Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 16, for Wednesday the sixteenth of October 2024.

Firedogs

by Elizabeth Guilt

The feast-frenzied guests waited restlessly for the firedogs to dance against the midsummer sky. My lord, fury covering his fear, sent us to the cave.

"Prick them out!"

No red glow flickered, and I blundered in assuming it deserted. A hissing bulk loomed above me, then slumped to the floor.

I crept closer: lanternlight bounced back from a dull eye. One scaled beast coiled around the silent other, sweet breath gusting out like sobs. The odour was choking but, without its mate to blow bitter tar, stone cold.

My lord's pikemen would be useless. A firedog could not dance alone.

This story began its life as an 1000-word flash fiction, which contained a lot more detail about my lord's political situation. Decimating it - literally - to make it into a drabble was a very interesting exercise in working out which pieces were actually vital to the story.