flashfic

This is for scribble_myname who prompted: Rapunzel/yarn. This one is sweet and short, just a smidgeon over 500 words.

Stitches in Time

All Rapunzel ever asked for was yarn.

For birthdays, feast days of the saints, and the older pagan celebrations Gothel still adhered to.

For every occasion and all occasions and no-occasion surprise gifts.

Gothel was slightly worried about Rapunzel’s obsession with yarn, but it was hard to resist the knobbly knitted hats, scratchy sweaters, and warm socks of her crafting. Besides, as Rapunzel said in her sweet voice, it was a trifle chilly in the tower.

Gothel felt a twinge of guilt at that, instantly banished.

The last time she brought Rapunzel yarn, the girl’s eyes lit up. “Perfect,” she breathed, standing there in two sweaters, a sky-blue hat with cat ears, and tomato-red socks. Her hair filled the chamber in rivers of gold.

It wasn’t even very good yarn, but Gothel felt a warm glow of satisfaction as she climbed down Rapunzel’s hair later that evening. Yarn was so much better than say, books, which would fill the girl’s head with longings for adventures in faraway places and romances with handsome rogues.

*

As soon as Gothel left, Rapunzel set to work twisting and braiding the yarn. An hour later, the rope ladder she’d been working on for months was ready.

Rapunzel put on an extra sweater, bundled her hair out of the way, slung a sack of food and knitted caps over her shoulder, and exited the tower for the first time in eight years.

She stood on the ground, curling her toes in thin shoes, and took in deep breaths of freedom. She almost felt dizzy with it, though it might’ve been a combination of unwonted exercise and excitement.

Taking a firmer grip on her worldly possessions, Rapunzel went forth into the unknown.

*

She hitch-hiked her way to the biggest city, a port on the sea, trading knitted caps for meals and rides and better shoes.

In the city, discreet inquiries led her to the cellar of a seedy tavern. There, she cut off her gold hair at the nape in exchange for a pouchful of gold coins at her belt.

She left the tavern by a back route, ducked into a quiet corner to change into trousers and a shirt, and booked a passage to warmer climes.

By nightfall, she’d left her homeland.

*

For two years, Rapunzel traveled, taking in spectacular vistas, admiring ancient ruins, and sketching wonderful plants and animals. One day she met a man who convinced her for once and for all that Mother Gothel had been wrong about the universal vileness of the male species. He wasn’t a rogue at all, but an explorer, naturalist, and trader.

They got married, bought a house full of color and light set in gardens that bloomed all year around, and had five children. Rapunzel grew her hair down to the base of her spine, but no further. She painted with oils in between collecting frogs and reading books and singing songs with her children.

But she never knitted another stitch nor wore another sweater ever again.

For my oldest son (Sir I. on this blog) who suggested: Sleeping Beauty/Tranquilizer

(Still writing longer than I wanted. ;))

One Shot

Darrel had his nose deep in Weapons Monthly when the crystal ball buzzed, from inside a bottom drawer full of unfiled paperwork.

So few people used crystal balls anymore, Darrel had forgotten they still had one. Instead he kept a bowlful of apples on his desk. When a call came through, Darrel split one in half to find a message spelled out in seeds.

He considered that a waste of good apples better used for target practice.

Papers flew as Darrel dug out the crystal. Some sort of juice had dried into a sticky patch on its surface. Darrel rubbed it with spit and his untucked shirt, then placed the ball tenderly on its cradle. He tapped it and said in his most cordial voice, “Rose & Thorn Pest Services: No job too big, no job too small! Thorn speaking!”

A narrow face appeared, the forehead rising to a narrow peak, chin stretched down to its chest. Its ears were jug handles and it waved elongated limbs.

That was fine. Crystal balls distorted everyone’s face.

The face spoke, “pbbthpphbtwwwsswa!”

“A dragon? Yes, we handle dragons, for an extra fee. Size?”

“bbbggabbggobdbdm!”

Long as ten carts in a row, two stacked houses high, Darrel wrote with a stub of a pencil. “Fire-breathing?”

“swshaswoshafzzt!”

After the call ended, Darrel studied his notes. Black-scaled. Horned. Breathes fire and drools acid. A right mean one. His mouth stretched into a grin and the sweet clink of gold coins rang in his ears.

“Hey, Bree!” he bellowed, leaning back in his chair. “We got ourselves a job!”

No answer from the back room which his partner was supposed to be organizing. Frowning, Darrel pushed away from the desk and went to investigate.

