It’s a little long (1112 words). Forgive me! Comments and criticisms welcome and encouraged.
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Southern Nardinia (formerly the British Isles):
Commander Julien wasn’t happy. He stomped around the room changing the scenes on the monitor wall seemingly at random, throwing switches and jabbing buttons like he was mad at them. Only it wasn’t the buttons he was mad at. And at nearly 2 meters tall, he was not an elf you wanted mad at you. Trust me, I’d been here before.
“Are you completely insane? This room monitors every square kilometer of Nardinia and there is nothing on the long range sensors to even remotely indicating that that the humans are mobilizing after 30 years, and I trust these systems far, far more that I trust you or your brother.”
“Sir, I realize that what Nash is saying sounds outrageous, but I’ve known him all his life and I’ve found him to be right time and time again.”
“Regardless Tamarind -”
“Tanaka sir” I muttered meekly.
“Tanaka. Regardless Tanaka, it will take much more than the ‘feelings’ of your nephew-”
“Brother.”
“- brother. Please don’t interrupt me again. I need actual evidence if I am to go to the council and suggest we evacuate based on the ‘feelings’ of your brother.”
Suddenly a scream came from the corner of the room. I glanced over at Nash, my baby brother, just as his eyes rolled up into his head as he collapsed.
“No! Must leave now! Must leave now! All Die! ALL DIE!” screamed Nash as he began writhing in what looked like pain, “MUST LEAVE! ALL DIE!”
“Get him out of here! Now!” the Commander shouted, turning his face turned an interested shade of purple
“Yes sir. Sorry sir. He just gets like that sometimes.”
How embarrassing.
“You might want to consider having him committed. Also consider what might happen if either of you go spreading these rumors around. Last thing we need is to have everyone panicing over the ravings of -”
“Yes sir, I understand. Thank you for seeing us Commander. Come on Nash!”
I heaved him off the floor and walked out of the room, carrying him as best I could.
“We tried Nash. That’s the best we could have hoped for.”
“Tanaka? It is Tanaka right?”
There was a rather large elf standing before us. It didn’t bode well after the events in the Commanders office.
“Yes, ” I replied, “and you’re Vegas if I remember correctly. You’re part of the FSDF.”
“Yeah, Special Ops,” replied Vegas somewhat absently, “Listen, did he really mean what he said about the humans destroying everything?”
“You really shouldn’t get involved sir. It will just cause you trouble.”
“Yes, I can imagine that it would. Truth be told however I think I actually believe him.”
You could have knocked me over with a feather. Here was a high ranking officer in the Security Defense Force telling me he believed my brother’s ramblings. I’ll admit, I was more than a little skeptical. I figured he was trying to get us to say something that could be considered treasonous so he could arrest us. Needless to say what came out of his mouth was something I was not ready for.
” To tell you the truth, I’m not the only one. See some of us on the Long Range Patrols have been seeing evidence that the humans are trying to retake Nardinia. We report it and it gets buried so no one else hears of it. ”
I simply stared.
“Wha… what kind of evidence?”
“Small stuff, like things disappearing, noises and sightings.”
“You’ve seen humans in Nardinia!”
“Not humans but… things. Things that weren’t there that day or the night before. Look, I can get you in to see the council and give you some evidence of human trespassing for you to use, but you have to keep my name out of it.”
“No problem there,” i managed to mutter.
“And if you decide to leave, I can just about promise I can get 10 – 15 others to join us.”
Us? Did he really just say us?
“Others?” I asked, totally confused now.
“Others in Ops that are disgruntled. Elves that have been given the rough and dangerous jobs and positions constantly over time and passed over for promotions. These are all good elves, they just don’t like to play the political game other do and as a result aren’t considered for decent positions.”
I had no idea what to say.
“Thanks for the help. I will try not to let you down.”
****
The council members sit high above the chambers floor. Each has their own seat on a tower that is probably 50 feet tall. I guess it gives them a feeling of superiority. There are supposed to be 4 council members, each an elected representative of each district, however the representative of my home district of Carta died a couple weeks ago and they haven’t filled the position yet. Figures.
The inquiry, as they called it, had been going on for 2 days. We had said everything we knew twice and even brought some of the evidence Vegas had collected over the past few months. Of course his name was never mentioned.
“Tanaka. Step forward.”
I did, staring up at the current Council President, convinced that he was going to simply exile Nash and myself from Nardinia. A prospect Nash relished, and one I didn’t.
