Scourge

by R.S. Bohn

Grinna Grumpmutt lifted a boot caked in iridescent muck.

She hated unicorn brains. Only thing worse was unicorn entrails after a recent meal. Dragonflies, hamsters, swallowed whole and writhing feebly, half digested, in that rainbow of guts.

The only orc in Parasite Removal meant she got the 'corns. Typically, a couple a year.

There'd been twelve this month already.

Vacation beckoned in fourteen hours – a swampy slice of heaven in Louisiana.

Her walkie screeched, "Got another one! Library!"

Grinna snarled. She had no time for a damned plague of the things.

Wiping her badge, she mounted her scooter.

Countdown on.



Author bio: R.S. Bohn officially has no comment on allegations that Stephen Cosgrove based his 1978 book, "Misty Morgan," the story of a princess and her unicorn, on her. She can definitively say, however, that Scholastic book fairs at her school were, without a doubt, the best days of the school year.

Scourge is part of 101 Fiction issue 18.