Fiction | Writing Prompts | Fantasy

Burned

A fantasy flash-fiction story

This story is for Bradan Writes Stories’s Monday Mashup #6:

I toss an apple in my hand. “I gotta hurry today,” I say. “The Duke’s reservists moves out tomorrow, and I’m tasked with measuring up over five hundred new tabards.”

“Wage slave!” hisses my sister, Shekarbana.

My father smiles serenely through his elven locks at the head of the breakfast table, while my mother twitches and mutters darkly in gobbledegook.

I slowly look around at Shekarbana, feeling annoyance rise. “Someone has to earn a few silver moons for this family, sister.”

She hisses in response.

Our diverse family would roll along well enough if not for Shekarbana. She’s an ogre, and never fails to pick a fight. Today I’m not in the mood, and point at the lumpy burned mess in a bowl in front of her. “What’s that? It stinks.”

She snarls wetly for a moment, then replies: “Cheese-flavored cereal. Well cooked.”

“Can’t you eat anything that isn’t charred?”

In response, she thumps me hard with her huge elbow, causing me to sway back, then points a very large finger at my apple. “Brother is fussy eater.”

I grunt. There is some truth in her accusation.

“Back home, we used to make apples into sandwiches,” says my father, speaking for the first time in days. “Sliced ever so thinly, and layered with spiced bread. The more layers the better.”

“Charred?” asks Shekarbana.

Father shakes his head slowly. “Never. The freshest of herbs, the thinnest of slices of apple, and a scattering of hot capers in the centre. Mm-mmm!”

Now Shekarbana stands, and snatches the apple from my hand. “Charred!”

“No no, I said…” Father doesn’t finish his sentence; the apple, thrown so hard by Shekarbana that it travels almost in a straight line, smacks him straight in the centre of his forehead, and he pitches backwards off his chair.

As mother leaps down and checks on him, I am already making for the door, anticipating escalation. And almost immediately, pieces of burned cheese-flavored cereal begin to be pelted at me.

I slam the door behind me and walk out into the city, hearing another yell of “Charred!” ringing in my ears.

I really need to get my own place.

Theme 2: Just another day in the life-your parents are a goblin and an elf. Your adopted sister is an ogre. It’s breakfast time (2 pts)
Food that doesn’t need to be cooked is burnt (1pt).
A food fight happens and someone is physically harmed from it (1pt).
Someone is a picky eater (1pt).
Introduce a “new” flavor of something - the cereal (1pt).
Hardcore Constraint: step-by-step instructions to make a sandwich (2pts).
Include a run-down of my score (1pt).
TOTAL: 9 pts.

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