January 2019 -- 75 Word Story Challenge -- VICTORY TO ARTORIARIUS!

[Mad Alice]

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 2019 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 January 2019


Voting ends at 11:59 pm GMT, 28 January 2019



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:

Root


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! **

 

[Cathbad]

Unused


Edgar sighed. “It’s all ending.”

“Is there no hope, then?” I implored.

“Look for yourself. The plant was ignored. The roots are all but dead, already.”

“You could write again!”

But Edgar shook his head. “I am no longer human. Humanity has chosen to ignore the Tree of Creativity, and now it dies.”

“Along with it, hope shall die too, Edgar!”

“If only they had realized how closely the two were connected,” he lamented.

 

[D.A. Xiaolin Spires]

Glacial Embrace

It came crawling from the depths of Enceladus, a jagged ice-cold appendage that grew quick. It sliced through bellowing frost whales and crystalline reefs, tearing apart evanescent flowers shattering at its touch.

The frost whales whispered of this myth but never thought it would come true. They said one day it would reach the sun and smother out its persistent light with a glacial embrace. Already it bends towards the blaze—ice crackling, singing.

 

[scarpelius]

... from his blood a dragon will rise

Bertho pulled out the partial scroll he found and looked at the ridge in front of him.
It matched.
He started to dig, found a dragon plant, plucked it out and sank his teeth into the root.
He felt the power.
"Dragoooon..." he yelled jumping of the cliff.
His body smashed on the rocks below and his blood stained the snow.
In the spring a Dragon Queen plant will sprout, bearing an egg.

 

[elvet]

Planted

I pulled and pulled, but the stubborn root would not come free. My gloved hands dug through the dirt around it, making the hole larger. Grabbing my saw, I reached into the opening. As the teeth bit in, I felt a downward yank and then, suffocating blackness .................

Close by, a centuries-old tree rustled its leaves on a windless day. It surveyed the surrounding ground, unbroken except for the fresh mound cradled between its roots.

 

[Karn's Return]

The Root of All Good​

I awoke to the sounds of screaming agony and the scent of searing flesh. I stared up in horror at the massive demonic entity towering above me.

“What…?”

“It’s intent we look at, padre. Not action.”

“What?”

“Intent. You mortals are all the same. You are motivated by greed, fear, envy, lust, pride. It’s a real catch twenty two, isn’t it? The root of all good is the root of all evil.”

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Last Contact

The eldest felt the coming of the visitors in its roots. They descended in a silver object that fell like a leaf. The visitors emerged as if they were seeds. Sound came from them, like branches creaking in the wind.

Get a sample of that big tree for the exobotany team.

OK, Chief.

A beam of scarlet light, not healing like the sun's golden rays, struck the eldest. It fell, and never greeted the visitors.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

The Damned Drilling

My body’s broken into an inverted ‘U’, as though bent backwards upon anvil and hammered into form.

In an impossibly dimensioned mouth fashioned from hundreds of souls I’m a molar; my extremities anchor into gums of writhing bodies. A scrum serves as tongue. Saliva glands are persons squeezed for fluids.

A drill – a bound, whirling man – descends, howling while coring me, its teeth shredding nerves.

I plead this damnation’s injustice: “Mercy – I wasn’t a dentist.”

 

[Daysman]

Police Action

Wine drenched and drowsy, he lets slip his lucky coin.

It skips towards a plaza drain.

A tourist floors it. “A readonly qubit?”

“How'd you know?”

She considers the drain. “We find it… later...”

“Who'd you work for?”

She pockets the device. “Using it masks you from predictive tech, but impedes agencies monitoring history… can't have that.”

“I inherited it!”

“A rooted history is manageable. Your random walk is not. Now, you acquired it… when?”

 

[Tisiphone]

Entanglement

Life. She’d sat neath the mighty oak pondering the meaning.

As dappled sunlight shone through the branches she’d felt encouraged, able to grow, instilled with hope, inspiration, confidence. Anchored.

As night-time fell, devoid of moonlight, the dark shadow took its stranglehold. Gnarled, twisted roots grappled at her body, encapsulating, suppressing every last breath from her ample chest. She struggled in vain as they dragged her downward; crescendoing voices, “Sheol”.

This, the ultimate betrayal. Inevitable death.