“This is a very serious situation before us. You and your brother are claiming that the humans are coming back to Nardinia after being forced out by us over 30 years ago. After reviewing the supposed evidence and listening to the testimony of you and your brother we have decided not to pursue the matter any further. And further more, you and your brother are never to speak of it. You will have noticed that there is no one in the Council Room, no witnesses and no spectators. No one who can substantiate what occured here. No one who will be whispering in the streets and refreshment houses about the ‘Human Invasion’. When we leave this room, this matter will disappear. Any further discussion or rumor be grounds for immediate trial.”
He banged the gavel, then they all got up and left.
Silence.
I should point out he actually used air quotes around human invasion.
****
I walked out of the Council chambers with my eyes glazed over. Stunned was the only word for it. Not only were they going to ignore everything we has said but they were going to pretend it never happened and we were to never mention anything that had happened.
I glanced over to Vegas, waited for him to see me and held his gaze.
“Gather your people, ” i said quietly when I walked up to him, “We leave tonight.”
This entry was written by , posted on March 5, 2010 at 8:36 pm, filed under Fiction and tagged #fridayflash, 2010, Fiction. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
I got in trouble because I waited until late Thursday/ early Friday to write this. The wiafe wasn’t pleased at having to wait ;)
And if you haven’t done so yet, you can read part 1 here.
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Gustav sat up as the small grey and black dog walked into through the open gate. He looked around at the pack of dogs that flanked him on both sides.
He smiled, which considering he was a large Golden Retriever made a fairly expressive grin.
“Sam. You have some nerve coming here. Especially with out your little white bodyguard.”
“I figured she might upset you a little after the incident last month, and I wanted to talk to you peacefully.”
“Talk? Why should I talk to you? You and your little ‘pets’ mean nothing to me.”
Gustav tried to put every ounce of disgust he had into pets. It was a lot.
“Maybe, but the subject matter of our conversation will interest you a great deal. “
“Really. And what could you possibly want to talk about that I would be interested enough in to prevent me from siccing Thunder after your scrawny butt?”
“I’m helping a cat try to find his friend…”
“A cat!”, if possible Gustav managed to put even more disgust into cat than he had into pets, “Why on earth would I care about helping some flea bitten little furball?!”
“Because he might be a victim of a catnapping and animal trafficking.”
Gustav froze with his mouth partially open. He close his mouth, licked his lips and looked around at the others surrounding him. They were all looking back at him with a mixture of anxiety and sadness.
Finally he lower his body to the ground, stretched his paws out in front of him and held his head up.
“Let’s talk”
**********
Watson was on his hind feet with his front paws on the side of the house trying to push his nose as close to the open window as possible.
“Interesting.”
“Whats interesting?” asked Harley, trotting over to see what Watson had discovered.
“Sniff and tell me what you smell.”
Harley put his nose to the ground and sniffed everything he could find. He circled under the window several times, occasionally looking around as if he expected to something to suddenly appear.
“Fear.”
“And why is that odd?”
Harley sniffed.
He continued to sniff and began to work his way away from the house towards the yard.
“Oh, because if he was running away he wouldn’t give off fear, but would be anxious or nervous.”
“Right.”
“So he was stolen!”
“Slow down, all it tells us is that he didn’t runaway.
Harley sniffed again.
“There’s else some interesting here.”
He began weaving back and forth across the yard, trying to pick up the scent again. Occasionally he would look around as if expecting something to suddenly appear.
Suddenly he froze and looked up at Watson.
“Dog!”
**********
“So my contacts at both the Wilmington and Tewksbury police departments confirm what Gustav said.” Zena said as she settled down into a lying position on the blanket next to Sebastian, ”There have been 31 thefts in the last 3 months. No one has any idea who is doing.”
“Is there any kind of pattern?”
“Not really. They are taking all types of dogs from pure breed to mutt, cats, rabbits, hamsters and even a parrot. The only anomaly seems to be age. Older animals aren’t being taken.”
“So all young animals.”
“Yep.” replied Zena. She sat on the floor and looked around at everyone. The only missing members of the group were Timothy and Maggie who were assisting Malcom with the search for Peri.
Everyone had returned home and gathered to share what information they had gathered. No one looked particularly happy.
Sam paced around in circles. He went over to the water bowl, got a drink and water, and with his beard still wet sat down and looked at Watson.
