#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 14 Nbr 25 — How long is the shortest story you've ever written? Can you link to it?
426 words. Lest Darkness Fall was formerly shorter. While still a very short story, it's really a scene fragment of what might become its own amnesia romance novella. It's set in my reluctance universe, so despite what looks like fantasy elements, it is actually SF. Explaining would be spoilers. It was likely around 350 words, but I took a moment to revise it to fit my more refined universe view, and I copied it below rather than linking it. Enjoy!
I asked, "Do I look like the woman you accuse me of being?"
I wanted to know. I wasn't the Sunny that Raven Caw had decided to named me because of my anemia. Even this encounter didn't spark memories.
The two day angels floated midair, gravity disturbance crackling and sparking around their feathered silver-blue wings. Twins? They wore plate armor that weighed as much as they did. They looked unimpressed, and pushed their spears closer. "Aye, you're a monster, but your face—"
Raven wasn't taking chances, using his leathery wing to pull me back. My night angel pushed his sunglasses up on his nose dismissively as he waved a similarly sparking quarter arc of folded gravity between us and them, teeth clenched. I smelled ozone mix with the corruption on the breeze.
I added, "Had she fought on this battlefield, she'd be dead." Scattered bones. Broken weapons. Tattered clothes fluttering. The stench.
I waved my arms expansively, at how bright day shine had settled as hot blinding circles of light at late afternoon height, split equally in the four cardinal directions. Though we'd had eternal day since the battle, the day shine hadn't broiled the world... yet. It left the zenith dusk blue, though.
I continued, "The old order is broken, like the sky. Would this woman you speak of leave our world like this, otherwise? Would she not let darkness fall after all these days of constant light?"
The day angels suddenly looked at different horizons. Surprised, it took me a few moments to notice the four shadows cast by each of the fire-blasted trees around us circle about, lengthening, deepening. As my heart stuttered in my chest, it seemed the shadows all pointed a skeletal finger at my chest.
Scattered cirrus transformed to strands of sparkling orange crystal, turning amethyst before dimming as the day shine vanished below the horizon. The sky went from hazy blue to midnight blue, before a bluer, dimmer, colder night shine rose to a mid-evening height in the cardinal directions.
I shivered. Night had fallen.
What an unfortunate coincidence, considering the trash I'd talked about the old order to a pair of its last soldiers. Rebels, was my guess. Or deserters, since they weren't dead. Neither good.
Not good either that my halo glowed around my head and shadows of numbers I didn't understand circulated along the faintly golden surface. I'd reflexively worked a miracle; I knew not what. Me. I did that. Coincidence? Had to be. Had. To. Be.
Night had fallen. I hoped it didn't get stuck.
[Author retains copyright (c)2024 R.S.]
#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool
#fiction #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory
