Drabble #175: Fast

[redwolf]

...we had a nice response to the drabble prompt of Drabble 174, with entries by 3iggy, apachefirecat, jalenstrix and redwolf and comments by 3iggy, apachefirecat, jalenstrix and redwolf

For this prompt, we continue with our one-word/phrase drabble roots:

Fast

Tell us all about it. Labyfic-style, of course.

Given our entries from recent months, let's continue with the suggested limit of 500 words. Though remember that shorter pieces are most definitely welcome!

Your entry should take the following format, posted as a comment on this entry:

Word count: # of words
$your_beautiful_drabble

I'll be running weekly challenges in the space around jalenstrix's monthly challenges.

You can see our current collected suggestions here.

Remember: Feedback is LOVE. So do reply to your fellow labyficcers' drabbles if so inclined. (Though be careful of concrit unless specifically okayed by the author beforehand. Authors generally write for love.)

Comments

Frenzy

[redwolf]

Word count: 500

While there were many wished away items that were automatically returned, albeit in an exciting new and likely inconvenient location, there were other things that stayed.

Jewellery arrived less often than Sarah would have expected, but when it did there were local jewellers who were more than happy to break it down and repurpose it to suit Underground tastes.

The other major item that was never returned was food. Aside from the potential issue of spoilage, there were likely very few people Above who would actually want their lunch back once it had been adulterated by goblin.

It was one of these food wishes that first brought the process to Sarah’s attention when she’d questioned why a goblin was wearing a plastic wedding cake topper. Therein followed an overly complicated game of goblin gibberish and charades that had only ended when one of the brighter members of the castle horde had escorted her to the junkyard where she met the on duty triage crew. This was how Sarah learned that a wedding cake had been wished away, neatly explaining the plastic bride and groom novelty, as well as the more hyperactive than usual goblins who’d tried to explain the incident.

Sarah soon understood that when the castle horde disappeared at once, that it was likely in response to the lure of a free meal. The rules of first come, first served meant that it was usually the retrieval goblins who scored the prize, but the possibility of a bigger haul always drew the chancers.

Mostly Sarah ignored these infrequent disappearances as one of the norms of living with goblins, but occasionally the rule of children and puppies needed to be invoked, when silence became suspicious. Very, very suspicious.

Sarah stood behind the triage crew and watched in amazement at the in progress goblin feeding frenzy that was underway in the junkyard. Amid the chaos of bodies and armour, Sarah caught brief glimpses of what they were eating. She recognised packaging from several fast food restaurants, as well as many she was unfamiliar with, and it just kept dropping in. Added to this was a sprinkling of the kinds of food she regarded as typical carnival fare, which skewed heavily towards deep fried, but minus the brightly logoed wrapping in favour of being impaled on a stick for ease of consumption.

The logistics of how this rain of junk food was occurring was something she would consider at a much later date, but right now there were a whole lot of people, from a diverse range of places Above, who would not be getting their burger or taco or fries or whatever was bright yellow and came on a stick. She didn’t expect that they’d appreciate that their loss was making a lot of goblins happy.

While they were voraciously devouring the seemingly never ending mountain of fast food, Sarah was just hoping that the goblins' distraction would not lead them to question the origins of the nuggets they were inhaling.

Foolishery

[apachefirecat]

Word Count: 500


She had never run so hard, fast, or long in her life. Every bone and muscle in her young body ached. Yet, still, Sarah moved desperately forward. Every time she dared to stop to try to rest for a moment, to gasp at air with burning lungs, she heard Toby cry again and sprang back into action. She yearned for something to drink. She had never been so thirsty in her entire life!

Yet even if she were to come across a stream, Sarah knew she could not trust it. Not here. Any freely given liquid was liable to be poisonous, life-stealing instead of life-giving. She shivered in the warm, Autumn-like air at that thought. She had been life-stealing. Toby was her brother, but he was here, facing becoming a Goblin forever, because of her!

She screamed. In these cavernous, endless walls, what did it matter if anyone heard her? They'd no doubt think she was being attacked. It might lead to an attack, but what did she care? If she ventured across another living being again, maybe she could finally get some answers! She had been running so long -- but what if she was running in the wrong direction? Toby's life was at stake, and all because of her own foolishery and jealousy.

Perhaps not really jealousy, she thought, panting and feeling the rapid thudding of her heart pounding frantically in her chest, but certainly foolishery! Toby was a baby! How could she have taken out her frustrations on him?! Perhaps she did belong in this place! Perhaps she was as evil as all those around her!

Perhaps she was evil as him! The Goblin King was worst of all the beings she had encountered in this place, and his conceitedness certainly only made matters worse! He had offered her to stay, offered, it would seem, for her to become his Queen, but at what price? He seemed able to do anything, but somehow Sarah sensed that did not include returning Toby to the world that did not want her if she did not beat his stupid game.

Could she offer to stay? she wondered, and her heart pounding even harder. Could she attempt to make a deal with him, swap herself for her brother, her brother who their parents actually wanted, who her father still loved? It was a tempting thought that seemed to unsettle her stomach even more while rushing a strange fire into other parts of her. Could she stay with Jareth and somehow persuade him to send Toby back? For as horrible as this place seemed, it would mean being free forever of her stepmother, her father, and the other bullies in her life.

It would allow her to start over finally, to -- Toby wailed from somewhere within the palace. Sarah shoved all thoughts from her mind and returned to running.

She could easily hear Toby's every cry, but not Jareth's chuckle. "Ah, Sarah, sweet, beautiful Sarah, you're still not looking right."


The End

Re: Foolishery

[redwolf]

Oh dear, Sarah really is spiralling here. Nice work! 🦊🧡

Re: Foolishery

[apachefirecat]

Thank you!