Fighting the Inevitable - Release Week Short Story Contest Entries
There are 11 Entries....Please rate them in order from which you liked most to least.
Thank you everyone for voting and participating in the event.
Entry 1 - (MyGypsy)
"Well you could even do a third that combines the two if you wanted" I was told. Oh fun, not ...
I could begin with Once upon a time in a land far away .... but life isn't a fairy-tale ....
There once was a girl, just a normal girl. She loved the stuff most children do and grew as children do. She was loved and cherished and maybe just a little bit spoilt. As she grew she often fell and scrapped her knees or got all muddy playing outside in the rain for she was just a child. There was the usual childhood crushes, the usual broken hearted times as she got older but she was young and always recovered.
When she discovered Fairy Tales she often had her head in a book, or in the clouds. She would sing and dance, spinning like a top, soft tulle skirts floating and hair flying. A frequent visitor to the Fairy Glades she had friends among the fairies, the imps, butterflies and Dragons. As she grew she didn't out grow her friends and often visited after school to tell of the day's excitement. College came around and her visits grew less until they stopped.
A brave Fairy left the Glades to seek their friend and brought back word from the wide world. A shy young man, hands held, a loving kiss ... their companion was growing up, it was time to melt into the memories of youth.
Life was good to the young woman who had once been the girl. She found a good man who loved her, they married and were very happy. A few years and they were gifted with a precious arrival one cold winter night. The baby grew into a toddler, the toddler into a little boy. Smiles and curls and chubby cheeks, fat little legs as he ran and squealed. All was good, all was right with their world. They couldn't ask for more, their lives were filled with happiness. Their hearts over flowed with love.
But life isn't a fairy tale ... and it would seem sometimes happiness has it's price.
A bump, a fall. Bruises that doesn't go away.
The visit to the doctor, the hospital ... carefully chosen words, a mother's cry. A father who hides his own pain as he stays strong for wife and son. Months crammed into days, years into weeks but Fate will have her price. A coffin so small, a life gone too soon. A mother's empty arms, a father's grief ... drifting, drifting, drifting apart.
A cold winter day in the graveyard and a mother makes her visit. A blood red rose for the child who had been of her blood. No tears, time and pain have frozen what's inside. Beside the son lays the father who lost his way in his grief. Snow falls unheeded on mourning's black lace, grief has no bounds, no time frame.
Tinkling bells and childish laughter turn a mothers head, she follows the sound. A child, no two, rugged against the cold. Pixie ears and fairy wings, a father standing quietly by. Childish voices, fumbling hands, crushed flowers laid upon a headstone. Kisses to an icy picture then three figures walking towards where the lonely mother stands.
"I bisited my mummy" a childish voice cuts a frozen heart. A teary eyed smile that wavers on trembling lips. Her little boy stirs in her mind.
"I said Happy Birthday to my little boy" The words sound foreign from her lips. She hadn't answered the other times they saw each other on other visits.
The little girl smiles shyly over her shoulders, the glitter on her fairy wings catching the light. The sun finds a gap in the snow clouds and a shaft of light glitters on the snow on the ground and in tree branches. Somewhere music tinkles in soft tinny sounds and childish laughter skitters in the air.
Fate has some mercy and opens a door. A child's smile, a child's laughter, one child can not replace another but life goes on and a mother can believe in fairies once again.
Entry 2 - (MyGypsy)
Twilight settles over the land bringing a calm from the turmoil of the day. The wind has calmed and the sun has shone for a few brief moments before slipping towards the western horizon. The once dark stormy clouds are turning a kaleidoscope of pink and gold in the sun's departing rays.
A Fairy creeps from her hiding place in a crevice of rocks beside the water fall and walks out onto the rain wet rocks. In her hand she holds her most prized possession, a simple reed flute. She seats herself delicately on a large rock in the middle of the softly flowing water, rests her feet on a smaller rock below and looks around at the deserted stream. All is silent, there is no wind to rustle softly through the leaves. No animals or birds taking a last drink for the day and even the water that cascades down over the rocks is oddly silent.
