If you’re new to the series or want to catch up and remind yourself where we left off, the previous series is here: Space Cadets Series 1
How the last series ended:
‘Fascinating,’ observes Spock. He puts the tricorder down. ‘Let me try something, Captain.’
Spock reaches across the console. He presses three keys, one after the other: Ctrl-Ale-Delete.
Everything goes black.
What next for our gallant Space Cadets? Tune in on Friday!
The Cutesy-Pie Snow-People were the craze of the century that Christmas. Their sweet little faces and animated features melted the hardest of hearts, and by mid-December every garden, balcony and complex had their own little Cutesy-Pie.
Everyone feared what would happen to the cute little creatures come the thaw. People cleared spaces in their freezers and banded together to rented chill-rooms to accommodate them for the warmer months.
But as the snow melted the Snow-People hardened. They began to grow taller and slimmer. They lost their sweet expressions and threw off their quirky hats. People stared out at them with a new fear. Were their cute little Snow-People going to turn on them?
Then one morning as the sun rose and cast its strengthening rays over the land, the Snow-People took to the air, rising up, glinting in the sunlight like so many ice angels.
They banded together and flew north.
Satellites tracked the angels’ progress; the feed was live-streamed into every home. People watched and waited. Then, as the first light dawned over the northern pole, the angels descended. Their bodies merged with the melting glaciers and re-froze the recent permafrost.
Together the Snow-People undid the damage of decades.
Written in response to Sadje’s What Do You See #29 photo prompt.
Image credit: Alexas Photos on Pixabay
The hooded figure and the magnificent hound disappeared inside the castle. Sinead and Moonsprite followed, forced to walk singly in the narrow torch-lit passageway.
‘Courage, Sinead!’
The voice echoed in her head once again. She remembered when she’d first heard it: when she’d last gone into battle. But why the welcome and now the warning?
The voice continued. ‘Both good and evil lie within these walls and not everything as it seems. Remember this.’
Up ahead, the figure halted before an archway. The hound sat bolt upright, its attention fixed on whatever lay beyond. As Sinead and Moonsprite approached, the figure lowered its hood revealing the smiling face of an elderly elf. His green-tipped ears twitched merrily.
‘I am Tarron. I bid you welcome. This is the Hound of Hellidore. He will lead you to the Great Maze of Mandoran. Choose your path wisely and you will pass through unscathed.’
Image credit: wallpaperswide.com
Read the previous episodes of Sinead’s Final Quest
Sinead held the Blue Orb aloft. Moonsprite, her snow-white unicorn, pawed the ground while her Mistress uttered the sacred words from the final chapter of the Prophesy book.
The orb glowed more brightly, its indigo light shining across the wild heathland. A path appeared before them: the way to the Far Side, where the Edge of the World began. Sinead must commit the way to memory. The Blue Orb would not shine here again.
Night creatures skittered and slithered around their feet. Sinead gripped the Orb more tightly, willing her mind to absorb the knowledge.
The Orb ceased to glow, but the stars shone overhead. Sinead returned the Orb to Moonsprite’s saddle bag and took out the Sword of Elshain, strapping it around her waist. There were four last challenges to complete.
Moonsprite tossed her silver mane. The journey would be long, but together they would finish the final chapter.
Written in response to Sadje’s What Do You See #22 photo prompt.
Image credit: Egil Sjøholt -Pexels
Sinead stood defiant as last of the Oppressors tumbled into the cloud-cloaked abyss. She’d underestimated the power of the fabled Blue Orb, and thought the Prophesy must be flawed, but the magic she’d unleashed when she spoke the sacred words had felled them all.
That last one had laughed scornfully. How could a mere woman destroy the Patriarchy? But he was wrong. He sank, like the rest of them, crumbling to dust.
Sinead plucked the Book of Prophesy from Moonsprite’s saddle bag. The snow-white unicorn whinnied softly as her mistress turned to the final chapter.
The words glowed red.
