Abandoned Forum

[Insanity test]

I recently started appreciating the merits of very short stories. I was reading a compendium of Arthur C Clark's short stories and some of them are less than a page long - the shortest is 31 words!

Well anyway I felt like writing one, so here it is.

Aftermath

As he stood on the Precipice gazing blankly into the interminable abyss, he regretted that it had come to this. The war had been won, the barbarous scum had been eradicated or had flown into the sky with their heinous trickery.
His cause was right. It was Just! How could anyone doubt that.
Dammit why was there no elation? Why no rejoicing??
As he relived his years in service, his orders, his decisions; decisions which had cost lives, (but for a just cause!), orders which had left him breathing heavily despite his luxurious, relaxing surroundings, he gradually came to realise that there was but one choice.

And the Darkness beckoned...

[Pimienta]

wow that's good

[Insanity test]

Thank you!

I'll post more when they spill out of the keyboard.

[Insanity test]

Obscurity

When I look at my life, I wonder why I'm upset.
I've had every good opportunity that came my way, I'm doing what I love, I have a job, I have a steady income. I have friends, I even have a soulmate. Yet I feel there's something missing. Looking out at the expanse before me, I realise I've sunk into my own world. Introverted in my own universe. Of the few hundreds of stars visible from my small world, it was recently discovered that well over half were actually galaxies. Whole collections of billions upon billions of stars.
Yet here we are, a solitary planet floating round a solitary sun. Why has fate been so cruel? Why have we been abandoned to this isolated existence?

I look through the array sometimes and wonder, why do some of the planets I'm looking at suddenly flare bright, and glitter so?

[TheCountess]

Wow I like that one...

[Insanity test]

Here's another. I've posted it on the inkwell, but I'm not certain how it works and I may have got it wrong, so I'll post it here as well!

Help

This was a primitive world, It's inhabitants convinced of their own uniqueness and self worth. He hadn't wanted this, but they wouldn't listen. They believed in independent evolution, that each society needed to find their own feet. But he knew otherwise; he knew that this race, like so many others, would reach the galactic scale only to find it alien territory, to be punished for trespass and most likely the use of banned propulsion systems. An intrepid, young race, punched in the face by a possessive older neighbour. They would probably fight. They wouldn't realise the vastness of their enemy and would commit suicide, eradicated under the dangerous races act.
So he would give them a helping hand, these humans. He would give them a chance to be the equals of the older races. So that he might prevent the annihilation of yet another species. He would give them the key to equality.

---

The King looked down from his throne of shimmering energy. He loved his position almost as much as he loved his title - an ancient word whose origins were lost in the mists of time. But as far as he knew it had always represented the one of the greatest power, the champion, the ruler. He was simply the most recent of a family whose heredity disappeared into the past almost beyond record. One of the ruling race who conquered the galaxy in mere decades after achieving interstellar travel.
He looked down now upon the snivelling creature before him and a half smile of part amused mockery and part revulsion curled the side of his mouth. An envoy from a pathetic race. One of the "Elder", the indulgent name a group of weak races bestowed upon themselves for the simple achievement of being older by a few millennia.
The creature droned on about it's species importance to the substructure of the galaxy. How none of the Rulers could survive without their diligent efforts. Why was it here again? Oh yes. A group of so called "faithfuls" had attempted to seize control of an outlying starsystem. Their crime had cost the lives of several ruling overlords and over ten thousand of the ruling class. Unacceptable. Their race must, inevitably, face the consequences; a thorough cleansing to ensure no repeat.
'Appeal rejected.' The King said lazily. 'Take it away.'
He hadn't really been listening at all. Not to worry, none of it's kind would be bothering him again.

[Insanity test]

Hmm, I was just re-reading my stories: I didn't realise how much of my stuff is so depressing!

[Pimienta]

a little yeah

but it is still good

[Insanity test]

lol, thanks!

I'll try to make future ones more happy and bouncy etc!

[Insanity test]

I remembered this one from eons back in a now locked thread, I know it's already been posted, but I'd forgotten about it, and some weren't members back then, so I thought I'd re-post it. Hope thats ok!
Anyway, here it is:


Wandering through clouds of iridescent blue under the blazing furnace of the double suns, I came upon a great chasm carved into the very earth. In it's splintered cliffs were colonies of huge black birds, shreaking with all their might, their wings outstretched, beaks raised skywards and the tremendous wall of sound that assailed my senses near knocked me off my feet.

I tottered on the precipice looking down into that gaping wound, my heart racing faster than I could count and with the slow dawning of recalcitrant terror I felt myself falling, slipping gently as if in some horrific dream, down, down into the black despair, the constant wailing of the winged predators ringing in my ears.

When suddenly I was suffused with light of the purest white and the cumbersome arms I once flapped in feeble terror were clad in feathers of soft snow, buoying me upwards as I took stroke after stroke towards the brilliance of the summer sun and the salvation of the open world.

Looking back upon the tearing crack etched upon the surface of the rock I recalled the terror as if from another world, where to live is to stagnate, and stagnation is no living at all.

[TheCountess]

That is beautiful.