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Your character runs an inn for resting mountaineers. It’s a calm life, until they encounter a twist of fate.

Posted in Winter on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 47 stories

An Echoing Bark

Shortlisted for Contest #129 ⭐️

When the frigid stranger entered my inn, the thump of snow-dusted paws swallowed our greetings. The patchy tan and white coat barreling toward me could belong to only one canine: my precious Dublin.“Burns, come’ere,” the man shouted from the door, but I was transfixed. I dropped to my knees, accepting enthusiastic tongue slaps on my face.Those familiar snorts took me out of the hearth-warmed great room and hurtled me back two years ago. The last time I saw Dublin, he was running for his life…“Sorry, ma’am,” the man said, pulling “his” dog an...

32 likes 26 comments 26
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Powdered Donut

Submitted to Contest #129

           Insane. Mad. Idiotic. Those were a few of the words that were tossed around when Sheila told her family that she’d cashed in her retirement and bought an aging inn on Mount Olympus in Greece. But as she stepped out of the stone and thatched building with her steaming cup of coffee and breathed in the clear, clean scent of mountains, snow, and freedom---she couldn’t find an ounce of care for their opinions. She’d left her high-stress job and her low-class fiancé in the city. So...

22 likes 5 comments 5
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The saddest part about the day I met your mother

Submitted to Contest #129

The saddest part about the day I met your mother was that it was also the day her husband died.I still remember that morning. Rainier was as calm and as clear as you could have asked for. A single layer of stratus clouds grazed the rocky peak and you could see every detail of the summit from the doors of the inn. At the base of the mountain, the last bits of white had left the fields to a vibrant green and a clearing along the dirt path rode all the way to the foothills.All signs pointed to a good day for a climb. But the problem with going ...

19 likes 3 comments 3
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The Mountains Are Calling

Submitted to Contest #129

[CW: Death] Harold trudged down the winding path that led to the inn from his cabin tucked in the woods. Rays from the late-winter sunrise filtered through the trees arousing the birds who had returned from the south recently and they greeted him with a serenade.   Harold was a middle-aged man with a grizzly beard and the build of a lumberjack. He’d been running the Climber’s Haven Inn on the outskirts of Denali National Park for ten years after inheriting it from his father, making him the third generation of innkeepers in the...

18 likes 9 comments 9
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The Unexpected Guest

Submitted to Contest #129

For most of the year, Lydia Coulter was able to enjoy living amidst the tall cedar pines of Vermont rent-free, watching nature pass her by. Every day she got up around dawn to the smell of fresh-brewed coffee - her alarm clock actually made drip coffee for her which was hot and ready right when she got up. She’d head down to the kitchen and fix herself a modest breakfast, likely consisting of oatmeal, and then take care of each of the bedrooms in the lodge. Once things were clean, she would head outside if the weather was nice and roam one o...

18 likes 11 comments 11
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You Can Checkout Anytime You Like... But You Can Never Leave

Submitted to Contest #129

The inn gets pretty quiet this time of year. The snowy seasons' just about done, then it’s real quiet; completely dead. We're only one stage away from dead. When it's dead, there's nothing for me to do. I used to spend time with the wife, or at least that's how it has been the past 2 years. She left me, left me with this inn with all this shit to run; said she wanted a “better life,”. I don't blame her: this inn is a nightmare. When you settle down, you never know how it's going to end up. Two years ago, I inherited this fucking place f...

17 likes 2 comments 2
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Recompense

Submitted to Contest #129

Connor’s face twisted in confusion as he looked up at the odd woman lingering in front of the check-in counter. The burly fellow had met his fair share of characters since inheriting ownership of Guppy’s Peak Inn, but this lady took the cake by a country mile.  “I’m sorry, miss...”  “Maude,” the woman said, her name hanging in the air like a frosty breath.  “Miss Maude, perhaps I misheard you. Your clients want to do what now?” Connor asked, a bemused frown forming under the tufts of his beard as he looked up at...

