This is a collection of short stories, featuring crystals, crows, soccer fields, bloody skies, and more. Most stories will be based off prompts from writing contests across Wattpad, and some may be based off the splinters of my soul and the waltzing...
Corlissa swore. She was pretty sure the boys at the markets had told her that she would need black crystals to build a computer.
From her small, dust-tinctured bedroom, she could smell the markets through the window. The wind wafted the sickly smell of slaughtered meat, tangy silk, and fresh silk at her, and she could hear the merchants bellowing over one another – something about selling rich bags of almonds, something about the fruits not being rotten, something about new and fresh chunks of fish.
Her own father would be among them, clad in his steel armour, a sword buried in his belt. Patrolling. Looking out for thieves.
With a sigh, Corlissa turned back to the chunks of metal on her table. Even with the dim glow of the lamplight, it was impossible to work out exactly where to hammer down the metal and turn it into a long flat box. Hell, she wasn't even sure how the boys next door had managed to make the screen light up in the first place.
But she would do it. She would make her very own computer. She knew she would.
Once, of course, she had the money to buy the black crystals.
There was a sharp rap on her window. Corlissa had to fight back her smile as she turned and saw that, beyond the grease-stained glass, there was a crow. Not just any crow – the crow that had been visiting her house every day to steal her supper.
"Here you go, little snot," she whispered, throwing open the window. "It's all yours."
She gestured to the small plate by her table that was piled with bread crusts. With a single squawk, the crow snatched it up, clucked its tongue, and-
Flew back out the window?
"That's odd," Corlissa murmured to herself. "The little snot usually stays back for a-"
She stopped as she heard her door creak open. She caught a glint of steel, heard the squeal of metal, and felt her throat catch.
Father.
"Corlissa?" he was saying, his armour rattling as he folded his arms. "What have I said about feeding the pests?"
Corlissa flushed and stared down at her feet.
This was her chance. All she had to do was gather her blasted courage, open her mouth, and just ask for some gold to buy some black crystals. Simple. Easy.
But, dammit, her stomach kept churning and coiling and twisting at the thought of it.
"Sorry, Father," she muttered. "I was just..."
"What?"
"Well, um, I was wondering..."
As she trailed off, her father scowled. "Corlissa. I have to go back to the markets any second now. Will you hurry up and just say whatever it is you need to say?"
Corlissa flinched.
Oh, by the heavens, why did she have to be such a coward?
She took a long, tight breath. Closed her eyes. Clenched her fists.
"I was wondering if you could give me some coins," she said. "I want to buy black crystals."
Her father snorted. "What, by the heavens, would you need black crystals for?"
"A computer. I want to build a-"
She never got to finish. The second she said the word computer, her father was stalking over to her, his black eyes even darker, even deadlier.
"What?" he spat in her face. "Corlissa, you cannot be building machines. That's for boys to do. You know that."
Corlissa frowned. "That's not fair, Father. I want to-"
"It's not about what you want," he hissed. "It's about who you are. You are a girl, and you will cook, wear pretty little dresses, marry a rich prince, and earn your family a respectable title. Do you understand? I don't want you to even touch those filthy computers."
"But Father-"
Her father snarled. "Shut up, Corlissa. Shut up."
Then, his sword was in his hand, and his feet were moving in long strides towards her table. Towards the firewood and metal and all the plans she had drawn up.
Corlissa tried to cry out – tried to scream out her protests – but her throat felt like it had swallowed a mouthful of sand. She couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't even cry as her father smashed the hilt of his sword into the firewood.
The wood splintered and cracked as he hit it over and over and over again, leaving nothing but sawdust and jagged pieces of sticks over the table. Then, his hands were all over the paper she had drawn on, tearing and tearing and tearing, ripping it until there was nothing but crumpled shreds of paper.
All her drawings. All her weeks of planning.
Gone.
"It's for your own good," her father told her as he shoved past her. "You should be sewing with your mother. Not making these... computers."
Corlissa just blinked back her tears as he left the room.
She wished she had stood up for herself. She wished she had mustered the courage to rip the sword away from his hands.
But she was a coward. A stupid coward with stupid dreams and a stupid father and-
Behind her, she heard the softest of squawks. Another gentle rap on the window.
And, when Corlissa turned, she found the crow staring back at her, something bulging out from within its beak. It dropped the object onto the sill, blinked slowly at Corlissa, and then let the wind carry it back into the sky.
Corlissa rushed towards the window and stared down at the object that the crow had left for her.
Black crystals.
And, despite herself, she started to smile.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Prompt: Write an excerpt from a story about a cowardly computer geek. Your excerpt must somehow contain a crow, by Platonic_Soulmates - I am Team Opal!
So, I decided to go with a medieval setting where 'computer geek' was a girl who was trying to make a computer to begin with - you know, to be a bit more creative.
