Tempest Phoenix Smith

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2023

Stories (34)

34 Stories

614 karma pts

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“Unexpected Guest” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #281

Part One. ObserverAs I made my slow progress around the fringes of the dance and revelry, trying to ignore the more passionate embraces of the masked dancers because they stirred feelings in me that made me want to join them, I focused on my father.Though nobody else would have noticed, I could see that he leaned more on his ceremonial staff than ever before. Eyes alert under the ever-unruly white hair, watching for any unwanted intrusion, he was the one unmoving point at the annual gathering of mages. The masks and elaborate clothing everyo...

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“A Solitary Man” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #280

Ewan liked watching people, eavesdropping on conversations when he could, extrapolating from the revealed puzzle pieces of other lives to distract himself from his own.Lately, as the days got colder, he just liked being inside and warm. Sleeping in the woods beyond the town was not going to be sustainable when winter arrived. Spring and summer had literally been a walk in the park in comparison.The sole waitress in the small café did not begrudge him lingering after his fry up breakfast since it wasn’t a Market Day. His eyes tracked her as s...

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“Lost” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #279

Can you find what you’re looking for if you don’t know what you lost?Ewan pondered this and many other questions as he walked among the ash trees.Sometimes, he felt lost in a sea of non-reflective mirrors because every tree seemed the same, each bare of leaves, their gray limbs upheld in a silent dance as they viewed his progress or lack of it. Because they did watch him. He was as sure of that as if he caught the glisten of eyes.That was ridiculous, of course. Sometimes he wondered about his mental capacity to make sense of his situati...

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“Letter from Mother Christmas” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #278

Can you keep a secret?Once more than one person possesses a secret, the chances are less for it to stay hidden. Father Christmas himself always says that the best place to keep a secret is between your two ears. The more people that know, the greater the risk that the secret will become common knowledge. However, for a keeper of so many secrets such as myself, they often are tickling my tongue wanting to be spoken or making my fingers itch to take up a quill pen and write them down.And, really, after all these years, would anyone mind i...

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“Goldilocks and the Wolf” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #277

The wolf liked chasing this particular boy. He helped the three little pigs, didn’t he? He helped them rebuild that house of straw and that house of sticks every single time. Otherwise, the wolf might have had more chance of piglet for lunch—or maybe several lunches if it was the really plump juicy pig—long before now.Close enough that he knew the boy could smell his hot breath, he enjoyed inhaling the tempting aroma of fear as he chased, even if experience told him that he wasn’t likely to be able to bite that ankle or that leg or anyt...

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“Wicked Way with Words” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #277

Lecker means delicious in my father’s tongue. Not to be confused with lecture which he often did, especially after my sixteenth birthday when he warned me about so many things.Do not borrow money—this will lose you friends. He meant lending, actually, and I still confuse this word myself all these years later despite my mistake being corrected again and again. I tried to get round this by giving money instead when a friend of mine was stranded in December for lack of money to purchase a transatlantic flight to visit her much-missed boyfriend...

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“Surfer Poet” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #276

What brought us together? We couldn’t have been more different when we first met.Even being female was not really something we had in common as we were at the opposite ends of that scale, as far apart as if we belonged to different species.She danced into the windowless classroom in the maze of Adams Humanities in a swirl of colourful clothing, already conversing with several other students as easily as breathing, even to the boys, maybe especially to them actually, reflecting back on it. From snatches of conversation, I understood that...

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“Snowfall” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #275

Though my sensors continually monitored the environment around us, that was an automatic process, so, treading onward, I focused most of my attention on following the big black cat and his smaller tawny brown sister as they dashed around like kittens in the snow, their paws sinking into the cold white stuff. Snowflakes adorned the long whiskers of the black cat. He paused and shook himself to dislodge some snow from his dark flank then ran after his playfellow, lumbering where she danced.I consistently monitored their energy expenditure...

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“Twin-Pearl Ring” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #274

Melinda rearranged the silk scarf with blue colourways and gave her reflection a critical stare. People, well, mostly the housekeepers had always said she was pretty, but all she saw was that the blues of the scarf made her stormy blue eyes more noticeable.She liked the eighteenth birthday gift from the Portuguese housekeeper but refused to believe it would bring her the promised good luck. Stroking the blue scarf, she tried to pick up some nuance of the woman’s personality, but felt nothing. The guardian had probably cleansed the gift of an...

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“White Jacket” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #273

It was a Tuesday. As Melinda walked beside her guardian, she watched swifts weave their aerial paths above Castle Street, flying and feasting on their breakfast in mid-air. Someone talking rapidly distracted her. She glanced down the side street and watched a business suited man clutching a mobile phone while carrying a laptop under his other arm.With practiced ease, she disengaged, not wanting to find out what lay beneath the spikes of frustration, though envying him both gadgets. Everyone had technology at their fingertips except her.Child...

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“Elbows and Knees” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #272

Sleeping three in a bed, top to tail, was never an outcome that any of us wanted. But the flat was cold enough that whenever we spoke, our breath misted the air as if we were dragons. Benedict tried for a while to sleep in the tin bath, but kept bashing himself on the sides. Besides, he reported that the tin radiated cold, which, naturally, it would do. We never bathed properly anymore as heating enough water was far too much effort and only the first of us to bathe felt much of a benefit. One less thing to argue about when we gave up on bat...

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“Green Apple with Cheese” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #272

She rubbed the towel against her hair which was damp where the shower spray had caught it. When she entered the room, she saw at once that he was asleep on the sofa, his long legs squashed to fit the cramped space. She felt her eyebrow quirk upwards, a movement out of her control. Not much was, these days. She hung the towel on a chair and walked into the kitchen. Domesticity amused her sometimes. She clicked the kettle on that she had already filled for the two of them. Soon, she carried an aqua tray with two full m...

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“Between Stations” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #271

"Never seen so many blooming sheep," the Londoner commented in a feeble attempt at a Yorkshire accent to his wife as the train rumbled onwards. "Must be more sheep up here than people." She provided the obligatory laugh, then both of them lapsed into silence for which I was grateful.Though tempted to tell them they should try travelling through Wales, I kept silent and stared out the window. Sheep and green hills here, of course, in Yr Hen Gogledd, the Old North, which had once, historians said, been part and parcel of Wales.Not that anybody...

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“Taking in the Laundry” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #270

Early one morning from her kitchen window, Grannie Annie studied the storm clouds speeding toward the village. Next door’s clothes danced, pegged out on the line strung over the new family’s back garden.   She only had a nodding acquaintance with them so far, but they seemed nice enough. The little boy had not come to Storytime at the library yet on a Saturday morning, but she expected he would in time. She knew she would tell the right story for him when he did. After a moment’s consideration, she realised that nobody would be home in ...

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“Gleaming like a Drop of Blood” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #269

“I make the decisions for the business,” Nathaniel Benedict growled. “Remember that.”No expression on that poker face, of course. Nate didn’t give Tom any time to reply, but stormed out of Maggie’s kitchen and through the garden that surrounded the House of the Setting Sun under another blue sky over San Francisco. Driving north and inland since then had cooled his blood, though he preferred to sit in the back and let Tom drive as that is what a wealthy man would do. Nathan liked the look of Sonoma and besides, their argument derailed breakf...

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Author bio

Tempest Phoenix Smith loves to weave words into poetry and stories. Her first Read Aloud book will be available as soon as her website is up and running, so watch this space. If you like "Unexpected Guest", you might enjoy: "Refuge", "Fever" and "Nightmare" which are set in the same world.