Instant Story

Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #04377-K359: A Second Chance Blooms

Los dientes de león son mis flores favoritas.

¿Por qué?

Porque fueron la primera planta que aprendí a cultivar y comer, y porque salvaron a nuestra gente. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Translated - Dandelions are my favorite flowers./Why?/Because they were the first plant I learned to grow and eat, and because they saved our people.]

The tumbledowns are called that because it's easy for everything to -well- tumble down. The only things that grow there are babies and misery. Everybody's hungry all the time. It's still very clean because nobody leaves anything lying around. Not when it could be useful for something.

I learned what a flower was when I saw my first dandelion at the age of twelve. I learned what it was for when a passing student of the bizarre told me two things: dandelions will grow anywhere, and they're edible.

The leaves, the roots, even the flowers and the seeds can become food. I asked them every question because farming them seemed easy. I just had to get the seeds and put them somewhere they could get rain and sun and not get trampled on.

Support me on Patreon / Buy me a Ko-fi

Continue Reading

Prompts remaining: 15 Submit a Prompt!
Ask a question

Challenge #04376-K358: Accurate Descriptions

What's one of the best exercise to keep me cheerful? I love to dance! -- Anon Guest

"That's what you call dancing?" boggled Sparky Tae. "That's... uhm... novel."

Scrubber Naev came to a safe and stable halt, shutting off the music with a tap to their datareader vambrace. "Okay. So what would you call it?"

"Advanced parkour acrobatics whilst impersonating a Muppet on fire," said Tae.

Naev almost fell off the horizontal bar, she was laughing so hard. As it was, she

Read more »

Challenge #04375-K357: Medically Approved Distraction

The poor havenworlder was eggbound. And the humans were only working with the most basic of medical as that was all that was available in this emergency. They were asked... please sing? It helped the pain of a difficult delivery. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Knowing a little about what to do for eggbound birds, the usual solution is to very carefully break the egg]

It should have been easy. It should have been an hour or two of relatively difficult work, and

Read more »

Challenge #04374-K356: Unmasking

They'd spent a good portion of their life alone. A life in near-isolation makes it hard for a person to adjust to being around.. so many. Fortunately, their rescuers, the ones that saved their world, are helping with that. -- Anon Guest

My life before the exodus was viewed through screens, and served with machines. I talked to people on screens, I had various needs met by hardware. My booth was my life. Just like it was everyone else's life. Work was

Read more »

Challenge #04373-K355: The Other Side of the Gurney

It was a hell of a battle, by all rights this marine SHOULD be dead. But we saved him. Any other being that had lost that much blood, and that many limbs, would've been long gone by now. There's a reason other medics claim that humans are almost unkillable. I really wish they'd stop that way of thinking. They're tough, but not THAT tough! -- Anon Guest

[AN: Continuing on from this ]

The crew took turns sitting with their Ship's Human. Human

Read more »

Challenge #04372-K354: Only Looks Harmless

The humans mocked another human calling them a hippo.

The human, much to the shock of their Alliance friends, thanked the mockers.

The mockers were shocked and swore at the human.

The human said "You just compared me to one of THE most feared animals on the planet next to the humble mosquito. An animal that is fast, powerful, literally a living, amphibious, tank. So thanks!" -- Fighting Fit

Of all the things that could happen in the Edge Territories, this was

Read more »

Challenge #04371-K353: Itinerant Educator

Magic done improperly by a person very new to it can go very wrong. Fortunately, a very kind wizard helps fix the mess and gently teach proper safety. -- Anon Guest

Magic is everywhere. Many find it as natural as breathing, but there are those who can learn to harness it via education and skill. Teachers find those with magic in their bones, usually before a great upset causes trouble for them. Or for anyone around them.

But for those who choose

Read more »

Challenge #04370-K352: Strangers in the Woods

A: "It's all natural!"

B: "So're arsenic and cyanide." -- Anon Guest

There are, in magical worlds, places where the people do not trust magic. They shun it, exile those with magic in their bones, and even watch those using sleight of hand with suspicious eyes. The threat of a noose, or a pyre, lurked within those hateful eyes.

They also mistrust anything new, anything from the outside, and anyone who doesn't look like them.

No matter what you do to improve

Read more »

Challenge #04369-K351: Impromptu Intervention

They knew humans work longer than most. But this just kept going until they collapsed. Working instead of dealing with their feelings in a healthier way. -- Anon Guest

The manual said to watch your Rescue Human carefully for signs of distress. Community notes in that area also detailed some confounding signs of a Human masking their signs of distress. Though Companion Grosk tried to collate them, the final list looked like literally anything a Human could do.

Human Neis was either

Read more »

Challenge #04368-K350: Desperate Measures

They could not speak, yet they ran up to Mr. Sunshine and quickly pulled on his sleeve until getting his attention. Trying to get him to follow, the eyes filled with pleas for help, they pointed to where forces of the local CEO government were trying to drag away their children, and their pets. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Content warning for ableist language. Our protagonist has yet to learn better]

It's rare to have what I have and I know it. If

Read more »

Challenge #04367-K349: Too Cold to Hurt

The one thing about being too cold is that, when you're badly hurt, and your crewmates are trying hard to get you to safety, and get you help, it's not so bad. One the cold numbs the pain a bit and two, it slows down your system, giving them more time. At least you know... you may just make it this time. -- Anon Guest

Cold... hurts. It aches the muscles and creeps into bones. Grinding joints along the way. Thing is.

Read more »

Challenge #04366-K348: Communications Breakthrough

SPOENS are considered a mostly harmless nuisance until one of them teaches all the cogniscents who communicate with light, Morse Code and it caught on. -- Anon Guest

[AN: There's a few things to consider here. First - SPOEns are the Society for the Preservation of Original English and permanently in argument about what Original English is. Second - Morse Code is only a means of codification of language. It's right there on the tin. Third... there's more than a few cogniscents

Read more »

Challenge #04365-K347: Defying the Inevitable

They bring the child, a 5 yr old who was also a chosen hero, though she was scared, to the edge of the place where she once called home. But getting in was the problem, there was an evil wizard who kept this place trapped and out of time. And it was time to let everyone into the more peaceful era.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04307-k289-ancient-nightmares -- Anon Guest

Four heroes stood on misty mountain's rise. Five if you counted the

Read more »

Challenge #04364-K346: Repurposed Unwanted

More baskets of unwanted children, of all species, not just the unwanted races. Why do they keep putting them at my cave? We're not going to eat them. Oh well, I guess our army will just have to keep growing. What does my army do? We were founded by masters of the way of shadows. What we do is gently spread the teachings of the first sensei, and keep gathering more baskets. -- Anon Guest

They call the cave The Unwanted Mouth

Read more »

Challenge #04363-K345: Song Without Voice

Illness had robbed them of the ability to speak, their kind brauniin friend that gently nursed them through it helped them learn to sing. Though it took time, patience, and though it hurt some, the kindness of loved ones. -- Anon Guest

Brauniin pride themselves on being unnoticed. Kind deeds done without reward nor praise. Help where it's needed, for those who toil but fail regardless. They only take that which is offered, or that which will not be noticed.

People know

Read more »