Use the photograph above as the inspiration for your flash fiction story. Write whatever comes to mind (no sexual, political, or religious stories, jokes, or commentary, please) and after you PROOFREAD it, submit it as your entry in the comments section below. There will be no written prompt.
Welcome to the Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge. In 250 words or less, write a story incorporating the elements in the picture at left. The 250 word limit will be strictly enforced.
Please keep language and subject matter to a PG-13 level.
Use the comment section below to submit your entry. Entries will be accepted until Tuesday at 5:00 PM Pacific Time. No political or religious entries, please. Need help getting started? Read this article on how to write flash fiction.
On Wednesday afternoon, we will open voting to the public with an online poll so they may choose the winner. Voting will be open until 5:00 PM Thursday. On Saturday morning, the winner will be recognized as we post the winning entry along with the picture as a feature.
Once a month, the admins will announce the Editors’ Choice winners. Those stories will be featured in an anthology like this one. Best of luck to you all in your writing!
Entries only in the comment section. Other comments will be deleted. See HERE for additional information and terms. Please note the rule changes for 2016.
What the hell are ya lookin’ at? Aintcha ever seen a handsome beast like me woo the love of his life? Yeah! That’s what I thought. Took me hours to woo her away from the herd. And, what a battle to get rid of those losers who wanted her.
Glad she picked me. Those eyes. Those legs. That seductive twitch of her gorgeous tail. How lucky could a guy get? She got a good look of me and my magnificence and, strolling beside me, casually swung her hip to fondle my strong, muscular self, sending a charge through me with every caress.
Hurriedly, she led me to this deserted spot but suddenly broke away, loping farther into a taller growth of greenery. Glancing back, she mooed anxiously, inviting me to join her. My heart pounded as I crashed through the undergrowth to reach her. She really wanted ME, I fantasized.
And, there he was, lying at her feet with his hind hoof trapped in a gopher hole. Obviously, he couldn’t get up without help. She blinked, poking me with her delicate nose, nudging me closer to his pitiful moans. “Please. Help my son,” she sighed in the grunt and whinny language only our kind knew. My chest deflated as I helped free him.
Thanking me, they happily ran off into the sunset as I started back to the herd with my tail drooping between my legs.
The area was a tiger’s den. We took shelter in shooting platform atop a big tree and kept watching for a big show.
‘Annie, Ready! Prey has come’ I alerted my partner.
A young innocent mammal had entered the spot light illuminated area. Anytime the predator would attack. We readjusted weapons — night-vision cameras, attachable lenses, and remote-microphones.
We were waiting anxiously. After almost fifteen minutes the predator appeared— a majestic tiger. Only a few yards apart, the youngster was too perplexed to move. The predator took small confident steps towards it.
— ‘So pathetic’ Annie commented.
— ‘It’s how jungle works’ I continued, ‘going to be a thrilling video. Wow! Title this: Ruthless Hunt’
Annie nodded, said nothing.
The tiger went closer to the prey. Jumped the final move —but just then, like a thunderstorm something intervened. It thrashed and tossed the tiger away. We could not detect what it was.
‘Oh no, spoiled the video!’ uttering despair I left the focus and tried to sleep.
Anyways, at dawn, we headed back for hotel. In the safari-van I recalled my despair again
— ‘What a bad luck it was, Annie? We missed a great scene’
— ‘No Sir! It’s good luck beyond expectation!’ Annie grinned, ‘You left focus, but I continued shooting. See how a mom repelled a tiger’ showed me her handy cam.
We e-published the video, and a photograph. Annie entered the title: Don’t Mess with Mom!
I’ve been a wildlife photographer my whole life. Many of my photos have been published and loved worldwide. Awards and acclamations for my work are great and everything, but what I gain from the life I enjoy is much more about nature and what I can do to conserve and protect my subjects.
I’ve been called crazy and a daredevil that will get in trouble one of these days. I knew I was a risk taker. I would do most anything if I thought I could get a better shot, by climbing that high ridge or standing in the middle of that fast flowing river. I’ve even hung upside down from a tree high in the rainforest’s canopy to capture my famous shot of the albino squirrel monkey.
On vacation in Wyoming, my wife warned me that under no circumstances was I to take risks to capture a shot. When we saw the baby moose in the tall grass, neither of us saw the Mother.
A disdainful look was projected my way, but a smile couldn’t hide Karen’s enthusiasm at the thought of photographing the sweet baby moose.
I quietly and slowly crept along the edge of the grassy knoll where the animal was nearly hidden from sight.
Momma Moose rose her large head and gave a snort. I greedily clicked away on my camera.
“Don’t worry, they’re a docile species.” I explained as Karen ran for her life. That’s when I felt the breath on my neck.
