The Word Worker

Tag: Flash fiction

  • Spirit of the Tiger

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    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    “Tenzin! Tenzin!” Dorji’s sandals slapped the floor of the quiet chamber as he nearly careened into his teacher. “You must come quickly! The cave!” He clung to the old man’s robes, panting wildly. “Calm yourself, boy!” Tenzin surveyed the young acolyte with a mildly disapproving frown. “What has happened?” “I wanted to pray where the…

  • Potion

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    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    “Take this bottle. It holds everything you need to accomplish your quest.” “This bottle? Are you sure?” “Of course! This is my personal creation, the most advanced I have ever produced. When you arrive at the Dungeon, wait for sunrise. Set the bottle in the exact center of the trapdoor just as the red sky…

  • Bride and Groom

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    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    “We are gathered here tonight in the sight of the moon and the trees to join together Nob and Hob in trolly matrimony. Have you both come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?” “Yes, your stoniness!” “Where else would I be but with my Nobikins?” “I told you,…

  • The Castle

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    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    “Hurry! We’re gonna get caught in it!” Jenny shrieked, stumbling over the rocks on her way down the hill. “Don’t be a wimp!” Jake grumbled behind her, hopping from stone to stone instead. “It’s just water! Why are you such a GIRL?” “I AM a girl, stupid!” Jenny stuck her tongue out, then pulled up…

  • Grimdark

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    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    He stood at the base of the bridge, his hands twisting behind him. Don’t show fear, they had warned. You don’t want to attract the grimdark, they had said. He kept his face carefully blank (he hoped), but his hands fidgeted. He wondered if the grimdark could hear his heart pounding. The orange light of…

  • The Bell

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    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    For generations the bell had rung morning and night, its peals joining the crashing waves in a symphony of sound. The five peaks of the landside bore the code for its messages. Fair weather, foul, days of worship, and days of mourning. The fifth mark, on the center peak, had long been ignored by the…

  • Heir

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    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    It was a strange place for a school, high in the Alps where the crags rose so steeply that the chateau stuck out of the mountainside like a hitchhiker’s thumb. Telian was sure the founders had been goats; no one else would have thought all these stairs would be a good idea. And, on the…

  • The Town

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    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    The hot glue gun sat cooling beside his hand. A quick inspection of the board, a wiggle here or tap there, showed nothing loose or out of place. It was finally finished. How long had it taken him to figure out the right materials for those mossy roofs? He couldn’t even remember. It hadn’t mattered,…

  • Writer’s Block

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    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    Louise tossed her glasses down on the table and massaged her aching head with tense fingers. How long had she been sitting here, trying to make the words come? Long enough for the tea she had made to be cold and bitter, at least. The rain made watching the passage of the sun impossible, and…

  • Stones

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    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    The house had been around longer than living memory. According to tradition, it had been built by the first settlers on the coast, the ancestors of the town’s founders. Supposedly, the patriarch of the clan, banished for some offense and accompanied only by his wife and baby son, had scavenged loose stones from the base…