Phoenix

By G. Deyke

One month.

Thirty-one stories.

Thirteen challenges.

One faerie empire.

And somewhere in the darkest reaches of space, trapped aboard the living ship they each came to by a different route, three human fugitives fighting to stay alive.

Brianna wants to rescue her employer's child from a fate which must be worse than death. Krati wants revenge for a world and a childhood destroyed. Adela just wants to find a place she can call home. These 31 very short stories weave their tale from start to finish, between those of the occasional post-apocalyptic lemonade stand or vampiric Tyrannosaurus Rex. Written entirely during July 2019 as a part of Flash Fiction Month.

• Language: English
• Publisher: G. Deyke
• Release date: Oct 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463737385

G. Deyke

G. Deyke is an indie author of games, novels, short stories, flash fiction, and the occasional poem. They will write anything from humor to horror to fairy tales, but have a particular penchant for speculative fiction: especially (though not exclusively) fantasy. They currently reside in a small village in southern Germany. Due to a tragic imbalance of their machismo-to-sense ratio, G. Deyke can never refuse a ridiculous challenge.

Book preview

Phoenix

by G. Deyke

Copyright 2019 G. Deyke

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for your download of this ebook. You may share it non-commercially as much as you like, provided it remains complete, unaltered, and properly attributed: gift it, copy it, carve it into your ancestors’ bones, line your spaceship’s access ducts with it, read aloud from it as you pass through spooky stretches of forest to ward off the fae. I can’t guarantee it’ll save you – in fact, I can pretty much guarantee that it won’t – but you can at least be content in your last moments that you haven’t accidentally been committing copyright infringement.

If you enjoyed this book (whether or not it was serving as spaceship duct wallpaper when you read it), please consider taking a look at G. Deyke’s other work.

Thank you for your support.

Contents

Introduction

Royal Decree #45, issued in response to a nonviolent uprising of serfs

You've Been Using Your Liver Wrong Your Whole Life

Krati

Spilled Milk

The Forge Within

Date Night

Twilight

Burn

Marriage Equality

Brianna

Jailbreak

Adela

Vampire Zero

The Edge of the Unknown

Fallow

Phoenix

After the Escape

Three

A Good Medkit

y r u still txting

Shadows Cast From a Shifting Light

Darien

The Call of Fear

Seedling

Lemonade

The Conquest of Nightmares

Shaping

Neirad

Gloaming

Even Dreams

The Vixen at the End of the Bridge

Closing Words

Find G. Deyke Online

Introduction

If you’ve read my Flash Fiction Month collections before, you probably think you know about what to expect from it. And you’re probably right, for the most part. But this one’s a bit different.

If you haven’t, and you have no idea what you’re getting into, a short summary to get you up to speed: Flash Fiction Month is a month-long challenge to write one fifty-five- to one-thousand-word story for each day of July, thirteen of them meeting additional challenge criteria. This volume collects the harvest of my sixth year writing in service of the Flash Fiction Month hydra.

Usually, this style of writing will result in a mixture of tones and styles and genres. When it hasn’t – as in last year’s collection, Beyond Dreams, which contained a great many queered fairy tales – that’s generally been in response to a crowdsourced extra challenge to carry me through the month.

There’s no extra challenge this year. But it turned out a little different anyway.

Phoenix is pretty nearly a mosaic novelette: while I hope that each story would stand well enough alone, there’s a shared world and an overarching story encompassing more of these 31 stories than it doesn’t. Those that aren’t a part of it are, as always, a mixture – there’ll most likely be something in here for everyone – but as the threads begin to weave together, you’ll see that many are a part of something more.

Whether you read a story at a time, slowly, or piece it all together at once – I hope that you enjoy them.

Royal Decree #45, issued in response to a nonviolent uprising of serfs

It has been brought to Our attention that a raucous crowd of serfs has amassed itself in the market square as of daybreak this morning, shouting, chanting, obstructing traffic, and generally making themselves a nuisance. We would be well within Our rights to round the lot of them up and have them executed; but let it not be said that We are a merciless ruler. The concerns of the people are the concerns of the land, after all – even those of the people who never wash themselves and tend to shit in the street.

Which brings Us to the first of criminals’ demands. They have put forth, in their uncouth way, a request for public sanitation, clean water readily available to all, and a greater number of trained healers to counteract the natural consequences of wallowing in filth as they have hitherto done. Reasonable desires, to be sure! We Ourself certainly enjoy the comfort and relaxation of a long bath in the evening: the jealousy of the masses reflects no more poorly on them than does anything else.

Still, such a thing is not easily done. Who will train the healers? Who will supply them with bandages and herbs? Who will dig the wells, burn the charcoal, lay the pipes? Who will filter the peasants’ waste? Such changes cannot be wrought overnight, and the kingdom simply hasn’t the manpower to spare. Besides that, the serfs and their ancestors have been living without these luxuries since time uncounted: the matter cannot be particularly urgent.

Still, let it not be said that We do not care for the well-being of Our subjects. A Public Service Fund will be opened at the conclusion of the year. A