Friday Flash Fiction

Unflinching

As battlefields go it wasn’t so different from any through the centuries. Heavy rain fell, had fallen for hours, mixing blood and mud into gory sludge. Tazz stood over his brother with arms crossed, legs spread for balance or fatigue would take him to his knees beside the dying man.

“You didn’t flinch,” Razz noted approvingly. “It’s about time you fight like a man instead of a frightened little girl.”

There was a reason for the nickname, the elder McDyver brother notoriously hard on his sibling. In fact, Razz had been slated for death long before by his whole platoon. Tazz, saddled with the rhyming name thanks to a smartass drill sergeant, had simply drawn the short straw the week before.

“I finally had a worthy target,” Tazz countered after a long moment. ‘What else should I suspect? Of course he’ll be a smartass to the end,’ he thought to himself.

Razz blinked the rainwater from his eyes, wincing as if even that hurt. Perhaps it did. Tazz doubted he could feel much of anything, though. He wished the smarmy son-of-a-bitch would die, already.

His head was the only thing that he could move, now. Vision graying, Razz figured his time was just about up. Simply sorry he wouldn’t see his wife again, the man didn’t fret over the cause of his demise. He’d never expected to die in a rocking chair. Friendly fire or not, one bullet was as good as the next. The ever-demanding man prided himself on not having tried to stuff his guts back in. Something about his brother’s eyes had told him help would not be summoned before credit for the shot had been taken.

“Just promise you’ll kill the rest of these piece-of-shit Martian bugs, T…,” the dead man said with his last breath.

Another soldier approached, the unexpected hand on Tazz’s shoulder not quite making him jump. ‘Razz would be proud,’ he thought angrily. ‘Unflinching. I’m finally becoming like him.’

“Come on, T. There’s nothing more to see here,” the new platoon leader asserted.

“What did you call me?”

“T, man; I called you T. I heard Razz. It’s your new name. Now come on. We got to hump our gear over the next hill. There’s bugs to squash.”

The end

Flash Friday

More Than Meets the Eye - Rated PG

“Wow!”

I couldn’t help myself, the wheelchair-bound man hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he could run as wolf. I couldn’t imagine how his animal form enjoyed complete motor function while his human shape remained crippled. For that matter, I knew someone who had grown back a severed limb after lycanthropy infection, which made me wonder why Howler couldn’t heal similarly. Granted, his accident had been the decade prior. There just seemed to be something more to his situation.

Though I’d only known him for a few hours, he’d shared a lot of himself. This candidness and Howler’s intrepid nature had charmed me into his bed like some kind of spell. At least that’s what I told myself. It made me feel a little better about being so easy. I’d only discovered an interest in the same sex recently and took pride in being a one-man guy, even if it was technically an open relationship.

I thought about Howler’s expressed attitude toward disability. The boy, Seth, had been born healthy to a rich family: the first-born, his parents’ golden child. By his own account they’d rallied around him as opposed to treating him like a dirty secret, determined Seth could still have a fulfilling life. The young man had instead turned his back on any help that money offered, forsaken his heritage, and abandoned all his father’s plans for a beloved son. They’d lost contact with Seth long before the werewolf attack transformed him into Howler.

The only thing he’d accepted from them had been the van. He was independent, not stupid. His battered vehicle wore the thousands of hard miles more heavily than its owner. Howler thrived on his nomadic lifestyle.

It was as if his studied devil-may-care attitude not only stemmed from his injuries, the injuries themselves had created the completely intrepid person I was quickly growing to admire. This beautiful wolf before me represented almost a split personality, I decided. I’d heard of people who looked differently and had varied physical strengths depending on which personality prevailed at the time. How was this any different? Mind over matter.

The dark creature growled impatiently. I couldn’t blame him. If I enjoyed running as wolf, how much more desirous was the freedom when the man couldn’t even stand unaided? But my desire would force him to wait at least another moment. I stroked his flank, my hand nearly vanishing in the plush coat. Pawing the ground communicated more plainly than words. Ignoring the message, I rubbed my cheek in the ruff at his neck. I trailed my hand down his chest to toy with the lighter patch there.

We were nuts to transform right beside the hotel. But if he already had how could I back out? Besides, there were deer on these dunes. And I wanted meat for breakfast.

He turned his head and nipped my elbow playfully. I thought of what square teeth had done to my neck and shoulder earlier, the remembered sensation making me shiver in the cool morning air. Fangs pinched again and I laughed.

“All right. You win. One four-legged Ryan coming right up.”

I’d sort out where all this might lead after our run. What werewolf didn’t think better on a full stomach?

The end