© J Hardy Carroll
How’d we get here? One minute we were fighting an Imp horde and the next we landed here. The demons were experimenting with a portal stone. That’s it.
We’re on Earth but it’s not home. I’ve gotten a day job so I can buy food. I push myself through the gap in the gates with the groceries.
Newspapers say the year’s 1988. Raul’s family died in a famine in the 11th century. Yana was abandoned during an earthquake the next century. Prisha’s family were killed in Calcutta’s 1737 cyclone.
I’ve got to get them back to the only home they’ve ever known…dragonworld.
I wrote this for the Rochelle Wisoff-Fields writing challenge. The idea is to use the image of the old warehouse above as the inspiration to craft a piece of flash fiction no more than 100 words long. My word count is exactly 100.
I don’t think I’ve done my concept justice. It’s part of a larger idea I’ve been toying with, one I briefly touched on a few days ago.
Imagine the abandoned and unwanted children of the world throughout history being whisked to a different place and time, one where they are taken care of by dragons. Then imagine in a war an accident sends them back to Earth, but way too far in the future. What would happen then?
To read other stories based on the prompt, go to InLinkz.com.
Dragonworld… the only perfect place. Earth is for earthling imps.
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LOL, Björn. If I ever turn this into a novel (trilogy actually), I’ll let you (and everyone else I can) know.
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Certainly is a big concept, worth a whole series of novels, never mind 100 words. A good start though! 🙂
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Thanks, Iain. I have the bare bones in mind. Just need to flesh it out.
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All the best for your trilogy. Shall look forward to it.
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Now I just have to find the time to write it.
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Dear James
That’s quite a lot to shoehorn into 100 words. However, no less intriguing.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thank you, Rochelle. You are the grandmaster (grandmistress?) of shoehorning a ton of details into 100 words.
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AS others have said, a high concept to fit into such a small word count, but an intriguing one. Interesting FF, James
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I hope to develop the concept more as time marches forward. Thanks, Lynn.
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My pleasure 🙂
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How delightfully imaginative. I hope they all get to meet and exchange notes about their lives in different eras 🙂
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They have for quite sometime actually.
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They’ve lost their families and now lost in time. Nice one!
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Thanks. The narrator is their anchor. 100 words didn’t let me really describe her, but she’s older than the rest, in her teens. The others are children somewhere between about six and ten.
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Ironically, I was raised by Puff, the Magic Dragon, so I don’t find this unusual at all. I do miss Honalee though.
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I thought Jackie outgrew Puff.
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I can still sing that song all the way through 🙂
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The Imp Horde. Love that. This is great fantasy fiction.
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Thank you. I had to look up a list of different types of demons to choose the correct variety.
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it looks like this guy can travel in time, but will he be able to change the course of history? that’s the question.
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Actually, it’s more complicated than that, and the narrator is a teenage girl (I know, in 100 words, I couldn’t communicate everything about the people or their situation). No history will be changed. Children across history were “harvested” from natural disasters, famines, and wars so that they too wouldn’t die. The big question is whether or not they can go back and successfully reintegrate into our world or must stay with the dragons forever (where indeed, they may be better off)?
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I take it your harvest was for the good of the children, but it reminds me of past harvesting (e.g. Orphan Trains in USA, British Home Children in Britain). Not the same thing I realize, just a connection I made in my mind. Dragons can be kind I am told.
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Actually I was thinking of those who would die because no one was there to care for them, Susan. Children who were abandoned and alone.
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That sounds like a very intriguing and stimulating concept, James. I would be interested to know if you develop it further.
All the best
Penny
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Loved this high sounding concept. As everybody else have said, this needs a much broader canvas. Great writing, Hardy.
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Lots of threads to weave a story. Dragonworld sounds intriguing but I guess I’m a boring earth person! 🙂
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I probably will call it something else besides “dragonworld”. I was struggling with the word count and have to think of a single word to express their home.
Actually, it’s the world where the dragons and children were exiled to that is a tough place to live. Dragonworld, or whatever I decide to call it (spoiler alert), once the war is won and the demons are banished, is really pretty cool, Fatima. All that said, I like it here, too.
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Dragonworld sounds intriguing. And does its job for word count too! Hope to read that finished novel one day. 😀
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Hope to write it one day. Actually, I have a draft of the first two chapters of the first book and a very, very high level outline of all three books. Please stand by.
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Such an imagination you have there!
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Thank you, Sandra.
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I love the concept!
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Thanks. I spent some time yesterday working on a high level outline of the trilogy and then part of the first novel. Still needs a lot of stuff filled in before I can actually begin the writing in earnest.
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Awesome take on the photo prompt
Click Here to see what Mrs. Dash Says
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Thank you.
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That was most imaginative!
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