A Few Days of Fantasy Flash Fiction

Welcome to LCP’s Summer 2016 Flash Fiction Contest.

In this round, we are celebrating the release of two books, Tamara Shoemaker’s Embrace the Fire, and Emily June Street’s Sterling. Both are fantasy stories set in worlds with magic, royalty, power struggles, and love. One involves dragons, the other, magic stones.

Below we have an image to inspire your stories. Your story must contain either a DRAGON or a MAGIC STONE, or both. You have until midnight on June 30th, 2016 (PDT) to submit a story of 100 words or fewer. Titles are not included in word count. You may submit multiple stories if you wish.

Post your stories in the reply section to this post. Be sure to include your name, Twitter handle or other contact information, and a word count at the top of your story. See the complete rules here.

One winner will receive copies of Embrace the Fire and Sterling! Our illustrious judge is veteran flash fictioneer and Alpha FlashDog Mark A. King. Winner will be announced Monday, July 4th.

We look forward to reading your stories!

Your photo prompt:

Contest 4

58 thoughts on “A Few Days of Fantasy Flash Fiction

  1. unspywriter

    100 words (discounting the title)

    Seamus and Declan on a Welsh Beach

    “Ah, Seamus! Look here! A mountain, in the middle of nowhere!”
    “Declan, calm yourself. It’s a stone. You’d know that if you hadn’t had so many drops of the Creature.”
    “I’ve nary had—”
    “No lyin’, ye daft leprechaun.”
    “Seamus, that’s no ordinary stone. I’ll wager it’s magical. If we touch it and wish on it and—”
    “Eejit! If it’s magic, we can’t go touching it. Declan! No!”
    “Preserve us! It’s gone dark, it has.”
    The great Red Dragon’s shadow loomed over them. “Ahem,” she said, clearing her throat, “what are you two doing with my egg?”
    “Why, nuttin’.”
    “Nuttin’ ‘tall!”

    Maggie Duncan

  2. Margaret Locke

    Here Be No Stones Or Dragons But I Wrote A Story Anyway (96 words)

    The earth’s rich belly swelled above the sand like a ripe melon, water flowing over her, waves baptizing her anew.

    But it was not promise growing. Not opportunity. Not possibility.

    It was destruction, the cells of pollution and violence and hatred and evil multiplying and dividing with increasing rapidity, consuming her from the inside out.

    We watched in horror, in despair, at the growing mound, dreading its birth.

    Little did we know it had already happened, life as we knew it hemorrhaging away, consumed by greed and pride and lust and vice.

    A miscarriage of justice.

    Margaret Locke

  3. tarynbk

    The Unmarked Grave
    (98 words)

    I buried you by the sea, because I know how you love to hear the waves crash.

    Your headstone isn’t much. You deserve something precious, a golden statue a hundred stories tall, with sapphires for eyes. But no one will look for you here. No one will hurt you again.

    I wish you had burned them all to ashes, but I know that you never could.

    But you’re gone now, and they’ve slain their last dragon. I’ve chained them to rocks just like yours, waiting for the tide.

    I know how you love to hear the waves crash.

    ~Taryn Noelle Kloeden

  4. David Kleeman

    100 words

    “Awn en graglo, din grawlo mean esh.”

    Thunderous words grumbled and grasped at souls in such a way as to challenge sanity. Wise men scattered, fools took arms. Crude steel suddenly molten, lives of the reckless gone with just one exhale.

    “Awn grelo tu nes, awn grelo dimesh.”

    Wings and smoke black as night, the sun forgotten. No day, just night at dragons flight. The flames unforgiving. A thousand years it did rest, this beast of death, but now all must bear its burden. Kingdoms fall along with human sprawl, all left burning.

    As for Denor, he’ll sleep once more.

  5. crsmith2016

    What Is Lost Can Be Found
    WC 100

    There was something on the doorstep. Light bounced off its shiny surface, stopping me in my tracks.

    A large faceted stone, encircled with delicately engraved snakes, glistened at the centre of a golden box. It looked ancient, its edges smoothed away by years of wear.

    My fingers travelled its surface, causing the white stone to glow brightly. The snakes slithered to life before my eyes, winding themselves around my arms, pulling me closer still.

    Staring into the stone’s depths, I discovered all the lost tolerance was held captive inside the box.

    When its lid sprung open, I set it free.


  6. davejamesashton

    Sapphire Spellstone
    96 words

    Anneke held the necklace up, trying in vain to catch the light on the stone imprisoned within the tawdry setting.

    “Such a lovely cut! But the remainder is just rubbish, I’m afraid. One hundred dollars.”

    “Whaddabout retro charm? That’s gotta be worth something, right?”

    “Please. It’s simply hideous, gauche and overwrought. I’m being quite generous.”

    The seller scowled. “Better than nothing, I guess. Gimme the Benjamin.”

    Annke handed over the money, and kept her polite smile plastered to face until the door slammed behind him.

