#FlashForFriday – Terribleminds Fairy Tale Flash Fiction Challenge

Hello lovely readers 🙂

Last week I mentioned that I was attempting a flash fiction challenge set me by my wonderful author friend J S Collyer. In this you had to pick a fairy tale to rewrite and add into it a sub genre that was not in the original 🙂 You then had to use any random number generator to help you pick your sub genre from a list on the website and I kid you not I got sword and sorcery 🙂 How perfect is that? I almost exploded with glee when I got that. Anyone who has visited my page previously will know that I am a bona fide fantasy nut. This is the result I came up with; I hope you enjoy 🙂

Cin

“Cinderellaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,” rang out her stepmother’s shrill voice. Cin sighed. Why won’t you die old woman? she thought as her body moved to comply to the harpies wail. She found herself ascending the stairs in their, sorry, her home. She had no desire to think of it as theirs. She still saw those upstairs as intruders.

“Yes stepmother?” she asked on a sigh as she entered the room. Sat on the chaise was her stepmother and step sisters draped in the finery that her family’s wealth bought them. They’d squandered the gold her father had earned before his ‘absolutely-not-suspicious-death-in-anyway.’ She’d been left with rags as her clothes and no shoes, her robes and staff were gone, while they had kept the gold for themselves. Her estate was almost bankrupt and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

“Tonight is the night,” began the harpy. “We need you to go and get our robes, our staves and the armour. They won’t know what hit them,” giggled her stepmother.

“But motherrrrrr,” whined the fat sister. “How do we decide who gets the Prince?”

“We decide after the spell wears off,” informed the ugly one. Cin made a point of not thinking of them in relation to their names. That personalised them and they deserved no such consideration.

“Yes stepmother,” Cin reiterated as she went to do what they bid. The damn spell that awful woman had put on her the night she had entered her home meant she had no choice to obey. Her own considerable power had been nulled by it so she was as much a Norm as her pathetic step sisters. Norms were those born without magic and shunned by the ruling sorcerer aristocracy. An aristocracy her father had been part of…

… Cin watched as her step family streaked off to the ball on their broomsticks, sorry, in their carriages. She wasn’t envious of them per say more that she thought herself a good person and she was loyal to the royal family. Knowing the plans that her step family had for them grated on her but what could she do? She went back to the fireplace that served as her bed, sat down on her chair and sighed. She felt restless but somehow defeated, which was a feeling she loathed.

Her attention was suddenly drawn to the kitchen window she had left open as an almost transcendent bird song began as if from nowhere. Gradually a ruby red shine began and in its midst appeared a small songbird made of pure flame. Cin was mesmerised by it. She had an affinity for birds and this one was truly beautiful.

The songbird finally finished its song and looked directly into Cin’s eyes. Did the bird actually smile at her? With a tweet and a wink the bird coalesced into itself, grew and the image of her father appeared within. Cin almost swallowed her tongue. What? How? When? Her father was dead, wasn’t he? She had never actually seen a body.

“Yes I am dead Cin,” her see through father began. “Your stepmother saw to that, but I couldn’t just sit idly by in paradise while my daughter was treat the way she is. Had not time moved differently there I would have come sooner. Don’t say anything my little love, we don’t have a lot of time and we need to stop the fool woman I stupidly married.”

“How do you mean father?” Cin asked, not really knowing what to expect.

“You know only half of what they have planned. They are going to spell the Prince, marry him to one of the daughters and kill the King and Queen to gain power. My former wife believes she has enough magic to do that and we can’t take the chance that she has. You are powerful daughter, you will stop them.”

“I can’t father,” Cin sighed. “The harpy you married spelled me the first night she was here. She nulled my power and made me obey. I am helpless.” She watched as her father smirked,

“I may be dead Cin but I am not altogether powerless.” She watched as her father closed his eyes and held up his hands. Purple energy surrounded her and she heard a sound akin to a lock unlocking. She felt her power rush back to her in all its flaming ruby glory and she had to smile. It felt wonderful.