Slowly she raises the flute to her mouth, purses her lips gently and lets out the faintest whisper of breath. There is complete and total silence for a moment then a clear sweet sound whispers into the air. More notes join the first, sweet, clear and almost magical in the storm washed air. The lilting tune lifts clear and bold into the air bringing forth a peace in the world that has been ravaged by the violence of nature. Quickly the song forms and rises into the void of no longer day, not yet night.
Crickets raise their voices in song and dragonfly's sit on rocks drying their wings before the night closes in. A faint leathery rustle sounds softly close by as the tune lifts high and trembles before cascading nimbly through an intricate verse. There is a flicker, a glimmer, and then a small golden dragon materialises in the air beside the fairy. It hovers for a moment before disappearing with a faint pop. A few seconds later and the golden dragon reappears with some of its brethren. A little female dragon flutters down to sit by the fairy's feet and listen to the melody flowing from the flute. A song that tells of life, the coming of spring, new love, new life and the infinite joy that comes with it.
Entry 3 - (MyGypsy)
I cradle the last rose of summer as I walk through the garden of the seasons, fall has carpeted the ground in tones of red and brown as a crispness fills the air. The offerings of the trees are soon to be buried beneath the icy blanket of winter and return to the earth to nourish the first growth of spring's new life. Springs warmth will bring forth life's new tendrils, tender and delicate, as they grow into the strength of summer. Plants bloom, petals fall and seed pods form and fill with the promise of new life that often floats to scatter on the wind. Fall comes as seasons cycle and summer draws to a close.
I cradle the last rose of summer as I walk through the garden of the seasons ...
Entry 4 - (Kate)
You have no idea of the wrath that you have just brought down on your kind. Did you truly think that you could treat the Winter Queen like some common strumpet you petty weasel. You may be the Spring King but you can not begin to imagine what awaits your kingdom now you faithless bastard.
To leave me at the altar with no explanation, no word, nothing. Your death is the only explanation that would be plausible. And death would be better for you than what awaits you now.
There will never be another spring in your kingdom. You will be blanketed in eternal snow and ice. No new grass, no new shoots or sprigs on the trees. No tulips or daffodils. Nothing but snow, sleet and ice. Forever and ever
Your entire kingdom shall now suffer for your transgression. My icy heart started to melt when we became betrothed but now it is encased in so much ice that no one shall ever breach it again.
Entry 5 - (Kate)
She was extremely sad. Sometimes she hated her life, actually hated being a woodland fairy. Oh, most times she loved it but why were the fates so unfair. She should have never left the sacred woods. If she had only stayed within the borders, she would have never met the elf, never fallen hopelessly in love with someone she could never be with.
Who made the rules? Why could she not mate with a being from another species? What would actually happen? Surely all those horror stories were just fables? If only she were brave enough to try.
As she sat playing her magic flute, she contemplated just what would happen. She made her decision. If it caused her death as legend told it would, then fates be damned – she would rather love and be lost to death than to have never know love at all.
Her magic flute played the happiest tune and she raced off to find her true love and happiness with her handsome elf.
Entry 6 - (Flora)
Entry 7 - (Rebecca)
Entry 8 - (Carrie)
Entry 9 - (Aisie)
Entry 10 - (Jen)
Entry 11 - (Phoneix)
"Would you offer your throat to to wolf with the deep red rose?" she smiled behind the petals of the one she held to her lips, knowing he would get the reference to the song.
He gazed at her, possession glowing as he took in the silk of her gown. Throat wrapped in the jewels he had gifted to her, a perfect match to the ones adorning the crown he had placed on her head only a few short hours ago.
"My queen for you I would offer my throat, my heart and my life for the petals you kiss. For the ones I scattered on our bed I gift my body and soul."
"Sold." she purred..
