1. The clouds seal off the sky, a grim undulating wall of gray that thwarts her attempts to chart their course. By the fifth day she can only answer ‘at sea’ when the prince asks where they are.

2. Superstition holds that cats walk closest to the spirit world, but even here, where the barriers are thinnest, superstition is all that they can claim. Mice, on the other hand…

3. It’s easier not to try– and the days turn to weeks turn to months and it isn’t until some well-meaning coworker murmurs condolences that he realizes a year has passed.

4. They’d tried creating magical companion animals once, as a way of expanding their mana pools. Melding human and animal into a coherent whole… Their students’ students still whisper tales of the disastrous results centuries later.

5. The downside to waking from cryogenic slumber into a futuristic world is that no one knows how anything works. Kate glared unhappily at her current handler who was honestly confused as to why her charge kept asking such strange questions. If a hovercar worked, why did it matter how?

1. Fate is just as often kind as unkind, but tragic endings make for better press.

2. A writer’s job is never done– which is why, at some point, the editor has to duct tape them to the chair and take away the pen.

3. It would be lying to say a hush fell over the forest because the sharp sudden silence is anything but ‘hush’.

4. Fast Food drive-through is a lot like Russian roulette, most of the time you’ve got a pretty good chance of getting what you ordered more or less in the condition you anticipated, but every so often you end up with a bag with two fish sandwiches, some neon green carbonated soda, and no fries.

5. I’m a wave upon the ocean/I’m a cloud upon the sky/A tree lost in the forest/though my memories are lies…

These story prompts are released into the wild per Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License, so sayth their author Martha McMahon Bechtel.

Technotari Tags: Writing Prompts