Flash Fiction

The Girl, the Tiger

Becoming a tiger wasn’t as difficult as she’d been told. She simply untucked herself, stopped ironing her soul tame. Her claws—unfolded now from their polite velvet—rent the sheets, shredded the casement of her dungeon window. She roared herself free and streaked across the snow outside, bright as gunpowder and flame.

Huddled unseen on the tower, the hunter cocked his rifle. Master had paid for this one in rubies with blazing hearts. Quiescent talent, he’d said—don’t lose the girl. But better dead than liberated.

More than his life’s worth if she escaped. Eyes blurring with tears, he fired.

^{First published Oct 27th 2023 at Janet Reid, Literary Agent}

^{Image credit: William Elliot Griffis from Korean Fairy Tales (1922)}