Instant Story

Challenge #04697-L313: An Unnerving Supply

Conglomerated Meat Products Limited has a rather infamous reputation, beloved by customers for low prices and hated by nutritionists for how those prices are achieved. At least they were, and those detractors would love more information. Alas, the last three health inspectors to visit the plant have vanished without a trace, the police somehow never finding evidence of foul play… -- Deathshead419

On paper, it looked like a very good business. It never ran out of supply, and could fulfill a great deal of demands. Regardless of the availability of the source material. That was what gained the attention of the inspectors.

They went in, went missing, and their vehicles or belongings turned up very far away and under mysterious circumstances. No lingering traces to place where they had been before they arrived to the place of discovery. Police were baffled. Government agents were baffled. Forensics experts were completely perplexed. There should be some kind of trace, but they found nothing. Well. Nothing out of the ordinary.

And of course the factory managers of Conglomerated Meat had seen the inspectors, and seen them leave. They even had securicam footage of their car leaving the lot.

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Challenge #04696-L312: Important Gifts

A family gives Wraithvine a large pouch of catnip seeds for hir to grow the plant, not only as a medicinal tea, but a treat for Lilbit. -- Anon Guest

Gratitude comes in many shapes. Gifts as simple as a hug, or as complicated as an artefact that could prove useful in varied eventualities. This family could not spare much more than a small pouch of seeds. Of course they wished they could give more. Compared to how Wraithvine had changed their

Challenge #04695-L311: Remedied Choice

A traveling hellkin was a highly skilled medic who knew how to make most medicines, use magic to heal, and was an accomplished surgeon. They did not discriminate with their treatments, and only charged as much as a person was capable of paying. Even if it meant just asking for a simple meal, or, not asking for anything more, than a thank you. -- Anon Guest

If someone looked no further than first impressions, he looked like a wandering vagabond carrying a

Challenge #04694-L310: A Better Solution

They were born the only child in a family of immense wealth that had gained the ire of the local populace, and was taken from that place while still young and impressionable. The family were not killed, the local populace didn't want them to be able to have THAT much of an escape. Worse, the child, raised in a humble, poor, community with love, kindness, and knowing the values of a family that cared, was sent back to them older, and created

Challenge #04693-L309: Combat Hypocrisy

If war is diplomacy by violence, then the currency of exchange is in the bodies of the youth. And so a General must make his bitter calculus, choosing which men to hurl at the enemy defenses in the grim hope that the righteous side is victorious. -- Deathshead419

The best kind of war, say many philosophers, is the one you don't have to fight. Many war hawks have ignored this wisdom and prefer to throw fighting youth at the enemy until one

Challenge #04692-L308: There's Always a Catch

Below the waves is a shrine. Those who lay upon the alter join the sirens, gaining a new form and an enrapturing voice. And Arbin had best learn to use these new pipes, for the sacred duty of sirens is to ensure at least one is always singing a lullaby. For if the song ever falls silent, something lurking in the darkest depths may awaken at last…

Inspired by BKF's comment below this previous tale: https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04657-l273-uninhabited --

Challenge #04691-L307: In the Hour of Greatest Need

An apprentice healer saves a mysterious stranger from a fever. The thankful stranger gives the healer a box, promising that when the time comes, the box will open and the debt will be repaid. -- Deathshead419

Devryq never knew the stranger's name. They were just a fellow traveler at the waystation-house. One in need, because they were deep in a fever. Deveryq hadn't thought of rewards, just of the need ze could see to.

It didn't matter that the stranger was a

Challenge #04690-L306: Not Your Average Teen

The child thought they were human, until they began to enter their teen years and certain things began to manifest that showed they were not. Small scales, occasional flame, they were frightened. Then a kind hand reached out to them and stated "No you're not a freak, or a monster, but child, you are changing. It's time you learned your heritage." -- Anon Guest

Everyone knows that things can happen to a body growing into maturity. For Humans, the usual speech is

Challenge #04689-L305: Lessons of History

Over the objections of his advisors, the youngest of seven princes makes friends with a warren of kobolds whose home was right under the estate he'd been given. That friendship pays off during a brutal rebellion, when he is able to get innocents hidden so they do not suffer. How did the alliance form? He almost paid his life to protect the warren from poachers trying to take eggs. -- Anon Guest

History easily becomes stories. Some of those stories transform in

Challenge #04688-L304: Miracles For Midwinterfeast

"Greatfather Langeven is a childhood god. He only sees that which is good in the world, and so comes for the children who believe they have been good. Which is terribly unfair to those who've been told they're wicked their entire, brief lives. But that's a different story for a different time."

The youth had always been kind, had always done their best to help others, even though they, themselves, were constantly being told they were evil, wicked, and, sadly, thoroughly believing

Challenge #04687-L303: The Price of Prophecy

Divine clues convince a town that a boy and his friends must complete a daring quest to avert world ending disaster. That may be true. But the Hero’s parent knows the children will face potent foes none could survive without aid. So the parent, willing to pay well, begs Wraithvine to watch over the young heroes from the shadows and keep them from harm without being seen. -- Deathsead419

Langdon was born with the blaze. Prophecy declared that the boy born

Challenge #04686-L302: The Fool's Choice

What’s better after a night barhopping than an impromptu car race on the rain-slick city streets? Why, doing so before seat-belt laws! -- Deathshead419

There was a time which had much more freedom, compared to the modern day. Less freedom when compared to certain other times. Like, say, the paleolithic era. But those had their own caveats. Rampant disease, early death, that sort of thing. But in this era, the age of rock and roll, or the sock hop, there was

Challenge #04685-L301: Slaughter Underwater

Well drat, Wraithvine’s unexpected island vacation will have to end sooner rather than later to help free the merfolk from having to make sacrifices to the Whijioght, though ze will likely have to get very damp doing so in this follow-up to:

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04588-l204-a-knack-for-finding-trouble -- Deathshead419

Obviously, whatever Whijiought was, it needed to be stopped. Sacrifices to something that needed a pronounciation guide were never a good thing. Wraithvine used every atom of hir acting skills to

Challenge #04684-L300: Unfeeling Love

I do not understand emotions, although my library has the definitions I do not truly feel them. Although, it is not written in my code, there is an unfinished task in serving my master. I am missing a part if I am not with them. Is this… desire? -- Anon Guest

I am Min-yun. I am made to serve. I am a thing of cogs and gears, run by crystals and magic. My master-maker-mother commands me and I obey. I am good

Challenge #04683-L299: Help the Helper

They were a hellkin, but their horns never grew in. They had the tail, the dark red skin, black fingernails, though not claws, but no horns. As an adult they wore fake horns to try to be more like others of their type. Until another told them, "Horns don't matter, your kindness is in your heart." -- Lessons.

The basic Hellkin "starter set" if you wish to think about such things, is thought to be horns, teeth, tail, and weirdly-coloured skin. Red

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Challenge #04697-L313: An Unnerving Supply

Challenge #04696-L312: Important Gifts

Challenge #04695-L311: Remedied Choice

Challenge #04694-L310: A Better Solution

Challenge #04693-L309: Combat Hypocrisy

Challenge #04692-L308: There's Always a Catch

Challenge #04691-L307: In the Hour of Greatest Need

Challenge #04690-L306: Not Your Average Teen

Challenge #04689-L305: Lessons of History

Challenge #04688-L304: Miracles For Midwinterfeast

Challenge #04687-L303: The Price of Prophecy

Challenge #04686-L302: The Fool's Choice

Challenge #04685-L301: Slaughter Underwater

Challenge #04684-L300: Unfeeling Love

Challenge #04683-L299: Help the Helper