 

[Calliopenjo]

The Haunted House

The lock on the root cellar had been the only thing keeping the door closed. The constant rattling and vapors around the edges... had to be something in there. Ice formed around and on the door. This had to be the source.

The multiple suicides. The killer accidents. No one that had lived here came out alive. Prayer and cleansing... useless.

My turn to investigate.

 

[D3athw4lker]

Rooted in History

The Cultivator assessed the ancient tree: strong roots producing branches that twisted through centuries, ending in withered buds.

“How far they’ve fallen,” a cold whisper wormed into The Cultivator’s ear. “Do it.”

The incantation began.

A wailing discord accompanied the ritual - the undying experiencing death at last; a proud heritage reduced to ashes, leaving just the root.

“Ahhhh, reborn again,” Count Dracula growled. “Body and mind refined and strengthened. Still, I thirst for blood…”

 

[Bagpuss]

No title as yet

"Well, bugger me," Mikaela breathed as the root began to vibrate under her hand.

Time slowed down. Aware she’d made a potentially fatal mis-step, Mikaela held her breath and touched the electrical wire to the root. After a second the root subsided into quiescence.

Mikaela breathed out in relief and moved.

The coroner said that that was when the root detonated.

I still go to see my grandmother. She is an awesome silver birch!

 

[mosaix]

And The Neighbours Are Quite Nice...

W'ed like you to stay.

"What's this? Voices? In my head!"

Relax.

"Who are you? What are you?"

Look around.

"Just greenery. Alien vegetation."

So?

"Seriously? Telepathic plants?!"

Keep calm. We'd like you to stay.

"I must go! I must report back!"

Stay. Others have. Breathe now. Relax.

"But this is important."

Really?

"Well... quite important."

That's better.

"Not sure I want to go now."

That's good.

"Can't move anyway."

Relax. Put down some roots.

 

[Culhwch]

The Hanging Tree

The roots of the hanging tree run deep.

We should’ve never hung the Carrow boy. He did nothing but spurn pretty young Lily Farrington, everyone knew. But she went and spun that story to her father. That was all it took.

But those roots run deep. And wide.

Her father found her abed, wrapped around with roots, like a grasshopper in spider silk.

Outside the tree bloomed like never before, white petals falling like tears.

 

[Danny McG]

Square up to Satan.

“Officer, he's normally such a good boy, despite this Goth obsession he's gotten into. We're hoping he'll grow out of it, we'd grounded him because he was trying to sneak off to a party last night”
--------------------------------------------
“Nooo! Please!

"Foolish mortal, how dare you tamper with my roots? I am the Prince of Hell”
-------------------------------------------
“That's all we found in his room, a piece of paper with this number written over and over”
25.8069758011

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

The Beanstalk Feeds

The silly boy swapping the cow for a handful of beans, thought Jack's mother.
Little did she know they'd started to take root and suck life from the surrounding soil and vegetation to
feed their unimaginable growth. First the grass started to brown before withering and dying. Next the garden
flowers wilted and decayed. The leaves from the trees wrinkled and fell to the earth.
All whilst the roots gave life to the gargantuan beanstalk.

 

[Vaz]

Tree of Life

Wolves swallowed the Sun.

Father Odin had fallen into shadow.

Much like the world.

Fela could sleep until time ceased but instead she rose, and brought life into those Days of Ruin.

She wove her auburn hair into fire to warm it, and stole the Seven seas to quench it's thirst. It was an ugly, gnarled thing. Life is in the beginning. But it was alive.

by the fires of her hair, Yggdrasil grew anew.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Mandragora Cries

Oh! What's happening? Something digging into my nest.

No! Stop! This is my home.

Oh no! It's grabbed my head. It's pulling me up.

It hurts. It hurts.

Please stop.

The pain. Too much.

I can't take this agony.

I'm gonna scream.

* * *​

News in Brief
Man discovered dead on allotment at site known locally as The Old Gallows Tree. Police report cause of death unknown. He was found holding a recently unearthed mandrake root.

 

[Ivy Moser]

Enough

These bullied saplings compress the power of centuries

Into moments

Like lava, the roots flow

Burrowing down, snaking out

Buckling roads, fissuring concrete

Branches unfurl, wend, contort

Tentacling into walls, splintering glass, warping steel

Humans think they are sovereign

But they are a flick of time

Fleas on this planet

We have been here for millennia

For eons

This green Earth is ours

We are done sacrificing it to you

And we take it back