A croaking disaster

Welcome to The Spot Writers. The prompt for this month is to write a story that starts with “The stranger appeared…”

This week’s contribution comes from Chiara De Giorgi. Chiara is an Italian author and currently lives in Berlin, Germany. She writes fiction, with a focus on children’s literature and science fiction.

 

A croaking disaster

by Chiara De Giorgi

 

created with Canva

The stranger appeared. She was definitely one stranger, but she looked like several strangers at once, and none of them made sense.

 

Elsa Mon, the beloved paranormal romance author, had seen her fair share of oddities. She had written about goblin dentists, vampire bureaucrats, werewolves cursed by singing demons, horseshoe-obsessed centaurs, and even a particularly amorous ghost haunting the local radio station during late-night broadcasts, spooking the listeners with his ghostly cries (but convinced he was dedicating love songs to his beloved, a retired Tooth Fairy). But Elsa Mon was sure she had never encountered a stranger quite like this before. Mostly because she wasn’t sure what “this” was.

It had all started in a bookshop, where Elsa was perusing the mythology section, muttering to herself. “Used that one… dragons, check. Shapeshifters, overdone. Talking teapots, too much paperwork.” She sighed. “I may very well have exhausted every possible supernatural creature.”

“Not likely,” said a voice, close to her ear.

Elsa shrieked and turned, but no one was there. Only a small, decorative globe perched on a nearby display. The kind that people bought in bookshops to use as paperweights.

“Who’s… talking?” she said, hesitantly.

“You haven’t written about me yet,” the globe replied. Then, wobbling, it turned into a Victorian teacup equipped with a mustache-guard (a sensible accessory to prevent gentlemen’s mustaches from getting wet). For a Victorian teacup, this one looked rather smug.

“Goodness gracious!” Elsa shrieked, stumbling over a pile of romance books and knocking over an entire section dedicated to brooding dukes who didn’t wear shirts on book covers.

The teacup snickered. “Fallen for me already!”

Getting back up and straightening her pink cardigan, Elsa asked, “Who—or what—are you?”

The teacup became a fluffy teddy bear wearing a train driver’s hat. “I am a Stranger.”

“Stranger than what?”

“Exactly.”

Elsa rubbed her temples. “You’re giving me a headache and an idea at the same time, and I’m not sure which is worse.”

Inspiration won.

“Come with me,” she said. “We’re getting tea. And cake. Lots of cake.”

“Will there be jam?” the teddy bear inquired, now balancing on one chubby paw like an overenthusiastic ballerina.

“Sure. There will be jam,” Elsa confirmed. She grabbed the teddy bear and dashed out of the bookshop before it could turn into something hard to disguise. Like, I don’t know, a giant inflatable octopus or something.

Over tea and a prodigious amount of cake (the Stranger appeared to have a gargantuan stomach capacity no matter her form), Elsa asked all the questions she could think of on the nature of this creature unknown to her until now. In return, the Stranger grilled Elsa about why humans put umbrellas in drinks that were meant to be consumed indoors.

By the end of their tea break, Elsa had made a decision. “You’re going to be my next heroine.”

“I approve,” the Stranger said, now a spoon stirring her own tea. “Who shall be my suitor? A smoldering knight? A morally gray specter?”

“A Frog-Prince,” Elsa declared, her eyes twinkling.

The spoon stilled. “I beg your pardon?”

“It’s perfect! You both can change your shape. You’ll be a mismatched couple; it will be like identity crisis meets true love!” Elsa clapped her hands, thrilled by her own genius. “Oh, gods, I can’t wait to be home and start writing!”

The Stranger, now a very skeptical beaded necklace, sighed. “This will be a croaking disaster.”

Elsa nearly choked on her tea. “Oh, I am so putting that in the book.”

  

The Spot Writers:

Val Muller: http://www.valmuller.com/blog/

Catherine A. MacKenzie: https://writingwicket.wordpress.com/wicker-chitter/

Phil Yeats: https://alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com/

Chiara De Giorgi: https://chiaradegiorgi.blogspot.com/