Master of Man
Dark Fantasy Short StoryThis short piece originated from misinterpreting an Angry Hourglass image prompt in early January 2016. I originally mistook the picture for a man fighting in a dojo with a lamp in the foreground when I had only seen its preview. When I later looked at the larger version I recognized it was a man carrying a flame on a stick. This is how the room ended up a dojo and how in the end, a flame is being picked up.
It was that first idea of the picture that made this story, making this very story sort of a lucky error. It looked to me like the apparent lamp was important, so I made it a character. Though the character is less of a flame and more of fire (Fire?) itself.
The idea of fire being the actual civilization on earth with man its ignorant and megalomaniac pet came from the way the photograph focused on the flame. And it does make sense, does it not? For most of humanity's history, fire was what ignited civilization itself, and we carried it around the world, taking care of and worshiping it.
The version presented in this collection differs somewhat from the original posted as a response to the Angry Hourglass website. I edited it down to stay within the 360 word-count limit, but expanded it again for this collection to make the tale seem more complete.
Marie McKay judged this for the challenge in a way I found very flattering: “A mysterious tale made up of intriguing dialogue. […] Whoever/Whatever this force is, is terrifying.”
January 2016
Available in:
How to Sing Butterflies
