I won Tuesday Tales!

Yesterday I entered the Tuesday Tales contest over at Glitterword.  Each week, contestants are given a photo and a word as inspiration for a flash fiction. The prompts this week:

And the word: Sassinak

"In the urban dictionary Sassinak means: English Scum, Also Sassinak is the name of Anne McCaffrey’s character that went to colonize a new world… instead attacked by pirates she became a slave then got enough skills to be a fleet officer and control of her own ship. "

And I won!  (Winner receives bragging rights an a badge to display on their blog). Here's my contribution:

Julia stared at the Sassinak, into the round purple sphere that she thought was its eye, but could have been its mouth.


“Will we be waiting long?” it asked in an Oxford accent. Its amphibious bubbling skin spewed yellow slime in her direction.


“Forty minutes,” Julia guessed. “The ship needs to be refuelled.” urban legend said the Sassinak would eat you if you turned your back on it. Julia’d never believed that, but now that she was sitting across from one, she wasn’t so sure.


“I’m a bit nervous,” said the alien. “I’ve never been to —-” It pronounced the unpronounceable name of its homeworld, never losing the English lilt.


Julia was taken aback. “I thought you were from there.”


“I was hatched in South Hinksey,” the Sassinak explained. “My parents were diplomats”


Of course Julia had known that Sassinaks had lived on Earth for a while, particularly in England. She hadn’t entertained the idea of them having families. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed.”


Two tentacles emerged from folds of slimy skin and Julia noticed the Sassinak wore a friendship bracelet. It shrugged, a distinctly human gesture.


“Don’t worry,” Julia said. “You’ll fit right in on the homeworld.”

200 words on the button!

Thanks to the judge of this week's contest Jason McKinney.  Also congrats to the honourable mentions: @Call_Me_Bookish, @LupusAnthropos, @solimond, and @ChuckWesJ.