Tag: prince

Teddy

Glad you could join us for the next heart-pounding episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

Elliot 169
Photo credit: Roberto Brenes

The activity in the hollow below became a still life for three beats of dead air. The messenger shaded his eyes and laughed.

“Randall! It’s good to see you,” he called, his voice slick as lava glass. “Come in, come in!”

Slowly, Randall picked his way down the wall, slipping on loose gravel that rattled to the ground.

“Easy there, friend, or you’ll bury us all,” the Stinger joked. “It’s been so long since we last met I was afraid some misfortune had found you.”

“I’m here now, and I want to see the General,” Randall responded as he jumped the last foot and a half releasing another trickle of rocks and landing well outside the circle of Stingers.

“Of course you do. As it happens, he’s in. Follow me.” His fellow Stingers closed in behind Randall.

Continue reading “Teddy”

Gert and Bernie

Glad you could join us for the next impassioned episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

Elliot 167
Photo credit: Igor Siwanowicz

The way found Randall sitting out the worst of the day’s heat in a narrow slice of shade beneath a mummified snag. As its shadow crept across the searing earth, he inched along with it, sorry he hadn’t let Girdliz take him to water before scaring him off by mentioning General Hai. Every dry swallow rasped down his throat.

Hunkered into the tightest ball he could hold himself, he jumped when a rain of debris showered onto his back.

“Hey!” he called to the two jittery creatures balanced on the tip of the snag, “Am I happy you happened by! Do you mind chatting with me for a few minutes?”

Each rotated a conical eye in his direction, but neither spoke.

Continue reading “Gert and Bernie”

Edith

Glad you could join us for the next feathery episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

Elliot 166
Photo credit: Amy Marques

“Huh,” Randall grunted. He watched Gridliz’s rapid transit long after there was anything to see, then turned and picked his way across a scorching maze of cracked crust sloping upward toward a scraggly, leafless tree.

Halfway there, a gliding shadow stroked its cool fingers across his back, daring him to look skyward.

The gigantic bird flapping low and slow overhead should have turned his blood to ice. He should have frozen in mid-step and dashed for cover the moment it looked away. Instead, as it landed in the lone tree, he felt hope.

Continue reading “Edith”

Wishes and Dreams

Glad you could join us for the next safe episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

Elliot 171
Photo credit: Willi Rolfes

Finding Vernon, Queen Lilian’s Liaison, still awake, Lady Lucy delivered her passengers to him just outside Princess Cassandra’s bower.

“Can I have a word, Vernon?” the elderly bat asked.

“Certainly,” he answered. Addressing the refugees, he asked, ”Would you please excuse us for a moment?”

Vernon and Lucy moved away from Cassandra’s door.

“The Prince’s Knights captured General Hai’s messenger in the Freelands.” Lucy’s whisper carried as far as a fully hearing person’s normal speaking voice. “I think he followed the Prince there, but he saw me, so I have to get back to the Arids before the General finds out. I’m sure there were more spies than just that slimy Stinger.”

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Julius and Miranda

Glad you could join us for the next creepy episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

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Photo credit: Tom Vezo

Late for her rendezvous in The Arids, Lady Lucy left the Freelands immediately after turning the Stinger prisoner over to Prince Elliot.

Julius and his family waited in the moonlight at the base of the tallest agave, just as they’d planned. “I was afraid you weren’t coming,” he whispered as she extended her left wing for them to climb onto her back.

Continue reading “Julius and Miranda”

Decisions

Glad you could join us for the next mournful episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

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Photo credit: Allison Frost

“Oh no no no no!” Arturo moaned, sinking to his knees beside the young vole’s body.

Barry staggered between the Knights with his hands covering his mouth while Clifton stood, head bowed, tears dripping to the ground.

His gut turned to lead and his brain an electrical storm, Elliot faced terrifying madness. He shut his eyes, but the carnage wouldn’t vanish. This was your doing, his disconnected mind insisted. You’re the one he wanted to talk to. You said to lock him up. If you’d just done as he asked, maybe you’d be the only one dead.

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Suspicions

Glad you could join us for the next suspect episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

Elliot 163
Photo credit: Peter Trimming

“Where’s Lady Lucy?” Clifton asked.

Searching the Meadow and the sky, Barry said, “Dat’s a good question.”

“Barry,” the Prince reminded him, “she’s the one who told the Knights the Stinger was there.”

“I know youse’re right, yer Princehood, but why di’n’t she just grab him? An’ why’d she let dat udder Stinger go?”

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Gate Crasher

Glad you could join us for the next inhospitable episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

Elliot 162
Photo credit: Rasheed Bydousi

Having no weapon, Barry pulled a torch from the ground, and joined Clifton to take up positions slightly ahead of Ambassador Arturo and Prince Elliot. The dark shapes became three Knights surrounding a massive Stinger whose tail dragged behind him on the ground.

The crowd backed away leaving a moat of safety around the new arrivals. The Knights stopped a defensible distance from the Prince, pinning the prisoner down with the butt ends of their slicers.

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Honored Guests

Glad you could join us for the next official episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

Elliot 161
Photo credit: Mark Berkery

As the sun touched the horizon, they followed the dry staccato of an ancient cough and found the venerable leader of Freelands’ wasp community plucking dinner from a stalk of grass.

“Honored One,” Elliot called, “please forgive us for interrupting your meal. Thank you for inviting us to continue our conversation about creating an alliance between the Freelands, Bog, and Fen.”

“Elliot?” the creaky old wasp squinted at him. “Elliot! It’s good to see you and your friends, young sir. We didn’t expect you until tomorrow. Here, join me — have a bite to eat.” He held out a wiggling morsel that Barry’s tongue found almost before the invitation was extended.

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A Question of Justice

Glad you could join us for the next philosophical episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

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Photo credit: Brisbaneinsects.com

They fairly ran through the Bowls of Death meadow, but even if they had flown through it, Elliot couldn’t have shut out visions of the terror Cassandra endured there at the rebel Spike’s bidding. So why did his thoughts take an unbidden fork in the road?

My love is alive today because Arturo killed Spike. I believe with all my heart that he deserved to die — but was it justice?

Might it have been better to incarcerate him for the rest of his life? Maybe they could have put him to work repairing all the damage he’d done. Maybe it would have brought the families whose lives he’d ruined a sense of satisfaction to see him serving their needs.

Entering the Freelands, Elliot witnessed rebuilding everywhere he looked.

It wouldn’t have undone the deaths he caused, but is it really better that he isn’t here to help set things right? Families mourn, and then they have to repair Spike’s devastation.

What might Cassandra think?

But right now, he needed to speak with someone else.

To be continued. . .

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