    “Its been a long time since a phylactery came into my pawnshop.”


  7. davejamesashton

    Draconic Destruction
    100 words

    K’Thaersaskltstkitsthatks was the last. The others slaughtered by petty, ephemeral humans. Somehow, a race like theirs had eradicated noble dragons. She had spent aeons in slumber, mourning.

    Now, it was time for a reckoning. She had awakened, eager to mate. Never again though would there be the joys of clutching. Her anger mounted. K’Thaersaskltstkitsthatks feared not their puny spears and arrows, and humanity’s pitiful defences would soon succumb to dragon fire.

    The chthonic wyrm took to the air roaring her fury, but it was short lived. The world had changed. K’Thaersaskltstkitsthatks was powerful, but she was no match for satellites.


  8. Voima Oy

    The Black Stone
    100 words

    The beach is covered with stones. The big ones are sleeping dragons. The smaller ones are men.

    There is not much left of the world, now. Ragged survivors comb the sand at low tide for jewelry boxes. They trade these treasures for cans of soup or peanut butter. Claire is not looking for food or treasure. She is searching among the stones for Davey. Her Davey, eaten by a wave.

    The sun shines on a round black stone. It fits her hand, wet and warm as an animal. Was that a sigh or the sea breeze, a dragon or a man?

  9. Craig McGeady

    Dragon Mountain (99 words)

    I was with my Baba and Grandfather when I asked about Dragon Mountain. We had spent the morning climbing a zig-zagging path and had finally reached the plateau just before noon. We were sitting in long grass, enjoying the food my Mama had prepared.

    ‘That’s easy.’ replied my Grandfather.

    Baba has his head bowed but I could still see his smile.

    ‘It’s called Dragon Mountain because that’s exactly what it is. A dragon.’

    Baba leaned back, putting his cheek to the earth. ‘And if your very still you can hear it purr.’ he said.

    We spent all afternoon listening.

    Craig McGeady

  10. David Kleeman

    100 words

    He stared at his hand and all the little creases that ran across his palm, over time these lines had pushed out and away forming a smooth circle where none existed, the stone had contorted them all as if it had built a nest for itself there in his being.

    Its absence was not missed, though it still called to him, as it sank swiftly in the dark waters.

    “You’ve taken from me my one true love, and despite all your power you still have the heart of a simple stone.”

    “May you now learn loss and what love is.”

  11. stephellis2013


    100 words


    The plains had fallen silent, the light stealing away, pitching the henge almost into darkness. Yet despite his lone presence, Kai couldn’t shake off the feeling something was waiting for him.

    He had been warned to stay away but he didn’t believe in fairytales.

    Ahead lay the Alter Stone, cold to touch even as the sun’s last flame snaked its way up his arm onto the rock. Midsummer magic, the legends had promised and now he stood entranced as strange runes glimmered on its surface, casting their spell, imprisoning him.

    From somewhere came a phone’s shrill call. It went unanswered.

  12. Nancy Chenier

    100 words

    My escape pod hunches in the low tide like a tortoise shell. As it had twenty-five years ago. I tongue the scar on my lip.

    The streets are ruthless, but not as brutal as Dad. Six-year-old me, sand dissolving under his knees, morsed SOS against stone. Hoping for a world that didn’t speak in fists.

    I tap-scratch Hello.

    A seam cracks open with a steamy sigh. A boy spills out, ugly gash severing his smile. He escaped after all.

    What do I know of salvation?

    I help him stand. It’s up to me to be that planet.

    For us both.

      1. Nancy Chenier

        Thank you! I’m out of practice and grateful for the chance to exercise my flash muscles again (the two-novel motivation is enough of a fire to light under my behind).

  13. Nancy Chenier

    Happy Anniversary
    100 words

    We used to roam here, when scales were skin. Breathing dawn and wishing on dragon-stones. Tender, breakable things. Tender, breakable hearts.

    “Neither of us is breakable now,” I murmur to your hardened silence.

    The day your mother died, we came with mortality-battered hearts. We held hands and wished the same thing: to trade perishable flesh for eternal armor. Together.

    Your grief had other longings: a babe in my mother’s arms.

    A dragon’s infancy is an egg scaled in jade. Here, with only waves to nurse you.

    I stretch my wings against the morning, leaving you once again in their care.

    1. joshbertetta

      Nancy, Your’s is the first story I read after posting mine. In the last 11 months I participated in one flash fiction contest. Reading your story here is itself a breathing of the dawn. Gorgeous as always.

  14. Jennifer Faust

    Mine’s more of a start of a story :S eep lol Just want I need a start of another story 😛 lol

    It’s exactly 100 words without a title.

    “Mama, what’s this red stone?” Eldra asked, holding a small, round object.

    “It’s a dragon eye, Eldra. It has magic powers.”

    “What does it do?”

    Monjonee stared off into the distance. How could she tell the secret after all this time.

