Welcome to this week’s installment of many micro stories, ranging in length from 100 words to 500 words.
With each story we hope to deliver a little whimsy into the lives of our readers.
FLORA, FAUNA, AND FLEEING
Leon wedged a wooden chair into the door, jamming it under the handle, before quickly pushing a table towards the cabin’s only window. Chasing him through the woods, the wolves were hungry, but he wasn’t entirely convinced they were at the point of hurling themselves through glass. In the panic, however, it just seemed safer to have it ready to hold over the window, should they change their minds.
He lent on the table and caught his breath, while the wolves circled the cabin in the dwindling daylight. They’d shifted from howling and growling to huffing and moaning. He looked about at his surroundings. A fireplace, a woodpile, a bed, a single shelf holding a solitary large tome. At least he’d have something to read until the beasts outside caught a whiff of some other poor soul. Likely some woodland creature incapable of locking itself inside some cabin it discovered.
Biding his time, Leon flipped through the large book by the fireplace. Filled with pressed flowers, it seemed an album of flora. Though emaciated and flattened, he was surprised they retained their bright colours and beauty. The wolves outside seemed to murmur and whine, shuffling in the fallen leaves outside until the door handle clicked. The door jostled but could not open.
Leon was in a bind. Someone was at the door. Someone the wolves didn’t seem interested in eating for some reason. Someone who wasn’t using words to get past the chair-locked door. Someone who was brushing up against the door, likely pressing an ear against it.
Leon squinted in contemplation, twisting his face as he wrestled with his options; answer the door and see who, or indeed what, was there, or jump out the window and return to running from wolves and possibly someone who was on far friendlier terms with those wolves. Looking to the window, it merely reflected the hearth-lit cabin. Night had fallen some time ago. The wolves would have him at quite the disadvantage.
Soon Leon found himself leaning at the door, still clutching the large album of squashed flower heads for some reason, with his own ear against the wood. He heard heavy breathing. Knowing not what else to do, he knocked on the door from the inside. With the window serving only those on the other side of it, there seemed little reason to pretend to not be there.
The heavy breathing stopped for a moment. Then an inquisitive growl issued from the other side.
“Ah, not human, I gather,” Leon found himself saying aloud. “Tell you what. I’ll unjam the door on the count of three. One,” he said, before sneaking over to open the window. “Two.” The book went on the chair, and the chair was pulled away. “Three.” He said, running to the table, over it, and out the window.
From the sound of it, the wolves and their much larger friend, burst through the door. But Leon was far too intent on never looking back to ever confirm.
Barend Nieuwstraten III grew up and lives in Sydney, Australia, where he was born to Dutch and Indian immigrants. He has worked in film, short film, television, music, and online comics. He is now primarily working on a collection of stories set within a high fantasy world, a science fiction alternate future, as well as a steampunk storyverse, often dipping his toes in horror in the process. With over twenty short stories published in anthologies, he continues to work on short stories, stand-alone novels, and an epic series.
A discovery writer not knowing what will happen when he begins typing, he endeavours to drag his readers on the same unknown journey through the fog of his subconscious.
https://www.facebook.com/Barend3Author
https://twitter.com/Barend3Author
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20713313.Barend_Nieuwstraten_III
https://barend3.blogspot.com
If you enjoyed this story you can find it and more in the Hawthorn & Ash 2023 anthology.
Iron Faerie Publishing 