Ficlets

Orange Blossoms, Lava Rivers, and Balloons

Dalia the little girl giant clutched the group of multi-colored
balloons and smiled, delighting in her surroundings. Below her
was the lava river. Its molten rock gushed down the side of the
mountain like a drooling dragon. At her feet was an orchard of
many trees. White orange blossoms were dotted against the green foliage, trailing down the hillside toward her home village of Vesper.

As Dalia proudly looked up at her cluster of balloons, she lost
her footing, slipped down the embankment, and tumbled over
the cliff, coming to rest inches away from the blistering lava
river. Panicking, she rose to her feet and looked up. She
turned her face toward the sky full of ballons, and tears filled her
eyes as she reached upward and screamed.

Wiping away the last of the tears from her face, she climbed up
the cliff and plopped down. Deeply saddened, she uprooted a nearby apple tree and brought the leafy branches to her mouth. As the balloons drifted away, she mindlessly ate the apples from the tree and sighed.

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