Hello, friends! Welcome back to a new week of inspiration, mild frustration, and thought-provocation from those Odd Folk who write, fantasize, and generate strange new ideas…some of which are occasionally inspiring, frustrating, and/or thought-provoking.
Thus the creative cycle continues. Shall we get to the prompts?
| Nudge | Stick | Reaction |
| Fiona Grey | “You don’t want to know what happens next.” | nother Mike |
| AC Young | “Welcome to the first lecture of the Time Engineering course.” | Leigh Kimmel |
| Becky Jones | It was leprechauns all the way down. | Fiona Grey |
| Padre | The squirrel gave her a look of absolute disdain, then scampered around the tree and out of sight. | AC Young |
| Leigh Kimmel | The song “Venus” by Shocking Blue https://g.co/kgs/K8Fgkg and the cover version by Bananarama https://g.co/kgs/VcbDHj | Becky Jones |
| nother Mike | Crickets to the left of me, crickets to the right of me, here I am, stuck in the middle with you! https://g.co/kgs/jXv4NN | Padre |
Feeling Odd yourself? Anyone can join — just email oddprompts@gmail.com with your prompt idea. Feeling shy? Answering the call to inspiration without the time to create yourself? Just add “spare” to the subject line to send in a prompt, obligation-free! Feeling inspired? Grab a prompt and join the fun!
| Spare | The gargoyle poked his head around the corner. “Clear.” |
| Spare | The kitten instantly doubled in size |
| Spare | On the wings of a dragonfly |
| Spare | Then the witch came out of the broom closet… |
| Spare | The first time traveller stepped out of the portal, and smashed a bug. The portal vanished… |
| Spare | Collecting the trash in Magic Academy was not for the faint-hearted. |
Post your ideas and ideations in the comments!
Header image by Fiona Grey
More Odds Than Ends 
Padre nudged me this week with: The squirrel gave her a look of absolute disdain, then scampered around the tree and out of sight.
In week 15, 2021 I started the Challenges of Artemis, and in week 22, 2021 I wrote the second challenge. The story has lain fallow for more than two years, but this week I was inspired to write the third challenge of Artemis.
—
Alice awoke the next morning feeling very relieved that the third challenge hadn’t been scheduled for the previous afternoon. The second challenge had proved very tiring, and Alice had needed yesterday’s midday and evening meals to rebuild her energy stocks.
She dressed herself once more in blue and white – the colours of her air and water abilities – and headed down to the Palace Dining Room for breakfast. En route she was joined by Amanda, dressed once more in the red of fire.
Today Artemis wasn’t eating as they entered the room, but after the pair had eaten their fill the Adjudicator of the Challenges escorted them to the Throne Room.
Artemis was once more awaiting them, seated on her throne between the pegasus and the hind.
“Your third challenge is to claim the golden nut.”
Alice and Amanda looked at each other, but neither said anything. Either things would become clear with time, or not, but either way Artemis wasn’t going to give them any further information.
The Adjudicator of the Challenges guided the pair through the palace to a door they hadn’t seen before. He unlocked the door and gestured that they should proceed through.
Alice and Amanda found themselves at the edge of a grove of hazel trees.
“New humans. How nice.”
Both Alice and Amanda started. They looked around, and soon spotted that they were being addressed by a squirrel, one with primarily red-brown fur, but black ears and long bushy tail.
“Good morning,” said Alice.
“Is it? I haven’t found any nuts yet. Are you looking for nuts?”
“Yes,” said Alice, “we’re looking for a golden nut.”
“Ooohhh. The golden nut. Can you climb?”
“Not very well.”
“Then you’re not going to get very far, are you?” The squirrel gave them a look of disdain, then ran around the tree and vanished from their sight amongst the trees.
Alice looked across at Amanda. “That wasn’t very helpful.”
“Perhaps it’s up there?” Amanda pointed at the canopy.
“Shall we look?”
The pair headed into the trees, and looked up into the branches. There were a fair few hazelnuts still around, but none were particularly golden.
They kept looking, but no golden nut appeared to their sight. Just as they were about to give up, in the middle of the grove, in the tallest tree they had yet seen, they spied it.
The golden nut was at the very peak of the tree, right at the end of the tree’s thinnest branches.
“We’re not going to be able to climb up there,” remarked Amanda.
“No, but I think I can lift you up there, and then you can grab it.”
“I hate heights!”
“Sorry, lifting oneself with air is too dangerous. It’ll have to be you.”
“So be it.” Amanda resigned herself to her fate.
Alice concentrated. Getting the air to move in a controlled way to lift only what she wanted to lift was one of the hardest things an air mage could do. The air had to be drawn in from a wide area, to minimise the damage caused by incoming winds. Then it had to be concentrated under and around the object (or in this case person) to be lifted. People were harder to lift because there were much tighter limits to how much the air could be compressed – too much and the person being lifted could be killed by excessive air pressure. Only then could the person be lifted by directing the air upwards. Once the person was in the air, controlling the currents enabled the person to be moved with control.
It took a few minutes, but Amanda took to the air. The surprise at suddenly lifting off the ground caused her to gasp. This was why no-one lifted themselves – the surprise was almost impossible to avoid and almost always caused the person being lifted to lose control of the air, with the potential danger of suddenly shooting off at speed in the wrong direction and colliding with things unexpectedly.
