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๐”Š๐”ฒ๐”ž๐”ก๐”ž๐”ฉ๐”ฒ๐”ญ๐”ข ๐”—๐”ข๐”ฉ๐” ๐”ฌ๐”ซ๐”ฑ๐”ž๐”ฏ

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2021

Stories (75)
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75 Stories

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Fifteen Fathoms

Submitted to Contest #205

The ocean.Vast. Dark.Unknowable.It vies with the cosmos beyond our sky for the title of Final Frontier. Both are dangerous to us unless we don oddly similar survival gear. The ocean is closer to home, and is the more frightening of the two, for it is so easy to fall in without trying. But the ocean will only hurt us if we plunge in and stay too long.Breathe in through your nose. Inhale the wild briny scent that invades your nose and makes you feel as if you've taken a bite of too-salty fish. Taste the trace of it on your tongue. Li...

9 likes 1 comment 1
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A Pilgrim

Submitted to Contest #204

It was past noon, and the dogs of Beechham were barking fit to burst. Dorian Smith stopped his work on the broken chain. Wiping his hands on a stained and sooty old rag, he left the heat and smoke of the smithy and strode out into the street, taking in a great breath of clean air as he did so. In the middle of the dirt track that ran through the town and away into the wider world, a man was fending off the more aggressive of the village dogs with a wooden staff as children watched and clamored in excitement. Unlike most who were bothere...

8 likes 3 comments 3
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YIL-TAS

Submitted to Contest #203

Content warning: World War II Pacific Theater setting, war violence, deathThe ground is trampled, the soil torn, bugs and tap-roots exposed. In a shallow pit, men are trapped. Bullets race invisibly over helmeted heads dripping sweat. To lift their heads would be to invite death. Not to watch their enemy would also be to invite death. Being in this place at all is inviting death.Yet they are trying to avoid death.One man inches up, rifle clutched against his body, any sound he might make overwhelmed by the unfathomable roar of war all a...

8 likes 6 comments 6
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Safely Gathered In

Submitted to Contest #202

The chill autumn breeze rushed by, carrying the quick music of a cheerful jig. The ant paused to listen before resuming her journey, lugging her crumb of caramel. The grasshopper was, disappointingly, nowhere in sight. Ever since he first appeared, the grasshopper had stayed somewhere about, making his music. In the quickening days of late spring, his high, delicate arias had woven through the swelling buds and drifting blossoms and busily buzzing bees of the bushes and trees. In the lush green days of early summer, as spiders spun thei...

18 likes 7 comments 7
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Shave Big Monkey in the Yard

Submitted to Contest #201

โ€œOne, two, fishermanโ€™s stew, boiled on timber and stirred with a broom.โ€ Dadโ€™s in the shower, singing.  โ€œThree, four, pour it on the floor, feed all the beasties, cook up some more.โ€ Heโ€™s sung this one so many times, I know almost the whole thing by heart.  โ€œFive, six, mortar and bricks, weaker than iron but stronger than sticks.โ€ Isnโ€™t it odd how we say a song is stuck in our head, but then say we learned it by heart? I saw a comic once where two characters were debating about that: a song stuck inside, playing on a loop...

15 likes 12 comments 12
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Anam Cara

Submitted to Contest #200

โ€œAnother screw, Kevin.โ€ Ralph held out a calloused hand without looking. The cool, light weight fell into his palm, and he held it up against his work-in-progress, fitting the drive bit into the head. With a whiz, the threads bit in and dug deep. The pine beam released its sharp scent. Ralph stopped the drill and brushed away the yellow curls of wood shavings. โ€œThat looks cool, Grampa! What is it?โ€ Ralph smiled at his grandsonโ€™s expression: brown eyes wide with curiosity, and mouth open with wonder. โ€œItโ€™s a clothesline po...

8 likes 1 comment 1
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The Blood of the Wood Cries Out

And he said to him: What hast thou done? The voice of thy brotherโ€™s blood crieth to me from the earth. โ€”Genesis 4:10Such a very long time ago, a shovel sank into rich soil, and moved that soil elsewhere. A hole was made, and into that hole was settled the root ball of a young chestnut tree. The hole was refilled, and the tree was left to fare as best it could. In the ground, the roots grew. Some reached down to anchor the sapling. Others grew out, searching for water and nutrients to absorb. Some of these encountered other roots, r...

