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Tanya Humphreys

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2021

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111 Stories

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El Gato de la Muerte

Weekly Contest #242

Dominic sipped espresso as he watched the cat. The thing was all angular bones under tufted black fur, it slunk low to the ground, making Dom think of the Grinch as it stole the Whos’ Joy. Looking at this poor creature, Dom felt his own joy ebbing away. The thin dark woman selling fish tacos flapped her apron, “Sal de aqui!” she screeched as the cat did also. Dom went to the woman’s stall and pointed at the fried fish. She narrowed her eyes as she assessed his station in life. She could have been 30, she could have been 50, her skin was taut...

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Kissing Frogs

Weekly Contest #241

Warning: Olde Timey fairy tale Once upon a time in a land full of magic and mischief… A skinny peasant boy pitched up the grassy bank of a sunlit pond, a large green bullfrog’s legs dangled from his hands like overcooked asparagus spears. “Here m’lady! Here’s the finest one yet.” Princess Rose rolled her pretty brown eyes. Seth said that every time he caught another one. The frog squirmed, it was slimy, and she nearly dropped it as she took it from the lad. “Ugh.” Seth looked up expectantly. Rose raised the frog to eye level. It blinked its...

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The Raven at the Window

Shortlisted for Contest #240 ⭐️

One thing I was very wary about was the temperamental moods of Nature. Before leaving the nest for the first time, my mum had instructed me on flying head on into a steady stream of wind, one flick of a wing against it and I would be tumbled beak over toes. “Better to use the gales to your advantage to conserve energy. A slight breeze will allow the airfoil of your wings to allow you to soar. Back drafts allow you to hover in place.” I had been excited to try. To make her proud and master the art of soaring and hovering and attacking those...

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The Puppeteer

“I can’t believe I’m talking to a filthy rat…”“Seriously? Filthy?” said the rat.“Okay. So, you talk. I drank too much, and..."“Um maybe... but …still a talking rat, dude.”Pallo’s father stepped from around the stage just then and Pallo shrunk against the stones of the wall next to where they’d been holding their puppet show.“Pally!” shrieked Karen, the lead puppeteer. “You missed yer cue,” she hissed.The children gathered in front of the stage giggled. Pallo’s father placed his blood-stained hands on his wide hips and glared. Pallo glanced a...

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Monster and Dog

Weekly Contest #238

Lilybeth hummed to herself as she made her way down the path to the fishing hole. her Jack Russell by her side bouncing, along, yipping happily, as if the two were dueting. She sang a made-up song, “The fish will bite today…Hip hip hooray. Hmm hmm hmm hm hm hm hm.” As they passed their neighbor’s home, which was halfway between their own cabin and the river, she fell silent. Bobbi looked back nervously as well, and slowed, glancing up and forward, back and forth, until given the sign it was safe to sing again. Lilybeth put a slender finger...

9 likes 1 comment 1
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Money Cats

Weekly Contest #237

Min Lei the Money Cat greeted the visitors to the Happy Dragon Gift Emporium by waving her ceramic left arm in a gesture that silently greeted customers, ‘Hello, welcome, spend your money here and we’ll both be lucky.’ She was white with red cherry blossoms painted on her belly and a merry, squinty-eyed smile on her glossy face, the eyes like upside-down horseshoes. Her body was rotund like Fat Buddha and though her coat was glossy, her belly was dull and greyish and flat at its apex where patrons gave her a little pat or rub to cl...

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Grammy's Game

Weekly Contest #236

Geraldine’s eyes flew open as she whooshed upwards through the fading dream she’d been having. ‘A noise? Was it a noise that just roused me?’ She lived alone in the large Victorian though a waitstaff of three dwelled on the property in the large guest house over the four-car garage. Butler, Jameson, maid, Felina, and Maxxy the cook. Oh, and of course there was Jimmy, her best friend, an aging but spry Mastiff she’d adopted after the death of her husband. She was sixty-six years old, but her hearing was like that of a cat’s. She heard a ...

