The Blue Ribbons

Flash Fiction challenge from@Story_Craft. Check out their blog for the image, the challenge guidelines, more great Flash Fiction pieces and an all around good time.

The Blue Ribbons

I pulled on my soggy trousers ignoring the mud stains on the knees. Mamma wouldn't be proud. I pulled my socks off, and stuffed them to the bottom of the laundry hamper so Mamma wouldn’t see the black footprints stained onto the bottoms and remind me not to wear them outside. I dug through my drawers looking for a clean shirt and picked a ratty, faded-blue T-shirt I could get dirty. I noticed my training bra where I’d left it on the floor and stared at it for a moment. Ugh. I kicked it under the bed and pulled my shirt on.

On my way out the back door, I grabbed my baseball hat and noticed a bundle of blue ribbon on the counter and stuffed it into my pocket. I stepped outside and smiled at the grey clouds and pulled my hat on snugly.

“Is this it?” I asked the air beside me. “The ancient lantern?” I took the lid off the lantern in the garden and looked inside. “I thought it would be, I don’t know, more hidden.”

My imagined companion answered, “It’s stranded on an isolated mountain top. Seems pretty hidden to me. We’d be lucky to find this place again.”

I stared at the lamp for another moment. “If the emperor finds it, he’ll be the one to fulfill the prophecy. We have to keep it from him,” I said.

I pulled the ribbon from my pockets. “I still have some of the fairy rope. I can use it to mark the trees and since it will only be visible to me only I’ll be able to find the way back. Where’s the nearest rebel outpost?”

“It’s just beyond the Dallmar Pass, in the wood by Lake Dallmaru.”

I nodded. “Stay here and guard the lantern. I shouldn’t be more than a fortnight.” I started into the wood, carefully tying trees with the blue ribbon, marking my route.

I soon heard the back door slide open, and I quickly wielded my imaginary sword, squinting through the trees.

“Stacy! Are you out here?” Mamma’s voice carried through the trees.

I re-sheathed my blade, and let the last ribbon fall to the ground, and ran toward the house. “Yeah, Mamma?” I asked, coming through the treeline.

“Why haven’t you sorted the laundry like I asked?” she said.

“Can’t I do it later?”

“You said that an hour ago. It is later,” she said.

“I meant, like, after dinner,” I grumbled.

“Nope, now,” she ushered me into the house. “Look at you, you're filthy!” she noted as I walked past. As I made my way down the hallway I heard her yell behind me, “Stacy? There was a bundle of blue ribbon on the counter. Have you seen it?"