“What did you guys learn at Peri and Chester’s house?”
“There was a lot of fear scent all over the place under the window and even some up the wall. Almost like he was trying to climb back in.”
“Fear scent would be expected in a kidnapping” replied Zena, “Even up the wall. He was probably trying to get away.”
“That was my original theory, but he wasn’t kidnapped. We followed the fear scent away from the window and across the yard to a tall oak tree. He apparently climbed the tree to escape a dog.”
“Wait,” interrupted Sam, “What do you mean escape a dog?”
“There was a dog scent that overlapped the trail we followed out to the woods, but it doesn’t look like the dog was actually chasing him.”
“Wouldn’t the dog cause the fear even if he ran away?”, Sam asked.
“The dog scent seemed to weave back and forth across Peri’s. It appears the dog followed the scent to the tree, circled a few times and finally gave up.”
“Did you find any place where Peri came down?” Zena asked.
Watson waited and after a few seconds nudged Harley gently with his nose.
“Oh right! Yea!” Harley exclaimed realizing it was his turn to share information, “This was my idea! The branches in the trees are thick and look fairly sturdy. There are a lot of them close together and I think Peri, realizing there was a dog below, must have used the branches to travel without coming out of the tree.”
Tim suddenly appeared the window out of breath.
“Malcom’s patrols found Peri!”, he shouted, “He’s about 2 miles away in a little culvert. They said he looks okay but appears to be scared out of his mind. Not that I blame his with all those birds circling overhead.”
“It’s farther than I thought he would be but if he used the branches like Harley suggested it would be possible.” replied Sam as he stood up and began pacing in circles.
“Farther than you thought? You know something we don’t?” Timothy asked as he leapt down from the window and sat facing Sam.
“I have a fairly good idea of what happened, and I think I might know how.”
This entry was written by , posted on October 9, 2009 at 4:32 pm, filed under Fiction. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Wife edited and approved. Hope you have as much fun reading as I did writing. Comments (even critical) encouraged!
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Timothy lay curled up in the big bay window, his orange and white tail hanging casually off the edge, swishing lazily back and forth while he ignored the seagull circling overhead.
When the gull landed on the railing outside the window he gave a big sigh but refused to otherwise move.
“Hey youse guys,” shouted the gull.
‘Seriously? A Boston accent?” replied Tim lifting his head.
“Hey, I’m a gull from Bawston, whadda want?”
“Charlie, you live down the street, eat out of our trash and have visited Boston once.”
Tim put his head back down, hoping the gull would take the hint.
He didn’t.
“Believes what youse want cat. Anyways, I gotta case for youse guys.”
Tim heaved another sigh, gave up on napping, stood up and stretched.
“Okay fine. Whats the case?”
“This mook down the street was telling me his roommate got cat snatched yesterday. He’s afraid it might be part of that there theft ring that’s going around. He asked me for help and of course I suggest he hire the Pack.”
Tim sat and started at the gull. He squinted his eyes. He swished his tail.
“Theft ring?”
“Yea, there’s been a bunch of these animal thefts in da neighborhood lately. Dogs, cats, even a couple rabbits.”
Tim swished his tail some more.
“I assume you mentioned our rates?”
“Forgetaboutit. He can’t cover, I will. You know I’m good forit.”
“Right, ” Tim stared some more, “Bring your mook by this afternoon, I’ll let Sam know to expect you.”
“Fantastic.”
“And Charlie? Lose the accent.”
**********
Sam sat on the blanket on the floor facing the others with a small grey cat sitting nervously beside him. In front sat 3 other dogs and 3 cats including Tim. Sam had his black and grey tail curled up against his back while he waited for the others to settle down.
“Let me introduce everyone. The black and white cat is Maggie, the two orange tabbies are Timothy and Sebastian, the white Schnoodle dog is Zena, the black and tan Terrier that can’t stay still is Harley, and the black and grey Schnoodle is Watson. Everyone, this is Chester. He was brought to us by Charlie.”
The little grey cat nodded to each animal as they were introduce. Each dog bowed their head when their name was called, the cats merely swished their tail.
“According to Chester here, there have been several cats and dogs taken from their homes in the area over the last few days. Yesterday his housemate Peri, who is a small grey Burmese like himself disappeared. Chester is afraid Peri was taken by the thieves. All he knows is that Peri jumped into a window late in the afternoon, a window with a locked screen, and when Chester return from the litter box Peri was gone and the screen was missing.”
