Lazette Gifford's Blog, page 31

Flash Fiction #426 -- The Fae Underground/2

  I saw her eyes narrow and her hair move -- though there was no breeze strong enough to ruffle it.  She had not, however, made a move against me.  I suspected that my question had touched on something else that bothered her."There are matters which have drawn me here, perhaps on a more direct path than you," she replied.  Then she looked at the crevice.  Shall we go inside?"I nodded agreement. 

Flash Fiction # 425 -- The Fae Underground/1

 Once upon a time, I was a fae lord's son -- but I did something stupid, so they exiled me into the human lands. That's the official story, anyway.Nothing in the faelands is ever that simple.  The few fae I've encountered on this side the veil look curiously at me when they hear the story, but I've kept to it.The truth is that I did do something stupid -- but I did it on purpose so that the

Flash Fiction # 424 -- Anything but Ordinary

 My granddad was the one who made the arrangements through some site on the Internet.  He'd been known to make odd deals all his life.  I liked the jovial old man, even if the rest of the family tried to keep their distance.I am a cross country truck driver, though, and I stop if I am within 100 miles of the old homestead just over the Texas border from Oklahoma.  Most people driving within a

Flash Fiction # 423 -- Keri and the Military

 The Captain of the Chicago shouldn't have gone out of his way to annoy Keri.  Casis knew Keri was a psi heading to Terra Nova to help settle some trouble. Apparently, it never occurred to him that his ship might be the problem.  Over the next three days, Keri had to decide what was going on aboard the ship.Kessie, second in command, escorted him to a room and sealed the door without a word.  He

Flash Fiction # 422 -- Cha on Harron

  Being the IWC's top eco scientist was not a glamorous job, but Cha did get to see many worlds -- just not at their best most times.Half of the Harron fields had died before the locals asked for outside help.  Looking at the dead plants depressed Ecotech Cha Hao Chan as he knelt and pulled out his pocketcomp.  Iler, the local who had brought him out to the field, fell silent and looked both

The Angst of Hero Naming

 (I haven't shared this for a long time.  I hope you enjoy it!)<!--[if gte mso 9]>

Flash Fiction # 421 -- Dancer Decides

  (This scene takes place not long before the opening of Devlin's Team 1: Dancer)Dancer had expected the summons.  Governor Spring was predictable and always called for him a few hours before the show -- at least for the last ten or so dances.  She was not a happy woman, and Dancer had no intention of improving her mood.This wouldn't go on for much longer, though.  There would be only one more

Flash Fiction # 420: Devlin at Work

 Some people were just born stupid, and Councilor Trask turned out to be one of the top members of that group. He possessed nothing more than feral cunning and had bought a position high enough in Government to hide his secrets, at least for a while.  The man did not plan his attacks, but only waited where he knew his prey must pass.  On a world with a more significant policing force, he would

Flash Fiction #419/Gender (drabble)

 Four thousand years from now, a humanoid walks along a ridge, studying the ground for sign of past habitation. This One, gender not yet evolved, has a theory that humanity lived in a complex binary gender system for millennia before they evolved into true humans.  Others mock One for believing childish myths.Impossible, Others say.  The ancestors held adequate intelligence to see multiple

Flash Fiction #418/Later

The became foul, and the earth grew less fallow.  Storms and earthquakes destroyed cities and ruined farmlands.A remnant of humanity -- their old wars forgotten -- retreated deep into the earth.  They devised technology to help them survive the coming years ... the coming generations. It was a harsh life, but they tapped aquifers for water and lived mostly on fungus.At last, they dared to step