Silver Lining
I can hardly believe that it’s time for Friday Fictioneers again, but it is! This week’s photo has been contributed by Dawn Q. Landau, prompting us to write a 100-ish word story. Friday Fictioneers is hosted as always by the lovely Rochelle.
I have to admit, I have no real idea what this photo is of. It looks to me like an aerial view of fields, but with a huge person standing there!
To read this week’s other contributions, click on the little blue chap below. More stories are added throughout the week!
Copyright Dawn Q. Landau
Javik scrambled out of the way as the aged giant tottered across the field. Marick wasn’t so lucky, disappearing with a grisly crunch in a cloud of red mist beneath the giant’s uncaring feet.
A few more steps and the monstrous figure, evidently hard of sight, lost its footing and fell from the cliff. A huge cloud of dust signalled the creature’s landfall.
Javik counted himself fortunate, more fortunate than the mangled villagers at the base of the cliff. When, hours later, he reached the bottom he smiled as he watched the survivors cut meat from the corpse. No-one would starve this winter.
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Friday Fictioneers
draliman on life 
Are you sure your last name really isn’t Acula?
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Hee hee 🙂 It could be, the amount of killing gets done.
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Ali, Yuck. You left a picture in my mind I’d rather not have. Thank goodness it’s not near my meal time. I have to admit though that it is well written. 🙂 —Susan
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Never read FF stories near meal time, is my motto.
Thanks!
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Never look a gift horse in the mouth, but you can eat its leg 😉
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Ha ha 🙂
Yummy leg.
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“Get your giant hamburgers here!” Some enterprising person could rake in a lot of money with this. Completely unexpected ending. Nice one D-Man 🙂
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Glad you liked it!
I expect the village carpenters are already hard at work constructing the various fast food stalls.
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Yuck (in a good way).
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🙂 That’s good yuck, that is.
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Lucky Javik indeed! And what full bellies everyone will have this winter, too!
The picture looks like salt fields to me btw, which would go well with salting all that meat 🙂
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I have since discovered from other stories that they are indeed salt fields (I always thought you just dug it up or something!). So you’re right, great for preserving giant meat 🙂
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I grew up looking at salt fields that our wealthy relatives owned (really far removed relatives – we just had the same last name). I guess in this picture, the salt mounds have already been collected, and so they’re just waiting for the tide to come on or something like that – I never could figure out how they worked exactly but it always made me think of the phrase – salt of the earth.
But they’re going to need all the salt to preserve all that meat for the winter!
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Sounds cool, seeing how salt really gets to the dinner table. From the photo it looks like there will be plenty of slat to preserve the giant!
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Well, now no one can say you don’t know how to write a happy ending!
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I’ve put those nasty “no happy ending” rumours to bed once and for all 🙂
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grisly crunch in a cloud of red mist – Yuck! On the other hand my first thought was “Yeah! That’s EXACTLY how it would go.” Kudos,
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I read “cloud of red mist” recently and decided one of my characters absolutely had to experience it 🙂
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a happy ending. the giant was dead meat.
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Very literally!
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A giant! It had not occurred to me, but she does look a bit like a lumbering giant walking across a patchwork of dwellings built by smaller creatures.
I wonder what giant tastes like though? Probably a bit gamey.
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Given its advanced age, gamey chicken.
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Alas, poor Gulliver. I knew him well…
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Who knew he’d turn out so tasty?
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Great story, Alistair. I like the fantasy element and nicely written. I guess it was their lucky day!
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Every cloud and all that.
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
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Ooh, so grisly! Cool! 😉 And I love the word ‘tottered’!
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“Tottered” should be used more.
Grisly is cool, indeed 🙂
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With some fava beans, and a nice Chianti. Ewww! But well presented. 🙂
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Giant kebabs, everyone’s new favourite!
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Ah excellent; dinner is indeed served. Such an imaginative take on the prompt.
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Thanks! Yes, the villagers will be dining well tonight (the ones who are left).
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Dear Ali,
Yum. What time’s dinner? Is it BYOB? Imaginative story.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle,
The giant will be cooked by seven. Wine is provided!
Ali
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Dear Draliman,
What a fantastic excursion into the realm of fantasy. A great tale that reminded me in part of the giant in Time Bandits. Well done.
Aloha,
Doug
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Dear Doug,
Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it. It’s a while since I saw Time Bandits, but I was thinking along the lines of a slightly more violent Gulliver!
Ali
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Alistair, I love the direction you took with the prompt! Looking at it from your view, I can see the giant and the cliff! I love that we each see something so different in the photo each week. Nice job!
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Sometimes people base their stories around things that I never even noticed in the photo. This is why I always write my own story before reading anyone else’s. If I had known what the photo really was I would probably have written about that instead.
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
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I try to NEVER read any stories before I post. I get up on Wed.; pull up Rochelle’s photo prompt, without reading her story, and then I write. I think it’s far too distracting if I read anything else first! It makes for so much creativity when I then read the others! 🙂
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The prompt comes out around mid-morning/lunchtime here, so I always check the photo at work, then hope a story presents itself before I get home. It’s definitely too distracting for me to read other stories first as well. I often think “I wish I’d done a story like that”, but the point is to write my own story, not a variation of someone else’s 🙂
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Yes! I agree completely. I check the photo first thing Wed. morning and then wait a while to see what comes to me… sometimes it’s instant, other times it takes longer, but I never read anyone else, until I’ve posted.
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Reminds me of the way the Indians would sometime run the buffalo over a cliff to more easily kill them. Very imaginative!
janet
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Ooh, that sounds horrible 😦 I guess it worked though, just like with the giant!
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Well damn, on my hikes I have to be watchful of fence’s, marauding animals and giants falling from clhffs. You are ruining my walks. I meet hikers that are fearful of mountain lions. I smile, they have no idea.
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Ha, mountain lions! We both know there are things out there that would eat mountain lions for breakfast. And hikers 🙂
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Perfect – loved it!! 😀
And hey, a giant has to eat something may as well be the locals his giant booty crushed!
~ Andrea ❤
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Poor locals 😦 Glad you enjoyed it!
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Great images in your story, and of course gamey old giant meat is way better than no meat
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Definitely better than going hungry.
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Great story for the picture. I wasn’t expecting it! 🙂
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Thanks, I like to deliver the unexpected 🙂
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that’s a lot of meat!! amazing how you turned the story rapidly from a fantasy tale to a somewhat grisly piece 🙂
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It wouldn’t be a “draliman original” without a bit of gore 🙂
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Oh doc:( This was yucky! Once again good, though.
Ellespeth
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It is a bit gross 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it though!
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So that’s some sort of justice. Lovely.
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At least the giant has ended up feeding the masses.
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Well I guess if you get stepped on my giants it’s ok to eat them when they fall. LOL But really, yucky! It was a ‘good’ story though. 😉
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It’s only fair 🙂
Thanks!
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Ah.. I wander how a giant tastes like.. (not like chicken I guess)
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It has been suggested by others that giants are likely to be a bit “gamey”. A bit tough too, I expect!
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Your story made me look at the picture again, and I saw it as you did. Your idea’s great – quirky and chuckle-worthy (I just made that word up.)
Marg
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I’m glad I didn’t know what it was before I wrote my story. It’s all part of the fun!
Ali
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Dear Draliman, Good job, as usual. Giants are creepy~! Nan 🙂
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Dear Nan, thanks! Giants are creepy.
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