At last Sinead realised what the Fourth Sacred Artifact must be. Slowly she led Moonsprite back down the Sunset Path. Once more their journey would be long, but she must gather the remains of the Sisterhood.
Together they would forge the Freedom Key which would unshackle the chains of Mother Earth.
Written in response to Sadje’s What Do You See #21 photo prompt.
Image credit: Kellepics on Pixabay
Kitty Katz stared intently into Marvin’s special StudioSpyScope. Two men were gazing at a wide screen monitor. On the desk in front of them was her publicity file which her agent had recently distributed to his industry contacts.
‘Pretty little thing,’ said the first man, licking his lips lasciviously.
‘She sure is,’ the second man agreed, stroking the photograph which pictured Kitty posing coyly on a pink chaise-longue.
‘She’s very young; good for a few years before the sparkle wears off.’ The first man leered at the monitor where Kitty’s first screen test was playing. ‘I wouldn’t mind giving her the once over.’
‘Or the twice over,’ said the second man rubbing his thigh.
Kitty cringed and snapped the petals of the StudioSpyScope closed. She looked up at Marvin, with horrified eyes.
‘Well, Kitty,’ said Marvin, scratching his ragged ear with his back leg, ‘that’s the movie industry for you. D’you still want to be a part of that?’
Kitty screwed up her eyes. ‘I do not.’
‘Good call, Kitty!’ Marvin smiled kindly at her. ‘In any case, it’s not as if you don’t have other talents.’
Kitty’s cellphone beeped. Her whiskers twitched with excitement as she listened.
‘The news you were waiting for?’
Before Kitty had the chance to answer her cellphone beeped again. Marvin waited patiently for her to finish.
‘No, thank you, Jed, I don’t want to be a movie star. My publisher’s got me a large advance and a three book deal on my ‘Kitty Tails.’
Written in response to Sadje’s What Do You See #15 photo prompt.
Photo credit: Pinterest
That’s the second client that movie agent, Jed Talent’s lost already this year!
Read what happened in Casting Woes.
– Hey bro’ what’s up with you?
– There’s a loada trouble goin’ down in the faerie ’hood.
– Like what?
– The Myco Boys are musclin’ in on our territory. Bringin’ in a whole bunch of new ’stools and ’shrooms. Stuff that’ll make your head explode.
– So, what we gonna do about it?
– We’re goin’ on the offensive.
– Doin’ what?
– Look here bro’, I got the seeds of a brand new product. Popweed from the Wealdan Woods. This stuff’s goin’ to blow their minds. It’s super-fast growing too. By next month’s Faerie-Fest we’re gonna have the pretty-wing girls’n’boys eatin’ right outta our hands.
Written in response to Sadje’s What Do You See #14 photo prompt.
Photo credit: Flickr
Alys balled her fists, digging her nails into the palms of her hands. She stepped into the stone circle. Moonlight shone on the cromlechs and lit up the faces of the members of the coven who stood in eager silence. This was the final test. Unless she could prove her mastery of the fourth element, she’d be banished from the sisterhood forever.
She raised her head and closed her eyes, centering herself. Palms back to back, she laced her fingers and took a deep breath. Muttering an incantation she opened her hands. A tongue of fire issued forth. She held her open palm aloft for all to see.
She had conjured fire.
Another word, and the fire was extinguished. Alys slowly folded her hands and clasped them gently to her chest before descending from the stone circle. ‘Thanks Sparky,’ she whispered, as the miniature dragon scurried back up her sleeve.
Written in response to Sadje’s What Do You See #13 photo prompt.
Photo credit: Pixabay
‘You’ve got me an audition for what?’ Freya stared at her agent in disbelief. ‘You are joking aren’t you?’ A neat curlicue of steam issued from her purple nostrils.
Jed Talent hurried across the room and flung open the office window. ‘Unikitty is big time, Freya.’
