Instant Story

Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #00680 - A315: Putting the Om in Omnivore

T’reka and some of the weirder things humans eat….

Of course putting a settlement into otherwise pristine land was bound to cause some ecological imbalance. The absence of so very many trees meant an upswing in homeless insects. Some of whom took the deforestation as a cue to breed.

The insects fed the birds and amphibians, who took the excess food as a cue to breed.

Which meant there was now an excess of Gargantua frogs looking for food in all the wrong places. Which, in turn, meant that the inhabitants of Wiwazheer were looking for things to do with predator frogs. Specifically, things to do with predator frogs that were going after the infant domesticated birds.

Which was why -when T’reka enquired about the activity- Wiwazheer was having the First Grand Gargantuan Cook-Off.

“Oh they’re edible,” said Su-syn, busily barbecuing and basting. “We’re all finding a way to make them ‘palatable’. This was the least-cost solution.”

Small children were still finding material for the town full of chefs. Some of them were struggling with the weight of the gigantic amphibians. Some of the very small ones were attempting to herd the beasts with pointed sticks.

I have never seen a species with the primary solution ‘can we eat it’,” T’reka confessed.

“Well, if the long answer’s ‘yes, but—’ we’ll look to other uses for the things.” Su-syn turned a frog steak over. “Want to join the judges?”

T’reka unconsciously backed away. “No. Thank you.”

[Muse food remaining: 24. Submit a promptAsk a questionBuy my stories!]

Challenge #00679 - A314: Ancient Beasts

Australian Pelicans are like something out of Jurassic Park - like they remember when things like them ate things like you, and are just biding their time. (I literally asked a zookeeper “do they run off with toddlers?!?” when I saw one for the first time)

[AN: I have not met any other kinds of pelicans, so I just assumed they were all like that. And for the record, they prefer fish.]

Irwin glared at the current batch of temporal tourists. Another

Read more »

Challenge #00678 - A313: Cogito Assassin Sum

Tossing Cows: The act of thoroughly derailing a train of thought, deliberately or not.

Yubsid was meant to be clerking. It was relatively mindless copy-work. Input this data into those fields. Nothing much in the way of brain power, just check that the right data was in the right place and mark the last entry so she didn’t get confused.

When she took a miniature health break to stretch herself or ensure that her digits got all their requisite exercise,

Read more »

Challenge #00677 - A312: Loud Shy

They had never expected to be able to describe someone speaking as booming hesitantly, but that’s exactly what it sounded like.

The Ambassador for Gargantua was large, even for large cogniscents. He could easily intimidate a terran bear. He was all muscle and looked like he could conquer the universe.

And he was about to make his introductory speech.

“Er…” he boomed. “My name… is… Um. Grigri. Yes. Uh. I… was… an asteroid

Read more »

Challenge #00676 - A311: Taming Humans

Humans may be rendered almost catatonic by careful scritches in the correct place - under the cranial hair, behind the ears and along the spine.

Important note: Although this technique can turn almost any human docile, 70% of the time it also makes it harder to escape, as ceasing the technique can lead to your human grabbing one of your limbs, even when partially asleep. As a human’s grip is nigh unbreakable even at rest, it is advised you use this

Read more »

Challenge #00675 - A310: Caution Considered

“That’s the secret truth about the kind of people you’re dealing with, Princess. They’ll tell you one thing, and then do the other, simply because they can, and are usually correct in assuming you won’t notice the difference. It’s coded in their DNA. We call them enabled sociopaths. You call them politicians.”

Yakish waited for a response. The young princess Elise looked so tiny as her bodyguard/servants inserted her into her formal regalia. She

Read more »

Challenge #00674 - A309: Lines of XP

“I like women who are old enough to have had a little experience, and still young enough to want a little more.”

“Seriously?” said Shayde. “That’s what yer goin’ with today?”

“Oops. I thought you were older. It’s the hair. Not that there’s anything wrong with your hair. Ah crap. If I try to eat my foot, would it get less uncomfortable?”

“Ah, na. Keep diggin&

Read more »

Challenge #00673 - A308: A Sight to See

Earth is one of a very few planets with a moon large and close enough to cause full eclipses. This will change as it gradually moves further away, but until then it’d probably be something people travel to see.

The ship full of tourists was directly under the moon shadow, of course. In a few minutes, it would be, once again, able to view the spectacle.

Lots of habitable planets had moons, of course. Some had sister planets to share their

Read more »

Challenge #00672 - A307: Instinct

“For some reason, whenever there is any number of humans in an open enough space, with enough raw materials, something will be set on fire. And something will inevitably be produced to cook over said fire, or at least hold over it on a stick and gently smoulder if there’s nothing edible available.”

The human was handy to have around. Deathworlders thought nothing of going into places that -for example- Brookessiin like Riik were loath to tread.

This one

Read more »

Challenge #00671 - A306: To Be a SPOEn

Bear in mind this is a language where the word for “mess about with a small object and see if it does something” also means “play the violin”

“We have three different kinds of ‘moose’ and two are spelled the same,” argued Vic.

“Things went to crap when we switched to the phonetic alphabet. The entire context-necessary spelling convention has lead to unnecessary over-explanation.”

“I don’t like all the pronouns,” grumbled Jake.

Read more »

Not exactly a writing prompt, but figured you might get some use from it anyway.

Theory: Part of the reason for much of the socially-driven guilt and negativity about the body and sexuality is because of clothing hiding it, as if the normal human anatomy is something to be avoided and shamefully concealed.  Without clothing to obscure and interfere, people would be effectively forced to confront the natural state of themselves and others, and without the perceived stigma of hiding and shame, such negative attitudes and personal guilt would soon vanish as people became more acclimated to

Read more »

Challenge #00669 - A304: Methods of Madness

When the last trumpet sounds and the beast rises from the pit, we will not kill it. We will ride it.

Jorgi the Page remembered when the Sorcerer’s summoned demon began pulling out its hair. The beast was still chafing at its magical bit and had managed to get into Kragdar’s knapsack.

Jorgi caught her looking into a crystal sphere, late one night.

“What are you doing?” Jorgi whispered. “The master forbade you from interfering with our

Read more »

The Best Genes Money Can Buy...

Adam stared past the mirror-glass and into his own eyes. They were perfect in place and symmetry, blue as the sea. His cheekbones, nose and jaw came together to make a flawless model’s face. His rational mind said that he should be happy, for he had everything he could ever want in terms of intelligence and good looks, and his parents were kind and loving. Still there was sadness inside those eyes. He couldn’t bring himself to tell his parents

Read more »

Challenge #00667 - A302: Slippery Slope

He who fights with monsters should be careful he doesn’t become a monster himself. Unless that makes him more effective at fighting monsters. Like he becomes a badass werewolf who knows how to use a sword and has magic armor. That’d be so rad.

My name… was… Vernon. A long time ago, now.

It began, as all beginnings must, with a quest to rescue a damsel in distress. Captured by vampires. Yes. She was held by monsters. And

Read more »

Overheard at the bar...

“All this time I just kinda assumed she had a couple loud, nosy roommates. She said the camera on her machine didn’t work, so that’s why she stuck to audio-only…”

“So why the post-date stress? Was she dog-ugly, and caught ya staring at her like she had two heads?”

“Three, actually. And not ugly, kinda cute, actually.”

“Pardon?”

“Imagine a bipedal Cerberus. With boobs. And about seven feet tall.”

Read more »