Short Story

Far Away Land

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Jenne, our genial host at The Unicorn Challenge,
has offered up the photo below as our inspiration
to write a story of no more than 250 words.
This is my 250-word response to that challenge.

© Ayr/Gray

There was once a land so very far away from every other land that it was almost completely forgotten by all the inhabitants of the world.

And on that land there were trees and bushes and plants of every type imaginable. Each tree, plant and bush bore the most incredible edibles … luscious fruits of every variety known and unknown to man. There were at least 10,000 kinds of grapes, 8,000 sorts of apples, 3,000 types of pears, 2,000 varieties of peaches, 1,000 kinds of bananas, 400 types of berries, 400 varieties of oranges, etc. There were many sorts of vegetables that grew underground as well as on trees. There were streams, lakes and rivers with crystal clear water abundant with fish.

And on that very far away land lived a cyclops … giant, of course, as all cyclopes are. He was left there years ago by his parents who knew he would never survive life in the city, a life of ridicule and torment and loneliness. They also knew they would never be able to show him any kind of love or affection; indeed, his mother was repulsed by the feel of his rough skin, and unable to look into his one large, blood red eye.

But the cyclops was not forgotten. Every birthday his parents would travel thousands of miles to bring him candy. He would greedily eat the candy and they would leave. Until the last visit when he ate the candy and for dessert, his parents.

NAR©2024
250 Words

The Unicorn Challenge-23/02/24

This is Cream with “Tales of Brave Ulysses”

All text, graphics and videos) is copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR © 2017-present.

39 thoughts on “Far Away Land”

  6. Excellent emotional whiplash.

    I was all set** to feel sad while hating the parents … then very last sentence!

    Excellent

    *the other half of this Reader, the one always on the lookout for detecting and therefore learning technique, thought the use of numbers for the variety of fruit might be a red herring. Still enjoyed your story

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Some call it emotional whiplash; I’m fond of the Sicilian Curveball.

      Nope, no red herring on the menu today; you might be interested, however, in knowing those are the actual numbers of varieties for each fruit listed.

      How’d ya like them apples?

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      Reply

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