‘I’m a serious actress,’ Freya huffed. ‘I will not work in some Lego toy spin off.’ She raked a purple-painted talon across the arm of the capacious couch on which she was perched.
‘Sometimes we have to take what we can get, sweetie.’ Jed returned to his leather-upholstered armchair. ‘After your disastrous audition for G.O.T…’
Freya pouted. Her spiky tail began to twitch; the glass-topped coffee table in front of her rattled ominously.
‘Okay, okay.’ Jed held up his hands in surrender. ‘Not Unikitty.’
‘Well?’ Freya’s eyes smoldered. ‘What else have you for me?’
‘Rainbow Butterfly Unicorn Kitty?’
‘What’s with the unicorns, Jed? I’m a dragon!’ Freya snorted, issuing a shower of sparks from her nostrils.
Jed eyed the resulting scorch mark on his thick shag pile carpet.
‘You want me to dress up in drag?’
‘Unicorns are where the big-time is at, sweetie.’ Jed ran his fingers through his thinning hair.
‘If that’s the best you can do, I’m finding myself a new agent!’ Freya stood up and swept from the room, her tail overturning the coffee table as she went.
Jed sighed as he watched Freya fly off from his office window, her dazzling blue wings framed against the giant Hollywood letters.
Written in response to Sadje’s What Do You See #12 photo prompt.
Photo credit: Flickr
Read more about Freya’s story in The Audition
‘They look so realistic! It’s bronze isn’t it?’ she steps forward reaching out to touch the arm of the nearest figure.
‘You shouldn’t touch…’
She pulls her hand back.
‘…remember in the Tate with the Henry Moore?’
‘But this is outdoors, exposed to the elements.’ She paces around the sculpture of the warrior bearing his fallen comrade in his arms. ‘The detail’s so fine!’ Unable to stop herself, she brushes her fingers across the shoulder of the upright warrior. The metal is cold and hard. She knocks against it gently with a knuckle. ‘I wonder who they are?’
‘Who they were, you mean.’
She rolls her eyes. ‘There must be a plaque or something.’ She crouches down, running her hand over the calf muscle of the warrior’s left leg. ‘What about the leaflet they gave us?’
He fishes in his pocket and hands her the crumpled guide to the castle, before strolling off towards the battlements. Sculpture’s never really been his thing and he finds the pair, posed together as they are, strangely unsettling.
The print on the leaflet is small. She walks over to a nearby bench, fumbling in her bag for her reading glasses and dropping the leaflet as she does so. As she bends to pick it up, she hears a loud yawn. She glances around, but no one’s there.
It hits her like a mallet.
The statues have moved.
She retreats, catching herself as the back of her knees make contact with the bench. She sits abruptly, never taking her eyes off the two statues.
The warrior has unburdened himself of his comrade and is stretching magnificently. His back is turned towards her and she can see every muscle and sinew rippling across his back. In one fluid movement his companion rises from the ground and stands facing her.
Living statues, like the ones they’d seen in Barcelona? But she’d just touched one and it was cold and hard.
The eyes of the statue facing her widen; his mouth drops open.
She freezes.
He puts a hand on his companion’s arm; he turns. Eyes lock on hers.
A long moment is frozen in time.
A loud whistle distracts her; she hears him calling her name. She looks up and sees him waving to her from the castle walls. When she returns her gaze to the statues; they have resumed their original pose.
She rises and approaches, raising a hesitant hand. Cold, hard and immovable; but she didn’t imagine it.
Did she?
She starts to walk away, then turns, staring at the two figures. Then she realises what’s changed.
‘You switched places!’ she accuses, raising a finger. ‘I know it!’
The statues remain impassive.
Footsteps approach from behind her. ‘You’re not talking to them are you?’ he says. He puts his arm around her. ‘You’ll be telling me you’ve had a conversation with them next,’ he laughs.
She smiles up at him and turns to leave, casting one last glance at the sculpture.
The upright warrior winks.
Written in response to Sadje’s ‘What Do You See #8′ photo prompt.
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