Carmen Friesen

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2019

Stories (7)

7 Stories

136 karma pts

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“A Most Disastrous Royal Wedding” by Carmen Friesen

“We’ve narrowed it down to two options,” says my mother, beaming as though she’s prepared some delightful treat for me, “but we wanted you to have the final say.”“Well, that’s very considerate,” I say before I can stop myself. “I don’t get to choose whether I’m getting married, but at least I get to choose what to wear as I’m led to my death.”“Don’t be dramatic, Ziggy,” says my mother with a reprimanding frown. “A wedding is not a death sentence. It’s the happiest day of your life. Besides, you’re going to be a prin...

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“Light Is Your Weapon” by Carmen Friesen

Rand walked the streets wrapped in a cloak of darkness. Beneath his hood, shadows pooled in the hard creases at the corners of his mouth. He wore no metal, nothing that could so much as glimmer and give him away. His footsteps fell so silently, he might have been a wraith made of darkness itself. Yet the ever-present pain that gnawed at his leg reminded him that he was very much flesh and bone. The street...

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“Tarya, Daughter of Dragons” by Carmen Friesen

He had thought they would be safe here.He had thought they had come far enough.But as the snowflakes swirled down around him, melting on the hot sand and covering the tent in a white shroud, Vaziri knew he had been wrong.There was no safe haven for their kind, nowhere on earth they could hide where she wouldn’t find them. Deep in his heart, he admitted, he had always known this. Even accepted it.Still, he couldn’t help but wish for more time. Tarya wasn’t ready yet. Not ready for the perils of the journey that ...

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“Aurora's Gift” by Carmen Friesen

It had been twenty-four years since she’d seen it, but the place looked exactly the same. Gray and drab and falling apart, like everything else in this god-forsaken town. Not a surprise, she thought, given how the people of Gull Harbour felt about change. Flickering neon letters above the door blazed brokenly into the night: Th Pike and Pe ican. Hazel took a deep breath and released it slowly. S...

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“The Moonkeeper” by Carmen Friesen

The sun had just gone down, and Simon was on the beach, making a sandcastle. A salty breeze came in from the water, and he could hear seagulls in the distance. The sandcastle was in the shape of a circle, and had lots of windows he’d poked in with this finger. There was no moat, but in the middle there was a space in which he’d dug a lake and filled it with water. He was trying to model the castle after one he’d seen in a dream, but it was hard to remember the details. The quiet of the evening was nice. He could listen to the sound of the...

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“Holding” by Carmen Friesen

He wakes up in an empty bed. A pang of hollowness stabs him. It will take a long time before he’s used to this, the raw ache of missing. It’s a familiar feeling. It feels like losing a limb. For a minute he lies there, crushed by the weight of a thousand empty mornings stretching out before him. He doesn’t want to get out of bed, to face the loneliness of the future that yawns like a gaping mouth. How can he bring himself to move forward into a world without her? He will not think of the future. Not yet. Today is for rememb...

2 comments 2 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“Echo” by Carmen Friesen

The first time he saw her, she couldn’t have been more than nine years old. Even with her horns, she didn’t even reach his shoulder. The old shopkeeper felt a strange fascination with her the moment he saw her, standing outside his shop, half-hidden beside the door. He watched her from behind the counter as he sanded a wooden cylinder, the beginning of what would become a magdal drum, and waited while she gathered her courage. He hoped she would come in. The shop was too quiet for his liking. She was unlike any infernabeast he’d e...

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Author bio

I'm an aspiring writer who delights in the process of weaving worlds out of words and sharing them with others. I love stories that get to the heart of what is means to be human. I also love tea, bright colours, good books, and good friends.

Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #26

Holding – read story