Bree was slumped against a bookcase, a trail of drool by the corner of her mouth. He shook her by the shoulder. She raised bleary eyes to his face.

“Good news! We have work!”

“’bout time, too,” she slurred. And then her head dropped down on his shoulder and she was asleep again.

***

They got to the village three days later. Bree staggered up to her room and faceplanted on the bed. She was snoring before he even left the room.

Darrel sallied forth, where he interrogated witnesses, looked at tracks and scorch marks, spied the dragon’s lair, and scouted along the cliff tops. He spent a long time looking for the perfect spot for his Wyrm-Killer 500X, a weapon that he didn’t call a ballista because he didn’t want to pay the extra license fees.

He returned after dark, this time with Bree. She sat shivering on an outcrop, even in layers of sweaters, while Darrel fussed over the ballista-that-must-not-be-called-so. Its drawstring was made from the heart-strings of a leviathan, a true love’s kiss, and wire beaten from a sliver of the Grim Reaper’s scythe. Its wood came from a five-thousand-year-old oath tree. The bolt was fashioned from a falcon’s dive, a shark’s bite, and a cutting remark from a court jester.

Darrel had only one shot. He meant to make it count.

“All set?” he asked Bree tersely.

“Fully charged.” Bree removed a glass vial from within her voluminous clothing.

Darrel placed the vial careful in its slot in the bolt. He placed the bolt in the ballista-called-crossbow and made fine adjustments to his aim.

It was ready.

They waited in silence as the sea sighed beneath and the wind sighed above. The moon played hide-and-seek among the clouds. Darrel thought Bree might’ve fallen asleep again.

Suddenly she stiffened. Tension quivered in the air.

Darrel saw the dragon, a shadow-shape sailing out from its cave. He sighted it, following its path. All the variables came together in his head—wind speed, wind direction, the beast’s speed, it’s trajectory.

He fired.

The bolt sped through the air. There was a twinkle, then nothing.

Seconds went by. Bree and Darrel stared, eyes straining.

Then the dragon fell, right into the area Darrel had chosen for its landing place. Trees broke like matchwood and leaves spiraled into the air.

It was done.

***

“Sound asleep,” said the village headman in awe, keeping his distance from the knocked-out dragon. “Will stay like this for half a year, you say?”

“At the least,” said Darrel. “But don’t worry. The Humane Society for the Better Treatment of Dragons will be along to relocate it to a reservation long before then.”

“Remarkable!” the headman enthused. The dragon gave a long-drawn growly snort. The headman jumped. The dragon exhaled in a gust of a hot wind, setting a few small bushes on fire. Villagers beat at them with sacks. The dragon didn’t even twitch as the humans danced around it, not even when one of them poked it with the blunt end of a homemade pike.

Darrel turned away.

The job was done. It was time for a nap.

“Darrel!” shouted Bree. She sprinted down the forest path, tripped over a root. Darrel caught her before she went sprawling.

Bree clutched his arm and stared up at him out of wide-awake eyes. Manic energy radiated from her. “Let’s go dancing!” she insisted.

“No,” said Darrel firmly, half-leading, half-dragging her back up the path.

“Karaoke, then! You and me, we’ll sing the house down.”

“Absolutely not.”

“I know! We’ll chase chickens and wrestle pigs! Then go sliding on the palace’s marble floor!” She let go of his arm to twirl around, smacked into a trunk, and burst into giddy giggles.

Darrel sighed. Somnolent or manic—there was no in-between for Bree. And the manic phase was worst right after she’d magically charged the sleep-inducing bolt.

A century under a fairy’s spell? He shouldn’t be surprised there were after-effects.

It was going to be a long, long week.

For Karen Lynn (@R_Typewriter) who prompted: The Little Mermaid/Gyrocopter.

One thing these prompts have taught me about myself is that I write long. I’m always pushing the upper edge of what is technically flashfiction!

Another Adventure

“You’re sure about this?” asked Marina. She shifted in the tub Justin had carried up the hill. Her elbow clanged against tin, her tail slapped a wave of seawater over its rim. “This… whatever it’s called again.”

“Gyrocopter.” Justin didn’t look up from where he was fiddling with pedals and gears and other parts whose names Marina didn’t know and whose purpose she couldn’t fathom.

