Prompt Fiction

PROMPT : FLEE

Jake grabbed his younger brother, fingers looping over the carry harness. “Jump,” he muttered, preparing for the strain as he heaved him over the jagged fence.

There was a muffled grunt from the other side of the fortress wall as Anders toppled over the edge, landing in an uncoordinated sprawl on the other side.

“Hey!”

“M’fine,” Anders half-whispered back, then grimaced. He hadn’t meant to sound that loud.

There was an answering snort from Jake, before he heaved himself up and over the top, to join his younger brother on the other side.

“You okay?” Anders asked, worriedly.

“Forget about me,” Jake cracked his neck to the side, swinging his arms out beside him to test the strength. “Just focus on how much of yourself you can actually move.”

Anders bit his lip. He stared down at chubby arms and legs, wishing, for once, that he had his older brother’s body structure. Yes, he could use morphix—everyone in their family could. But you were born with a finite amout.

And he’d been born this way.

Jake had simply been skinny.

Slender to a fault and practically invisible anywhere that he went.

It was a gift that Anders wished he could call his own. The note had said to ‘flee, at once. Grave danger awaits you’. But moving quickly had never been a good strong point.

Not in the midst of a war, anyway.

Jake popped him over the head with a half-hearted glare. “Quit worrying, it’s giving me a headache,” he grumbled. “We just have to move and keep moving. You can do that, right?”

Anders swallowed and nodded.

“Good. Then let’s move.” Jake waved him forward. “I’m right behind you, okay? I’ll always be right behind you.”

(c) S. Harricharan