Ko-fi donationsBuy Me a Coffee

Just Add Prompt

A 4502-post collection

Challenge #04351-K333: Help From Nowhere

She was alone in the ramshackle hut having a difficult birth, the last survivor of a caravan. Fortunately for her, the family of Brauniin heard her cries, and came to this woman in her hour of need. -- Anon Guest

The house barely had a roof left, more weeds and leaf litter than true thatch, nevertheless, it counted as a house. The Hidden Ones lingered there. A house wants its Faekindred. Brauniin or Nisse, some waited for the ruin to be a home again. Homes were where they did their best work.

There was no door. There were no windows. There was barely a hearth remaining in the ruin. Yet a stranger came to it in the midst of a wild storm. She used the door, more to keep her upright as she staggered to the vain shelter that the remains of the roof could provide. She was laboring, exhausted, and travelworn. Inches from her own demise.

If nobody acted, she could die. And yet... both Brauniin and Nisse prided themselves on remaining hidden. They had to make a choice.

Support me on Patreon / Buy me a Ko-fi

Continue Reading

Prompts remaining: 22 Submit a Prompt!
Ask a question

Challenge #04350-K332: A Preserved Year

An archivaas finds a large box from before the Shattering. In the large box are several diaries, records, and a hand-crank, antique, player. The children of the family had buried their dairies in the time capsule. The parents had added to it a player and records. Music not heard in millennia now graced ears once more, words of children still of school age, seen on the pages happily. -- Anon Guest

Time capsules were an absolute joy to the Archivaas. They were

Read more »

Challenge #04349-K331: Unappreciated Comparison

I feel utterly worthless.

"You're a weed waving among the brick and stone."

See? Worthless.

"You ability to thrive truly has shown."

What .. do you mean?

"Your strength, my dear, I'm so proud you've grown!"

There among the bare gravel, where there's very little that's green, a lone dandelion is visited by a butterfly. -- Anon Guest

It's easy to devalue yourself when nobody else finds you worthy. It's easy to not wish to be part of a world that hates you

Read more »

Challenge #04348-K330: A Returning Memory

Even the smallest photo can bring back so many memories, especially when you're trying so hard to smile again. -- Anon Guest

"We've restored it to its original condition. Honestly, it was a miracle such fragile ephemera made it to this century. A miracle find, considering where it was found." The Archivaas went on and on and on about anaerobic bacteria and all the varied things that ate cellulose and assorted photographic chemicals in a landfill.

Shayde had stopped listening, staring at

Read more »

Challenge #04347-K329: First, Do No Harm

The deregger escaped their polity by fleeing onto an alliance ship. Their depression made them feel like cutting, but strangely? They couldn't find anything sharp. -- Anon Guest

I made it as far as an Alliance freighter. Hundreds did not. Every day, I heard about others who tried and died in the attempt. How many others' blood would be on my hands just because I made it? How many others would spend their value on a futile effort because less than one

Read more »

Challenge #04346-K328: Early Childcare

There's something to be said about need being the parental of invention. A small, sharp needle, some thin wire, and a lot of imagination can move mountains. -- Anon Guest

[AN: A little elementary research has shown me that the concept of a fastening device that doesn't hurt its wearer is older than you think it is. Look up fibula brooches. You're welcome.]

There's something to be said about loving another to the point of invention. Loving someone so much that creating

Read more »

Challenge #04345-K327: Home of Contention

They lived in a land where polygamy was common. However, this trio was ... shocking for none had seen the like. They were human, one of their loves was hellkin, the other was halloblood. And all three loved each other almost more than life itself. Now if only outsiders would stop trying to rescue them! -- Lessons

Pax, Amity, and Grace lived out of the way from most residents of Lauthiraux. They had a happy life together, not that many in Lauthiraux believed

Read more »

Challenge #04344-K326: Just a Pause

"You're going to die if you don't stop."

I don't care I have to keep going.

"You've done so much to help everyone already. See? The crisis is now very well in hand."

But it isn't enough yet.

"Please, you're hurting yourself, your feet in in blisters, you're growing so thin, forgive us.. but if we have to, we'll make you rest."

This prompt strongly reminds me of this story. A person driving themselves to pain and possibly to a death that

Read more »

Challenge #04343-K325: Escape From the Gilded Cage

The Pax Humanis agent came in to destroy a cruel cult leader. The cult leader was one of the rare ones that got the drop on the agent, prepared to finish them off. A child of the cult leader ended the leader to save the killer, tearfully telling the killer, thank you, they were finally not going to hurt anymore. -- Anon Guest

Murder, it is said, is for the unimaginative. That statement can go both ways if you think about it

Read more »

Challenge #04342-K324: Giving a Hand

They wanted to be a Great Hero, wearing gleaming armor and recognized through the land.

They became a Great Hero, without fanfare or armor, the night they were willing to dislodge boulders which cascaded and jammed tight as the strongest brickwork ever known into the ravine, stopping a massive flood from destroying the city. Even though it cost them their primary hand. -- Anon Guest

Heroism only looks like a gleaming costume, a white charger, or a blazing sword. That's how heroes

Read more »

Challenge #04341-K323: Adapt and Thrive

Deep in the woods, the howl of the wolves, off in the seas, our brothers play. Up in the skies, our sisters fly, their eyes in the cities is my way. -- Fighting Fit

Children of the night, what interesting music they make. Sing, my family of shadows. Sing the song of the moon and stars. Even when you can't see them. I sing to street lamps, cars, trucks and trains. The moon will hear me nonetheless.

It is a forest of

Read more »

Challenge #04340-K322: A Pound of Protection

The elderly grandmother asked for some of the very long locks from Wraithvine. There were many squares being added to the quilt. Long fur, hair from other elves not too proud to donate, plants turned into linen, silk squares from spider weavings, and from silkworms, etc. All of it blessed. Who was this blanket for? A set of quadruplets, two hellkin, one halloblood, one human, who were happily cuddled together in a large cradle, that their exhausted, smiling, mother lovingly rocked while

Read more »

Challenge #04339-K321: Extensive Measures

By the time help arrives, those that did not die in the crash are in very bad shape. Dangerously thin, even their Gyiik friend. What was the problem? Poisonous plants? Yes and no. Large plants were edible, but to get to them, one had to traverse the equivalent of a field full of miniature gympie-gympie, and they were right in the center of a massive meadow of them. Native animals were immune, humans and others? Not so much.

https://peakd.com/fiction/

Read more »

Challenge #04338-K320: Help With Moving

Hefting yet another box of books outside and leaning against a sore back.

"This would be so much easier with magic"

[Wraithvine shows up] "Someone say magic?"

"You don't mind helping clean a library?"

[Wraithvine with a grin] "Libraries are my favorite places to relax."

"Great, grab a box" -- Anon Guest

[AN: Wraithvine's a lot more subtle than that, lol]

Moving a library is difficult business. It has to be done when the old library runs out of room or falls

Read more »

Challenge #04337-K319: Blot on the Record

"Ah, Tori, my human friend, why so tired?"

My puppy is obsessed with playing ball.

"Oh, it can't be that bad."

Fine, puppy-sit and I can take a nap.

---next day----

"Your puppy is obsessed with playing ball!"

See? I told you. I love it, but man, I sure get tired. -- Anon Guest

They were thinking about calling the puppy The Unstoppable Force. He certainly never seemed to stop whenever someone was observing him. People, according to Blot the Dog[1]

Read more »