Cahlak

Yesterday, my friend Trey reached out to me to ask me to write a 200 word story for something he and his wife call WREINDEER (WRiting Exercise IN DEcembER!)

Now, this is his exercise but he outsourced it to me, and by having me complete it, he (not me) earned 28 bags of M&Ms (yes, I do feel like I got the short-end of this deal.

My writing prompt was:

So I did one, partially inspired by a Zoom call we had on Sunday where this happened:

Without further ado, here is the story. I definitely didn't stick the landing, but it was good enough for him to earn his M&Ms, so I will take that as a win.

"Cahlak? Cahlak!" I called out, searching every corner of my house. I hadn't seen that little goblin in the past hour and I was starting to get suspicious.

A distant voice came from the vents. "Yes, Master?"

"What are you doing in there?"

"I...uh..."

Whenever he didn't finish his sentences, it meant that he'd done something that he wasn't proud of.

"Come here."

The metal rattled and thudded and Cahlak scraped and scrambled his way towards me. His little green face popped up behind the closed grate.

"You mustn't release me."

"Why not?"

"There's no telling what further damage I'll do."

"What happened this time?" Although he was obedient, he was also mischievous.

"It wasn't my fault. The cat should've behaved."

I realized I hadn't seen my cat in some time either.

"Cahlak, what did you do to him?"

"Well, I noticed how he liked treats and would behave..."

"Yes..?"

"I wanted him to listen to me for once—"

"Cahlak..."

"So just kept feeding him—"

Right then, I heard a deep throaty meow and I rushed to the dining room to find my cat sitting on the table beside a small pile of half-chewed food.

"Is he going to die?" Cahlak asked.

I sighed in relief. "Of course not."

"Even after I gave him medicine—?"

As if on cue, my cat erupted in what could only be called a fountain of puke. Both he and I were surprised as he launched the entire contents of his stomach in my direction.

"Cahlak!"