“I will empower you also daughter to ensure you prevail.” He held up his hand again and a doorway of purple flame appeared. She watched as her father reached through it and withdrew a bundle of ruby-red clothing and a staff. He blinked and the purple doorway dissipated as if it never was. He handed her the staff with a perfect, fist sized ruby floating atop of it and held the robes, armour and boots up for her to see. The robes and boots were flaming red ending in magical, transcendent flames and the armour was the purest silver. Cin was eager to put them on, they were beautiful. She took them from her father with almost reverence.

“Remember Cin, I love you always,” and with that her father disappeared back into a flaming purple birdsong and then vanished. She was touched he came as a ruby-red one for her. He was always that thoughtful. She smiled but she had to turn her mind to tonight…

…Cin stood to one side of the ballroom with her hood over her head. She had already started to garner notice from the quality of her robes and armour so she prayed her stepmother would hurry up and make her move so she could disappear again. It hadn’t even occurred to her to wonder what she would do afterwards she was that focused on her task.

The orchestra began and Cin was almost blinded by what she saw. The King and Queen came down the stairway resplendent in their robes but it wasn’t them that caught her attention. Following after them was the most beautiful man she had ever seen. He had beautiful ebony hair, handsome features and a well muscled body under his beautiful sapphire robes. Cin reasoned this must be the Prince. She was spellbound.

Suddenly she heard a familiar shrill wail that turned her stomach and hardened her heart.

“Your royal majesties,” began her stepmother. “I am Lady Lanaya and I must respectfully ask you to step down from power.” The crowd parted and her stepmother came forward flanked by her two ridiculous daughters.

“Who are you to demand such from royalty?” exclaimed the Prince, angry that someone could demand such from his parents.

“I am the new Queen,” stated her delusional stepmother. She watched as she raised her hand towards the Prince and Cin’s heart accelerated. Lime green energy flew towards him and she watched in horror as he was encased in crystal. There was gasps among the crowd and his parents seemed frozen, unsure what to do. She saw her stepmother turn with glee to the Queen and Cin knew she had to act. Stepping in front of the Queen Cin pointed her staff towards the frozen Prince and watched in satisfaction as flames engulfed him and he was once again free. She heard a distraught scream and had to smile.

“Who are you to interrupt my plans???”

“Oh you know who I am,” Cin replied and removed her hood to reveal her perfect golden features.

“Cinderella!!! My spell should have kept you at home.”

“Sorry stepmother,” Cin replied with sarcasm. “You’re out of luck. I got some unexpected help and now I’m here to stop you.”

“Pathetic child,” her stepmother spat. “I should have ended you long ago.” With that, her stepmother brought her hands together glowing the lime green of her magic. She began to swirl them in a circular motion and once a ball of lime green flame was sat between her hands she projected it towards Cin. She had to smile as the sad attempt at magic bounced off the shield of flame surrounding her.

“My turn,” Cin said with a wicked smile. She echoed her stepmother’s motions and projected her power towards her. Many songbirds of ruby red flame flew towards her stepmother with force and vengeance. Around the sad woman the power coalesced and cocooned her in bright red crystal. For her step sisters, two ruby-red songbirds plucked out each eye, penance for the torment they put her through. She turned to the royalty,

“Forgive me your majesties for bringing warfare to your home. I learnt what they had planned and couldn’t stand idly by. I leave them here  for you, for your just punishment and what they deserve.” She was about to leave when someone caught at her arm,

“Cinderella, wait,” began the Prince. “You don’t have to go so soon do you? My family and I would like to reward you for your bravery and I would like to comment on your beauty.” Cin felt her heart thaw a little at that.

“Please you don’t have to do that but a dance would be nice. I haven’t done so in so long and I so love to,” she smiled at him. “But my name isn’t Cinderella, it’s what my stepmother demeaned me by, denying me my true name. It’s Cinder named so for my affinity with the magic that burns. You however can call me Cin.”