“Any information on this supposed rash of thefts?” asked Watson.
“It’s not ‘supposed’ replied Chester, I heard from Lula next door that the dog across the street was taken!”
“Relax Chester, I’m not doubting you. We take everything as conditional until proven. ” Watson shifted slightly on the floor, “It helps if we don’t go into things with our minds already set on catnapping. Might miss something.”
Chester nodded. He was still nervous being surrounded by so many dogs. Charlie hadn’t mentioned there would be so many. He licked his paw to help calm himself and tried to relax a bit. It didn’t work.
“Bastion, can you escort Chester and make sure he gets home safely?”
“Certaintly.” Sebastian replied as he stood up and stretched, “Come on kid.”
Sam nuzzled Chester with his nose gently to encourage him along.
“You’ll be safe with Sebastian, he might not look like much but he can be tough when he needs to.”
Sebastian glanced at Sam, flicked his tail twice and headed out the door, Chester followed gingerly behind. After they had left the room Sam stood up and began to pace.
“Something bothering you?” asked Zena
“Yes. I’ve heard rumors about the rash of kidnappings recently, but this doesn’t feel like one and it’s bugging me as to why.”
Zena stretched out on the floor as Harley twitched around in a circle.
“You thinking this wasn’t a catnapping but a run away?” asked Harley
“It had occurred to me, but there is still too much we don’t know. You and Watson investigate Chesters house, focus on the outside for now. See if you can find any evidence or clues that will give us a direction. Zena, you canvas the neighborhood. Talk to any dogs or cats or anything else that will talk to you about the thefts and see what you can find.”
“What shall Timothy and I do?” asked Maggie.
“I need you two to go talk to Malcom. See if he can arrange some aerial surveillance of the area. Maybe they can spot Peri or some kind of trail”
“And what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to try to talk to Gustav. If there is kind of animal trafficking going on he will at least have heard about it.”
This entry was written by , posted on October 2, 2009 at 11:41 am, filed under Fiction. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
This isn’t my strongest piece and considering that I’ve been bad sick all week I probably should have stayed in bed and left well enough alone.
Yea, right.
This is also an experiment. I’m decent at description but wanted to try doing something in pure dialog to see if I could carry a story that way.
Anyway here is my September 18th #fridayflash. Please comment below!
This entry was written by , posted on September 18, 2009 at 5:35 pm, filed under Fiction, Science Fiction and tagged #fridayflash, Fiction. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
He sat watching the television.
It wasn’t on but that hardly mattered since he wouldn’t really be able to pay attention to it anyway.
The pills were starting to take effect. It wasn’t much, just enough to make him feel just a little drowsy and woozy. The world had taken on a bit of a glowing haze. He had just began to realize he wasn’t able to really focus on anything.
The realization that he had passed the point of no return hit him slowly. He was past the point where, if he called the police right now they would never arrive in time. The thought was pleasing, but he didn’t smile.
He had read somewhere that people who left notes were simply crying out for help, but he had left one anyway, not wanting his family and friends to live in doubt and wonder. He wanted them to know why. Wanted them to know he had simply reached the point where he couldn’t deal with anything anymore. Wanted them to know he had simply given up. He wasn’t sure how they would take or deal with it, but it wasn’t something he would have to worry about.
So he had the note. He had purchased and taken 2 bottles of the pills. It hadn’t been easy, especially the last half of the second bottle, it had hurt badly, his throat being raw from all the swallowing.
The room was rented through the end of the month, but he was sure someone would look for him in a day or two. If nothing else, to find out why he hadn’t been to work.
The feel of the room changed again. It had gotten darker but the light hadn’t changed, almost like the sun had passed behind a cloud. Slowly he realized there were only minutes left before he wouldn’t be able to keep his eyes open any longer. Not much longer after that and all his worries and problems would cease.
He leaned his head back in the chair, partially surprised he still had that ability and closed his eyes. The world swan for just a second and settled in around him.
He took a deep breath. And let go.
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He walked steadly down the sidewalk. He patted his coat pocket to make sure he hadn’t left anything behind. The timing had to be precise but it helped that he knew exactly where he was going and exactly what to do, after all he had been here and done it before. Well, HE hadn’t actually done it, but it had been done and he had done it.
