(Photo by Kenny Blasco.)

Every week we post six lines from a work of ours, a work-in-progress or published or a recommendation of someone else’s work with at least one LGBT character. Posted at Rainbow Snippets here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974

Here’s the sequel (sort of) to last week’s story that I mentioned; On my World Of Three Moons, we meet Tarloc and his teen-age son Tarlos. https://authorjeffbaker.com/2024/05/24/to-warm-their-fellows-in-the-night-friday-flash-fiction-anniversary-story-by-jeff-baker-may-24th-2024/ Tarlos has checked the horses in the horse barn and found something unusual. The two men are sitting in their living room talking…

“Have you borrowed a horse or two for some purpose?” Tarlos asked. It was not too unusual during planting season for farmers to loan out a horse to help a neighbor pull a plow but this was not planting season. “I counted eight, and I thought we had only six. I know I have only started doing this and I am away all day at school but…”

“Eight horses?” Taroc asked, staring at his son and setting the scroll down. “You’re sure you counted eight?”

We follow Taroc and his son in the dark to the horse barn to count the horses for snippet two…

Taroc paused at the barn door, putting a finger to his lips indicating quiet. He cautiously opened the barn door and entered, Tarlos right behind him as Taroc pulled out his light sphere and looked around.

“Six,” he said. “There are six.” He turned the light sphere off.

“Father, I was sure that I…” Tarlos said. But his father was not listening.

“Zavid and Zannic,” Taroc breathed to the open air. He turned around to face his son, his own face showing awe. “You have seen a rare and wondrous thing tonight. Come back to the house.”

One last snippet to wrap things up…

Seated in the living room, small cups of broth at the ready Taroc explained.

“You know the legend of Zavid and Zannic?” Taroc began.

“The patrons of slaves and horses?” Tarlos said. “Everybody does. It’s just a bedtime story from the ancient days, isn’t it?”

“More than that,” Taroc said. “Zavid and Zannic were slaves who cared for their master’s horses. They loved each other but their masters were going to separate them. The Horse Lords took pity on the two young men and transformed them into horses who would always run free together.

“To Warm Their Fellows In The Night” was posted as my eighth (!!!) anniversary story for the near-weekly flash fictions and it was a lot of fun to write! Maybe longer than six lines apiece, but since when does that stop me?

Next week, something I picked up on my recent travels. Till then, take care! —-jeff