The Knights of MicroFiction has returned!
Hosted by Jess at Write. Skate. Dream. and Kathy of Imagine Today, this prompt runs on the 13th of every month.
They reveal the prompts on that day and give until midnight on the 15th to post a reply. By the 17th, they’ve chosen two winners to be featured on their blogs.
Visit either link to read more flash fiction from others. Links will be in the comments.
Today’s prompt is: Write a Micro-Fiction/Flash Fiction of 200 words or less beginning with these words: “Her eyes shot open…”
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I chose to knick a piece from The Rogue King. It’s 200 words exactly.
Her eyes shot open. Flickering torchlight, near blinding in intensity, stabbed into her brain. How long had she been laying here? Where was here? She struggled to lift her head, neck sluggish in its response. The rest of her body seemed numb. Had some sick beast paralysed her then?
Awareness hit her mind as if finally realising she could feel again. She groaned at the unexplained agony in her bones. What had happened? She couldn’t recall much beyond darkness and fire. And a shadow …
The sound of wet gravel rolling over itself filled her ears. Was it meant to be laughter? How could something sound so wrong? “Welcome back,” the voice grated.
Lasil turned her head to see the same creature she’d first met upon entering Defora. She tried to move, the clanking of metal on wood greeting her movements. A glance up revealed she was manacled to what appeared to be a table. No. A rack. She fought against the restraints, grimacing as the heavy metal bit into her wrists.
The being laughed again. “You cannot free yourself from the bonds.”
She ignored him and wriggled some more. The hard iron continued sawing its way into her yielding flesh.
Aldrea Alien 
As someone who struggles with flashfiction, I'm impressed you managed to convey so many different emotions in just 200 words. Excellent excerpt.
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I struggled with flash fiction at first. I'm a wordy person at heart. Given the opportunity, I will take twice as many words to describe something. Getting better at not doing that all the time.
Thanks for reading. ^_^
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That was intense! You made it creepy without being over the top, I'm also intrigued about the book it comes from. New follower here from Kathy's blog, I'm also doing the KOMF. 🙂
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You've got me wanting more! Does Lasil have a trick up her sleeve? I hope she gets out. Great entry!
Thanks so much for participating! 🙂
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Very nice! Have you published The Rogue King? It sounds like a great read!
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I love how you used the words, filling the post with everything that makes it believable. And brilliant! 🙂 Like you, I use a lot of words too, but I'm glad I participated… Learning new things is a 'yayy' for me! 😉
New follower!
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Hey there new follower. And thank you ^_^
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Sadly, not yet. But don't worry, she'll get her own back. ^_^
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No, it's not published. My ultimate goal is to have this work published. Not many want to touch it because it's a) 187,000 words long, b) too different.
I've sort of put it to one side while writing smaller works.
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Thanks for reading. ^_^
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Hm. 187K? That sounds like 2 or 3 books shoved into one. I bet you could split it up and get it out there. AND I'm betting you can find a niche publisher for something that's “different”. They do exist.
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Can't say I didn't think about splitting it in two, but it looks like it, if you get my meaning.
I've already had one sci-fi/fantasy specific indie publisher turn it down. Despite liking it and considering for some time, they finally decided it would be a bit of a marketing risk for them. -_-
I've since sent it off to Tor. Fingers crossed that they want to see more.
It's okay if they don't though. It's 15 years old now, I can handle it waiting until the time is right. But if I finally run out of people to sent it to, I'll have a serious look into publishing it.
Who knows, maybe I'll have published something else by then. Have a good feeling about DOM.
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Oheee! I feel her pain. Will she be released? Nasty you for leaving us hanging! Great flash. D,
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Heh. I is evil. >:)
Thanks. ^_^
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