Friday, April 29, 2011

Friday Flash Fiction: The Princess and the Pie

Today's Friday Flash comes from a writing prompt from one of my favorite podcasts, Writing Excuses. Go check it out.

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The Princess and the Pie

Isaldar ran at full speed down the castle hallway. He reached one set of doors that a pair of soldiers were guarding, and shoved his way past them, throwing an apology over his shoulder as he went. He couldn’t slow down, though. Time was not on his side.

He listened to the clack of his hard boots against the stone floor, and concentrated on his breathing. He just needed to get to the princess, before it was too late. He was still berating himself for letting the delivery happen in the first place, but how was he supposed to know? The princess did get outside food delivered often, especially as gifts, as this was presented.

He shook his head. No recriminations. Just get to the princess. He came to another double door, this one leading to the royal sleeping chambers. There were four guards here, and these looked ready for him, halberds down to block his path.

“Sorry, guys, no time,” he said as he skidded under their pole arms and through the door. “Believe me when I tell you that the princess wants to see me!”

Finally, he made it to her room, where there was but a single guard. Not wanting to put up with anyone trying to stop him, he whipped out a stone from his pocket and casually tossed it ahead of him as he ran. The small, flat stone whipped across the room and smacked the guard right between the eyes. The man briefly looked around in surprise and then fell to the floor, unconscious.

Without hardly a pause, Isaldar pushed open the doors. He saw the princess then, sitting at her table about to take a bite of a very fine looking pie.

“NO!” he shouted and threw himself across the room. He landed right into the table, shoving it over and knocking pie all over the place. As he went down with the table, he snatched the fork in the princess’ hand, that piece of pie also flying.

“What in the name of the nine hells?” the princess started, but Isaldar interrupted her.

“Did you eat any of that pie, princess?” he asked.

“What?” she said, anger crossing her fine featured face.

“Did. You. Eat. Any. Of. That. Pie.” Isaldar said very slowly as he stood and brushed himself off.

“No, of course not,” she replied, standing up herself to face him eye to eye. He forgot how tall she was. “You threw your self at my dining table, upending everything and splattering the walls and even myself with it!”

“Good,” Isaldar said, reaching over to pick up a piece of the pie. He smelled it as the princess nearly exploded. Before he could, he shoved the piece of pie in her face.

“Look at this,” he said.

“What, it looks like an ordinary… wait,” she said. “Is that?”

“Yes,” he replied. “Darkberries. This pie was designed to steal your powers, princess. And as you well know, without your powers, the world would crumble to dust at your feet.”

She just stood there, eyes wide open. The whole of creation, nearly undone because of a pie. She shook her head.

“How did it get here in the first place?” she asked.

“Poor security,” he said. “Between that and my easy run here, I’ll need to do something about that.”

“Good,” she said. “Go do that. And bring in a maid to clean up this mess you made.”

”Yes, your highness,” he replied, leaving to go. He smiled. The world was safe once again.

“I still want pie,” he heard the princess say behind him. He sighed. Sometimes, he feared she would never learn.

The End

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