The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Instrument of Trickery
by Lynn Ruzzo

I was woken by a strange sound echoing through the forest, a wailing cry somewhere between human and animal, one I couldn’t identify. I emerged from my dwelling, sleepy-eyed and offering a big yawn to the morning. I gazed upon my mushroom garden while listening to see if I would hear that sound again.

The wallowing noise came again, louder this time, and filled with more sadness than the previous one. My kind normally stayed out of the affairs of others, but uncontrollable curiosity drove from my comfy cottage in search of what it might be. I flew between trees and over brush, following the wailing until I found its source.

A tall human man stood there holding something that looked similar to a flute. When he pressed his lips on it and blew, the sound pounded my ears. My wings weakened and I struggled to keep myself in the air. I landed on a patch of moss to rest for just a moment.

That was when the net was thrown over me. I tried to tear through it, but my bare hands would never have been enough. When I realized I’d fallen prey to his trap, the man picked me up, dumped me into a wooden box from which there was no escape, and continued to play his instrument of trickery.

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Fiction © Copyright Lynn Ruzzo
Image courtesy of Pixabay