7 likes 9 comments 9
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Svatรฝ Vรกclav

Submitted to Contest #189

Content warning: brief mention of death It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark. The bite of the wind was making Dushanโ€™s face numb, especially his nose. Eyes watering, the young page adjusted the strap of the wine skin on his shoulder and clutched the bundle of venison closer to his body. He must keep up with Duke Vรกclav, whose long sure strides seemed not at all hampered by the deep snowdrifts on the ground. Glancing back, Dushan realized that the weather had changed for the worse very quickly; where before t...

14 likes 3 comments 3
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I Am No King

Submitted to Contest #187

In the dim gray before dawn, I and mine are kept awake and restless by the bustle and hurry of workmen all around us. They shout to each other, grunting and groaning as they strain against ropes like horses. The skeleton of the great tent is rising at their hands. Small stars of lantern lights bob. Dogs run about barking, some stopping to bark directly at me and mine. I snarl and charge the bars, but the creatures know I am confined, and stand yapping just beyond my reach. Light is spreading in the sky. The sun will soon rise. As darkne...

16 likes 11 comments 11
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Beyond Boundaries

Submitted to Contest #184

A muggy summer night broods over the city. The stars are shining clear, no moon to overpower their glimmering. Tonight, no wash of light rises from the ground, either.Cars crawl slower than walking along unusually dark streets, local drivers struggling to see with only their own headlights. The lanterns on the lampposts cast no incandescence.Inside buildings, groping hands flip unresponsive switches, then search for flashlights, matches, lighters, candles. The opening of refrigerator or freezer doors is prohibited.For the people in frozen el...

11 likes 3 comments 3
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Who Would Dare Suppose?

Submitted to Contest #183

Content warning: WWII concentration camp settingThe light of the sun is fading, much like the strength of the prisoners in striped trousers, shirts, and caps. Since the morning roll call, they have stood at attention as the July sun blazed down on them. Movement, even to sit, would be rewarded with the crack of a gun and the thud of a falling body. Many collapsed anyways from dehydration, starvation, and fatigue. Though beaten and kicked, they were unable to rise, and were dragged to the back of the standing ranks to be piled on top of one a...

9 likes 8 comments 8
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Beat You with a Shovel

Submitted to Contest #182

Content Warning: Threat of impending doomNo matter where we are, Uncle Julio always ends up the center of attention. Heโ€™s not trying to be the center of attention, yet it happens all the same. At his bar and grill, he usually sits at the same corner of the bar, with a group of laughing, talking friends who go silent if he leaves them for only a minute. At the bars in the town where he grew up, people congregate like moths around a porch light, slapping him on the back as the Packers game blares in the background. At my Grandfatherโ€™s house, w...

13 likes 9 comments 9
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The Miners of Mount Elgon

Shortlisted for Contest #181 โญ๏ธ

As the sun sets on the extinct volcano of Mount Elgon and the red light of the African evening fades, a female dung beetle scrambles over a pile of elephant droppings, forming her find into a ball. Once completed, it will be at least three times larger than the shiny, black-armored insect. She will roll her prize away backwards, a single egg enclosed within, to be buried in soft ground.Though the deed of the lady dung beetle is both fascinating and commendableโ€”for it is she, and all her kindred, who help prevent the putrefaction of the landโ€”...

22 likes 29 comments 29
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Dance the Way

Submitted to Contest #176

In the darkness of the nest, I sense a Gatherer dart past me, her abdomen wildly waggling. Hurriedly scraping wax flakes from my own abdomen, I blend with the crowd observing the map. The dancer has stopped her dash, and begins turning half-circles. As I watch my sister turn one way and then the other, I discreetly scrape my whole body, and give each antenna a quick combing. My plan will fail if I am covered in wax bits. The Gatherer makes a final dash, and then heads toward the portal. I did not understand at all. Flutte...

13 likes 8 comments 8
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Whilst Gathering the Fallen

Submitted to Contest #175

Content Warning: Mentions of shooting living things with BB guns The neighbors just canโ€™t stand leaves on their lawn. Even though theyโ€™re both advanced in years, if we donโ€™t rake up the leaves and do something with them, fast, Mr. McGregor and his wife will both be outside, picking up the fallen foliage and stuffing it into plastic trash bags. Annoyed as I may be, I don't want to let them do that.I wish we didn't have to rake. Why can't they just leave the leaves alone? I like shuffling through them, hearing the sounds they make, a...

7 likes 5 comments 5
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