After a bit of a break, we are back with our #OA Flash Fiction contest, and what better prompt than our dear mothers? Write a piece of flash fiction, 300 words or less, about your mom, someone else's mom, or an imaginary mom. It just has to be about moms! Have your entry in by noon on Sunday, 5/14, with the winner announced later that evening.
Rules can be found here.
3 comments:
The grappling hook sailed over the side of the Seeker and grabbed the mahogany railing. All up and down the deck, as hooks latched onto the boat, my crewmates scrambled for knives to saw at the ropes in futile attempts to free the Seeker from the pirate ship’s grasp.
“Saw, you dogs!” I yelled, my dagger working frantically, the muscles in my arms burning, tears clouding my vision. Behind me, my father, the Queen’s captain, lay motionless, a wooden splinter protruding from his chest. His blood soaked my clothes and the once-pristine deck, but I would not let them take this ship.
But sheer determination wasn’t enough. The pirates sailed gracefully through the air suspended on the ropes that bound our ships, and when their boots hit the deck, the Seeker’s crew was against the opposite railing, swords at the ready, my father’s body the only thing between them and the invaders. I kneeled over it, my eyes a warning to the snarling men.
The pirate captain stepped forward. Her tricorn hat sat at a mischievous angle on her head. There was something familiar about her eyes, something that reminded me of what my father said. “You have her eyes, the same color as the restless sea. I fear you will be as wild as your mother.”
Then the woman’s gray eyes found mine and it was like looking into a mirror. She was a dream, an illusion, a nightmare. She had the nerve to hold her arms out as if I would run into them. Well, my forgiveness was not so easily won.
“Mother,” I said, the word a curse, unfamiliar on my tongue. My father’s rapier sang out of its sheath, its weight familiar to me, and when I stood, I brought the sword down to meet hers.
-@Cassidy_Writes
Tanya was awoken as she normally was, by soft cool paw pads touching her cheeks in a gentle 'marching' action. Tigger always woke her up this way but this morning it was somehow different, more urgent and he was miaowing instead of purring.
Tanya opened her eyes and met Tigger's green-gold gaze full on as his face was only inches from her own. The pupils of his eyes were dilated in the grey early morning light that spilled into her bedroom through the uncurtained window.
'Okay Tigs, I'm getting up but it's Sunday and still early.'
She kissed her cat on his ginger forehead before sliding over to the other side of the bed and getting up. Tigger jumped down onto the floor and trotted out of the room, stopping just before the corridor's curve to stare back at her expectantly, as if to say 'hurry up.'
Tanya stretched and yawned and pulled a jersey over her head before following Tigger. It wasn't until she had reached the kitchen door and seen the May calender hanging on it with 'Mother's Day' written across the number 14, that she realized why Tigger had woken her up so early. She remembered the 'talk' she had had with her cat the previous evening, telling him to wake her up earlier than usual so that she could make breakfast for mom.
It was just the three of them, Valerie, Tanya and Tigger and Tanya considered her mom to be Tigger's mom as well, since Valerie (mom) had rescued Tigger from shallow but fast flowing flood waters nearly a year ago. Tigger had been a tiny kitten then and had been a much loved and cared for member of the small family since.
'Thanks Tigger, I know you understand everything mom and I say to you.
Tanya poured Tigger a bowl of milk and then set about preparing their mom's favourite breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, fresh strawberries, natural yoghurt with honey and freshly squeezed mango juice.
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Apologies for the delayed winner posting, will be this afternoon!
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