Did you know that Wednesdays happen on the same day every week. Wednesdays around here are when voting starts for the Indies Unlimited flash fiction challenge.

They start with a picture and written prompt on Saturday and who ever wants to tell a tale has to come up with a 250 word story by Tuesday afternoon and submit it to the comment stream for the week’s prompt over at Indies Unlimited. The best stories for the week are put to the test on Wednesdays. That’s when the readers get to vote for their favorites.

Guides

photo by K.S. Brooks

When I came to, my car was in the ditch. Best I could remember, I swerved to miss a moose in the road. Luckily it wasn’t snowing – yet – but I was out in the middle of flipping nowhere. I checked the back seat: no food, no clothes, no luggage. Weirdest part of all was, I couldn’t remember where I had been headed.

I looked out the passenger-side window to see two large dogs peering in at me. They gazed at me like I should follow them, so I got out of the car and started staggering up the trail. From time to time they’d stop and wait for me. I hoped that there wouldn’t be far to go…

The trail that the dogs led me on, wasn’t really a trail, not anymore. I had followed them for so long that I lost track of time, at least until twilight settled in on the foothills.

Maybe I should have turned back, we were miles from the main road, the site of my crash. But it became a mission. I would see where the dogs were going or die. God that sounded so high minded. I didn’t know any better then.

When I thought I couldn’t go any further, how many times had it been? The dogs stopped at the edge of a cliff. Don’t bother checking, it isn’t on any map. Not the cliff and definitely not the valley. We hadn’t crossed through any mists or any of the other markers you read about in books.

I knew we were somewhere else. Maybe it was the sun on its early morning rise over the far edge of the valley. Or maybe it was the thought that I knew this place didn’t exist anywhere else. Or maybe, just maybe it was the girl that climbed up the side of the cliff to meet us.

She wasn’t human, hell; I didn’t know what she was. I wasn’t ready to believe in fairy stories, at least not on the first day. But you know, my first day with Jana was the first day of my happily ever after.

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