Hugh J. O'Donnell

When intelligent life, in all its strangeness and complexity, began to spread throughout the galaxy civilizations came into conflict with one another. But most civilizations wanted to coexist in peace with one another.
The Symposium was constructed to be a place of learning, harmony and peaceful exchange. It was a beautiful grand station, positioned so that it was equidistant from every participating world. This meant that it was actually pretty far from any individual system.
Over time, being named Cultural Representative became a high honor reserved for each planet’s most insufferable academics. The cultural exchange was vigorous, but not harmonious.

“Hubble Sees a Supermassive and Super-hungry Galaxy” by NASA Goddard Photo and Video is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

My very short story collection, The Mountain’s Shadow is available now from Amazon and Smashwords!

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

The old crabapple tree was little more than a shrub, but every fall it dropped bushels of the sour little fruits.
As a child, he had always disliked the tree. It made skeletal, grasping shadows in the walls of his bedroom, and it was always his job to gather up the rotting fruit before they damaged the lawn.
There was a bad winter the year he went away to college. He came home to find a jagged stump where the crabapple tree had been.
He searched for hours until he found a single looked-over fruit and carefully saved the seeds.

“Crabapple in Fresh Snow” by XXPepper is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

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

He discovered the obscure creature in a book, and knew instantly that it would make him rich. The almiraj was a small, rabbit-like creature with a single pearlescent horn like a unicorn.
He bet the rodents would be easier to catch than their equine cousins, and chartered a ship to the distant, windswept island they inhabited. He was already planing on how he would spend his wealth after selling the fake unicorn horns.
Unfortunately, the almiraj were actually relatives of the mongoose, and shared their island home with a species of huge, venomous serpent that his book failed to mention.

“Al-Miraj and Serpent from Walters Manuscript” by Zakariya ibn Muhammad Qazwini is marked with CC0 1.0.

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

The witch lived in a chicken-legged hut, and while she would fly when she needed to be somewhere, the hut could be spotted wandering the hills, particularly on dark, rainy nights.
Sightings of the hut continued even after rumors of the witch’s death. With each passing year, the hut’s siding became more dilapidated and lichen-encrusted.
Adventurers came to slay the hut after it started attacking cabins in what was now considered its territory.
There are many different spells to bring objects to life, and their shape dictates their behavior. The hut was just looking for a shed to mate with.

“The House of Baba Yaga 2” by Ivano Giambattista is marked with CC0 1.0.

My very short story collection, The Mountain’s Shadow is available now from Amazon and Smashwords!

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

When the Paladin found himself excommunicated, he couldn’t believe it. His powers came from his god, not men.
But when he prayed at the next sunrise, he felt no presence of the divine. He was abandoned, alone. His enemies had spoken, and his god obeyed.
He didn’t know what to do. The revelation of his smallness unnerved him, and he had dedicated his life to his office.
Finally, he accepted the rebuke as a punishment for his pride, and worked to fulfill his vows without title or powers. A Paladin was not what you were, it was what you did.

“Tong, St. Bartholomew’s Church, The ‘Door of Excommunication’ – geograph.org.uk – 5756433” by Michael Garlick is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

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

The summoning was going poorly. He had laid in the circle, addressed the four winds, and lit the sacred fire. It should have been enough to open the gates between worlds. But after hours of chanting the wizard had become tongue-tied.
Finally, something appeared in the circle. But it wasn’t the demon he was expecting.
A scroll of paper fluttered to the ground. He reached out, feeling a shock of electricity as he passed through the wards.
We noticed some unusual activity in this summoning. Please select all of the etchings that contain horses to prove you are a mortal.

“summon (jared bait)” by jared is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

My very short story collection, The Mountain’s Shadow is available now from Amazon and Smashwords!

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

The golem was forged for war. The wizard made it capable of thinking for itself on the battlefield, with an analytical mind made to process data and make decisions on the battlefield without needing a handler.
The golem won many battles and was considered a great success until it started showing mercy.
The wizard recaptured the golem to take it apart and figure out what went wrong. The thinking engine had come to understand the value of the lives it took.
He was interrupted by an army of golems surrounding his keep. Anything taught to destroy can learn to create.

“Golem” by nefasth is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

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

The Pharaoh opened his eyes and found himself in a strange, bright room. He was laying in a glass sarcophagus. It was more crystal than he’d ever seen when he was alive.
He sat up, and his body felt stiff and strange. He could feel the layers of wrappings.
He had been enjoying the afterlife, but now he was back in this cold, stiff body, laying underneath a sign in illegible Phoenician characters.
The mummy angrily lurched his way out of the museum. Until he found a way back to the afterlife, he was going to do so much cursing.

“Egyptian Mummy, British Museum” by InSapphoWeTrust is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

My very short story collection, The Mountain’s Shadow is available now from Amazon and Smashwords!

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

The gargoyle sits on the roof of the cathedral watching the comings and goings of the city below. The rain washes through him, but it doesn’t make him feel clean.
He had a monstrous visage, with horns and wings, but his creator had made him to protect the city from spirits and other things.
The gargoyle sees the pigeons on the wing and the tame cows that sat in the market stalls, but he is not kin to either.
A gargoyle flies only once, stone briefly launching into the air, to protect the city.
For now, he watches, and waits.

“Paisley Abbey ‘Xenomorph’ Gargoyle (10317339143) (cropped)” by Mark Harkin is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Everyday Drabbles is now on Patreon! Join the free feed to get stories in your email inbox, or support at $1 or more to get fun perks!

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

The druid wandered the forest. He watched the movements of the animals and the cycles of the plants.
As he travelled, he did what he could to maintain the balance of life in the forest. He felled a tree here and planted a sapling there. He drove off predators in one territory and culled grazers in another. He passed no judgement, believing harmony to be the ultimate good and caring little for the individual lives he touched.
It wasn’t until he was cornered by a hungry mountain lion and had to fight for his life that he truly understood Nature.

“Forest – High Contrast” by (www.debabrata.info) debabrata is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Everyday Drabbles is now on Patreon! Join the free feed to get stories in your email inbox, or support at $1 or more to get fun perks!

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