My brief, light-hearted fantasy story “Great, Golden Wings” is available on Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Check it out, if you like. I’m told it will also be available in audio soon.
Lady Percivalia watched the young cinematographist’s hands as he set up his equipment. They were narrow and graceful, dusted with pale-colored hair. His limber fingers moved rapidly as he angled his screens and adjusted his projectors.
Beside Lady Percivalia, the Lady Harrah gave a dramatic sigh. She sank back in her chair, fluttering her lashes, her face arrayed to look attractively ill. Lady Harrah was well-known for feigning such attacks of faintness. They’d won her the attentions of several young men who, while not known for their intelligence, were smart enough to seize the opportunity for getting close to a distressed young woman with a heaving bosom. Unfortunately, Lady Harrah’s best efforts had failed to make any impression on the cinematographist.
Lady Harrah enjoyed a miraculous recovery from her faint. She leaned over to Lady Percivalia. “Watch this,” she whispered. “I’ll get his attention.”
She unpinned a dragonet brooch that adorned her ruffled bodice and tapped its head. The intricate gold carving blinked into a semblance of life. It stretched like a waking cat and flew brightly into the air, a whir of jeweled wings. It caught the cinematographist’s sleeve in its jaws and tugged politely.
That quite good.
And forgive me for saying it, but it is so very rare to read good HAPPY stuff, which made it seem even better.
Am I seriously the only one who read this?
Bump.
I read it! I liked it.
On rereading it, I liked the last moments better than I did the first time I read it. It made me think of the letter a schoolmate of my cousin sent my aunt, after my cousin’s horribly young death.
That little act of reaching out may have been hard to do; if it was me, I would have worried that it would be intrusive, and probably I wouldn’t have sent the letter. But my aunt was so touched; she read the letter aloud several times, and it really helped her through sitting shiva.
I also read it. I liked it, but not quite as much as some of Mandolin’s other writings that have been linked here, and I didn’t really have anything thoughtful to say about it.
Cool website, the story is sweet. Keep up the good work. Oh! And I read it as well. :P