Instant Story

Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #03237-H328: Down Came a Blackbird

Can we see Rye find their mother please? -- Escla

Somehow, McIrney had got word of what was going on. Somehow, that waste vent figured it out. Then he did something almost unthinkable. He rounded up the surviving parents of any child who had escaped his reign, and held them hostage. And bragged about it.

The assembled mothers and occasional fathers were forced into a throne of flesh, bound together in the most uncomfortable way possible. Supporting the bulk of CEO Harmin McIrney in all his extravagant splendour. Trembling a little, under his weight and the fact that they wore minimal clothing.

"I hear someone's trying to wreak some revenge," he said as an opener. "Someone better be careful about playing with others' toys... or something avoidable could happen to one of these toys. I'll pick one at random until I know who you are... and then... I'll make them suffer."

Support me on Patreon / Buy me a Ko-fi

Continue Reading

Prompts remaining: 98 Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!

Challenge #03236-H327: Centaur of Attention

The humans land in a world where the beings they thought were fantasy, are real. Unicorns and centaurs, sentient dragons and faerie folk, all living and working together in a society that had long since learned to put their differences aside. They welcomed the CRC representatives with open arms. -- Anon Guest

It seemed like a fairly agrarian colonial world, at least according to the scans. The first scout ship landed somewhere out of the way to meet with someone who may

Read more »

Challenge #03235-H326: Pack Bonding Exercises

H: Taking advantage, after long resisting the idea, of their friend's offer, they quietly go into their companion's quarters and crawl in the giant, pillow-filled, nest next to them.

A: Startled, but speaking softly with a tired tone "Hey! What's going on?"

H: "I can't sleep, I had another bad dream, can I stay here tonight?"

A: Gently spoken they smile. "Sure, no problem, I said you could before, didn't I?"

H: "Yeah you did, but I didn't want to bother you.

Read more »

Challenge #03234-H325: Warrior's Honour

"Not like this... NOT LIKE THIS! If I'm going out I'm taking you bastards with me!"

They fly their small, damaged, fighter, the nuclear engine warning of imminent detonation, toward the large hulking warship. It'd been a massive firefight as they defended the escape of the civilians from the raiders.

They awakened in an ICU drawer recovering from radiation poisoning and major injuries. And a military commander's face congratulating them on a job well done. -- Anon Guest

Some lay down their

Read more »

Challenge #03233-H324: Minor Disaster Control

A sleepy human child care provider is trying their damndest to stay awake while watching over a mixed nursery of kids, Havenworlder and Deathworlder, but they have another hour before the malfunctioning door is finally fixed and the parents can come in and collect the kids. - Anon Guest

One more Deregger colony had gone down in flames, as Deregger colonies were wont to do. Their installations would not be wasted, but they did have to be upgraded. People were still moving

Read more »

Challenge #03232-H323: Close Encounters of the Absurd Kind

A level 2 Deathworlder looks much like the old lycanthropes of legend. However, Human children are entranced by their soft fur rather than be afraid. -- Anon Guest

She had heard a word so often that it may well be a slur. The Humans in her aura tended to call her a "werewolf". As far as Mani could tell, they didn't mean anything horrible by it. It was just a nickname. And anyway, Deathworlders tended to stick together with their odd variants

Read more »

Challenge #03231-H322: An Excellent Motivator

Human Ren had gotten out of the ICU drawer and was in physical therapy. His two new friends watched him like a hawk, taking shifts so one could rest while the other looked over him. It may've been a bit of a pain for the physical therapist, but it was astonishing how uplifting it was to have your own cheering section while struggling to regain bodily movement again.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03158-h249-instant-friendship -- Anon Guest

Ren had one reaction to

Read more »

Challenge #03230-H321: One Close Call in a Tourist Destination

The humans were laughing about something. That was, by itself, potential cause for alarm. The contents of their conversation, heard between bouts of laughter, was even more alarming.

"And then, he looked up into my eyes and froze."

"And then?"

"Then he turned, realized that he had to look UP into your eyes, and looked like he was about to mess his pants!"

"And he said something, right? I didn't catch it."

"He apologized for the inconvenience, said he didn't mean anything

Read more »

Challenge #03229-H320: Prepared For Anything

They found a planet that was, at most, a level 1 to level 2 deathworld. It was a cooler planet still within its sun goldilocks zone, but barely. They'd never seen snow, or dealt with cold temperatures. But the humans enjoyed the exploration, seeing all the animals adapted to semi-mild, yet still arctic, conditions, the conifer like trees, and having the occasional snowball fight for laughs. -- Anon Guest

Tundra, taiga, arctic ice. Whilst technically a tolerable Deathworld, the crew of the

Read more »

Challenge #03228-H319: So Sharp...

A human sets up a shop on board a particularly large station within Alliance space. Before too long, the person has a lot of other humans visiting their shop, especially chefs. What is their profession? Sharpening blades. And instead of using anything electronic, they have a large whetstone, a strop, and some pieces of material to test the sharpness of the blades. He's one of the best in his profession, though his alliance friends sometimes see all the blades, and get a

Read more »

Challenge #03227-H318: Should Have Listened

Capturing any member of Pax Humanis is no small feat, but capturing a Pax Humanis leader and not knowing who they are is a mistake you won’t live long enough to regret

https://www.britannica.com/story/the-time-julius-caesar-was-captured-by-pirates -- LatinoThor45

Pax Humanis don't form teams. They make packs. They don't plan to eliminate a large problem for the CRC. They hunt. They are, at their core, the Humans that all the stories warn you about. They are the very rare few

Read more »

Challenge #03226-H317: Those Who Cut It

A new cooking school opens up that is considered one of the hardest schools of that type to be in. Where almost all classes were like competitions and the instructors were very strict. Even to become a student, one had to sign a waiver stating that they knew they could be dropped from the program at any moment if their scores in the classes got too low. Still, for those that graduated, they were considered among some of the best chefs in

Read more »

Challenge #03225-H316: A Different Cause For Tears

A human was crying, their friend asked what was wrong. They'd heard all their lives of all the wild cruelties humans had done to each other, then found an ancient, archived, video of humans in the past acting in kindness. The video really made them smile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmcSh0GdPlc -- Anon Guest

Humans don't always have good angles. The stories of them having murderous rampages against species that wronged them abound. Other stories... not so much. The stories

Read more »

Challenge #03224-H315: Like the Softly Falling Snow

Dan builds a larger home for himself, with plenty of room for all his adopted sons and daughters, with plenty of extra room for more kids to come and have someone to help and care for them. Melody helps where she can, when she can, and the kids start to learn what it's like to have a home, and a family that loves them no matter what.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03063-h155-handcrafted-hearth -- Fighting Fit

After the fifth morning of waking

Read more »

Challenge #03223-H314: Schoolyard Encounter

Marvins beloved daughter, Vee, is a little older now and is a child that's apprenticing for her magic and her ability to heal using magic is becoming all the more impressive. Thanks to her dad's influence, greed, or ego, has never touched her, and compassion has become the solid core of who she is. Many still seek the youngster's aid, and as she gets older, she's getting more dragon-like in appearance, though retaining her human form, and she lives a happy life

Read more »