Stories written by PMMG that can be found in various forum threads on the site.
The 100 word story Challenge
Leaf Girl
I touch her, my little leaf girl.
With hands of stone, I caress. Her hips, her waist, the tips of her breasts. But I dare not touch too hard, for she is not like me…
The wind blows, and she swirls from my grasp. A thousand bits of wetted color, and then reforms with a gaze and a smile that beckons.
"Come," she says, "to where life is wild, and wind blows free."
But I am the mountain, and upon me are living things. I cannot go.
And then she is gone.
My hands fall open.
My little leaf girl.
The 100 Word Story Challenge
Christmas Night
"I don’t believe in you," said the girl in the pink princess jammies, with a stuffed bear in her arms.
"You don’t?" said the fat man in the red outfit.
"No one believes in you."
"Oh," he said.
"My friends at school say only babies believe in Christmas, and my mother says it’s all fake, you and all that baby Jesus crap."
"I see," he said.
The two stared at each other, she glaring, he unsure...
"Well," she said. "What are you doing here?"
"It’s Christmas," he said. "I brought you something."
She grinned.
“Merry Christmas, Anna.”
“Merry Christmas, Santa.”
Wintery Poem Challenge
A Leaf in Winter
Alone to shiver on clawed branch high
One shell 'neath glinting snow
To fall to earth where all leaves die
or cling as life does go
Wind blasts cold 'gainst tenuous hold
a thousand times on longest night
and colors fade to brown from gold
As grasp gives way to flight
A Leaf in Winter 2
The wind blows wet beneath the trees
Hold fast and give no ground
A lone girl stands with sword unsheathed
A leaf in wintery gown
And stand we near in dreadful pause
as men-like-monsters leer
A final stand, a hopeless cause
a frightened hand to spear
A hero she, we've heard the tales
A sword that burns with light
and they know too, from blood-let trails
of warbands set to flight
The wind blows cold, but nothing breaks
Not man or calm or will
Save one last leaf of winter's shakes
That drifts before the still
Words Name or Dare mini-Challenge
Professor Aderath Belmonty
Challenge: Key words: pendant, muffled, and chipmunk. Name: Aderath Belmonty, Professor of Bounty Hunting. Dare: Write a fight scene without weapons.
Professor Aderath Belmonty stuffed the chipmunk under his arm, squeezing until its cries were muffled. He threw down the pendant that he had used to hypnotize it and turned to the class. "There," he said with a grin. "Never discount the value of even simple items when it comes to subduing your prey. These little rodents may not look like much, but they can fight like demons, and their heads fetch a fair bounty on the black market."
But no sooner did those words leave his lips than the critter sprang back to life, its tiny claws pressing through the fabric of his shirt, its teeth gnashing against his arm. The Professor gave out a cry as he tried to fling it away, but it just clung to and raced up his arm. Furiously, he clawed at it as he fell to the floor, and the creature just gnashed and gnashed. Blood spurted, and feral sounds raged out. The professors screams rang loud and long.
"Professor Belmonty," one of his students stood to ask. "Couldn't we just use a gun?"
Rosemary
Challenge: Key words: Altar, Goblin, Rosemary
Rosemary walked in the dank corridor with her head low. Her companion, only a few steps behind, his lips parting into a cruel smile. Darkness shown in the empty space ahead, darkness and single ray of dim light filtering down, lighting the altar.
"Remember," Her goblin companion spoke. "You promised it would be willing."
Rosemary took a breath, and shakily let it out.
"It was our bargain," he spoke again, a whisper more than words. "You said anything, and I did set him free."
"Yes," she said. "I know what I promised."
His smile widened, his sharp needle-like teeth becoming bared. He pulled a small knife from its leather home in his hand. "Then go," he said.
She took the steps he required, along the remaining rock pathway, and up upon the mound where skulls held a cold stone slab aloft. A sacrifice, nothing more. A sacrifce and she would be free too, and the Goblin could make his hellish summons.
At the top, she disrobed and stood in the dim light like a pale ghost, virgin flesh ready for the gods. Her heart pounded, and her breaths became fearful. She turned, and heard the knife drop. And then she knew. There would be no sacrifice today. He had made other plans.
Rosemary 2
Challenge: Pick any three characters who've appeared in this thread and write a story that includes all of them.
Rosemary held the knife. Blood dripped from its length. The goblin that had enslaved her, dead at her feet. She felt nothing.
A thick chain dragged the floor as she moved about the cave. It took only a moment for her to gain the hammer and beat the chains away. She looked back at her captor and shuddered. All she had endured, all she had hoped...now a dead memory poisoning her inside. She dressed. She left.
Outside, in the light of a sun she had not seen in so long, she saw only waste and dead land. Ochre growth and loose dirt from here to the horizon. But then also a cloud moving along the plain. Her eyes wide, her disbelief that it could be real. And…she ran to it. Sore feet and bruised legs beneath decrepit rags, she looked a wight upon the open steppe.
