away into the frozen distance. Keill followed them. His mysterious prey was closer, but was Keill the hunter or the hunted?

 

[Tywin]

Cashed in the Sleigh and the Fat Man Three Light-Years Ago…

“Damnit, Blitzen, get those turbolasers online!” Donner’s voice was steady, but his heart thumped.

“The enemy cruiser’s moving into our jump lane... we’ll be cut off!”

“Can it, Dasher, I know the score. Rudolph, where are those calcs?”

“Almost complete, Dad… I mean Captain.”

“Comet, reroute power and prepare to jump.”

“Captain, we’ll never make it!”

“Jump on my mark. Three, two, one!”

Rudolph cringed as his navi-computer buzzed and the ship rocketed into hyperspace.

 

[Ashleyne]

CHRISTMAS IS CANCELLED: RUDOLPH'S POORLY


"I've let them down. Those children-" A flem rattled cough. "No presents."

Santa's beard lifts in a fatherly smile. "Don't fret, Rudy; I can use a fog light."

"But my nose-"

"Had nothing to do with it. I couldn't stand to see you bullied, so I concocted a way to make other reindeer respect you. I love you, Rudy."

"I haven't got long left, have I?"

"Shhhhh," stroking his friend's cheek. "You'll never be forgotten."

 

[mosaix]

Horses For Courses

There are some things only a reindeer can do.

Here on Enceladus we've tried everything – snowmobiles, half-tracks, even ATVs. Nothing's quite right. But these GM reindeers are perfect.

We head north to the isolated settlement. This delivery is vital.

We see anxious faces at the windows. Jock, in his red suit and black boots, climbs down, hefts the sack over his shoulder and heads towards the air lock.

Much cheering.

 

[Bee22]

There I was, watching from the skyscraper on Christmas Day. The city ravaged by creatures unknown to man .. and the death of Santa.

I turn on our current date ..2250. I wake up and it's 1950 in a hidden tundra village ...

I transformed into a child elf as a disguise. I head to the secret cabin where the toys are being made. "I have to find that book, complete my mission before it's too late!!"

 

[johnnyjet]

Gregor the Red-Eyed Reindeer (or, The Transformation)

One morning, as Gregor Safka awoke from uneasy dreams, he discovered he had metamorphosed into a reindeer. For a salesman during the holiday season, this was an inopportune time.

He examined himself in a mirror. His eyes were bloodshot from another late night drinking binge.

He entered the forest to ponder his predicament, encountering a herd of reindeer. They shunned him, mocking his red eyes and nose.

He headed north in a quest for purpose.