The Unicorn Challenge.
A magical new weekly writing opportunity from her – Jenne Gray – and me.
Visit her blog every Friday to see the photo prompt, and post your amazing story in her comments section.
Or on your own blog, and stick the link down in her comments.
The rules are:
Maximum of 250 words.
Based on photo prompt.
That’s it.
To hear me read my story, just click here:
A Lady’s Charms
I may be old, but I’m not totally immune to the charms of a pretty girl on the beach.
This one is different, however, because it’s not just her looks that catch my eye, but her behaviour.
Don’t get me wrong, she is attractive, and I just happen to notice that she has curves and bumps in all the best places for a lady to have such things.
But added to this is the fact that she seems to talk to herself as she arranges pebbles of varying sizes into strange, almost mystic, patterns, which she walks around, murmuring quietly.
As the afternoon starts to cool, and families gather their belongings before leaving the beach, she pauses, stops talking, and instead begins to sway her hips as though to some internal music.
Then, quite abruptly, she moves and picks up a stick, with which she draws words, or perhaps symbols, in the sand around the stones.
I continue to watch her, discreetly, for some time before I adopt my friendly elderly gent persona and approach her.
She answers with a smile.
I’m a mermaid, she giggles, casting a spell to steal a soul.
How is that working, I laugh.
She scratches a shape that looks like a hook, and a man figure which she indicates, with just a glance, is meant to represent me, then walks towards the sea.
When she gestures with her hand, I follow helplessly.
Here you are on the Rivera enjoying yourself and I was screaming in pain. 🙁 Once I spent days looking for you for a beach encounter along the Gulf, but you never appeared.
https://ladysighs.wordpress.com/2021/06/08/tiny-tales-the-look/
I was looking for you in the other direction! Ah, the Fates treat us badly, dear Lady!
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Oh yes, wonderful!
Thanks, Chris!
Hook, line and sinker! 😁
I love a good mystical mermaid tale.
We tend to be fascinated by mermaids, don’t we?
Glad you enjoyed, Tom.
We do!
Sounds more siren than mermaid to me. Methinks a date with some larger rocks awaits. 😉 Thoughtful piece.
D’you know, Doug, that the French for ‘mermaid’ is ‘sirene’ (with a grave over the first e)? Glad it worked for you.
Beautiful mermaid with a powerful hook. Great – kept me riveted.
Thanks, Lindsey, glad it reeled you in!
(Sorry, that’s awful…)
We’re never too old to respond to beauty – and mystery!
The narrator’s keen observations of the young woman and fascination with her actions shows us how he thinks of her, until… ‘She scratches a shape that looks like a hook…’ The words turn harsh and he is helpless.
Enchantingly crafted – as befits a mermaid tale.
Damn – I was ‘awaiting moderation’! I wrote the comment on my mobile phone, didn’t see it on your page and thought it had disappeared. Sorry, 2 comments today!😏
Ah well, back to Lesson 3: Read the jolly words!
Thanks, Jenne.
You know I love mermaids.
(as jenne says), once is not enough for a proper bit of flash fiction. Not exactly a matter of simplicity (despite the limit on wordcount), more a matter, imo, of engaging characters.
engaging in the sense that we want to know more about them.
nicely done, yo
Thanks, Clark, it’s good to know that a story works at a deeper level.
Sea fae know just the right way to bait their hooks, and
Fools are doomed to perish
Under the sea.
Blub blub bl…
Good one!
Laughing.
I’m starting to wonder about you, Liz!
😅 Beware the frumious bandersnatch!
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Mesmerizing, which I reckon is how you felt that day on the beach.
Effortless with the ebb and flow of the sea.
Undulating
Laughing.
I felt myself drifting off into a kind of fantasy with your lazy, rhythmic, hypnotic words…
Look into my eyes. You are getting very sleepy…..
We’re never too old to respond to beauty – and the mysterious.
Your stories deserve to be read more than once for full effect.
On the first reading I was simply watching, intrigued, the woman through the eyes of the man, all vividly described.
On the second I was sensing the power of what she was doing as the unsuspecting ‘friendly elderly gent’ is reeled in.
Thanks, Jenne, it sometimes pays to remember my strap-line: where nothing is quite what it seems…