vignettes

[marycatelli]

This week's prompt is:
dry 🌵

Anyone can join, with a 50-word creative fiction vignette in the comments. Your vignette does not have to include the prompt term. Any (G or PG) definition of the word can be used.

Comments

[marycatelli]

"We will need boots," said Dame Olivia. "Those will be heavier. But we can not know that it will be dry near the chapel."
"We can not even know it will stay dry here," said Aurora. St. Leopold the Good, help us on our way. She stood up to look.

[marycatelli]

"Hold your arm like this," said Torrin. Lelio gave him a sideways glance. He was trying to help, Lelio thought, he had even made sure that the ground was dry and not slippery, but his patience was slipping.
Lelio held up his sword again, and tried to match Torrin's stance.

[starshipcat.livejournal.com]

The other girls had gotten to talking about their home towns, which had given Lisa Fox a fascinating view of the post-Soviet Russian Empire beyond St. Petersburg. Finally they all turned to her.

When Lisa explained about growing up on a winery that had been in the family for over a century, Marta raised her eyebrows. "I thought your country prohibited alcohol less than a century ago."

Lisa considered how to explain her twice-great grandparents' method for saving the vineyards. "True. The Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages, which includes wine. However, the First Amendment protects the free exercise of religion, and given that a number of Christian denominations, including the Orthodox churches, require actual wine in Communion, my ancestors were able to shift to making sacramental wine and selling it under special permit to parishes and congregations across the country."

No, best not to mention how they also sold fresh grapes, or shipped bricks of pressed raisins with a "warning" of what the recipient must not do in order to avoid fermentation. Russians had a strange relationship with the law, and Lisa could never tell when such a story would get sly admiration for having put one past the authorities, or shock and disgust at such blatant scofflaws.

[marycatelli]

Complications.

[marycatelli]

"So," said Gormain, his voice even, "you came looking for someone who can handle everything unknown. Hot, cold, wet, dry, sharp, blunt."
"Not so ignorant as that," said Carolus. "We know of some things. Gargoyles. Automata. Also that the corridors shrink in stages." He looked at Rosine, and she swallowed.

[marycatelli]

Snow fell on it. Briefly, it sizzled, and then the arrow fell from the weight of the snow, and did not even melt the snow beneath it.
Cora looked smug.
Rae looked terrified, but branches shifted through the air before them, forming a fence.
"Gather together," called Annike. "Move quickly."