September 3, 2019

Twittering Tales #152 – 3 September 2019

About the challenge: Each Tuesday I will provide a photo prompt. Your mission, if you choose to accept the challenge, is to tell a story in 280 characters or less. When you write your tale, be sure to let me know in the comments with a link to your tale. This is important as I have noticed that some of the ping backs have not been working. If you would prefer to post your tale in the comments (some people have very specific blog themes but still want to participate), I am happy to post a link to your site when I post your tale in the Round Up.

A final note: if you need help tracking the number of characters in your story, there is a nifty online tool that will count for you at charactercountonline.com.

I will do a roundup each Tuesday, along with providing a new prompt. And if for some reason I missed your entry in the Roundup, as I have occasionally done, please let me know. I want to be sure to include your tale.

Finally, have fun!

A look back to Twitting Tales #150 and a few of the tales that didn’t ping back.

By Peter at Peter’s Pondering:
The Jackpot
They approached the Sun to use the slingshot effect to set course for Alpha 7, and a new life.
Alarms sounded!
They were being dragged into the fiery hell, and nothing they did had any effect.
Back on Earth, everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief as the meteor passed safely by.
(279 characters)

Neel at Neel Writes Blog also mentioned that his tale last week never made it to the roundup, but I couldn’t find it. Please do send me a link Neel. I hate that we missed it!

Twittering Tales #151 – The Roundup

Mashup of photos by pendleburyannette (dragon) & MichaelGaida (forest) at Pixabay.com

Starting us off…

The Paper Tiger
Ned, a copy editor, longed for a spot on the news desk. He had a plan.
“Dragons!” he scoffed as he shuffled through the brush on the grounds of the secret test site. “I’m going to debunk those crazy rumors once and for all.”
“Um. That’s Draco, kid. D-R-A…hey where ya’ going?!”
~kat

By Reena at ReInventions:
I wish I Knew
“I’ve never seen a dragon resting at dawn.”
“You’ve never seen a dragon either. Click a pic, but stay away….”
“Something tells me, its tail is embedded deep inside and it will take time to move.”
“John, there’s something entwining your foot, and it’s blue.”
“AAARGH…… I wish I knew.”
(279 characters)

By The Dark Netizen:
Hidden
He is coming for me.
I can sense his approach and his thirst to find me. I am the last one left, and all that stands between him and victory. None have beaten him till now. But I will be the first one to defeat him.
All I have to do is stay hidden, in this game of hide and seek…
Character Count: 280

By Graham at Graham is Just My Name:
DEEP IN THE FOREST
You hadn’t thought this through.
You cooked the DNA, grew me in nourishing gel, wrapped me round this tree, and waited.
What about my escape route, you moron of a crazy geneticist?
How am I supposed to get out of this damn forest?
Then I expelled my mythical powers.
Burn baby! Burn!
(278 chars)

By Fandango at This, That, and the Other:
Did Someone Say Dragon?
Jack and Ed hiked deep into the woods until they found a small clearing. They sat down on a log and Jack reached into his pocket, pulled out a joint, and lit it up. “Do you want a drag on this?” he asked Ed.
They both heard a voice coming from their left. “Did someone say dragon?”
(280 characters)

By Di at Pensitivity101:
The dragon sulked. He hated Hide and Seek.
42 characters.

By Ron at Read4Fun:
Blowhard Stories
DEAR AMAZON.
For my cough, Doc recommended you. There is no one in the store to answer my questions. All I want is some pills. Every time I cough, I spit fire. If I don’t get an answer soon, this Amazon thing is doomed. Lousy customer service burns me up. My turn next. DRAGON.
277 characters

By Lorraine at Lorraine’s Frilly Freudian Slip:
“(In) the Forest Primeval”*
Patience. ‘Tis the mantra I needs adopt.
Keeping the beast enchantedly happy whilst I wait.
We sit in the forest clearing; thank Arthur, it is easily entertained.
A flutter of brown wings; my Camelot Prime order appears.
A non-fantasy classic: How to Train Your Human by Toothless ¹.
(280)
* opening line of Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1847)
¹Toothless is a Night Fury dragon in the animated trilogy: How to Train Your Dragon.

