Heather Ewings
Bio
Australian author of strange! MA History. Fascinated by myth and folklore. She/Her
Stories (10/0)
Kitsune
Akio carried the tiny mouse in his hands as he hurried home. It seemed to be dehydrated, listless and weak it had barely moved when he approached to pick it up. A movement caught Akio’s eye and he glanced up in time to see a shadow disappear between two trees.
By Heather Ewings3 years ago in Fiction
Historical Flash Fiction
A Christmas Wedding Elizabeth ran her hands over her grey woollen skirt. Butterflies danced in her stomach and she dismissed them; foolish, at her stage of life. John was a good man. There weren’t many who would take on a widow with five children. And he helped with young Henry when others averted their eyes, unwilling to take in the boy’s enlarged head, laboured breathing, or the fact he could not sit properly despite being three years of age.
By Heather Ewings3 years ago in Fiction
A Sustainable Dream
Kayla took her coffee to the veranda and sat back in the old rocking chair, surveying the landscape. The scene before her was a dream come true: trees laden with fruit; vines, canes and bushes overloaded with berries; a forest of colour as vegetables grew to abundance. Tiny blue wrens flew from tree to tree; wattle birds fed on the cyclamen and higher above a wedge-tailed eagle circled the sky. Beyond towered the mountain, its colour ever changing with the seasons and the light.
By Heather Ewings3 years ago in Fiction
Survivors
I didn’t expect the stink. We wade through ankle length muck. Mum makes us keep our shoes on, even though we’ll need to scrub them in the creek later, and they’ll take forever to dry, and it’ll mean going barefoot for a few days while they do. And then they’ll probably reek forever of rot and waste and goo.
By Heather Ewings3 years ago in Fiction
Darker Drabbles
Undoing Life’s Choices “Ready?” Walter nodded. “Am I ever.” They approached the children playing in the yard. “Daddy’s home!” The excited squeals were well worth the gut-churning journey in the time-machine, the struggle to convince his younger self not to make those terrible choices.
By Heather Ewings3 years ago in Fiction
Ermaline's Feast
As her wings shifted ever so slightly, the great beast turned, heading for the sun. Ermaline looked down on the people miles below and wondered that something so small and insignificant could be so tasty. Damn shame they fight back, she thought, wincing at the fresh scar on her side that had blistered from the heat of their torches. It was a bad burn, and not for the first time did she wonder why she was not fire proof outside as well as in. But it would heal, and she would be back, these humans were too good to resist.
By Heather Ewings3 years ago in Fiction
Maggie and the Selkie
That morning the bodies were counted. Twelve in all, and one still missing. Hamish. When the families took the bodies home to prepare them for burial, Maggie sneaked down to the beach to walk the shoreline. Five miles north, and five miles south. Through her tears, every piece of driftwood and kelp was a human figure; an arm reaching for help, a crumpled body found too late. Maggie’s hope disappeared with the sun and a low, slow groaning emerged from her throat as she sank to the sand. The pain in her heart was so strong she didn’t notice the water rising around her, the cold seeping into her skin.
By Heather Ewings3 years ago in Fiction
Raven's Sacrifice
Once Raven was white, from the tip of her beak to the tip of her tail and the points of her claws. Though she was a bird of the earth, her pale colouring meant she could mingle with the spirits of the heavens; the angels and daemons of the bright, bright skies; those from whose lips poetry sprang, and whose songs carried a beauty so exquisite all who heard them wept. Raven spent many a day and night with these beings, watching as they drank the sparkling waters from the Well of Inspiration, listening as they gave voice to their creations. Sometimes she joined with them, for hers was a sweet song, and many stopped to hear her music.
By Heather Ewings3 years ago in Fiction