The circumstances ran circles in his mind, threatening to confuse him again even though he had a firm grasp on what will and had happened. As he approached the door he reached into his back pocket and removed the room key.
He slipped the plastic card into the slot and waited for the door to click. Carefully he turned the knob and stopped, glanced at his watch and he waited. He counted to himself and when he reached a number that satisfied him, he pushed into the room.
The room wasn’t dark, but it wasn’t exactly light either. It reminded him of a sunny day when the sun was behind a cloud. He again smiled. Glancing around the room he saw the other sitting in the chair by the window just as he remembered, the empty pill bottles on the nightstand next to him.
Again he patted his coat pocket then, satisfied that everything was in place, he reached in and pulled out a syringe. He removed the cap and held the needle straight up in the air and pushed the plunger, removing all the excess air, just as he had seen in the movies. Again the smile.
Slowly he walked over to the figure in the chair, pulled up his right sleeve and plunged the needle into his arm.
When it was empty he replaced the cap and stuffed the syringe back into his pocket and waited.
He wasn’t impatient or nervous, he knew what would happen. It had happened already so there really was very little mystery.
Slowly the other’s eyelids fluttered and he woke slowly.
“Wha… where am I?
“Still in the hotel room.”
He smiled as the other started at him and squinted trying to focus.
“Don’t worry,” he told the other “everything will be fine. “
“I don’t want to live!”
“Yes, you do. You just don’t know it yet.”
“What happened?”
He laughed to himself, “I saved you. “
“Who… who are you?”
“No one.”
“I’m confused.”
“Yes, you would be. You won’t remember this conversation for a while, but you will live. Things will change and they will get better. ” he said watching the other struggle to grasp hold of reality and as the medication began to take effect.
“You can’t know that. No one can.”
“I do. I know it for a fact.”
“How?”
“I can’t tell you that.” he said as he turned his back to the figure in the chair and smiled again.
“I can tell you that Ray will be here in about 10 minutes and that the drug I gave you will never show up on any toxicology reports. It will appear to others as though he arrived in time to save you.
“Ray left this morning for New York.”
“No, I cancelled his flight and set it up so that he can’t leave until tomorrow. The details are unimportant right now.”
He walked over to the door, opened it and started out.
“I don’t understand!” cried the chair bound figure.
Pausing he looked back at him still in the grip of the medication he had given him.
“You’ll receive a letter in about 15 years explaining everything. It will take you another 5 years to accomplish your goal.”
“How do you know that!”
He reached into his other back pocket and pulled out a worn looking envelop, “Because you did.”
This entry was written by , posted on September 9, 2009 at 9:26 pm, filed under Fiction and tagged #fridayflash, 2009, Fiction. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
I was determined, come hell or high water (as my grandma use to say) to use some form of ‘skitter’ in this.
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Harley sat and waited.
He continued to sit, and continued to wait but now added ‘glare’ to his action list. He had considered simply staring but glare had more menace and considering that as a Silky Terrier he was taller sitting than standing it made more sense to glare and sit. It hadn’t moved for several minutes, teasing him. He remained perfectly still, only his hair moved now and again blowing in the occasional breeze.
Suddenly it twitched! A slight wind was starting up again so it made sense that it would move, but he had to be on his guard in case it decided that was the perfect chance to escape.
Carefully, he raised his back haunches and shifted, with extreme care, into a position more suitable for stalking.
Slowly he lifted his left forepaw. No movement. He slowly extended it out in front of him and shifted his weight slightly. Still no movement. Carefully, oh so very carefully, and slowly, he lowered it again and shifted his weight forward more.
A twitch.
Harley froze.
Had he been seen? Did it know he was there? Should he pounce now? It was too far away to get to in a single jump, but it might be possible in two.
The breeze came again. A double twitch!
He crept forward a tad faster now.
Suddenly the wind gusted faster, lifting it into the air. It was escaping!
Harley gave chase.
It drifted upward slowly, just out of leaping range. He was about to give up when the wind died a little and it sank back to earth, skittering across the ground.
He sped up and just as it began to lift into the air again when the wind picked up he pounced.
He grabbed it securely between in his teeth, lifted his foot to free it, turned and trotted back to the porch with his head held high and a grin on his face as he carried the yellow candy wrapper.
This entry was written by , posted on September 4, 2009 at 9:56 am, filed under Fiction, Fun and tagged #fridayflash, dogs, Fiction, Fun, harley. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.