By Kitty at Kitty’s Verses:
An Unlikely Visitor
Tra-a-la-la! Tra-a-la-la!
Dancing through the woods,
Wearing my hoods,
Here I come at the precise time of dawn,
Stifling that persistent yawn,
To collect herbs for the concoction,
To help with the medicine man’s decoction.
Rubbing my eyes, what do I see ?
UFO or a hallucinating me?
275 characters

By Kia at The Bookish Recovering Know-It-All:
Ready or Not
Lucius thought to himself, “I’m glad for the last two years. I’ve grown so much both in size but also inside”. At last, the end of training. From a distance he could hear his master and teacher counting. “Seventeen, Eighteen, nineteen… twenty. Here I come, ready or not”. Ready.
(280 characters)

By Sadje at Keep It Alive:
He was the last of its kind. So tired from hiding in the deep forest away from those prying humans. His strength was slowly ebbing away and now he could just lie there waiting for the end. Suddenly the whole of the forest lit up in an eerie light. He looked up. Mother?
Character count:269

By Bear at Jellico’s Writing Nook:
The Hard Way
‘Have you no sense? Don’t you know to let sleeping dragons lie?’
‘I – uh… I wasn’t thinking…’
‘Obviously. Now, look at you… bald and scarred…’
‘Don’t laugh. It’s bad enough as it is.’
‘At least now, every time you look in the mirror, you’ll remember your lesson.’
cc: 263

By Willow at WillowDot21:
Approach in clear line of view. No sudden or aggressive movements. Speak gently. A dragon always reacts better to calm, gentle handling. You must master this first meeting, you never get a second chance. Remember you are a dragon keeper, you need a dragon more than they need you.
(280 Characters)

By Larry at East Elmhurst A Go Go:
The Teenagers
“Relax,” the Don’s guidance counselor told him. “We save the real dragons for juniors and seniors. You freshmen only have to practice on windmills.” On the big day, he and his best friend Sancho got the shock of their lives. There must have been a mistake in their schedules.
(277 characters)

By John at The Magic Shop:
Break Time
This was his chance. A beast that may have terrorized his village was asleep. Silent steps inched him closer to using his sword. Was this the creature? It didn’t matter, He needed to be a hero. Brimstone smell enticed him. His heart stopped as a branch cracked under his foot awakening the dragon.
(300 characters)

By Lisa at Tao Talk:
Let Sleeping Dragons Lie
Brave Pitter and Patter wandered deep in the forest, looking for dragons, and came upon a sign:
There’s a place in this woods where she sleeps
Pleasant dreams of the gold that she keeps
She wakes late, so be smart
Or be burnt to a fart
Sip your tea, munch your toast, and no peeps!

By Joe at Does Writing Excuse Watching?:
Park Ride
“A sleeping dragon? What kind of a Park ride is a sleeping dragon?”
“Awake it was too scary for the kids.”
“But what does it do?”
“Smoke comes out of its nose.”
“That’s it?”
“It makes snoring sounds.”
“Anything else?”
“It farts.”
“Well that’s all right then.”
251 characters.

By Melanie at Sparks from a Combustible Mind:
Eagon lived in the forest with his family. Their cottage was small, their garden large. Locals came in crowds to buy fresh vegetables and herbs. Although beleaguered often for his secret, Eagon would only smile enigmatically. Dragon dung was the best fertilizer known.
(Characters = 276)

By Chris at I.Mused:
An Old Friend
The snap of a twig.
The scales along his neck instinctively shimmered, he’d been followed.
“Please don’t go,’ she panted, “we need you.”
“Child,’ he hissed, “your elders disagree.”
“I need you,” she sobbed.
“You don’t need me,” his tail whipped, “You can imagine so much more!”
(272 chars)

By Regina at Help From Heaven:
Thank Goodness for a Vegetarian Dragon!
Walking through the forest, Kane saw a beautiful blue dragon. As Kane started to take flight on nimble feet, the dragon told him that he no longer found humans delicious. Their intransigence caused him indigestion. His blue color came from the blueberries he ate, instead.

