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Winter is coming. Does it mark a beginning or an end? Or are those concepts too confining? Use this image and 100 words as your challenge this week.
I’ll start with a story …
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The doctor delivered the news, but choices were still mine. The first? Quit my job. The second, pack off for the small cabin I inherited but never used.
I spent the summer doing repairs, making it my forever home.
Early fall I noticed him, catching a glimpse as I stacked wood for the winter. Later, I’d spot him through a window. Watching but disappearing the moment I noticed. This morning, I open the door to an early winter snow and, for once, he didn’t bolt. He waited as I walked to him, never feeling the snow on my bare feet.
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Now, it’s your turn.
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featured image, cropped, from Pixabay CC0 license
Brian Brandt says: Interlopers
Gregor’s family and mine had been in a vendetta for five generations. When I tracked him thru the forest and confronted him on my family’s ancestral land he had been unapologetic. We would settle it without interlopers. As I approached, an ancient tree fell and pinned us both to the snowy ground, our guns out of reach.
As we lie there unable to move, he spoke. “What was it all about, Vlad? This feud between our families?”
I had no answer. “I think, Gregor, that we should end this.” I knew that in time either his men or mine would come looking. I hoped that it would be mine, so that I could be the one to share the hospitality of my hearth with him, and be the better man.
I heard the crisp break of footfall on crusted snow. “Who is it, Gregor? Your gamekeeper or mine?”
“Wolves.”
Brian Brandt says: With apologies to Saki.
John M Casteel says: God, life is great! Deer, too dumb to eat meat, starve most winters. But me? Love deer meat even if it is a little lean for my taste this time of year. And, I don’t even have to work that hard. Poor slobs can’t move as fast in the snow and some are slowed by malnourishment. Then I can lay down in this gorgeous white snow and sleep off the gorging. Do have to walk away a bit as I like things tidy and, for all it’s other pleasures, devouring a deer ain’t tidy. Well, I hope Bambi sleeps well tonight ’cause I’ll be hungry in the morning.
Cameron says: The wolf crept forward with an almost quizzical look on her face. I rolled my eyes in mild annoyance.
“Come on over, Jennifer. It’s just us. You know how isolated we are out here.”
The wolf’s grin that stayed in place as the body shifted into that of a naked woman. She laughed in amusement. “How did you know it was me?”
“You are the only werewolf in 30 miles of here. Easy deduction.” I offered her a coat and cocoa as she sat next to me.
“Not the only wolf though,” she answered. “Got some food for the pack?”
JJ Stllwater says: I finally fell asleep after hours of agony as my mind raced over all the things I didn’t do, things ahead. Terrified of what I knew had to be a terrible next day, I eventually woke to morning and prayed to God I would not fear anymore over my miserable life, and all the eventualities I would first see as normal, but knew would end up a tribulation. Because that is just my life. I opened my door, and creeping in the snow I saw the Beast. Dark, deadly eyes, deliberately moving towards me. I decided I was going to go out and sit down and just let it take me. I sat down and we just stared at each other. I prayed it would be quick, but didn’t care if it was slow. The Dark one moved closer, never breaking it’s gaze. It stopped. It crouched low in the snow, I knew this was it. The Beast threw itself to the ground, stretched out and swayed and whipped back and forth, throwing the snow everywhere, making what I figured was it’s own version of a snow angel. Then it stood up looking at me… and shaking off the snow it just smiled, panting. “F–k” I chuckled, “When will I learn”?
Stephen Miller says: “Franklin! Franklin!” Potter hissed. He pointed at the animal watching them. “What the hell is that?”
Franklin glanced up from the screen on the instrument pack. “I will be damned.” He shifted to get a better look past Potter’s bulk. “That, my friend, is a bloody timberwolf.”
“What? How is that possible?” Potter slowly raised his camera, hoping the thing wouldn’t spook before he could record it. “The biosphere was supposed to have collapsed ten years ago. Every model, every simulation we ran, they all showed total environmental failure.”
Franklin shrugged and went back to his work. “Tell him that.”
[…] Other offering can be found at Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge — Victory Girls Blog […]
Deborah Gulotta says: “”Marry You? Have you had to much tequila in those margaritas? Or have you been talking to Daddy again? How much did he offer you to hide my shame? You’re not even the father. Does he know you’re gay?”
“He knows, he just want to keep this baby a secret. So, I’ll ask again. Will you marry me?”
“I’ll marry You, but only under my terms. An open marriage, in name only. I keep my suite in Trump Towers; you keep your place in Manhattan. Once the baby is born, a nanny at each home. And I don’t consider Jonas a nanny.”
“I love Jonas. You know He lives with me. We actually began adoption proceedings, so your child will have a sibling.”
“Fine. But all monies will be separate – no mingling of accounts. You pay your nanny, I pay my nanny.”
“It would make sense to have the same nanny going to both homes.”
“We have six months to worry about that.”
“Daddy! You met all our friends?”
“Yes, yes, but as hostess your presence is being missed.”
“Sorry, I’ll go right in.”
“So, did you ask her?”
“Of course and she eventually said yes, but on her terms, as you had predicted.”
“Good. We have to sit on this until the time is right. The real father cannot be revealed until everyone and everything are in place. I’m depending on you.”
“You have my allegiance, sir.”
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