Crisis Recalled

Wednesday has come around again and I’m happy to present this week’s flash fiction.

Maisy cringed at how under-prepared she’d been. The instructions to go and serve as nurse maid for warriors hadn’t taken several factors into account. Including that the infant she’d been charged with was a self-aware and extremely articulate griffin.

One might assume this made caring for the child easier.

One would have been absolutely wrong.

Maisy winced as he began wailing again. She patted its back. “There, there. I didn’t mean to give you an existential crisis.”

The child stopped squawking and looked at her with impossibly large eyes. Impossible had it been human. Normal for what he was, but compelling. “But what if they don’t return home?”

Maisy managed to smile instead of wince. She shouldn’t have told him that he could easily pull his parents from his memory. The most recent were either his messy birth or of them planning for battle after. Neither were comforting, and he hadn’t learned to filter to the happy recollections.

She’d discovered that tidbit the hard way.

Maisy rested her hand on his head. “Then you’ll have the best care possible. And when you’re grown, you shall embody their honorable legacy.”

He seemed pleased. At least Maisy thought he looked it as his eyes trailed upward. Maisy discovered it wasn’t a reassuring smile he looked toward when he twisted out from beneath her hand and nipped her fingers within his sharp beaks.

Pulling her hand back she sighed at the child. For All his parents’ wisdom, he was still just a babe.

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Be sure to check out the other Wednesday Words authors’ take on the prompt.