Interview With An Antagonist

I wrote this to  aldersprig's prompt "Breaking the 4th wall."  This should probably be rated PG for suggestiveness.

“So, you want the low down gossip on me and Red?”  The wolf grinned at me, which might have been more worrying if he hadn’t just finished a steak dinner at my expense.  “Sorry, you’ll just have to tell your editor that we’ve only got a hunter/prey thing going on.”

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It's Different Here

I wrote this to aldersprig's prompt "The city that learned hibernation, and why."  It's set on the same planet as the stories about Iphana.

The Colonial Development Plan called for a city there to supply services to the surrounding towns and settlements.  It would be an underground rail nexus and there was, of course, a long term plan for the deep residential, storage and work bunkers to dug down into the bedrock underneath it but for now it was going to be a surface city and that was the problem.  On the surface it was open to the weather and the weather here meant the winter storms.

Not just an occasional storm but a constant maelstrom of wind, snow, driven ice and cloud that expanded and contracted with the seasons.  Winds so strong that a heavy cargo hawler wasn’t safe in them.  Settlements and towns had developed successful strategies for coping with the winter storms so the planners examined those and selected what they thought would work.  Domes were rejected and tunnels were chosen.

“So,” clarified Maika, “the apartment building has two entrances, the ground floor one that goes onto the street and the lower ground floor one that goes into the boulevard underneath.”

“That’s right,” confirmed the building superintendent, a boy called Callow.  “You can use either but once the winter storms move in the ground floor door will be automatically locked so we have to think before we go out onto the street. At the same time the windows will automatically seal and we’ll be on air conditioning till spring,” Callow nodded in approval .

“That seems a bit extreme.”  Maika liked fresh air.

“Ma’am, the wind from the winter storms is fresh, but it’s not nice.  You don’t want it getting inside your apartment, the wind chill can bring the external temperature down to forty below.”  He sighed, “And it doesn’t just affect you, it increases the load on the apartments around you to keep warm too.”

“So we hibernate for winter?”  Maika had been expecting life in her new home to be different but this was more different than she’d realised.

“Yes ma’am, for six and a half months we need to be cave dwellers and tunnel lovers.”  Callow smiled, “I’m sure you’ll get used to it.  I’ve got some pamphlets here on decorating advice to help avoid seasonal depression and some on interest groups you might like to join to avoid cabin fever.”

“Thank you,” replied Maika faintly and took copies of them all.

The Day After The Wedding

I wrote this to aldersprig's tenth prompt "More Rune."


“You and my Uncle Caliburn have a very similar taste in cars,” Rune smiled at her new husband.  He was driving them to their honeymoon location in his red, Milanese-built sports car.  Rune was glad it wasn’t a convertible, otherwise it would have been completely unsuitable for much of the year and Franz seemed to enjoy his car very much.  She wasn’t sure how it would handle snow though, it seemed very low slung.

“Yes, we talked about cars last night at the reception.  He’s owned a couple I wish I’d had the chance to drive.  Where to at this intersection up ahead?”  He changed gears.

Rune consulted the map.  “We need to go right and then left at the next turn after that.”

“Okay.  Why did your uncle lend us this place?  It seems to be a long way from anywhere.”  Franz kept his eyes on the road.

“I think he thought we might need to keep the media at bay, some of them were being very intrusive in the lead up to the wedding.”  Her forehead wrinkled for a moment, “I think he said something about if we liked it, he’d give it to us for a summer home, but that was at a family pre-wedding dinner and I was a bit confused at that point.”

“Confused?”  He spared her a glance and gave her a smile at the same time.

“I’d had Olvera, wine, Douro, a nip of plum brandy and quite a lot of sugar.  My attention to and my comprehension of what was said to me were not up to scratch.”  She smiled.  “I’m still not used to dinners that are that…extensive.”

“I’ll keep that list in mind in case I need to get you sweetly muddled.” He squinted at the road ahead, “Is that a driveway or the turn.”

“A driveway,” Rune confirmed.  “Why would you need to get me muddled?”

“Well, nothing happened last night-“

“Except exhausted sleep and some very nice cuddling that was interrupted by someone with no sense of timing,” Rune almost pouted.  “I think I’d rather have my wits about me, thank you.”

“Oh,” He sounded like he was filing information away for future reference.  “Why?”

“Because I think you’re worth paying attention to.”

“Ah.”  That got his interest.  “Hold that thought, please?  I think you’re worth paying attention to too.”