By Tessa at Tessa Can Do It!:
The Exchange?
“Nator wants us to go to the dragon area at the local amusement park and hide out in the maintenance shed until this afternoon when we will meet the director and he will take possession of the product.”
“Are you sure about handing the product over to this man,” Linda asks.
272 characters

By Neel at Neel Writes Blog:
APOCALYPSE
“It’s a faun.”
“No, fauns have a goat’s legs. This one doesn’t have one,” Vikram said , his fingers pointing towards the monstrous creature that curled up behind trunk of the gulmohar.
“Faun or no faun, our goose is cooked,” said Inder before he lost consciousness.
(280 CHARACTERS)

By Peter at Peter’s Pondering:
Lost In Space
Close call with that meteor last week!
Yes, but have you seen this weird craft under the tree? There’s a canister just by the open door. Let’s look inside!
What’s this? A short story by the looks of it. Written by Peter’s pondering.
So, that’s why it wasn’t included in the roundup!
(278 characters)

By Hayley at The Story Files:
The Sleeping Dragon
‘We have to be quiet in the woods,’ Mama said.
‘Why?’ her young daughter asked.
‘Because, last night a blue dragon arrived here!’
The girl’s eyes grew wide and she clutched to her mama’s skirts.
‘He’s sleeping, so if we don’t disturb him, everything will be fine.’

By Shweta at My Random Ramblings:
Hide and Seek!
He struggled to drag himself behind the thick bush.
He had to remain hidden at any cost.
The flaming arrow didn’t kill him.
Yet, it ensured that he won’t fly for a while.
He couldn’t die at the hands of a human, like the others.
He was the last of his kind – the sole surviving dragon.
(280 characters)

By Deb at Twenty Four:
When Heidi had suggested taking the children out she’d leapt at the chance, but as a yell broke the silence she almost groaned in despair.
Hurrying into the clearing she came to an abrupt halt, then smiled.
“Ok kids, can anyone tell me what that is lying under the tree?”
(267 characters)

By Kristian at Tales From the Mind of Kristian:
Conquering the Dragon
It was a crazy initiation,
Fight the dragon, impress the nation,
but something sporadic, unplanned,
Happened that shocked the land.
They sent a novice, a raw beginner
But oddly, he returned the winner
He didn’t fight, attack or defend,
He talked to the Dragon and made him a friend.
[280 Characters]

By Rob at Art by Robert Goldstein:
The Televangelist
The raging Televangelist stalked the stage like
a angry dragon and roared:
“You will atone for your sins or the god of vengeance shall surely pierce your heart with the sword of eternal anguish!”
I rocked the cradle so hard the baby fell into supper.
226 Characters

And…it’s a wrap! I loved your Dragon Tales. There were several hide and seek takes. I found that interesting. You may have noticed I have not been around much this week. I’m afraid the creeping crud got the best of me, calling for a trip to the urgent care for antibiotics and other fun stuff. I’m just starting to feel human again so I dragged myself out from under my rock…I couldn’t possibly miss this weeks round up!

The pingbacks have been a bit fickle these days. Sorry if I have missed your tale last week or this. It has been suggested that I use an outside resource such as InLinkz. What do you think? Would you still want me to do a roundup each week? I’ve received some complaints that the challenge photo is too hard to scroll down to. Please give me your feedback. I aim to please. 😉 I enjoy hosting this challenge each week. It’s probably a good idea to post a link to your tale in the comments just in case pingbacks are acting up.

For this week an intriguing photo by Geralt at Pixabay.com. What is the secret message hiding in the binary code on the screen? Is the young lady in the photo the key saving us all? Who sent the message…an enemy…aliens? You could always write a story about computers in general and how FRUSTRATING they are…pings dropped, crashes, lost data…Have fun with it. And I hope to see you next week at the Roundup. And remember, let me know if you’d like me to try InLinkz…or if you are ok with the current format. Have a great week!