Drabble #200: Fiery
Friday, 7 March 2025 11:12![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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labyfic...we had a nice response to my last posted drabble prompt of Drabble 196, with entries by
redwolf and apachefirecat, and commenting by the fabulous redwolf, apachefirecat, and me (jalenstrix), one of your intrepid drabble proposers. Huzzah!As always, special labyfic love to
redwolf for adding entries and comments for several previous drabble prompts. Onward, drabblers, inspired by our redwolf!For this prompt, we continue with our one-word/phrase drabble roots:
Fiery
Who or what is fiery, and what's the cause (and the result)? Tell us all about it. Labyfic-style, of course.
Given our entries from recent months, let's continue with the suggested limit for this month 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 aim to get my next drabble challenge out on the first Friday of next month (Apr 4).
I'm also very happy to take suggestions if something in particular strikes your fancy -- comment on this post or PM me with your suggestions. 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.)
Clatter
2025-03-11 08:56 (UTC)There was a shriek, a clatter and a shower of sparks as an armour clad goblin shot past Jareth and Sarah.
“Where did it come from?” Sarah asked. “The junkyard,” she answered her own question at the same time Jareth did.
Sarah looked up at the rise that was now sporting a metal tube. The goblins had been quite industrious in digging out and shimming up beneath the tube to properly support it. She was both impressed at their dedication to bedding the structure of the slide into the rise and their complete disregard for bodily injury when the tube opened up on a too steep section that hurtled the riders across an incongruous section of concrete that was apparently part of the infrastructure.
The next goblin shot out of the slide with a loud clatter and Sarah waited until he picked himself up and scrambled off for another run before continuing. “I can see why it was wished away. If this is in the same configuration it was Above, whoever designed it either had no grasp on the laws of physics or they hated children.”
“Possibly both,” Jareth agreed, wincing as a small body shot off the slide to skid across the concrete with enough force to remove the skin from anything that wasn’t a goblin. The rider whooped in excitement and headed back for more.
“We can’t leave it as it is.”
Jareth nodded his agreement. “Any children who aren’t goblins will not fare well.” Another goblin clattered past in a shower of sparks. “And sooner or later one of them will start a grass fire.”
Looking at the angle of the tube, Sarah cocked her head. “It’s working more like a water slide, building up speed for a splashy exit into a pool.” She shuddered as another goblin ground across the concrete.
“I don’t think a landing pool would work in this case.” Jareth tilted his head as he pondered the problem.
“You’re right,” Sarah agreed. “Water slides have a much larger diameter and a constant flow of water to add speed and ease friction.” The young goblins had figured this out much earlier and were using grain sacks as mats. “Water would work for the initial landing, but then they’d just jam the tube.”
Jareth nodded. “Come Winter it would ice over and create a different problem.”
Sarah folded her arms and looked over the expanse of the concrete landing area. “Gymnastic practice areas have foam filled pits. Would that work?”
Jareth knelt, his hand on the concrete surface and a look of concentration on his face.
Another goblin shot out the end of the slide and promptly vanished below the surface of the concrete.
Sarah gasped in surprise and stepped forwards before Jareth caught her arm. The goblin clambered out in a tumble of soundlessly bouncing chunks of not concrete. “It should stop the chance of shredded skin and broken bones of other children, but I’m certain they’ll find another creative way to injure themselves.”
Re: Clatter
2025-03-30 10:56 (UTC)I love your stories with the Goblins getting into all kinds of mischief. Reminds me of some things I wrote years ago. I've always been surrounded by a lot of cats, and they tend to be great inspiration for the kinds of things the Goblins would find playful as well. :)
True story -- they've taken to using my front windshield for a slide lately. I'll be sitting in my parked car, making a phone call or whatever, and they'll just come running up over the back of it and slide down the front. LOL The two species, and three if you include human kids, do have quite a bit in common!
Re: Clatter
2025-03-30 22:57 (UTC)Your cats are hilarious! 🦊🧡
Re: Clatter
2025-04-01 02:20 (UTC)Re: Clatter
2025-04-04 16:33 (UTC)Re: Clatter
2025-04-04 21:19 (UTC)The Fieries Come
2025-03-30 10:58 (UTC)(I could've definitely used more words for this one! LOL :))
Sarah ran. Heart pounding, lungs gasping, burning, for air, she ran faster than she had ran in years, more terrified than she had ever been, including when he had come to her before. There had always been something powerful, menacing, but also completely enthralling about Jareth. Deep down inside, perhaps, she had known he would never truly hurt her, unless, of course, she asked him to.
But the guys now chasing her were far beneath the Goblin King. She'd never met another man like Jareth, and now she never would. If these guys caught her, she would never meet anyone else or see another day dawn. She should not have lost time. She should never have been out here in this district so late at night, but she had lost time in the library after she'd closed up. And they would not simply take her life either. For all his apparent cruelty when she had been fifteen, Jareth's words had been true. He had done everything she had asked of him.
She ran as hard as she could, not taking the time or effort to scream. No one would hear her anyway if she did, and if they did, they wouldn't care. It was well known the local police had some sort of deal with this gang. Their taunts blasted her ears and chilled her blood. She gasped. She cried. Still she ran.
In her own panic, she missed the telltale crackling beginning to sound off in the lengthening shadows around her, but she did not miss the feathered, orange bodies that suddenly started running by her. It took her a moment to realize what she was seeing until she heard the Referee's whistle and one of the familiar creatures called out, "DON'T WORRY, PRETTY LADY!"
From behind her, she heard more yelling, more screams, and the sounds of knives whipping through air, billy clubs striking, and chains rattling. But then she heard a frustrated yell that finally made her stop running. "HEY, HIS HEAD DON'T COME OFF!"
"YEAH, IT DOES! IT JUST DOESN'T GO BACK ON! PULL HARDER!"
The gang leader, who now had two Fieries pulling at his head and neck while another held his arms, twisted at crude angles behind his back, screamed like a terrified girl. More terrified than the insolent child she had been when she had first encountered these creatures. Sarah stopped moving as more Fieries charged pass her.
"DON'T WORRY, LITTLE LADY!"
"THE KING SENT US!"
She turned slowly round and saw that the Fieries had already defeated the gang. The knife wielder's head was already off his shoulders, his blood having spattered the ground where his face had struck cement. Slowly, her heartbeat calming, Sarah began to smile. She was not alone! He was still watching! After all these years, and all she had done, he was still watching and still cared!
His enchantment prohibited him from returning to her, but he had sent them! "Tell him I will come!"
The End
Re: The Fieries Come
2025-03-30 22:52 (UTC)Re: The Fieries Come
2025-04-01 02:21 (UTC)Re: The Fieries Come
2025-04-04 16:36 (UTC)Re: The Fieries Come
2025-04-05 17:05 (UTC)