24/7, Divination 9

I am participating in Folded Word's writing month event, called "24/7," during August. Participants spend the first 24 days of the month writing short works, then spend the final week in revisions. The second part of this entry gives more details.

I'm not required to give a central theme to the entries, but I chose the theme "Divinations" and am using a pair of dice to generate prompts (values shown below). My prompt for August 9 is to write divination-themed micro-fiction that uses fire.

Candle Power (99 words)

Atop the ridge, from horizon to horizon, warriors collapsed. Spears folded. Shields curled. Fierce faces crumpled beneath gold-painted, dripping helmets.

Tinko wiped sweat from his brow and stared in wonder. "They're wax." Broken teeth flashed as he grinned. Not long ago he'd quaked before that massive army. "The sun's fire has saved us, friend."

His comrade-in-arms shook his head. "We're going to lose this battle."

"From that?" The foot soldier chuckled. "Look at it, Ferr! Their bluff's melting."

Ferr managed to whisper, "As they intended."

A chill iced their veins as the first screams reached them from the rear.


Toy soldier found on the window sill outside our local bakery in November 2006.

Dice values:

Blue Die
1 (CE logo). Twitter poetry (140 characters or fewer)
2. Twitter fiction (140 characters or fewer)
3. short poetry (8 lines or fewer)
4. prose poems (under 100 words)
5. micro fiction (40-100 words)
6. flash fiction (101-500 words)

Purple Die
1 (CE logo). Birth
2. Water
3. Air
4. Earth
5. Fire
6. Death

My Random House College Dictionary, Revised Edition, defines "divination" as 1. the attempt to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge by occult or supernatural means; 2. augury; prophecy; 3. perception by intuition; instinctive foresight. One meaning of "occult" is "hidden." That gives me a broad range of interpretation.

Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other Journeys Promote Your Page Too










Vol. 1, Deviations: Covenant (2nd Ed.)
Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite
Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny
Vol. 4, Deviations: Bloodlines
Free downloads at the Deviations website and on Smashwords.

Go to Manybooks.net to access Covenant, Appetite, Destiny, and Bloodlines in even more formats!

Participant, Operation E-Book Drop. (Logo credit: K.A. M'Lady & P.M. Dittman.)

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