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Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Today's #flashfiction Delivering Dreams

“Don't hate me because I'm beautiful.”
Legolas* #quote

Today I looked in the mirror and said, “That is a mirror.” Anyway onto the flash fiction!


Delivering Dreams

          Overworked faeries bobbed through the night sky carrying ethereal packages with their magic. The wind battered them and their brown uniforms didn't fit any respectable fashion. Whenever they passed by their coworkers some of them managed to smile, the ones who could were usually early in their long routes.
         Goodwind, a young fairy new to this line of work, wished he had one of the more pleasant fairy jobs. Like watching flowers while sprinkling fairy dust on them to promote growth. But instead he delivered dreams to those who slept.
Dreary normal delivery happened tonight until he slammed into an imp mid-flight.
        “Watch where you're going pretty boy!” The red-skinned, warty creature pointed. Goodwind only could assume that the pretty boy remark referenced his long, luxurious hair. For both elf and fairy kind it became culturally mandatory to keep their hair long and beautiful for both sexes. Nobody really knew when it started, historians thought it was a mandate by the two newly crowned kings of both races to annoying their balding fathers.
         Goodwind fluttered in place, “Sorry, I'm j-just doin' my job.” Normally any fairy doing the tedious, soul sucking duty of dream delivery would have instantly thrown into a rage, but Goodwind hated such heated conflict. He grew up around a group of hornet-winged faeries, and their temper ingrained in him a fear of anger.
         The imp flicked his split tongue at him, talking with bits of spit in the air. “Well I've got a nightmare to deliver to a little old lady on 47th Street and you're slowing me down.” Goodwind wasn't sure to point out that this conversation slowed down his delivery. He then realized that only one old lady lived on 47th Street and he was due to deliver a dream to her. The order of the world was that fairy kind delivered dreams and imps delivered nightmares. What was going on here?
         “S-sir, I've got a dream to deliver there. I think there is a problem.”
           The imp punched Goodwind. “Miserable little fairy! I don't make no mistakes! Now flutter on home while I deliver my package.” Goodwind felt his sore face. He hadn't lost a tooth. The sheer shock of the imp's actions startled him so much he couldn't move. He'd never heard of an imp doing something like that. Thinking back to the little bit of training they had for the job he tried to remember what they said about imp encounters.
          An old dream deliveryman told him on his first day, “Imps are pathetic, weak bullies. The only way to reason with them is a loud voice and sharp look.”
Goodwind flew up to the imp. His memories recalled the hornet winged faeries from his childhood and how bad it was to cross them. He hesitated for a moment, but then thought about he wasn't a small fairy with little wings. And this wasn't a hornet of any kind. He pulled the goblin around and raised his fist before speaking.
         “Check your package again you little red worm.” Goodwind glared at gnarly-toothed thing.

          The imp shivered and looked at the package. The imp made a mistake, the nightmare was meant for a different address. “O-o-h-he-y! My mistake! Gotta go!” The imp flew off. Goodwind was never going to punch the imp. Apparently the red menace only choose to go after someone it figured it could get away with bullying. And if Goodwind had stayed in the same mental state he did as a child, the imp may have done it.

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