4 likes 2 comments 2
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Christmas Bear

Weekly Contest #227

The bear dreamt of sunshine warming his thick black coat. He dreamt of splashing into the great river and pouncing upon a fat salmon, its juices slick and oily on his tongue. He dreamt of his mate and his cubs and as he slept, tears ran down his muzzle. Equally sad were the dreams of his world as he knew it now. All his ten years he wished the humans would go away, and they did, mostly, but in their wake, they left a toxic wasteland, and the joke was on him. Mostly, though, he dreamt of the girl. She’d become the beacon that brought him out...

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Mortis

Weekly Contest #226

The colt with the ashy colored coat stood upon sturdy legs at four months old and watched with keen interest as his mother was led from the stable once again. At just three months old, the wee horse had accepted the fact that its mother was led away often and knew she’d return before the sky grew black. He had at one month old freaked out as she was led away- bucking his sort of wobbly legs and crying shrilly. He'd been beaten then. With a wooden pole, hard enough to hurt but not so enough to leave scars. His mother leaving became a routine...

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Desert Clouds Like Ghosts

Weekly Contest #221

An interesting thing finally happened after a very long time of nothing at all happening in the life of little Penelope Winston. She sat in the dusty dirt in front of her family’s covered wagon, her little zombie rag doll named Sycamore to her right, and a potato peeler in her hand. There was a dog on the horizon. The wind picked up and a dozen dust devils whirled about the outskirts of her family’s camp.  They looked like pale translucent ghosts dancing those whirling waltzes she’d spied her parents participating in when she was ver...

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The Sentinels

Weekly Contest #220

Germaine Velacourt closed her eyes and concentrated on slowing her breathing, purging her mind of the anxieties of the day. Long inhale, a count of three, long slow exhale. Within five minutes, the countenance of her face matched the calmed down, steady beat of her heart. She opened her eyes, and as they grew accustomed to the dark, the bayou sang to her like a heartbreakingly melancholy choir: in turn, she focused on the chirruping tree frogs, the contented trill of a sated screech owl, the shrill barks of a momma grey fox accompanied by ...

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A Delicate Existance

Weekly Contest #218

Fall, New York state, 2023… More rain coming. I could smell it in the low-lying clouds above me and feel the extra weight of moisture on my wings; that fine condensation was wearing me out. I needed to rest and dry my wings, but the instincts of my ancestors made me panicky and loathe to sit idle for too long. Then suddenly… Warmth, and brightness. Motes of mist danced in the air before my eyes, sparkling reds and golds and brilliant blues. The damp steam rising skyward amplified the scents of the greenery: the sweet corny scent of the milk...

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Parker's Revenge

Weekly Contest #217

The entire town was cheering in the square. Banners of every color waved. Horns, lutes, and flutes sang out. The celebratory cacophony was was punctuated by screams of terror as an enormous black warhorse with shaggy booties trampled one too slow to get out of the way. More screams as blood geysered up and splashed the laggers. “HO HO HAAAA! Get out the way ya idjots!” the lead knight bellowed. The next cried out, “Make way for Prince Maddox! DRAGONSLAYER!” A hundred of the prince’s stiff-backed men marched through the crowd on horseba...

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The Candlelit Attic

Weekly Contest #215

I glanced at Monsie for a split second before my eyes darted back up to the only window in the house that ever glowed. Against a navy-blue backdrop spangled with stars, the illumination flickered as gusts of summer breeze played across the windowsill indicating the window was open, the light, candlelight. Monsie was fat. He’d grown up under the floorboards of Gilly’s Sweets. I had not been so fortunate and had spent my first couple of years in a barn. Not only were scraps hard to come by, but my siblings and I spent a great deal of time fl...

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Pirate School

Weekly Contest #214

Matilda watched the boys in the yard as they practiced their chosen skill. Usually, it was one passed down from their fathers and in the academy, they would hone that skill as well as learn the others and the history of their ancestors. Billy Blackbeard clashed swords with Randolf the Ripper. Wee Willy (he would later change the moniker to Big Bill) Watkins was waterboarding Eli the Eel, who himself was attempting to escape his ropey bonds at the same time. Razorblade Bob threw razorsharp knives with lightning speed at a series of straw dumm...

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