Greeting the Four

Posted on by Louise Bunting
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Photo prompt © Yarnspinner

Greeting the Four

The seats had been placed with utmost precision: north, south, east and west, each one carefully aligned. Veraen nodded in satisfaction.

“Anything else, Sir?” his assistant – Jaeden? Jened? – said, and he gestured in dismissal, shooing the man out of the sacred space. He’d spent too long in preparation to let the bumbling fool ruin things for him.

He alone would greet the Four.

Veraen recited the invocation with practiced ease, excitement growing as power gathered. Figures began to coalesce, unbounded energy taking humanoid form. He fell to his knees as four sets of eyes turned upon him. Four voices spoke in unison.

“How dare you?”

What? No! That wasn’t right! He tried to speak, but no words emerged. He tried to move, but his limbs were weighted, immovable.

“Greetings, Great Ones,” his assistant – Joren, he now recalled – said. “May I approach?”

As Joren strode past he dropped a page before Veraen’s frozen form. Instructions to avoid insulting the Four filled the sheet. The torn edge and Joren’s smirk told him exactly why he’d never seen the page before…

Word count: 175

To read the other entries or to submit your own, click the little blue frog.

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This post is for Priceless Joy’s Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers challenge. This week’s prompt was provided by Yarnspinner. Thank you, Yarnspinner!

It seems like forever since I last wrote a piece of flash fiction – though its actually only a little over a month. That month, however, has been insanely busy. I’m now living in a house in Lincoln (UK) with my sister and my teenage nephew, rather than in the village with my parents. Luckily, for a countryside loving girl like me, we’re right on the edge of a green stretch, with fields and woods only a few minutes walk away, so it doesn’t really feel like I’m in the middle if a city. I’ll try to share some pictures soon!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the story. Hopefully it doesn’t feel too rushed – it was originally over 300 words long, so a lot had to be cut out of it! I’d love to know what you think.

25 thoughts on “Greeting the Four”

    1. I have a number of ideas for directions this could go in, unfortunately I also have a list of other things I really need to complete before I start anything else new! Thanks for visiting, Michael. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks, Joy. I’m glad you liked it. If I do lengthen it, it probably won’t be on the blog I’m afraid. It might become a short story, novella or maybe even a full length novel, but any of those would be published on Amazon. I have quite a few things I plan to publish on Amazon… once I get them completed… :s

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    1. Thank you, PJ. Joren had spent too long being put down and dismissed as useless by Veraen. He was ready to be given to be given the respect he felt he deserved. 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed the story.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Not too rushed at all. It seems like forever since you wrote a piece of flash fiction? Well, I know for certain its been forever since I’ve read and commented on any. This is great. I had no idea where it was going but it was very satisfying. And well written!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks, Emilio. My blogging has been very haphazard for a while now! Thank you for visiting, and I’m very glad you enjoyed it. 🙂

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  7. Well, that serves Veraen right, treating Joren like that and not even remembering his name.

    I hope you’re enjoying your new home and not missing the meadow too much 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks, Ali. I’m glad you liked the story.
      I am enjoying my new home, though we still have lots of jobs to do. I definitely do miss the meadow, but there are lots of lovely paths around here for me to explore so its not as bad as I expected. And Mum and Dad are still in the village (until they sell their house, anyway) so I plan to visit the meadow at least a few times over the summer. 🙂 Thanks again, and sorry for the delay in replying. I’ve been really rubbish at finding time to blog lately. Any spare time I’ve had has generally found me with my head buried in a book! In case you’ve not read them, the Temeraire books by Naomi Novak are really good. 🙂

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  11. Joren was obviously very upset for being taken as a fool and found his own way of getting revenge. Now, Veraen appears to be the fool! Sometimes it’s good to learn how the other person feels!

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    1. Joren definitely turned the tables. Hopefully Veraen will learn to treat people with more respect in the future – if he makes it out of the situation in one piece! Thanks for reading, Jessie. 🙂

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    1. Thanks, Aletta. I doubt I’ll be writing any more of this story any time soon, but it might be lengthened at some point. The novel I wrote for last year’s NaNoWriMo (that I’m currently editing) started out as a 175 word flash fic, so the same may happen with this eventually. Thanks for visiting. 🙂

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