    “Mama? What is it, Mama?”

    Monjonee swiped at the tears on her cheeks. “There’s a secret tale. The tale of how you came to be.”

    Eldra sat beside her mother, eagerness flooded her face. Her eyes sparkled. “Is Papa in it?”

    “Yes, Papa is in it. His name was Vandorin, king of the dragons.”

  15. joshbertetta

    Josh Bertetta
    “They Themselves”
    98 Words

    Two ships launched from their near-lifeless planets, twin planets half-consumed, in search of a new home. They’d learned their lesson and vowed they wouldn’t wake the dragon again. Their world’s ruin their own doing.

    In time they learned that what they thought was their world was actually part of a larger world.

    A much larger world. A beautiful world.

    Those who lived in this world called their magic stone “Earth.” They learned the “Earthlings” too had roused the dragon from its sleep. The poked it, over and over again, with their hate.

    Just like they themselves had done.

  16. Eclipse Now

    Dave Lankshear
    99 words

    Shame burned the boy’s cheeks. He had dropped the ceremonial knife in the sand! The pain had been intense, but blood finally dripped from his wrist onto the ancient leathery rock, warming the surface.
    “Will He come?” the boy asked.
    The old man’s blue eyes smiled sadly from a weathered face.
    “A thousand boys have tried,” he said, staring down at the rock. He looked up, sniffed the air and scanned the horizon. “It’s too quiet,” he said.
    So the boy called and sang for an hour, but nothing.
    The boy wept, tears splashing the stone.
    The rock thundered!

  17. Rebekah Postupak

    “Well,” said the first stone presently, “it could be worse.”

    “How?” said the second.

    “It could be raining.”

    “It still might.”

    “We could have shattered into pieces.”

    “The way I feel, I rather wish we had.

    The sandy yards between them stretched deliberately, delicately, into icicles.

    “At least,” said the first stone, “I asked directions this time.”

    “Much good it did,” murmured the second.

    “It’s lovely here.”

    “For a crash site.”


    And then the first stone said: “I didn’t invite my mother.”

    “Come to me, gorgeous,” breathed the second, as warm waves exploded across the beach.

  18. athewriter

    Sea Shells
    By: Allison K. Garcia, @ATheWriter, 100 words

    “What is it?”
    “How am I s’posed to know? It’s not like I dropped it from the sky.”
    “Should we get closer?”
    “It’s steaming, might be pretty hot. Probably a meteorite or something.”
    “Let’s poke it with a stick.”
    Poke. Poke. Growl.
    “Nope. Not a meteor. Definitely alive.”
    “Yeah, poking it was not a good idea. It seems to be moving around and pretty mad.”
    “Eep. Was that a spark?”
    “Oh, man. Are we about to be killed by an alien?”
    “No. A dragon.”
    “Dragons aren’t real.”
    “Then that’s a very realistic blimp coming our way.”
    Sizzle. Chomp.

  19. Geoff Holme (@GeoffHolme)

    Geoff Holme
    Word Count: 100

    The Reluctant Dragon-keeper of Drabenvord

    Oneirodynia had plagued the street shoemaker for days. He sought out Llandryff, the purblind dreamcatcher.

    “Our primitive progenitors considered the spheres in your vision to be thaumatoliths, magic stones, appearing mysteriously each Walden-tide under the waning gibbous moons in the sheltered cove east of Jelador, only to vanish a sennight later.

    “It was Olbanir the Bowman that you envisaged watching the pelagic dragon, Aesaphyl, rise from her saltwater realm and deposit her precious eggs in the silvered sands. He pierced her heart with a diamond-tipped dart.

    “Carpe diem, Brac Ethefir, eldest son of Ezzredir! Find these fosterlings and nurture them.”

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  21. Rebekah Postupak

    “I hope you will forgive my presumption for saying this–it sounds so awful!!! And I’m so sorry—you’ve no idea just how sorry! Utterly humiliating!! I beg your forgiveness, truly! But all the same I feel obliged to suggest (I’m really so very sorry!) that maybe it wasn’t the best idea—”

    charcoal boulders erupting from the deep

    fire streaming from an ashen sky

    waves of iron teeth raking the beach

    kingdoms sinking beneath bubbling lava

    the planet itself finally sizzling away in a puff of smoke

    “—to touch my stuff,” said the Dragon, blushing.

  22. Brady Koch (@BradyTheWriter)

    Stone Quarry
    99 words

    The crone’s face was purple. If Roin had been two more day slow in tracking her, it would have likely been black. She was only newly dead, likely so after realizing the mystical stone in her possession had been the quarry for the prairieland’s most storied treasure hunter. He removed his glove so he could better trace the line of her esophagus, feeling for the hard lump. He felt none. He’d have to remove his treasure from her stomach. He unsheathed his dagger ready to reclaim his birthright from the witch that has stolen it from his father’s coffin.

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