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Where Am I? An Update and a Smile Go a Long Way

Good evening lovely readers 🙂

Right about now seemed like a good time to flesh out where I am with my writing. So many exciting things are happening at the moment that it felt right to post about it. As mentioned in the previous post, the new anthology for Dagda Publishing is available from Amazon. All Hail the New Flesh is a collection of thirteen futuristic stories with a dystopian feel and a general theme of ‘technology gone mad.’ In this I have been lucky enough to have my short story Requiem chosen for publication; it’s a great honour and has been wonderful fuel for my creative fire. As I got overexcited and bought the kindle version this morning, a full review will be posted shortly 🙂

Next some wonderful personal news. Today I have had confirmation that I can get my novel professionally edited. The wonderful people at Dagda Publishing have agreed to edit my draft so I have the perfect version to send to publishers. I cannot begin to say how much I appreciate this as they are very busy with bringing out their fabulous novels and anthologies. I would in turn try to submit my novel to Dagda but I’m a self proclaimed fantasy nut through and through; give me sword and sorcery any day 🙂

And now to the blog news. I have to say that I do have a lot of rough copies of writing on here that I have stored for future use such as my novel idea Frozen. I do fully intend to carry on with this initial idea but as the paragraph above states I am concentrating on my original novel I Cast Magic Into the Darkness and intend to take this as far as I can. So in the meantime I hope you enjoy any posts I put on here in the future and for now take them as they are 🙂 Keep an eye out for improvements in the future.

And lastly I have a new #FlashForFriday in the creating which will be posted on here on Friday. It’s in reply to a flash fiction challenge my friend told me about where you have to rewrite a fairy tale and include a sub genre that wasn’t in the original. I am so excited in writing this and can’t wait for you to see what I have done. I hope you like it 🙂

Thank you 🙂

Frozen Rewritten

Hi 🙂 Well I would like to say great minds think alike as over the weekend I had more concepts for Frozen, the other novel idea I had, much like the continuing creativity of my fellow fantasy writer Jex. This is a rewrite of my original post as I wanted to add what would be percieved as flawed aspects to the character, giving her an almost human nature. I wrote this in my 30 minutes lunch so please forgive me if it is rough around the edges 🙂

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The heat from the golden sun burnt its way into her flawless skin. The multi faceted smell of the summer flowers forced its way into her delicate nose. Snow grimaced. She couldn’t understand why her father had called her from her boarder home, or even why he had shown an interest in her at all. She was the unwanted daughter, allowed to do as she willed as she brought shame to her families name. She was used to being ignored and that was the way she liked it, spending her endless days in The Order.

She sighed as she allowed the Ice Silk to fall across the window once more, encompassing her in its cold calmness. The carriage she was in was built specifically for her family to travel to the High Court in the perilous seasons and today it just happened to be summer. Why had her father recalled her once more? She hasn’t even been near court in an age. She actually grimaced at the thought.

“Do not fret so Snowflake,” her father pleaded. He was Frostfall, King of the Winter Fae and she was sure she had never heard him plea before, what was he up to? “This is merely a trip to acquaint ourselves with the other Fae people’s. You know things have been tense between us and we do not want war to break out.”

Snow actually laughed inwardly at that. Let them bring war to her doorstep; with her Nightsilver bow and armour she was nigh on undefeatable. Her father tended not to involve her in court politics as she was the defective child as she had been labeled and he usually took one of his other children.

“Father,” she began tentatively. “You worry beyond measure. I know of the myth where the War of the Fae begins and I think you put too much merit into it. Why did I have to attend?” She knew she was whining but couldn’t help it. She had been happy hunting and defending the borders when she had been called to the court. She was surprised her father had even remembered her existence. Yes she was the Crown Princess but she had been sure her father had been intent on naming one of his several other children as heir. She was the only child by Queen Winter before she had been killed in a riot and that made her sole heir but she was allowed to not like it.

