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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#86: Springtime Flowers

March 21st may be considered the first day of Spring by many, but Mother Nature doesn't always agree. Depending on where you live, the daffodils could be showing their sunny faces or still hibernating under frozen soil.

For me, it’s usually a mix. Here you can be wearing shorts one day and shoveling snow the next, but one thing is consistent: as soon as the weather warms up, I’m bursting outside to gulp down that fresh air and watch the world come back to life. This week, regardless of what the weather actually holds, let’s celebrate the season of rebirth and renewal. After all, in our imaginations the sun can always be shining and the birds can always be chirping!

This week's prompts

Set your story at a park during a spring festival.

Spring – 82 stories

Write about a character coming out of a long hibernation (either literal or metaphorical).

Spring – 158 stories

Write a fairy tale about someone who can communicate with woodland creatures.

Kids – 167 stories

Start your story with one character pointing out the first sign of spring to another.

Spring – 106 stories

Write a story where flowers play a central role.

Spring – 278 stories

Stories

“The effing woods” by Anne Scherliess

Submitted to Contest #86

"Move to the country", they said, "it will do you good", they said, "a quiet life in the country is just what the doctor ordered." So I did. I gave up my nice roomy flat in the city and moved into the small timber frame house my freshly deceased father had left me. "Oh but that sounds wonderful!", you'll ejaculate, "so peaceful and relaxed!" You have no idea. The thing I had been looking forward to most of all was healthy sleep. Oh to sleep all through the night undisturbed from artificial light, and to wake to natural light and bird...

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“The run away witch” by Hayley Carter

Submitted to Contest #86

The world is not what it seems. I know that as I have lived in the shadows for a while now, living off the land, speaking to only my woodland friends, and living in a tent at the edge of a well-off town. I lived there with my only friend who cared about me as much as I did him. And yes my friend is a fox named Jonah. I was getting hungry one day, as I and Jonah planned on where to go next when I suggested to go and get us some food, giving him the leftovers of course. He loved the idea. I paused as I waved to him and walked about a mile...

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“The Fox in the Woods” by Bella Fox

Submitted to Contest #86

She watched, awaiting the fox’s return. A cardinal flitted to land on a branch near her, chirping. To anyone else, the girl tilting her head would have been musing upon the birdsong drifting through the air, but birdsong was the last thing on the girl’s mind. “Drisk is returning now, just a few more moments,” the bird was saying. “He better have a good reason...

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“Waking the Wood” by Jordan Javier

Submitted to Contest #86

The village of Lundara always suffered from long winters. At the end of a long dormant period Lundara’s people would gather for the Spring Waking Festival. They would emerge from their frost encrusted homes and snowed in cottages to toast the coming spring. Trees, long left barren and void of leafs, would be adorned in lights and colored banners. A banquet would be laid, piled high with apple pie, cider, and the scent of cinnamon in the air. There would be singing, oh yes there would be dancing too. The hullabaloo would be enough to wake...

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“Abra Cadabra” by Nicole Ramos

Submitted to Contest #86

Before the world counted the days and hours, co-queens, Abra and Cadabra ruled the village of Amity. The people cherished their queens because they were always kind and fair to their subjects. The people of the village enjoyed a peaceful lifestyle for many years. Everyone looked after each other, and when someone was struggling the queens always sought a solution to help. On the day when the air warmed, and the light shone a little brighter, Abra was enjoying the last bits of sunshine by the river. Right as she turned to...

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“My Mother and The Peafowl” by J. Shire

Submitted to Contest #86

The sunlight burns through my eyelids as I try to stare directly into the blazing bright yellow ball of gas. I want to see what the sun looks like with my own two eyes. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, my eyes never seem to cooperate.A little blue bird creature appears from the trees in the woods and sits next to me.“What are you doing?” the bird creature asks me.“I’m trying to look at the sun,” I reply.“Why?”“I want to get a good look at it, try to see it for what it really is.”The bird creature seems to be confused by my answer. An...

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“The Whisper of the Storm” by Sonja V.

Submitted to Contest #86

A loud banging on Petunia’s door awoke her from her slumber. She stretched her little furry legs and rolled upright, shaking the little bits of dirt from her smooth, silky light brown fur. She hopped on over to her tiny wooden door in her burrow and opened it slowly, cautious of who was on the other side of it. Her seafoam green eyes peered outside and there stood her friend Dixie, a human with wild blue eyes and blonde hair tumbling down to her waist. Dixie wasn’t like any of her friends. She was a little different. When she was just about ...

