Other stories for this prompt

"You're here because someone recommended you to me. Someone who passed the test. Someone who promised you that you'd be a better financial trader."

The Banker nodded. "Peter. Pete sugg…"

"No names. No pack drill. Only one condition. If…"

"When… When, surely?"

"If… you pass the test, you have to recommend someone to go after you. Someone you think needs to be a better banker. And you DON'T tell them about the test."

"Agreed."

"Ok then. I'd hate to have to kill you." I smiled conspiratorially.

"During the day this park is full of dog walkers. And dogs. And shit."...

My sister was called Heather. She only lived three years. I've never been told what really happened to her, only that she was taken away from us too early. I used to lie awake all night, terrified of someone coming in through the window, dragging me out of bed, over their shoulder, down a ladder, running across the back lawn, through a gap in the fence and into a van. Driven away forever.

It wasn't until I was about eight years old and settling into a new house (we'd moved four times already) that I came across a scrapbook of...

I will put my fingers together and pull the grass up from the roots. I will do it before my mother comes outside. If I don't she'll ask "what have you been doing out here all this time?" But if I do, I'll have something to show for myself. I'll give her the stalks of grass as if they are flowers. She may thank me, but she more likely will wonder why I bothered to dig up the good grass.

I will move away from home one day soon. I will plant a garden where I live. I will make...

The giant surveyed the landscape, wondering where all the people were. Truth was, he didn't know he was a giant. Everyone else he had ever come in contact with was a giant, so humans - the little people he had no knowledge of - didn't exist in his mind. Yes, he saw them, but they were nothing but insignificant little insects, ants, only there to annoy and crush.

He marveled at this world, so green and rocky, so unlike the limitless cloudy floors of his huge domain. He reached down and picked a few blades of grass, and at once...

The air was crisp and cold the morning of the discovery. Shouldering his way through the greeness, he hugged his pack to him.
Anthony had just left home on his first journey into adulthood. Every Minor on their 18th birthday had to venture into the world and bring back something from the world of the big humans.
Branches scratched at him, thorns stuck him, but he was determined. Just something in his gut told him that his worthiness was in this direction.
Suddenly the trees parted and beyond them was a great depression in the woodlands, and in its...

I had already been running for way too long. Over rocks and streams, around trees, it didn't seem to matter. The maze of the landscape seemed perfectly clear to me as I forced myself through the forest.

The only things I knew for sure were that I had to get away from this thing and that the only advantage I had was my familiarity of the land.

The beast was definitely faster than me. And hungry. Those two things together weren't making things look good at all.

Why did I have to go into its territory and steal food? Why...

The giant knelt, and threaded the palm trees through his fingers. Lifted his hand slowly, snapping the thinner branches, but not the strongest, fruit baring limbs. He cupped the six or seven coconuts he pulled free and shook them.

The giant's thumb flicked the coconuts into his mouth one at a time. The shells crunched weakly between his teeth.

He finished his handful and set about feeling around the tips of the trees for another. A monkey watched him and sat there trying to figure out a way to profit from this situation, without

to feel the moss of the forest floor - this was her favorite. she would bend down periodically, just to caress the soft verdant covering. when she came upon a cluster of burgeoning ferns, she reached and ran them through her fingers like she would strands of a lover's hair. she loved the forest quite as much, and found spending time in it much more peaceful than time passed with any lover she'd ever known. the sun-dappled ground. the falling leaves led in a gentle dance by the breezes. the sight of it all renewed her spirit, in the way...

Inner core
Outer core
Mantle
Upper mantle
Crust
Susan.

Flora between her fingers,
Seeds between her toes.
Like Cinderella, I thought,
recalling an old "Wizard of Id" panel.

I stroll above the layers of the earth,
sing-songing under the tarp of heaven,
bulging with the weight of infinity.

Susan springs to her feet.
"Jesus Christ, a spider! Kill it!"
tangling her hair with
typewriter fingers.

I catch it on a leaf and
move it across the field.

I guess that makes me Mantle.

The first thing he felt upon regaining consciousness was wet and prickly. He couldn't see just yet, and wouldn't be able to turn his head even if his eyes were working properly. In fact all he could move were the fingers of his left hand. So he was determined to make the best of that situation until he could do more.

If he could do more. A thought he quickly would not allow himself to hold on to.

He gripped the objects between his fingers. No, it was a substance. He flattened his hand and ran the back of it...