Flash Fiction / writing prompts

Do you believe in faeries? ~ episode 5

Chris Hall43 Comments
Illustration from the Rose Fyleman Fairy Book

Previously

Bethany stared at the green-clad brother and sister who had turned away and retreated a few steps to confer in private, she strained her ears but her grasp of their conversation was limited to what she took to be oaths and exclamations; whatever could be the matter?

She surveyed her surroundings, as she retrieved the memory of her previous encounter with an ‘other world’; by whatever method she had been transported to this unfamiliar place, it was important to commit the exact location of entry to memory in order to find the way back.

Their discussion over, the green-clad man marched back to Bethany and stared up at her, ‘Greta and I have decided, we have to hand you over to the Owl-King, we don’t want to, but…’ he paused and took a breath, screwing up his eyes, ‘it’s the Rules.’

Greta hurried over to join them; taking her brother’s arm, she whispered, ‘Hans, there’s no need to frighten her,’ she stared around with anxious eyes. ‘Anyway, we haven’t decided; we’ll go back to the house and then we’ll decide.’

Although Bethany still had no idea what was going on, she was certain that this Owl-King was someone best avoided.

next episode

Written in response to two challenges:

– Di of Pensitivity101‘s Wednesday’s Three Things Challenge – PRIVATE, LIMIT, RETRIEVE
– Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge‘s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt – METHOD

Bryony, Bethany and Mr Eyre first appeared in my historical fantasy fiction novel, Following the Green Rabbit. They’ve been begging to go on another adventure and it looks like they’ve got their wish!

More ‘Sixes’ here!

43 thoughts on “Do you believe in faeries? ~ episode 5”

  10. “…it was important to commit the exact location of entry to memory in order to find the way back.
    Tell me 80% of Readers didn’t just nod in silent approval. While none of us may actually have been in a similar situation, we all, (those of us who had to decide between the world in our books and the ‘real’ world), recognized a very smart move on the part of our protagonist.

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  13. Bethany’s previous experience going to “other worlds” has served her well. Has she an eidetic memory to take a picture in her mind of the location of that most important entry/departure portal? I hope so!
    And what of Bryony and Mr. Eyre? Daresay, I hope they have Bethany’s coordinates 😀

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    • Ooh, brownie points for introducing a new word to me – I realised the meaning but I’d not come across ‘eidetic’. It might even be a skill that Beth doesn’t realise she has! As for Bryony and Mr Eyre, let’s hope they don’t land too far away…

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  16. Good one, Chris. I’m glad Greta is more hesitant than Hans in marching Bethany away for a visit to the Owl-King! I like the play on the names Hansel and Gretal, and perhaps the Owl-King is some alternate-universe witch of the gingerbread house 😮

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