Flash Fiction # 383 -- Take Flight (Drabble)

Fledglings held to the quaking branch, a place suddenly bereft of leaves, with nowhere the huddle against the cold wind.  They weren't alone in the old maple tree that had been such a pleasant home not so long ago.  The elders had gathered as well.

"What has happened?  Why is it so cold?"

The eldest looked down from a higher branch.  "Don't worry, youngling.  We'll soon fly to pursue the lost warmth.  Once we find it, we'll rest for a while.  Then, when the time is right, we'll return and bring the warmth back with us.  It is our duty."

Flash Fiction # 382 -- Fork in the Road (Drabble)

One way led to power, wealth, and fame.  People would adore him, but only from afar.  A person in that position could never trust people since most would actually be attracted to his position rather than him.

The other way led to peace, contentment, and love -- but also to hardship, moments of despair, and much harder work just to make ends meet.

"I can't have the best of both?" he asked.

"No," Fate answered.  "That future is not for you."

"Then screw it," he said and went back home.

Flash Fiction #381 -- Muses (Drabble)

"They only have two more weeks," Thalia said with a bright laugh.  "So many hopefuls this year!  I love hearing the scratch of so many pens and taps of keys as they write stories."

"Followed by wails of loss and despair on the first of December --"

"Must everything be a tragedy with you, Melpomene?" Thalia demanded and ignored the answer.  "The ones who don't complete their work get over it, but every year more people become enthralled with the art of the written word.  They keep us alive, you know.  Think kindly of them, sister.  The Muses need the NaNoWriMo. "

Flash Fiction # 380 -- Wept (Drabble)

They heard the voices, exuberant, filled with sounds they didn't understand except to know that they were not alone after all.

They built their ships and sailed the sea of stars, but as they grew closer, the voices grew silent.  For all the span of time they had traveled, those voices had seemed to call them closer, but now...

They found the world.  Insignificant in some ways, and oh so quiet now.  Ruins lay along the waterline, and small lesser creatures clung tenaciously to the land.  What they had come to greet was gone.

They wept and went home ... alone.