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“Escape to the Voices” by Bernadette Beauchamp

Submitted to Contest #86

The little, sleepy town of Alegria welcomed its newest member in 50 years with almost no notice what-so-ever. This is an accomplishment for someone who wants to stay hidden in a town that is so bored that massive amounts of people, at least forty of them, drove by the Petersons' place when they heard that they built a greenhouse in their front yard and the big question was, would they be so bold as to grow marijuana in there. It might have been because she did not come far into the town and asked for a job at Vanessa's Diner, named after the...

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“Samael Reveals Spring” by Chris Rohe

Submitted to Contest #86

It was a crisp morning with a light fog that hugged the ground across the rolling grass fields of the park. Large oak trees and shrubs broke through the wisps of fog-like eerie figures hiding within translucent shrouds. A man dressed elegantly in a dark suit, tie, and a mid-length notched lapel black jacket. Dark leather gloves covered his hands to keep the bite of the brisk air. On his head, he wore a dark bowler hat and his face was a pale white. Fringes of dark black hair curled out from beneath the bowler. His nos...

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“For thirteen years” by Alysia Baltateanu

Submitted to Contest #86

- Adela? What is this? Matthew asks, looking at the asphalt in surprise His sister, Maia, approached him curiously and looked surprised at the place indicated by the boy. -Adela ?! Matthew shouted, this time impatiently Adela was sitting on the porch of the house, trying to clean up the dust that had settled. She got up and walked over to her siblings, a little irritated that she had been disturbed. -What happened? She asks frustratedly when he gets close to the two. - Look! What is that? Adela leaned over to see better what the two wer...

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“Daphne and the Wood Faries” by Ann P Johnson

Submitted to Contest #86

Daphne and the Wood Fairies By E. A. Pulliam “Look, Daphne, the first of the snow crocus’ we planted last fall.” I pointed to the pale blue petals in the slowly greening lawn. “Do you remember when we planted them?” Daphne sniffed the flower and the bright orange pollen stuck to her nose. She sneezed. “Are these where you buried those big seeds? How did they turn into flowers?” “That’s...

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“Springtime Memories” by Kimberly Hallman

Submitted to Contest #86

“Listen to those birds singing!” Sonia says cheerfully. “Isn’t it beautiful, Mrs. Cassel?” It is, but there seems to be a disconnect between my brain and my mouth because I can’t seem to form the words to agree with her. Instead, I settle on a quiet hum that Sonia seems to take as an agreement. “Yes, Ma’am,” she continues. “Spring is well on its way. It’s so nice to get outside in this warm weather! Doesn’t the sun feel good?” &n...

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“Finding Uncle Paul” by Russ Lydzinski

Submitted to Contest #86

A long-ago image came to mind from my pre-school years. We'd been out walking when Uncle Paul pointed to a patch of cup-shaped flowers peeking out from the snow. His eyes sparkled with wonder as he brushed off the snow, revealing bright purple petals. "These are crocuses, he said." It means spring is coming." Uncle Paul would take me on walks every day when I was little. Sometimes we'd stop in the bakery for donuts and eat them on our way home. "Don't tell your mother," he'd s...

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“I Am Not a Home” by Tatiana Olin

Submitted to Contest #86

TW: self harm She pointed her little mitten-covered hand somewhere off to the right of the trail we were walking- Do you see that, momma? It’s a crocus. It means The Dark Season is almost gone. I smiled to myself, and then to her as she turned around to see if I had heard her. Yes, pretty girl. Good eye. How’d you get so smart? She shrugged, stuck her tongue out at me and then turned back to skip along the trail. Sometimes I don’t believe she exists. Sometimes I wonder if she is the only living piece of me left. S...

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“Red Belly” by Pieter Kreyns

Submitted to Contest #86

Branches laced over the two men like the roof of a heathen chapel. In the summer, it had played at being a rainforest canopy and hushed all sounds underneath in a lively sepulchral dark. In the winter, the intricacies of the branches cast the ground below into dismal shades of gray. It was a secluded site, holy in its solitude. It was perfect. A sound crackled above, and one of the two men, shorter with a round face and a sweaty mop of black hair plastered across his forehead, looked up from his labor and stared into the branches above. A r...

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$50

Prize money

795

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Mar 26, 2021 EST

Won by Scott Skinner 🏆

Title: Flowering Walrus

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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