She remembered the exact moment she had received the missive. One of her brothers in The Order, Winterfrost, had found her just having finished defending from an attack by bandits. She enjoyed his description of the scene in front of him as he always used so many colourful phrases, “a tumultuous orgy of blood and gore that paints the forest red,” she always had to laugh. This time however she sensed his move was pensive and he began by reading out the missive,

Dear Snowflake, Crown Princess of the Winter Fae and beloved by the

people. You are neededat the court to undertake a journey of the

utmost importance. The King will be accompanying

you as you travel to the High Court to ensure the realms peace.

Regards, Frostfall, King of the Winter Fae

How dispassionate she had thought. Not a word of comfort or love from her father as was the norm with him. She had debated whether to actually return to the court, claiming ignorance of the missive but she was sure he would just ask the Oracles to scry and see if she had received it. This was why she now sat beside her father traveling through the stifling heat to the High Court more uncomfortable than she had ever been. She currently wore a pure gown of spider’s silk and the jewels as befitting the crown princess f the court. The dress felt alien to her, like it was too heavy and it over encumbered her. She longed for her Nightsilver armour and pure Nightsilver bow. Then she felt invincible, away from the politics and drama of the court. No one could touch her, ignore her or demean her. She had no responsibilities there and it felt wonderful. She brushed a lock of silver hair back behind her ear and winced. Her hair was a sign she was of royal blood; her family were signified by their silver hair, piercing ice blue eyes and blue tinged skin. When away she had sought different ways to hide it and blend in with the green-eyed, black-haired demeanor of her people but had failed miserably. Instead she had woven a tail about the bastard child of the High King unwanted and unneeded and for the most part it had worked.

“You come because you are needed.” That was all her father would say and she felt him sit back and shut her out once more. She knew she should be insulted but she had been shut out most of her life so she was indeed used to it. She sighed once again as she felt the golden sun trying to work its way through the Ice Silk. Her people thrived in the crystal snow and silver moonlight of the frozen realm but the High Court existed in a realm where all seasons were predominant and of course it was now summer. This seemed like a waste of time.

She was about to protest once more when a loud sound sounded and a heavy object hit the side of their carriage. It was followed by a second and a third. Her father tensed and the sound of a sword being drawn resounded through their small compartment. When had he stood up? He was in front of her and she was both touched by the sentiment and annoyed that he thought Snow would run out into the sunlight. She had spent her time defending the border for longer then he had had other children, surely he must know that she wouldn’t give up their strategical position; her iridescent wings twitched in annoyance at the thought.

She had pitch perfect hearing and she could hear the sounds of a frantic battle outside. Who would possibly attack them? They were in the official court carriage and they must know that her father was an accomplished warrior even though they may not know of her own existence. Sword clashed with sword and the was blood curdling war cries from both sides. Snow worried for the men at arms that were traveling with them. They were part of the realm defense but they were not her fathers elite, those that usually accompanied them on important issues. Where were they now and why had he not brought them with him?

Eventually the fighting outside subsided and Snow knew the men must be dead. She weeped silently for them but would grieve later as she was almost certain an attack would come. Suddenly the door to the carriage flew open and she knew her father had been blinded by the sun. She listened in horror as a sword penetrated his ceremonial armour and into his chest. How could that have happened?

Snow reached for the fallen sword and promptly thrust it into the chest of the attacker. She kicked him to the floor and then she did charge outside. How dare they injure her father??? She blocked an attack from the left and promptly kicked out in that direction as much as the dress would let her. She had the satisfying sound of a body falling to the floor as she blocked another attack from the front. She parried this for as long as she was able until she hears a voice claim,

“What’s up with her? Why isn’t she paralysed in the sun like most winter fae?”

“Look at her eyes!” another exclaimed, “they’re pure white, there’s no iris or pupil at all. She’s blind!”

“Grab her quickly then, she’ll pose no real threat.” And with this came a resounding crack to her skull, from what she knew not but she felt herself lifted over a shoulder and the feeling of oblivion starting to take her. She wished she could see her father to know he was alright but wishing did not make it so, as she was well aware…

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So what do you think? 🙂