Murder Most Fowl – Part D #atozchallenge and Featured Photo Friday

For the A to Z challenge, I present Murder Most Fowl, an unedited serial story from the unpublished Cera Chronicles. Please excuse the grammar mistakes. This hasn’t been critiqued yet. If you’re just diving into this story, you may want to start with .

“Deputy Fischer died from unnatural causes,” Bobby drawled. He eyed Molly and stroked his mustache. “I reckon you done put a hole in his chest.”

Molly’s jaw tightened—weapon quivering precariously—and she lifted her chin. “It weren’t me.”

“If’n that be the case, you won’t mind answerin’ a few questions.”

The two glared at each other. A ocarina-like breeze whistled through the buildings in a two-note melody, sounding vaguely like a coyote’s howl. Tumbleweeds rolled past us.

After a long stand-off of eye-twitching stares, Molly finally shoved her gun back into it’s holster. “Fine.”

He turned to me. “I’m gonna have to ask you to come along, Ma’am.”

Me? “I haven’t killed anyone.” Not on this world. Not intentionally.

“Procedure, understand?” He offered me a hoof-like hand. I considered breaking it. But then, the glossy sheen would make for an excellent replacement pair of shoes.

Bobby waved us into the closest building. I frowned as we stepped through the doorway. Nothing much in there—a cot, a chair, a fur rug. Wait, no. That was some guy without a shirt.

The door slammed shut behind us. Molly squeaked and whirled around, beating and kicking the door. “Hey, let me out!”

Bobby peered through the peephole from the other side and snickered.

No good, lousy, son-of-a…

Bright light flashed through the slot. Bobby bleated, and his furry face disappeared from view. The door swung outward and Molly stumbled forward—right into a masked man on the other side. In one swift movement, he picked her up and flung her over his shoulder. She kicked and beat at him like she had the door, to the same ineffective end. “Let me go! Help! Someone!”

I sighed. The runt had tried to pin a murder on me, but that didn’t mean she deserved to be abducted. “Put her d—”

The masked man fired his weapon, and a lightning bolt struck me in the chest.

If you want to start at the beginning, . Don’t forget to visit other bloggers participating in the A to Z Challenge.

I also present Featured Photo Friday! (This is a regular occurrence on my blog.) I’m an amateur photographer who likes to play with apps and other software. Lately, my fascination has been with macro photography (those really close shots). Since today’s letter is D, I give you the bright yellow flowers already populating my lawn.

Dandelion.

I don’t disdain these yellow blooms as much as many other people I know. Mostly because they remind me of the song Dandelions by Five Iron Frenzy. Here it is, if you wanted to give it a listen.

I know this post was a little longer than my other serial story posts. Congrats for reaching the end!

Though the rest of the story is already written, I’m curious: Have the length of the posts been manageable chunks? Too short? Too long? (They are all under 500 words.)

What do you think?