“It doesn’t look entirely safe.” Marina felt bad about complaining, not after she had promised. But she hadn’t realized until her first up-close look just how homemade the contraption looked. After all, Justin had made it following a diagram in a book, using parts scrounged from all over the palace…

Justin walked over and said, “Marina. I have tested this out. Taken it on solo flights. With weights. It can safely carry up to five hundred pounds. I don’t take your life lightly, you know.”

There was a smudge on his face and grease on his hands. His eyes were very blue and his teeth very white in his grin. “So stop worrying!”

“All right,” said Marina, smiling back.

Warmth spread inside her.

**

The smile didn’t last long.

“Isn’t this great?” Justin yelled over his shoulder, above the roar of the motor. “You can see the whole countryside spread like a quilt from up here.”

The gyrocopter dipped. Marina’s arms tightened around Justin’s waist. The wind howled, whipped her hair, and tried to steal the leather jacket and woolen blankets Justin had given her.

She had laughed when he’d been concerned about keeping her warm.

Now she understood.

“You all right, Marina?” He craned to look back at her.

“I’m fine! You focus on flying this thing,” she shouted back, shamelessly fibbing. She had promised and she wouldn’t let him down.

But she buried her face in his shoulder, inhaling his scent of sweat and grease and leather. He was as solid as a rock and hot like the sun. She heard the beat of his heart, the flow of his blood in his veins, the swish of air in his lungs.

He felt so alive, and in that moment, so was she.

**

“There’s the town!” Justin’s voice echoed in his chest. Marina peeked over her shoulder, just as the gyrocopter descended lower. She bit back a squeak in time.

A pastiche of tiled roofs in all colors. Grey streets winding through them like eels. Rigid things sticking up that must be trees.

For all of her life, she had seen this place only as a smear of colors upon a hillside. Now she was actually looking down on it. Excitement bubbled in her stomach, easing the knot of tension.

People rushed about in a flurry of color. For years before she met Justin, Marina had thought clothing to be some kind of natural plumage. There were humans rooted like anemones, staring straight up or ducking into buildings like crabs hiding in shells. Others made high-pitched sounds that rang in Marina’s ears… oh.

Justin gave a whoop and cheer as he flew low over town. A man shook his fist at them.

“Um, Justin? Maybe we shouldn’t be—?”

Justin leaned forward, so suddenly Marina almost lost her grip on him. A woman in red stood in the street, pale face tilted up, eyes and mouth rounded.

“BEATRICE!” Justin roared down. “MERMAIDS DO FLY! NOW WILL YOU MARRY ME?”

**

“So she wouldn’t have you after all,” said Marina the next day. She sat on a flat-topped rock not far from shore, her tail in the water where it belonged, thankyouverymuch.

Justin lay on his back, arm over his eyes, shielding them from the sun’s glare. “It was worth a try.” He didn’t sound too crushed. “But she’s not the type to say yes to a prince, just because he asks.”

Not when there are four unmarried males between said prince and the throne, thought Marina. She’d lurked under piers and heard the gossip from fishermen and fish-wives. But she didn’t say it out loud.

Justin rolled onto his side and propped his head on his arm. “What about you and Salty Fish?”

“Solitapherius,” corrected Marina. Her whole body thrummed when she said his name.

“Whatever. Have you worked up the nerve to talk to him yet?”

“Justin.” Marina combed the tangles from her hair with her fingers. It gave her an excuse to hide her face. “He’s the First Prince of the biggest mer-state I know, and I’m only the second hundredth hatchling of a minor king.” A king who had yet to acknowledge her existence. Marina had hung on the fringes of the court all her life, surviving on scraps, keeping her head down, keeping out of politics.

“So what? Your parentage doesn’t determine your worth, Marina.”

Surprised, she looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. He was a prince, yes, but also a scholar, explorer, and inventor. While his relatives tried to gain his temperamental grandfather’s favor, Justin went his own way and did his own thing.

She’d always thought success came easily to him. But yesterday she’d seen him fail. And yet, here he was today, another adventure in his eyes.

I don’t have to be afraid, she realized. I can fail… and it’ll be fine.

“Marina?”

She laughed, threw back her hair, threw him a dazzling smile. “I’ll talk to him! At the ball tonight, even! Thank you, Justin!”

She slipped into the sea’s welcoming embrace, waved farewell. He shouted Good luck! as she dove into the waters.

Yesterday, a mermaid had flown. Today, that same mermaid could introduce herself to a mer-prince. And tomorrow… Marina grinned.

Who knew what she would do tomorrow?