The little girl clapped her hands. “Big dogs,” she cried as the boars crossed the wash, headed toward the house. She watched, unaware of danger. Her eyes lit up at two young boars running behind the pack. “Babies,” she lisped tottering forward. The pack passed her by; only the piglets remained. She reached out and grabbed a handful of stiff hair. “Oof, smelly,” she squealed, wrinkling her nose. One piglet stopped to sniff this strange creature, but the other ran squealing after the pack. Mama boar turned her head at the commotion. Her ears flattened as she spied the child. “Danger,” flashed through her brain. She pawed the ground and snorted but the child only giggled.
Mary looked up from her garden bed. Where had Susie gotten to? As she walked around the corner of the house her heart sank. Her little daughter was holding on tight to a small boar. And there was the mother, head down, ready to charge. Well, this was something for the two mothers to work out. She grabbed a shovel and ran shouting toward the boar. The animal galloped toward Mary, its steps powered by rage and fear. Mary swooped up her daughter. Standing with feet apart she held her ground. The piglet scrambled past and collided with its brother. Momma pig turned, Susie clapped her hands in delight. Mary raced for the safety of the porch. No hard feelings, just two moms taking care of the kids. You don’t mess with mom!
Maggie the Moose was like most over protective mothers. She absolutely, positively, loved and adored, and definitely doted over her sweet young calf, “Now Milkweed, you just hush and eat your marsh moss, or you won’t get any sweet grass from the mountain meadows for dessert.”
“Yes Mum,” Milkweed quietly rumbled in his deep under developed voice, as Maggie gave him an affectionate nudge with her large nose.
“That’s a good calf, now let’s head up to the meadows and get some nice grassy dessert.” With that said, they lolloped together out of the swampy marsh and started to climb the slopes up to the meadows.
Almost there, Maggie noticed what looked like a hunting blind off to the side of the meadows, “How odd?” She thought, “it’s not hunting season.”
As she approached the hunting blind, she heard the familiar sounds that the two legged animals make off season: click, click, snap, snap, oh, oh, whirl, whirl, giggle, giggle.
She stopped and thought for a moment. Then purposefully, she slowly lumbered back to Milkweed and started grooming him, so he would look his best when he passed by. She washed him, real good, with her tongue. Then she lovingly nudged him past the blind into the mountain meadows; all the while listening intently to the sounds coming from inside the blind.
“Now Milkweed, you pay them no heed, mommy will protect you. They are just Paparazzi and migrate here once a year, just like the birds do.”
The walk up to my house was getting wearisome due to apprehension. Throughout my stroll I kept cooking excuses in my head, in case I was caught.
“Hi Momma,” I feigned a wide grin upon entering the house. She was sitting at the dining table; fiddling with some stuff and responded with a subtle smile.
“What’s all this?” I asked eagerly.
“These are my favorite make-up items that I wanted to have since so long, but they don’t belong to me; you know how hard it is for us to afford grandeur of this sort,” she confessed despondently.
“And so I stole it from Aunt Natalie!” she added.
My eyes popped out, tongue muted and brain malfunctioned at the sound of it. I straight headed to my room, closed the door behind me; dropped on the bed and wept, mostly out of profound guilt.
“So may I know, what makes you shed tears?”
I turned around to find momma sitting beside me and looking strangely tranquil.
“You can’t be a thief; you are too perfect for it!” I whined.
“I know, just the way you can’t be a thief either, you are flawless for me.”
“So Am I getting any confessions? “ She asked inquisitively “And don’t ask how I know it all.”
Her demeanor sufficed the need to teach me a lesson in the most effective manner.
“We pilfered chocolates from the store, it was Nathan’s idea but yes I was part of the complicity.” I confessed wobbly.
The two dark brown creatures stood like statues. Only the occasional swivel of the mother’s ears proved them living. Their musky scent drifted towards me. I held my breath until they resumed grazing, then aimed. It was an almost perfect shot. If only they would look in my direction. As if reading my mind, the mother moose’s big brown eyes drifted towards me.
It was precious moments like these that made me glad I’d traded my riffle for a camera. After all, there was no need to hunt what I wasn’t going to eat it. I zoomed in and continued to shoot, hoping the calf would look up as well. I needed some good shots for my article.
Cracking branches made both mother and calf snap to attention. I muttered a few silent curses as some idiot tried to creep up on the two with his cell phone, tapping his screen as he went. Some people just didn’t have common sense.
With a loud trumpeted warning, the moose charged, hackles up and ears back. The man didn’t seem to notice until she was on top of him. By some small miracle, his head wasn’t shattered along with the phone. He yelped like a startled pup and rolled under a nearby tree, barely staying clear of her pounding hooves. I continued to shoot while she circled the tree for a full ten minutes before leading the calf away.
We still laugh about my prize winning shots on the day we met.