Writers! Rev up your aethereal engines of imagination, and use the image above as a prompt to create a microfiction of one hundred words or less!
Anything that fits under the umbrella of speculative fiction — science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction and more — is welcome to be shared as a comment to this post. I will select my favorite very short story from those submitted… and turn your words into a fully polished and credited presentation (in the style of my Aethereal Musings) to be featured on an upcoming Thursday on the blog!
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
If your piece is selected to be featured, you will be in the running to win the 2019 AETHEREAL ENGINEER WRITER SUPPORT PRIZE PACKAGE!
This mysterious box will be packed with all sorts of wonderful goodies catering to your authorly needs, all hand selected by yours truly! At a total estimated value of at least $100, you could brag about receiving one of the highest per-word payouts for any submission, anywhere!
How might you win such a fantabulous treasure?
The featured Thursday posts for Aether Prompt winners (not the initial Wednesday prompts) will receive a score. Each “Like” on a post will grant one point to the author’s score, and each unique WordPress reblog will grant three points. The author of the piece with the most points by December 1st, 2019… WINS!
I reserve the full and unquestioned right to break any ties, disqualify entries if shenanigans are suspected, and declare a winner with absolute and final authority. If you win, I will require your physical address to ship your prize to you (with standard shipping included free of charge).
So what are you waiting for? Write to get your creative engines going today! Write for the glory! Write for a chance to win a fantabulous prize!
But whatever you do, just keep writing. :-)
Take care everyone, I look forward to your creations!
~Jason H. Abbott
Aethereal Engineer 
“Daddy, I don’t like it.”
“I know, honey. But there will be more the farther we go.” Cliff let his eyes meet the impossibly cold glow of the Titan’s flame. The place where the creature’s mind may have been. Or where its link to the Foe now lay dormant. He’d never been told which was true.
He felt his spine shiver and heard the phantom back-blasts of rocket volleys.
His daughter squeezed his hand.
“Daddy?” she asked. A simple plea for comfort. With it, she’d saved him again….
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Moody, and I mean that in a good way. As always your storytelling is strong, you setup the sense of mysterious dread and the steaks deftly. Great read, Scribe!
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Thanks. I read the winner. They killed it. I love when a character can be drawn by a single action. I want to know about that lone soldier that saluted. I also want to know if the sentinel returned it. lol.
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Standing there, looking over the destruction it had wrought, it turned its malevolent red eye on me, the last soldier left to stand against it. And stand I must. If it did to a city or town what it had done here in the desert, thousands of lives could be lost. I yelled, running toward the creature with my rifle belching death, but I knew it would do no good. Then I heard another voice, one like mine coming from an overturned vehicle, and another from behind a bush. I was not alone. Together we would win or die trying.
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This is a solid setup, and I sense an intense action scene coming up whether or not a giant monster gets taken down. Nice work. :-)
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Thanks.
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I’ve seen them hundreds of times, in my mind’s eye. I can’t seem to forget them either… Unnatural height, unending hunger for human souls, and an unblinking gaze as it scours the Earth for life, only to stamp it out with pleasure. Cities flattened, houses crushed. Titanic bodies causing Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Hurricanes…They’ve stamped out the human race…
Immune to bullets, bombs, even nuclear warheads. Every single mortal weapon has no effect against them.
So I got an immortal weapon.
That thing killed my wife.
Todays the day.
Today, I make those demons pay.
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It’s a strong lead-in. I sense an “Attack on Titan” vibe, but with Kaiju. =)
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A lone soldier, walking on patrol, confronted the monstrous guardian across a stretch of no-man’s-land. To be sure, it was impossible to miss the hulking form with a furnace blazing behind its one eye.
Who had created this monstrous, ancient guardian? What was it protecting, as it made its endless round? Nobody now living remembered. They only knew it was death to cross the barrier ridge.
Fortunately, he had no need to cross. Like the guardian, he kept to his assigned watch. On impulse, he raised his weapon in salute to a fellow watchman bound by duty.
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Congratulations, Deby! You’re the winner of the May 15th Aether Prompt!
I liked your blend of monster and mystery in this one, but my favorite part is the gentile twist at the end that’s logical but maintains the ominous tone drifting over this stalemate in no-man’s-land.
Your winning entry will get a featured post tomorrow. :-)
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Yayyy!
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The Mountain Man lumbered over the hills to meet its summoner. Arrows, spears, a sword or two remained in its body after its attack on the summoner’s (former) emperor. The Mountain Man didn’t care in the slightest about the wounds, only about its release from the mortal’s control.
“Free me,” the Mountain Man softly demanded (as softly as a stone titan could manage).
“Why would I waste such power?” the summoner replied. “With your servitude, I’m unstoppable. Help me to finish building the new regime.”
The Mountain Man crushed his summoner. “You should’ve specified who would rule the new empire.”
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Details. They always get you with the specifics. ;-)
Nice piece, I liked it. Good work!
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Thank you!
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