Today’s lesson: Be careful who you steal horses from, especially if you don’t know much about horses, and even more especially if you don’t know much about who you’re stealing them from!
Photo credit: Ingo Ronner
Garn glared at the horses as though expecting an attack. Untrustworthy, these foreign beasts. Biters. He wished they’d never stolen them.
Hearing footsteps behind him, he turned, sword drawn.
“Oh, you’re back. Took you long enough, Waj. Supposed to be two men guarding them, always.”
“Don’t worry. Why don’t you sleep? It’ll be fine.”
Waj sounded funny to Garn. Slurry. What was— A huge yawn interrupted Garn’s thoughts. “Yeah, suppose so.” He slumped to the ground.
The other figure opened the gate, and offered some rose-nuts to the gray horse. The horse whinnied and shied away, then sniffed and started eating.
“Can’t ever fool you, can I?” The woman—now—stroked the gray’s neck. The other horses approached, nudging her for nuts. She untied them, murmuring constantly.
Then she waited.
In the main camp, shouts rang out. “Fire!”
Grasping the gray’s mane, she leapt up. At her soft whistle, the other horses followed them out. Moving quietly, they passed Waj, sound asleep against a tree.
She leaned forward, patting the horse’s neck. “Let’s go home.”
Word count: 175
This is my entry for this week’s Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers photo prompt challenge, with a limit of 100-175 words. The actual photo prompt that inspired the story is below. Click on the blue frog to see the other authors’ stories. Thanks as always to Priceless Joy for organizing this!
Photo provided by Scott, author of the blog, Scott’s Place
(Sorry, I don’t know the link.)
Tales from Eneana 
I love this! It is wonderful. So smooth and well done. She went and took back her horses! Awesome. I wanted to tell you that you are allowed to use your own photo along with your story as long as you also use the photo prompt. I love your story and thank you for participating in Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers Challenge.
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So I have to put the modern photo prompt on my blog too? I’m sorry, I misunderstood — I thought I could participate in these challenges without doing that, as long as I linked to the modern photo. I don’t want to break the rules! I’ll hold off in the future unless the photo is something generic enough or consistent with the Eneana technology so I can put on my blog, then. Sorry about that!
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Yes, I’m so sorry, but the photo prompt needs to accompany your story so people will know what the prompt was. You are able to add your photo too (like you did). In fact you can put your photo closest to your story then put the photo prompt farther down. Otherwise, it confuses people that read the stories, not knowing what the prompt was that stirred the story.
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I just thought of something. Another thing you can do with the prompt photo (when you don’t particularly want it on your blog) is make it smaller. I have done that with prompt photos before. I just made them smaller.
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Okay, thanks for clarifying and for being flexible. I’ll think about it and decide whether to keep participating. My plan was to be totally consistent with the theme and only include photos that would make sense in the world of Eneana, but maybe that’s not realistic.
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Okay, I’ve decided it’s fine to compromise a little on the purity of the theme. I loved the idea of a consistent “concept blog,” but it would mean missing out on too many photo prompts. I’ve put the real photo at the end of the post. Thanks again for being flexible, Joy.
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Great story!
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Thanks for reading!
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Very lovely story:) I have a special place in my heart for horses, too:)
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Thank you! I’ve never been that big into horses, but my aunt and uncle have horses on their farm, and they’re such gorgeous creatures. And HUGE. Wow, so very large. I had to look up videos of people jumping up on horses bareback to be sure it could be done, because I can barely climb up with all the gear strapped on and someone pushing my butt to help. 😉
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Yes they are very large. I would have to have a step and extra help to get on, too. And when you’re up there, it feels high, but such an incredible feeling when you know they are trusting you to guide:)
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I love it when justice is done.
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I wanted to include more information about the problems her companions were causing elsewhere in the enemy’s camp while she was retrieving the horses, but I ran out of words. So just believe me that the complete story contains additional satisfying justice. 😉
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Justice has been done, in a quick way I might add and very well written. Nice flash fiction story
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Thanks! Well, she had it all planned out, short and sweet. I just had to listen to see how she did it. 😉
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Then you listened well to your character
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From the voice to the big twist to the empowerment of taking matters into your own hands, you had me hooked and entertained. Thanks for sharing this story with us. Excellent job!
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Thanks for reading, and for commenting — glad you liked it!
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Nice! They’re really good at stealing their horses back. These seem to be really smart, biting anyone they don’t belong to. Nicely written!
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Yep, these horses know when they’re being pushed around by horse-haters and they are *not* going to be cooperative! Thanks!
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This is beautifully written. Tension and tenderness.
Ellespeth
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Thank you for saying so!
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Well written, Joy. Garn just didn’t understand horses, did he? It’s good to know those lovely animals are going home with people who cherish them.
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Thanks Millie! Yes, I’m glad the horses are going home too. And I have the feeling these horse-thieves have made some enemies locally and should probably be leaving town, soon!
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