Flash Fiction (1)

Blodeuedd, Jackie, and I were big fans of Flash Fiction Friday a while back. We participated in these every week, having a new short story to share every Friday. Then life happened. We got busy with so much going on. Along with the image protection of artists that slowed us in getting images to inspire. (Note: we are fans of artists getting recognition. We love their images and feel inspired ourselves from them.)

Now fast forward months, maybe even a year. We miss it. We want to do Flash Fiction again and we came about to doing it.

We will do flash fiction posts every two weeks, give or take due to holiday's and such. We are starting today with the first Flash Fiction. I will post my complete story here. Jackie will add the beginning and a link to her flash fiction on her Live Journal. Blodeuedd will be posting on her blog.

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The Ax's Call
By:  Melissa L. Hayden

As the moon drifted behind clouds and the gaseous fog thickened, Ax tilted her head back causing the heavy hood to slide from her pale face, granting Ax a wider view of the dark street. She flexed her fingers, keeping the irritation of waiting from tightening her grip on her specially crafted crossbows.

Ax blinked three times. Knowing she should lower her hood, she didn't. She needed to put the call out. The towns people weren't her worry. If anyone saw her eyes from their barred windows they'd think they were glow stones at their neighbors, or some poor soul lost to the gases. The humans stayed in at night due to the thick fogs, it was safest, but once in a while there were those that lost their minds to the gases.

She hadn't heard of any lost to the gases here, but she'd not gone looking for those tales. The rumors of this town's horrors hit her ears three days prior and she wasted no time arriving, then out to hunting.

Ax turned, her metal crafted crossbows at the ready, to the sound of nails scraping on metal and stone. He was close and on the move.

Ax moved with her back to the wall, grateful she oiled the hinges in her armor after last night's fruitless search. Even though it didn't come to her last night, she'd left a trail for it. And it was baited. She needn't move far, it'd come to her. Ax felt her lips stretch across her teeth, she lived for these moments. This is what she was created for.

She saw the shine of her eyes flaring brighter off the swirling gases. Ax then noted the sudden shift of the mist. She steered the even weight of her crossbows into the mist moving toward her. Squeezing the trigger of one bow while coiling tension tightened in her other trigger finger, as the next spiced arrow of the first bow slipped into place.

Ax felt her heart jump at the wail of the beast. She widened her eyes, looking into the mist, drawing the evil to her, calling it with her glowing eyes.

The scrapping of nails and pounding of its feet answered her call. They always came to the glowing eyes of a potential mate. It would find no mate here. A fight for dominance, yes. But Ax would win, for she is the ax.


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Bird's Eye
by Jackie Lester

Kara stood with her back to the gate. Her senses were already heightened, now even more so since initiating the connection with Breen, her crow. Her normally hazel coloured eyes blazed with a light so bright, it blocked everything in front of her. It was always a little disorienting at first but she quickly adjusted to her new vantage point, looking over the town through the eyes of her bird.

To keep reading, click here: Bird's Eye