Fantasy | Fiction | Short story

The Knight and the Kobolds

A flash fiction tale.

This story is a response to the latest ‘Monday Mashup’ challenge, created by Jonathon Sawyer.

Eric might have been new to doing laundry, but he didn’t think it should sound like that.

He knelt down. Something was clattering around inside the drum of the washing machine. A small metal ball, leaping around as if it was alive and buzzing like a bee all the while.

Eric reached inside and grasped the object in his hand. As he did, his entire field of vision flickered and melted. The dorm hall laundry room disappeared in a haze. Now, instead of its concrete floor, he found himself face down in wet and muddy grass.

Slowly, Eric picked himself up, groaning. Had he just had some kind of psychological episode, he asked himself?

But no… Eric could now clearly see that he was not at college any more. Far from it. He was standing in some kind of swampy wetland, with bare rolling brown hills in the distance and a frothing ocean off to his left. Worse, there were sounds of battle.

Close by, a woman in gleaming iron armor sat astride a warhorse. She looked down at him, momentarily confused. “A volunteer for the King’s army?”

“No, I’m just… lost,” replied Eric, heart thumping.

“Ahh..” the woman sighed, then spat. “So’s the battle, more’s the pity.” She raised a telescope to her eye, then sighed once more.

“May I see…?” Eric began, pointing to the telescope.

“Why not?”

She passed it to him. Eric raised it but saw only a mixture of colored shapes. “It’s a kaleidoscope?”

“Twist, then you’ll get a better view,” the knight replied in a half-grunt.

Eric twisted the barrel of the device, and sure enough, the image came into focus, with colored shapes somehow serving to label sections of the battlefield.

To his further astonishment, Eric saw that some of the warring forces weren’t human. The majority of warriors had dog-like faces.

Kobolds?

Their opponents — the surviving human warriors were hard-pressed, too. The humans had formed a hexagonal shield wall around a hillock, with enemies all around. A small group of archers within this area were attempting to fire on the kobolds, but with limited success.

Eric looked back at the knight, only to notice that she was wearing an ugly necklace of black iron, each bead of which looked very much like the buzzing object he had grasped. He looked down, opening his right palm. He was still holding it.

“Is this yours, by any chance?”

The knight’s eyes gleamed as she reached down and plucked the object from Eric’s palm. “Lost, I thought it,” she exclaimed before restoring the metal object to a gap in her necklace. “By our enemies, sent to another world. Thank you, stranger. You could turn the tide of this battle after all.”

“Well, no — I think I…”

“Climb on behind me.”

“But, but…” Eric’s eyes widened at the thought of charging into battle. “I don’t have any armor… and I can’t fight!”

“With the iron magic restored, no kobold will harm either one of us,” she said, holding out a gauntleted hand. “Besides, a reason brought you here.”

“I just need to get home.”

“Victory first. Then home.”

Thanks for the challenge, Jonathon Sawyer! I challenge Mojave Green and J.C. Lovero to have a try.

Score time:

Main prompt #2:
While unloading the washing machine, you fall through into another world! (2 pts, and yes, I was tempted to go 2nd person and CYOA!!)

Constraints:
A buzzing bee (1 pt).
An ugly piece of jewelry (1 pt).
A hexagon (1 pt).
A swamp or similar wetland (1 pt).
This box (1 pt).

Hardcore Constraint:
A Kaleidoscope (2 pts).

Literary Device:
An example of Anastrophe – "Lost, I thought it," and "by our enemies, sent to another world" (5 pts).

TOTAL: 14 pts.

Thanks for reading! You can find much of my other fiction on in this list, or by exploring the Choose Your Own Adventures-Collaboration publication.

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