16 likes 5 comments 5
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My Name Is Jan Weaver

Submitted to Contest #129

"My name is Jan Weaver," I tell the investigator for the millionth time. He does not believe me. He keeps asking things like "What happened to Jan?” and “When was the last time you saw Jan Weaver?” I keep telling him I AM Jan Weaver. But he still doesn’t believe me. Now they are calling me a suspect. Of what? I just want to help find the missing girl. They won’t let me go, and they keep asking what happened to Jan Weaver – me.         It was always my life dream to run an Inn, or a small hotel, or...

16 likes 2 comments 2
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The Vacation Before The End

Submitted to Contest #129

Rosa stood with her back straight and eyes forward behind the old brown wooden desk at the inn she owned and ran.  She kept her eyes glued to the glass doors at the entrance. Her small frame wouldn’t move until she saw her much anticipated guest. Rosa had been waiting for this moment all year long. Her best friend, Elosie would come once a year to visit her. They would laugh, sip coffee by the fireplace, and eat good home cooked meals that Rosa would prepare in the inn’s kitchen after the staff was dismissed for the day. They would gigg...

15 likes 0 comments 0
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Mountain Terror

Submitted to Contest #129

Somewhere in a peaceful mountain near Denver, Colorado ........Wilbur finished his accounting for the night, the Inn was quiet this time of the year as the guests normally didn't show due to bad weather. He had marked down in red the things that needed immediate attention, such as the repairs on the roof, depilating pipes, as well as other items that needed tending to but not as urgent as the roof and pipes were. He sighed, pondered heavily on the fact that money was tight these days. Unsurmountable taxes continued, and insurance costs. Wi...

15 likes 2 comments 2
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Cold days, dark nights

Submitted to Contest #129

The firelight in the fireplace danced as the snow swirled outside, but Regina couldn’t enjoy it. She had been inside tidying and preparing food alone in the inn for what felt like an eternity. The snow had been falling – gentle but steady – for days. Still, the fear of being snowed in had scared off many of her customers. The night came early here and hers was the last overnight stop before reaching the summit.Had it been hours, days, weeks? It was hard to say with every day exactly the same. All she knew for sure was that she missed th...

15 likes 1 comment 1
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In Coincidental Care

Submitted to Contest #129

Isaac and Jesse Elder watched proudly as a group of shaggy men approached the guest desk at the newest family adventure, The Coincidental Inn, Mt. Rainier. The youngest of ten children born and raised on a Missouri farm in a small town called Laughlin, they had copied their parents original Coincidental Inn as closely as possible in two other locations. The first had been near Aspen CO, with the help of Sharon and Doug Brewster, who lived there and had been special guests at the Missouri inn the first year it opened. This third family inn ...

14 likes 3 comments 3
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The Hatch

Submitted to Contest #129

    “Isn’t this the best thing ever?” said Annie to her husband, “It’s gotta be the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had..like ever. But Rhett didn’t hear her. He was transfixed with the wintry view outside.  He had  been so lost in his head with the wedding plans and wedding itself-the last few weeks in themselves had been such a blur. He was just enjoying the peace and the calmness of not having to do anything at that exact moment. The River Bend B&B was just what he needed.     The newlywe...

14 likes 1 comment 1
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The Dragon Hunter’s Keeper

Submitted to Contest #129

The Ice Wyrms moved up-mountain during every summer season, retreating into caves left frozen for centuries while the spring frost in the lowlands melted. The Stalkers followed, tracking the scaled flocks to the northernmost points of treacherous mountains. But the Stalkers were only human - albeit slightly magic - so they were forced to take breaks on their treks. As the Ice Wyrms continued to hike upwards, following the instinctual embedded paths in the snow, the Stalkers found shelter at my inn. Devenna Darkm...

14 likes 2 comments 2
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A Quick Escape

Submitted to Contest #129

Alf picked at the spot on his bar with his fingernail, unsure if it was something long since spilled or a tiny knot in the wood. Sighing, he gave up and ran his cloth quickly over it, leaving it for another day. His inn, The Traveller’s Hearth, was always quiet at this time of year. Not many people made the journey along the mountain road during the winter moons. Still, he desperately hoped when the sun went down, he’d have more custom than just the old man nearly asleep in the corner and the hooded youth staring into the fire. His daught...

14 likes 5 comments 5
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