Jack knelt before the king and wondered at the strange turn of events. The king called him a heroic giant killer, even though he only chopped the beanstalk down in self defense.
He’d had no idea that the giant was terrorizing the kingdom. He had been too busy trying to save his struggling farm.
He couldn’t explain why the beanstalk had sprouted from the seemingly dead soil, and none of the townsfolk remembered the cloaked stranger that had traded him the beans.
But he wondered why the king’s sorcerer, who he certainly had never met before, was avoiding his gaze.

“Jack and the beanstalk” by TheTurducken is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Everyday Drabbles © 2025 by Hugh J. O’Donnell is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Thanks for reading!