original fiction – drabbles
Jan. 14th, 2026 09:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deird1So, I've written some drabbles. They are original fiction, for an urban fantasy setting. (And yes, I'm still writing more of them.)
I'd love it if you friendly people could have a read…
Forbidden
The apple tree on Carden Street is off-limits. August has always known this. And yet…
Apples grow red, green, and sort of golden-orange, with twisty branches curling their way towards sunlight and a blue-green moss crawling across the lower trunk. It looks mysterious, and delightful, and not at all like an apple tree. “Wilde-grown” is the term – mothers mutter it to their children as they pull them away. One does not eat something Wilde-grown.
And so the apples remain untouched, growing ripe and then falling to the earth, unmolested.
And each day, August wishes she was allowed to eat one.
Stress
This homework assignment is kicking Tegan’s arse. She sits at her table, trying to concentrate, to ignore the girls chatting next to her (it’s a study space, why are they chatting?), to get words out of her brain and into text, stress levels rising…
“Shit, look at that wind!” someone exclaims. The trees outside are suddenly tossing around in a gale, and the window begins to shake.
Damn. Not again.
Tegan lifts her fingers from her keyboard, moving them to her lap, clenching and unclenching her hands, slowing her breathing. Outside, the wind begins to die down.
Hopefully no-one saw.
Renovations
The Rune Man wears a hoodie, jeans, and scuffed trainers. August isn’t supposed to be here while he’s working, but she snuck out to watch from the steps. He squats next to the first fencepost, and takes out a knife.
Mum and Dad argued yesterday – Dad ranting about “unsavory characters”, and Mum insisting that she’d always had protective runes on her fences and wasn’t stopping now. Mum won.
The knife carves deep lines into the wood, and the Rune Man lays his hand over them. Then he glances at August, grinning. “Six more to go.”
He doesn’t seem that dangerous.
Touch
Cooper is a terrier with light brown fur and the loveliest nature in the world. He follows Jack everywhere, and Jack adores him.
It was supposed to last forever.
The car speeds off without even checking and Jack drops to his knees, frantic. “Coop…”
Cooper whimpers, trying to wag his tail, but he’s in too much pain, and Jack can already see the life starting to slip away from him.
Jack’s fingers – firey hot – touch his dog, and he feels energy flow through him, trying, searching…
But nothing happens. The light fades from Cooper’s eyes, and Jack sits there, sobbing.
Awake
Eyes closed. Hands held. Breath slowed.
“Feel the earth beneath you. The trees around you. The sky above,” Trix instructs. “Concentrate. Feel the essence of the world, and connect to it.”
They’re sitting in a hopefully hidden corner of the school grounds. August snuck in and asked if Trix would show her “something”. Couldn’t be more specific without getting them both suspended. If someone heard…
But Trix shrugged, put out her cigarette, and grabbed August’s hands.
And now August sits, eyes closed, world spinning, feeling the earth, the trees, the roots, the leaves, the life…
She gasps, and lets go.
I'd love it if you friendly people could have a read…
Forbidden
The apple tree on Carden Street is off-limits. August has always known this. And yet…
Apples grow red, green, and sort of golden-orange, with twisty branches curling their way towards sunlight and a blue-green moss crawling across the lower trunk. It looks mysterious, and delightful, and not at all like an apple tree. “Wilde-grown” is the term – mothers mutter it to their children as they pull them away. One does not eat something Wilde-grown.
And so the apples remain untouched, growing ripe and then falling to the earth, unmolested.
And each day, August wishes she was allowed to eat one.
Stress
This homework assignment is kicking Tegan’s arse. She sits at her table, trying to concentrate, to ignore the girls chatting next to her (it’s a study space, why are they chatting?), to get words out of her brain and into text, stress levels rising…
“Shit, look at that wind!” someone exclaims. The trees outside are suddenly tossing around in a gale, and the window begins to shake.
Damn. Not again.
Tegan lifts her fingers from her keyboard, moving them to her lap, clenching and unclenching her hands, slowing her breathing. Outside, the wind begins to die down.
Hopefully no-one saw.
Renovations
The Rune Man wears a hoodie, jeans, and scuffed trainers. August isn’t supposed to be here while he’s working, but she snuck out to watch from the steps. He squats next to the first fencepost, and takes out a knife.
Mum and Dad argued yesterday – Dad ranting about “unsavory characters”, and Mum insisting that she’d always had protective runes on her fences and wasn’t stopping now. Mum won.
The knife carves deep lines into the wood, and the Rune Man lays his hand over them. Then he glances at August, grinning. “Six more to go.”
He doesn’t seem that dangerous.
Touch
Cooper is a terrier with light brown fur and the loveliest nature in the world. He follows Jack everywhere, and Jack adores him.
It was supposed to last forever.
The car speeds off without even checking and Jack drops to his knees, frantic. “Coop…”
Cooper whimpers, trying to wag his tail, but he’s in too much pain, and Jack can already see the life starting to slip away from him.
Jack’s fingers – firey hot – touch his dog, and he feels energy flow through him, trying, searching…
But nothing happens. The light fades from Cooper’s eyes, and Jack sits there, sobbing.
Awake
Eyes closed. Hands held. Breath slowed.
“Feel the earth beneath you. The trees around you. The sky above,” Trix instructs. “Concentrate. Feel the essence of the world, and connect to it.”
They’re sitting in a hopefully hidden corner of the school grounds. August snuck in and asked if Trix would show her “something”. Couldn’t be more specific without getting them both suspended. If someone heard…
But Trix shrugged, put out her cigarette, and grabbed August’s hands.
And now August sits, eyes closed, world spinning, feeling the earth, the trees, the roots, the leaves, the life…
She gasps, and lets go.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2026-01-14 02:17 am (UTC)I will have to put DeLint on my reading list.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2026-01-14 02:26 am (UTC)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Lint
But look for him in any used book store and you'll probably find something. Check both D and L sections of Fantasy because he can appear in either. It's also a tossup whether it gets filed in Adult or Young Adult, regardless of what the book is technically supposed to be.