Welcome to the monthly round up of all my #ThursThreads tales. Whoops! We’re at the end of August because I actually went on vacation for the first time in 3 years, and I didn’t do much of anything except play in the pool and write during this month, lol. I did get the kids off to school last week, so that’s good. Oh, and we celebrated the 10th Anniversary in July so that’s why we have a new banner.
As usual, most of these bits are of upcoming tales, written to prompts from the #ThursThreads #flashfiction challenge I host each Thursday. We’re starting with Week 520 through Week 522 and I’ve collected them in one place.
July had four Thursdays, but to prep for the Anniversary, we took a week off. So, here are three tales along with their dates and prompts. Happy reading!
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Week 520, July 14, 2022 10th Anniversary!
Prompt: “Play the long game.”
“Wearing bikinis, sarongs, flip-flops, and sunglasses. The only good thing about the sarongs was the ability to hide knives.”
“Surely they kept you cool.” Chester grinned.
Hermione snorted. “No one stayed cool. It was a tropical island in the summer. But at least we weren’t humping sixty-pound packs and body armor in the tropical jungle. Although I missed my pack for the gear I could carry. I had to make do with a duffel bag.
“The asset was a teenager who’d graduated from MIT at the age of fifteen. Smart cookie was putting it mildly, but she was there for her father’s wedding to wife number three. She was under eighteen so she couldn’t just refuse to go, but she was working the surly teenager gig pretty hard.” Hermione grinned. “I liked her first thing.”
Chester laughed. “Your kind of girl?”
“Hell yeah. If she was old enough, I would’ve recruited her to be part of the team. She made me feel mentally slow.” She let her smile mellow a little. “We thought this would be easy. Cozy up to her guards—yeah, her daddy had her under guard—get them to think we were just some beach bunnies, take the girl shopping, and be outta there.
“But the guards were annoyingly sharp, even the horny ones, and we had to play the long game of being simpering party girls for most of the weeklong celebrations. At least I got to work on my tan.” She rolled her eyes.
249 #Sirens words
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Week 521, July 21, 2022
Prompt: “One day at a time.”
“No one dragged your ass all this way. You could be at home, pampered and adored as you expect, not having to experience hardship. But you decided to follow me. Stop whining about what you chose to do!”
Terim stopped, his chest heaving and his hands in fists. Majir gaped at him, his mouth hanging open with surprise. Terim had never let loose his frustrations on anyone before.
“Fair points all, Terim.” Kulastri nodded as she handed him some of the travel bread. “You must remember that we are on a journey, Blacksmith’s son. This isn’t a holiday or a frivolous jaunt. The treasure you assume Terim is searching for is knowledge and skills beyond what he’s already learned. If you want that, want to learn to be more than a blacksmith’s son, you may continue with us. But if you don’t like traveling, don’t like learning, wish to be a pampered boy with no other skills, then I suggest you pack your belongings, and we shall point you toward home. The choice is yours, Blacksmith’s son.”
Majir blinked before his face resumed its frown. “Why do you call me ‘blacksmith’s son’? I have a name.”
“So you do, but you haven’t earned my respect enough to make the effort.” Kulastri shrugged. “What will you choose to do?”
Majir’s gaze moved from Kulastri to Terim and back. “I want to stay and learn, Torsha.”
She nodded sharply. “Good. We will take it one day at a time.”
247 #LOTN words
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Week 521, July 28, 2022
Prompt: “This is the way the world ends.”
Chester laughed. “Wow, you have all your bases covered.”
“Yeah, well, though we might not be guarding national secrets, but we take our security very seriously. Especially when it comes to our snacks.”
He blinked. “Snacks?”
“Oh yeah.” Hermione nodded sagely. “Never get in the way of Dunwoody and her Cheesy Corn Puffs. It’s like a religious experience for her, and if they’re gone, the world might as well pack it in.”
He couldn’t swallow his grin. “You gotta be kidding me.”
She folded her hands together and bowed her head with a serene expression. “This is the way.”
“The world ends because of a dearth of Cheesy Corn Puffs?”
“Well, maybe not ends, but it definitely gets hard to be around Dunwoody if we’re out. The Quartermaster makes sure we have them on hand all the time.”
“Good to know. But I have a question. What is one thing you can’t go without? The sillier the better. What’s that one thing?”
She sat back in her chair and dropped her hands to her lap. It took her a few moments to think of something, but when she did, her eyes widened and her cheeks flushed.
“It’s really silly.”
He nodded. “Excellent. What is it?”
“Organic chocolate gems.”
He grinned. “Chocolate gems?”
“Yeah, they’re like M&Ms but without corn syrup in the candy shells. Perfect little balls of happiness and you can eat as many or as few as you like.”
241 #Sirens words