Wick and Archer- Yet Another Flash Fiction!!

June 16, 2020

It has been ages since I uploaded a short story or something, so I am back!! (confession: I almost couldn't find the file to make the cover image for this post, which nearly ended in total disaster).

Anyway, I whipped up some flash fiction for you, and here it is! I don't have a lot of time this morning before I have to go to work, so I don't have the time to make it into a pdf before uploading it. Therefore I'm just putting it straight into Blogger itself.

Here's your reminder that this is my intellectual property, my characters, etc., etc., and while I don't actually think any of you would try to steal my work, I'm going to remind you that you can't copy and paste this story or anything, and you can't sell it as your own. Thanks!

Spice

Wick opened the spice cabinet, and his eyes roved over the wealth of jars inside. He felt like a peasant that had stumbled upon a dragon’s hoard. Humans had so many spices! How on earth could they keep themselves from using all the spices in every dish, he wondered?

He ran his fingers across the small, neat labels and chose one labeled ‘sea salt’. What an interesting concept. He knew there was salt in the sea, but would the salt taste like the sea? And what made it different from normal salt? He dipped a finger into the crystals and took a lick. So sharp and flavorful! But it really tasted the same as other, regular salts that didn’t claim to come from the ocean. The crystals looked bigger, but other than that he could see and taste no real difference.

He returned salt to the shelf and traded it for a bottle labeled ‘crushed basil’. How did the humans find so many flavors within nature? He wouldn’t put it past them to just taste anything and everything they found, but how could they do that without poisoning themselves on the things that weren’t edible? He might have to ask, if it wouldn’t be embarrassing. Basil was herby and simple, but very good. He wondered how it would taste fresh.

It was less the appearance of the cinnamon and more the smell that captured his attention. Even through the bottle, he could smell the faint sweet and spicy scent wafting toward him. He heard faint footsteps and froze, knowing that if he was discovered it would be hard to explain. After a few minutes, the footsteps passed, and he pried the jar open. He hesitated for a slight moment, thinking how strange it was that cinnamon was a powder and not a grainy quality like the others, then he decided to just do it and he stuck a pinch into his mouth.

It was then that he learned cinnamon was not to be trusted. The smell was good and sweet and delicious, but the second it touched his tongue it was so bitter it tasted like pain. Between the flavor and the dusty texture, he choked. Sucking in a ragged breath, he only inhaled more cinnamon and doubled over in a fit of coughing.

Footsteps approached rapidly behind him. “No, no, stupid,” Archer’s voice said, and the cinnamon bottle was snatched from Wick’s hand. “You have to add sugar or it’ll just be bitter.”

Wick rubbed his flowing eyes and tried to swallow the rest of the cinnamon down before he could inhale any more. “I was fine,” he rasped.

“Sure you were.” Archer dumped a bit of the cinnamon and a lot of sugar into a bowl together and gave them a vicious stir with a wooden spoon. When the stuff in the bowl had turned a sand color, he slid the bowl across the table to Wick. “Now try.”

Wick dipped a suspicious finger into the mixture and tasted. With the addition of the sugar, the bitterness of the cinnamon was greatly reduced to a more pleasant bite of spiciness. “It’s good,” he said in surprise. And then, in a questioning voice, “But it’s still got the cinnamon in it.”

“Simple life lesson, tree,” Archer said. “Sugar is like salt. If you add enough of it to kill a horse, everything it tastes better.”

Horse-killing amounts sounded like too much, but surely there was some wisdom in what Archer said. Wick wondered how salt and sugar would taste together.