by Jesse R Traynham - Author

Likes: 8
Words: 200

The great mecha war of '09 seems like ages ago now. By the time it was over, there wasn't anything left to fight for. The epoch was riddled with fierce enmity. Hardly anyone remembered what started it. But the machines ended it. Most of the war-torn mechas were disassembled and sold as scrap by the reclamation crews.

But one remained. The great fallen knight. He forever lies next to his pilot's grave, the last to fall in the war. They were both valiant. Their courage ushered in a new era in our world. Some might say an old era, as things became simple in the aftermath.

People began to enjoy life. Rivalry and hostility were all but gone, but so were most of the people. We almost wiped ourselves out.

Some say you can still hear the whirr and hum late at night as you pass by. Others simply find a different path to travel. They remember the before. They can compare it to the present. Things had gotten too complicated. Everything meant something. Nothing meant anything. It was a clarity they did not wish to forget. They said goodbye to technology and hello to working the earth once again.

by John Cox

Likes: 7
Words: 200

The Giants roamed the lands until they fell from exhaustion. Their joints rusted, all circuitry fried beyond repair, batteries draining slowly over hundreds of years and then The Fall. The Ants built the Giants to fight their wars and the Termites returned the animosity with giants of their own. The designs for the automatons were discovered in the tunnels of the ancients.

The eusocial insects admired the ancients and saw the plans of a war that ended thousands of years ago.

To be like the ones they so admired they set their minds to bring to life the great machines. The time came and they set the Giants against one another. In battles all over the world they clashed.

The eusocial soon grew board with the constant fighting. Both sides had been built to the same measure and no progress was made to end the war.

So they turned off the fighting protocols and went back underground leaving their creations to roam without purpose. Slowly, they died.

The Ants hailed their Queen the winner and the Termites did likewise proclaiming victory in the name of their Queen.

War always ends the same. With two sides claiming victory. But none win.

by Mary Zuelke Author

Likes: 6
Words: 200

Here lies Domhan. Iron made his heart tick, but May made it sing with her kindness. He found a friend to talk and dream alongside.

He woke to the sun shining in his eyes. His legs were dented, his arms scarred from the comet’s tail, and a sooty layer of dirt lay upon him. He rose with a screech and heard an angel call out.

May was queen of the forgotten realm. Her parents had sent her away as a child, giving her everything she needed, a castle, a cook, a maid, and one soldier – each of whom could see but not speak. May could speak but not see. Her life was lonely until the day Domhan found her.

They walked together through lush forests, speaking of their dreams, the sun, the trees, the birds… of love.

Their life was beautiful until May died.

Domhan sat by her grave.

Every day a robin perched on the headstone and sang to him.

“chirrup cheer.”

The seasons changed. Rain pounded on his iron skin. Snow covered him half the year, and the sun baked him the other half.

Then one day two robins perched upon the headstone singing.

“chee ree.”

“chirrup cheer.”

by Neviena Dēls

Likes: 5
Words: 200

By the time the fog thinned, the giant had become a landmark.

Children from the valley once dared each other to touch its rusted fingers, counting heartbeats before the crows took offense. The elders told them it had not always been still. Long ago, it walked out of the forest, iron joints singing, and knelt before the citadel as if in prayer. Then something unseen answered, and it fell.

Melisa did not believe the stories until she followed the stream and found the hollow eyes filled with rain. She climbed the ribbed arm, palms stinging, and pressed her ear to the cold plate. Beneath the silence, a slow, stubborn ticking answered.

She brought tools the next day. Bolts protested, vines tore, and dusk gathered like a warning. When the panel gave, a breath of ancient heat touched her face. Inside, a heart of gears turned, patient as seasons.

Melisa hesitated only once. Then she set the final piece in place and closed the circuit.

Far away, the citadel bells began to ring. The giant’s fingers tightened in the grass. The crows lifted, screaming. Melisa laughed, terrified and exultant, as the world remembered how to wake after so many silent years.

by Eolas Pellor

Likes: 5
Words: 200

"Who was that?" Gweneth asked, her eyes soft with sorrow, as she beheld the huge skeleton beside the path.

"His name was Hornell," Melisande replied. "They say that spirits linger here, to trouble travellers who tarry." Gweneth could tell her friend wanted to get away from the spot, but their path led past the giant, who had fallen there, in his rusted armour.

"There's saddness about him," she said. "Why doesn't the King have him buried?" Her hand touched the steel of his vambrace, and a feeling of loss ran through her.

"He's a warning to any other giant who might come," Melisande said. She looked back, past the milestone, then at the setting sun. They had time before night fell and the gates closed, but not not long enough to dally on the path. "Really, we shouldn't stay here."

"Don't you feel how lonely he is?" Gweneth said. "Unburied. Far from his family and kind." Melisande could see compassion in the other girls face, though she could not understand it.

"Hornell was a monster," she said. "He would have killed the king, and held the kingdom captive."

"If he was the King's unfriend, perhaps the King made him so."

by Author Lisa Marie

Likes: 3
Words: 200

You know that feeling where you’re on the beach and you decide to walk towards a pier further down, only to find it miles more than you thought. That’s what this felt like, minus the pier, the cool breeze and a choice.

The wind howled around me, and I pulled up my buff to keep the sand from stinging my nose. A large foreboding castle loomed in the distance. My destination. The only one with doors and hopefully one which would transport me from this godforsaken landscape.

As I crested the top of the first treacherous hill, my heart stopped. For a moment, I thought the giant lying in front of me was a living being. It was not. Only a skeleton of what once was.

It was then that I noticed the small tombstone beside it as a winged creature flighted off, its tail a tight pink corkscrew. Not a bird. Not a bat.

I walked over and stood with my back to the biting wind to read the epitaph. “Love is timeless. This world is not. Meet you in the here.” Goosebumps danced up and down my arms. Hereafter or here? Was this giant’s fate my own destiny?