Screaming and waving her hands, they saw her. A man on a horse rode at her before the others, and came to stop before her. He looked down with surprise and pity. "I am Drake Mercer," he said. "We’ve all been looking for you. Good God, do you still live?"
He took her onto his horse and rode her back to his troop, and to his commander.
Karl Alglasi, a Bogatyr even she had known for his stupidity.
"Look," screamed Karl, waving his arms to all. "Drake has saved the Princess!"
Rosemary looked on him with scorn. Funny word 'saved'.
The Minotaur
Challenge: Must include, a labyrinth, a radio transmitter, a tiger.
"There is no way out," Minotaur spoke into the transmitter, his tinny voice ringing out over the maze.
On his screen, a youth walked down another long corridor, coming to a fork; a long spool of string dangling in one hand, a short xiphos in the other.
"What good is string when the labyrinth can change?"
The youth looked at it, as if questioning, but then let it unspool more an went down the left hall.
"Left of right, they both lead to doom."
The youth entered a room with a fountain and two doors. The fountain bore the figure of a lion, twice the size of the youth, with ripping claws and bared fangs. One door left and one right.
Minotaur laughed into the microphone. "Beware brave suitor, one door leads to death, the other and the maze will continue. A hint, choose left."
The youth hesitated. He looked at the left door and then the right, but seemed untrusting.
"It makes no difference to me," said Minotaur. "You will not survive either way. If you move past this puzzle, I shall slay you instead. Better the lion."
The youth gave no reaction. He studied the doors, and tested them with his hand. Then he looked to the fountain. Stones along the rim marked points facing the doors, and beside them a depression. The youth put his hand to one, and the lion statue started to rotate left.
"Yes," said Minotaur. "Choose left."
The youth stopped and looked about the basin and monument.
"She doesn't love you."
He stopped and looked up, it seemed he was stirred.
"She is here with me. She prefers me."
The youth frowned, and shook his head in disbelief.
"Shall I let her speak?"
The youth stopped, his face contorted into a questioning frame.
"Theseus....Theseus," a new voice rang out. "This is Ariadne. Choose right."
He stepped forward, his mouth agape. Then he looked to the right door, but still he hesitated.
"Yes," said Minotaur, "Who to believe? Would she betray you, or did I speak true that she is here and prefers me?"
He stepped towards the right door, but stopped and looked anguished.
"I will leave you now," said Minotaur. "I'll be waiting in the maze if you survive."
The youth turned to look about, and then crouched and buried his head in his hands. What choice to make?
The 100 word story Challenge
Leaf Girl
I touch her, my little leaf girl.
With hands of stone, I caress. Her hips, her waist, the tips of her breasts. But I dare not touch too hard, for she is not like me…
The wind blows, and she swirls from my grasp. A thousand bits of wetted color, and then reforms with a gaze and a smile that beckons.
"Come," she says, "to where life is wild, and wind blows free."
But I am the mountain, and upon me are living things. I cannot go.
And then she is gone.
My hands fall open.
My little leaf girl.
The 100 Word Story Challenge
Christmas Night
"I don’t believe in you," said the girl in the pink princess jammies, with a stuffed bear in her arms.
"You don’t?" said the fat man in the red outfit.
"No one believes in you."
"Oh," he said.
"My friends at school say only babies believe in Christmas, and my mother says it’s all fake, you and all that baby Jesus crap."
"I see," he said.
The two stared at each other, she glaring, he unsure...
"Well," she said. "What are you doing here?"
"It’s Christmas," he said. "I brought you something."
She grinned.
“Merry Christmas, Anna.”
“Merry Christmas, Santa.”
Wintery Poem Challenge
A Leaf in Winter
Alone to shiver on clawed branch high
One shell 'neath glinting snow
To fall to earth where all leaves die
or cling as life does go
Wind blasts cold 'gainst tenuous hold
a thousand times on longest night
and colors fade to brown from gold
As grasp gives way to flight
A Leaf in Winter 2
The wind blows wet beneath the trees
Hold fast and give no ground
A lone girl stands with sword unsheathed
A leaf in wintery gown
And stand we near in dreadful pause
as men-like-monsters leer
A final stand, a hopeless cause
a frightened hand to spear
A hero she, we've heard the tales
A sword that burns with light
and they know too, from blood-let trails
of warbands set to flight
The wind blows cold, but nothing breaks
Not man or calm or will
Save one last leaf of winter's shakes
That drifts before the still
Words Name or Dare mini-Challenge
Professor Aderath Belmonty
Challenge: Key words: pendant, muffled, and chipmunk. Name: Aderath Belmonty, Professor of Bounty Hunting. Dare: Write a fight scene without weapons.
Professor Aderath Belmonty stuffed the chipmunk under his arm, squeezing until its cries were muffled. He threw down the pendant that he had used to hypnotize it and turned to the class. "There," he said with a grin. "Never discount the value of even simple items when it comes to subduing your prey. These little rodents may not look like much, but they can fight like demons, and their heads fetch a fair bounty on the black market."
