Unlucky Day

Being a leprechaun is a delight 99.75 percent of the time. All rainbows and clover and pots of gold. But for a single day in March, everyone wants their three wishes and suddenly life gets a lot more complicated.

Sean O'Patrick O'Reilly knew enough to scout his hiding place early. You never wanted to be caught because you're scrambling for an empty cave or secluded tree hollow and without warning someone has you by the ankle demanding a million dollars or world peace.

But who could have foreseen an old, fat man's metal detector stumbling upon Sean's golden hat buckle?

Fifteen Minutes

After a lifetime of deception, a sense of purposelessness persisted. Trapped in darkness, Sarah faced tests, time lost all meaning, hunger gnawed, and survival was vital. Guilt spiraled into self-blame. A presence loomed, with fear gripping her. A hidden cave, a reward, reality slipping, and power and control are beckoning. Uncertainty and choices lead to dark paths. Sarah complied, fearing the unknown. Urgency and the cave's depths awaited. A dangerous allure, dread mounting. Unease, an invisible stalker, the crunch of footsteps. The weight of a gaze, fear, and defiance entwined.

"I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to win!"

From Guest Contributor J. Iner Souster

Last Ditch Effort

The slave driver’s eagles squawk and shift violently in the wind to dodge the endless barrage of waves crashing against the rocky cliff’s edge. By our scent, they know we are close, but they can’t see us.

“It must’ve been an illusion, pa,” says my son. His tunic is soaked by sea and sweat as he rips oar against cruel wave. “The heat makes one see things while fishing. Perhaps there’s no cave.”

I struggle to speak and strain through the invisibility incantation I have surrounding us and our boat, “Row boy! It was no illusion. It’s our only salvation.”

From Guest Contributor John Martinez

The Cave

Today is his wife’s birthday. Five years later, a ghastly memory lingers over him. He cringes recalling the cave tour he planned for his adventurous wife. Now, he desperately yearns for her.

A cold breeze sends shivers down his spine while he silently fights back tears. His grief-stricken heart is infuriated by Mother Nature’s cruelty.

He still hears echoes of his wife’s pleas to rescue their child from nature’s wrath. Ruthless in stealing her, now this cold cave is blessed with his wife’s beautiful soul.

A flurry of air passes through him as her immortal love warms the hollow cave.From Guest Contributor Hetal Shah

Hetal Shah graduated with her Bachelor of Commerce from SIES. She lives in Mumbai with her husband, son, and daughter. She rekindled her hobby of writing over the past year. She is the winner of Mumbai Poetry League 2020, and her poem was published in an anthology by Poets of Mumbai called Guldastaa A Bouquet of Poems. She also writes flash fiction, and has been published twice on 101words.org. She loves to read, and especially enjoys reading and writing stories of romance and everyday life. Besides writing, she enjoys cooking new cuisines, traveling, and singing.

Conquest Sapiens

Winter today felt like death. Sor glared at the obvious trail leading to his concealment.

The scentless pale race had carried out a callous pogrom against his kind. He was the last. They’d extracted the cave tribe like so many snails from their shells.

The speed and nature of the slaughter had appalled. Herded into a clear space, Gargar and her people had seemed to shrink, then vanish in light when the captors had waved short sticks in their direction.

Better to die fighting.

Sor tensed. Someone– His crouching body disintegrated.

"The planet’s sterilized," the marine announced over her com.

From Guest Contributor Perry McDaid

Calypso: Bright-Eyed Goddess

Unknown amongst them,she sits; awe and wonder.Blazing eyes searching,surrounded, glorious banquet,wondering of the occasion.‘Where is your father?’Calypso forbidden his return!Wanting the strong man herself,locked away, a vaulted cave;awaiting his love.

Prisoner of the Nymph’s love.‘I actually heard he was home!’The gods, it seemed, had sinister plans.Not returned from battle,vanished, Never to be seen again.

‘What is the meaning of this banquet?’Men of Troy had heard of the banishment,their behavior animalistic.Seeking the love of the ‘widow,’leaving the son belittled,doomed to an inglorious future.

From Guest Contributor Melissa Land

While The Dragon Yet Lives

Sir Hadder rested against the boulder. He needed time to catch his breath after hauling his heavy armor and weapons up the mountain. Unfortunately, the racket had warned the dragon of his arrival, and Hadder heard the beast emerging from its cave.

One peek around the corner showed Sir Hadder a field littered with the charred skeletal remains of the many heroes who had preceded him on this quest. No knight could wed the King's daughter while the dragon yet lived.

It made him wonder if marrying the princess was worth it. After all, she was now over 40 years old.

Build It And They Will Come

The majority of his days were spent in darkness, so he was startled by the flickering of light in the distance. The illumination grew stronger as it approached. He thought of running. He could only imagine that the sudden shadows cast on the wall were those of danger approaching.

The light grew to a crescendo until a man walked around the corner. He was dressed in spelunker's gear, with a headlamp shining brightly from his helmet.

"Man, you scared me. I've been working in the cave gift shop for ten months, and you're the first customer I've seen."

A Minor Transformation That Would Later Be Cited As Evidence Of His Divinity

He woke up from what felt like an intensely deep sleep. His first instinct was to feel his wounds. They were still there, but something felt different. It may not have been a big change, the kind that people would notice, but he was definitely aware of it himself.

He realized it was dark, and he felt his way around and decided he must be in some sort of cave. That's weird. He would have thought they'd have built some kind of tomb or something befitting his celebrity.

Ah, now he recognized what was different. He wasn't dead anymore. Cool.

The Daily Theme from Figment for March 21, 2012

Literature is full of stories about people who wake to find themselves in extreme altered physical states--a man wakes up as a giant insect; a girl grows antlers in her sleep; a poor weaver discovers that his head has been replaced with that of a donkey. But what happens when a person wakes up only slightly transformed? Write a story about a person who wakes one morning with a small physical change--big enough to feel profound to him or her, but subtle enough that it's not immediately apparent to others.