Alice focused even more. As she manipulated the air Amanda rose smoothly to the top of the tree, and then Alice moved her sideways till she was close enough to the elusive golden nut to reach out and touch it.
“You need to open your eyes now!” Alice yelled up at her.
Amanda had closed her eyes soon after taking to the air. She now opened them, and was nearly paralysed with fear, she was so high off the ground.
“I trust Alice. I trust Alice. I trust Alice,” she found herself murmuring to herself over and over again.
Because she did trust Alice, Amanda forced herself to reach out and grab the golden nut. It felt like it was actually made of metal, rather than a normal hazelnut. She tugged, but it wouldn’t come away from the branch.
“I trust Alice. I trust Alice.” There must be some solution. A magic solution. She was a pyromagiac, but burning the whole grove down didn’t seem sensible.
“I trust Alice.” A laser perhaps? Amanda forced herself to concentrate. Lasers were tricky because despite their effects they were really light and not fire.
“I trust Alice. I trust Alice.” She managed it. But it only burned through half the twig. The golden nut was still attached.
“I trust Alice.” Again. This time the laser beam cut the rest of the twig. The golden nut came away in her hand.
With much relief she closed her eyes once more and called down to Alice “I’ve got it!”
Alice carefully brought Amanda back to the ground. No sooner had Amanda’s feet touched terra firma than Alice released the air, and fell to her hands and knees, nearly exhausted with the strain of what she’d just done.
Amanda opened her eyes once more, slipped the golden nut into a pocket, then looked around. Upon seeing Alice, she ran over to her, and hugged her tight.
“Let’s get you out of here.” Amanda helped Alice to her feet. Then she helped Alice to stumble back through the grove.
It took minutes, but eventually they were back out, in front of the door they’d passed through earlier. Amanda knocked on the door.
She knocked on the door again.
Just before she had had enough, and was about to set the door on fire to burn her way through it, it opened.
The Adjudicator of the Challenges held out his hand. Amanda wasn’t sure what he wanted for a few seconds, then she remembered the nut. She got it out of her pocket and handed it to the Adjudicator.
“Congratulations on completing the third challenge. If you will follow me, you have some time to rest before your midday meal.”
Amanda helped the exhausted Alice to follow the Adjudicator. Both hoped they’d have plenty of time to rest before the fourth challenge.
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Now to do the other nine? Nice!
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Fiona Grey prompted…
“You don’t want to know what happens next.”
[that’s when the lights went out? The page ended… Oh, no, a cliffhanger with no next page… ]
There we were, standing on the corner, minding our own business, when…
You don’t want to know what happened next!
This big black SUV pulls up beside us, and this dude sticks a Tommy gun out the window, and says, “You don’t want to know what happens next!”
Another dude jumps out of the back and waves us into the car. What do you think, we’re going to shake our heads and refuse? No, we jumped in the car, he shoves in beside us and slams the door, and the driver hits the gas. Just about the same time the guy with the gun pulls the trigger and fires off a blast!
You don’t want to know what happened next…
So, we go tearing through the center of town, with this crazy guy hanging half out of the car, shooting off that gun every little bit. Then it quit.
Seriously, you don’t want to know what happened next.
See, the crazy guy drops back in his seat, pulls the gun in, and mutters, “Out of ammo!” Then he pulls the magazine off the gun, drops it, and picks up another one from the floor, where he had a bag full of loaded ones. He slams it in the gun, pulls the handle back, sticks it out the window, and… let’s off another little burst, just to check if his gun is working, I guess.
The driver looks over at him, and says, “Hey, you don’t want to know what happens next!” Then he spins around a corner, and stomps on the brakes.
His buddy yanks the door open, jumps out, and… waves for us to get out. So we jump out. We’re back on the corner where we started!
You don’t want to know what happened next.
Yeah, you guessed it. The guy with the gun shoots a blast up into the sky, the other dude jumps back in and slams the door, and… they drove off into the sunset. Leaving us behind, wondering what just happened.
So, if you see a big black SUV with a crazy guy and a gun, really, take it from somebody who’s been there, you don’t want to know what happens next. Just close your eyes and hope they don’t stop on your corner.
[Well, that’s one story…]
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If a random stranger can participate too–I lit on the spare dragonfly prompt tonight and had a few ideas.
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The more the merrier, or something like that! Sure, join in!
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As one who was once a random stranger here too, welcome! Please continue to respond.
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Of course! Welcome! And that’s a lovely response!
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[…] here and here. Interested in what others are doing with their prompt challenges? Mosey on over to More Odds Than Ends and check out this weeks challenge […]
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Oh, oh! Ancient aliens in Greece? Or maybe the gods were aliens? Huh… what secrets lurk in the ruins!
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And now mine’s up on my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/1354823.html. If I hadn’t been so busy with a convention, I might’ve been able to spend a little time getting back into Amanda Lordsley’s voice.
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Ah, those students! They give us such interesting little bits …
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[…] this piece with leprechauns all the way down, while nother Mike got my prompt this week, over at MOTE: “You don’t want to know what happens […]
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The frog and the daughter are still riding high! Yay!
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