“Standing Stones” – FWG Flash Fiction for 2/1/2025
Rob Johnson- Feb 7
- 2 min read
Guardians may not just keep invaders out.
The prompt is:
STANDING STONES
Bridges are mystical things. Crossing them can transport one to another world. Passing under them often invites adventure…or disaster. Local legend said the stone bridge over Toby’s Run was built by Druids as a portal to protect them from those who threatened them. Transporting them as they crossed it, to a purgatory of eternal darkness. The nine standing stones lining its parapets, it was said, each marked a thwarted threat.
For Dianna, it represented an escape from the suffocating constraints of life as a princess, not a magical portal. On the other side lay the Ungoverned Lands, the lawless realm of bandits and brigands into which no proper lady should even consider venturing.
It was all Dianna could dream about until Thomas returned with his father, the First Ranger, from two years patrolling those forbidden precincts. Her childhood playmate had grown into a strapping young man. Dianna’s heart fluttered at his first glance and crooked smile.
While his father delivered his report, Thomas regaled her with tales of hunting, taverns, and chasing bandits on horseback through the wild forests. She was captivated.
But when she half-jokingly suggested that she accompany him on his next mission, his reaction was typical. He laughed.
Furious, she ran to the stable, saddled Storm, her favorite stallion, and galloped from the castle for the old bridge. Nearly there, with her tresses streaming behind, matching Storm’s mane, she heard hooves pounding behind her. A glance over her shoulder revealed Thomas leaning over his own mount’s neck in full gallop. As he drew up close enough to grab Storm’s bridle to stop her, they crested the bridge’s arch.
Laughing, Dianna spurred Stom down the other side, then pulled up at Thomas’s tortured cry of anguish. He was gone, and a tenth tall stone stood in his place.
THE END
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