But no sooner did those words leave his lips than the critter sprang back to life, its tiny claws pressing through the fabric of his shirt, its teeth gnashing against his arm. The Professor gave out a cry as he tried to fling it away, but it just clung to and raced up his arm. Furiously, he clawed at it as he fell to the floor, and the creature just gnashed and gnashed. Blood spurted, and feral sounds raged out. The professors screams rang loud and long.
"Professor Belmonty," one of his students stood to ask. "Couldn't we just use a gun?"
Rosemary
Challenge: Key words: Altar, Goblin, Rosemary
Rosemary walked in the dank corridor with her head low. Her companion, only a few steps behind, his lips parting into a cruel smile. Darkness shown in the empty space ahead, darkness and single ray of dim light filtering down, lighting the altar.
"Remember," Her goblin companion spoke. "You promised it would be willing."
Rosemary took a breath, and shakily let it out.
"It was our bargain," he spoke again, a whisper more than words. "You said anything, and I did set him free."
"Yes," she said. "I know what I promised."
His smile widened, his sharp needle-like teeth becoming bared. He pulled a small knife from its leather home in his hand. "Then go," he said.
She took the steps he required, along the remaining rock pathway, and up upon the mound where skulls held a cold stone slab aloft. A sacrifice, nothing more. A sacrifce and she would be free too, and the Goblin could make his hellish summons.
At the top, she disrobed and stood in the dim light like a pale ghost, virgin flesh ready for the gods. Her heart pounded, and her breaths became fearful. She turned, and heard the knife drop. And then she knew. There would be no sacrifice today. He had made other plans.
Rosemary 2
Challenge: Pick any three characters who've appeared in this thread and write a story that includes all of them.
Rosemary held the knife. Blood dripped from its length. The goblin that had enslaved her, dead at her feet. She felt nothing.
A thick chain dragged the floor as she moved about the cave. It took only a moment for her to gain the hammer and beat the chains away. She looked back at her captor and shuddered. All she had endured, all she had hoped...now a dead memory poisoning her inside. She dressed. She left.
Outside, in the light of a sun she had not seen in so long, she saw only waste and dead land. Ochre growth and loose dirt from here to the horizon. But then also a cloud moving along the plain. Her eyes wide, her disbelief that it could be real. And…she ran to it. Sore feet and bruised legs beneath decrepit rags, she looked a wight upon the open steppe.
Screaming and waving her hands, they saw her. A man on a horse rode at her before the others, and came to stop before her. He looked down with surprise and pity. "I am Drake Mercer," he said. "We’ve all been looking for you. Good God, do you still live?"
He took her onto his horse and rode her back to his troop, and to his commander.
Karl Alglasi, a Bogatyr even she had known for his stupidity.
"Look," screamed Karl, waving his arms to all. "Drake has saved the Princess!"
Rosemary looked on him with scorn. Funny word 'saved'.
The Minotaur
Challenge: Must include, a labyrinth, a radio transmitter, a tiger.
"There is no way out," Minotaur spoke into the transmitter, his tinny voice ringing out over the maze.
On his screen, a youth walked down another long corridor, coming to a fork; a long spool of string dangling in one hand, a short xiphos in the other.
"What good is string when the labyrinth can change?"
The youth looked at it, as if questioning, but then let it unspool more an went down the left hall.
"Left of right, they both lead to doom."
The youth entered a room with a fountain and two doors. The fountain bore the figure of a lion, twice the size of the youth, with ripping claws and bared fangs. One door left and one right.
Minotaur laughed into the microphone. "Beware brave suitor, one door leads to death, the other and the maze will continue. A hint, choose left."
The youth hesitated. He looked at the left door and then the right, but seemed untrusting.
"It makes no difference to me," said Minotaur. "You will not survive either way. If you move past this puzzle, I shall slay you instead. Better the lion."
The youth gave no reaction. He studied the doors, and tested them with his hand. Then he looked to the fountain. Stones along the rim marked points facing the doors, and beside them a depression. The youth put his hand to one, and the lion statue started to rotate left.
"Yes," said Minotaur. "Choose left."
The youth stopped and looked about the basin and monument.
"She doesn't love you."
He stopped and looked up, it seemed he was stirred.
"She is here with me. She prefers me."
The youth frowned, and shook his head in disbelief.
"Shall I let her speak?"
The youth stopped, his face contorted into a questioning frame.
"Theseus....Theseus," a new voice rang out. "This is Ariadne. Choose right."
He stepped forward, his mouth agape. Then he looked to the right door, but still he hesitated.
"Yes," said Minotaur, "Who to believe? Would she betray you, or did I speak true that she is here and prefers me?"
He stepped towards the right door, but stopped and looked anguished.
"I will leave you now," said Minotaur. "I'll be waiting in the maze if you survive."
The youth turned to look about, and then crouched and buried his head in his hands. What choice to make?
