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I was in love with every member of our unit.  Like the Thebans and Spartans centuries before we were encouraged to form links of all kinds to keep us together come what may.  Warm kisses as we groomed our steeds were one of the many perks.

Now this fakery of a fantasia is how I live.  Recreating the events to remember my boys.

They came out of the mountains one bright afternoon, the sun behind them, masking their great forms.  They breathed fire on towns and villages, making charcoal of everything in their path. 

We rode forth, one of many units trained just for this.  Our lances in hand, we galloped across the sands to meet the beasts head on.

The first we met was easy but then it was little more than a baby that had wandered away from its pack.  Together we fought, moving gracefully through our practiced moves, firing the balls from our lances that would subdue and ground the creature for the wizards to finish off.  

We smiled and cheered together at our victory.  The last time we would do so.

Hours later all my boys were gone.  It's mother came and slaughtered us.  We were supposed to meet up with other units to take down one so large but it came at us so fast, so fiery and furious, that we didn't stand a chance.  

My boys fell one by one until only Nigel and I remained.  He had been my first, way back in basic, a simpler time, a simple love as we waited for the other three couplets to join.  They made us complete, allowed us more enjoyment, more love.  Yet each pair always had that extra little something special.  And so Nigel looked me deep in the eyes as he saved me and sacrificed himself.

Not long after, horrifically soon after, the Wizards found a way to put the dragons to sleep without a fight and it was all over.  Of course, it is the fighting that the crowds want to see re-enacted and where I sought to form a new unit.  But none of these boys were there, this love is ersatz in comparison.  

It is of Nigel, mostly, that I think of when we bed down together each night.

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Written for Flash! Friday from the following picture prompt (we were also asked to add a Fire Element (love found) or Ice Element (love lost)) and had a word count limit of 250-260 Words.  I failed entirely to complete this on time and didn't want to edit down, so failed completely with the word count, too.  

Fantasia in Morocco. CC photo by Maxim Massalitin.

75 Words: The Photo

The photo was how they found her.  It took only a few moments of joyful abandon to miss the tourist taking a picture.  A date, the food, troubles ever so briefly forgotten.

Such an innocent moment.  A photo for a travel site.  

People never think about the background, who might be found by the government bots, tracked down, disappeared.  

Not forever in this case, of course.  

Thank goodness.

Her revolutionary days were still to come.

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Written for Flash! Friday from the following picture prompt (we were also asked to add a Fire Element (include a revolutionary) or Ice Element (include a droid)) and had a word count limit of 75 Words:

“Khao Tom Pla” Uttaradit, Thailand. CC4.0 photo by Takeaway

Frozen Air

In a dinghy under the sheer cliffs of a glacier we searched for survivors.  We all pointed at the holes, planned searches of the ice caves.  Never did we think that it was in the air itself.

My crew all went in the same way, one by one.  First their eyes would freeze, their stares fixed into the distance as their screams began.  Then their noses would fill with ice, their lips would harden, crack and then break before the frost worked along their tongue, changing their screams into something more horrible as its edge deadened and it went flat.  Finally their throats were closed and the screaming ended alongside their life.  Before their bodies rested lifeless, all this ice thawed and evaporated as if never there.

Once only I remained, my ear turned cold and I heard them. 

A cold, hard whisper chilled me to my core and told me to leave.  “We are here now.  Never return.”  

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Written for Flash! Friday from the following picture prompt (we were also asked to add a Fire Element  (include something in the air) or Ice Element (include something in the water)) and had a word count limit of 150-160 Words:

“Arena Glacier” Antarctic Peninsula. CC3.0 photo by Godot13