The challenge? Write a story in exactly 6 sentences based on Denise’s one word prompt: GESTURE. Visit, comment, and write & post your own on SIX SENTENCE STORIES.  The Café is open. Come as you are!

He jumped at the slap of the screen door, so sharp against the morning’s murmurings, and dropped his fae knife between the stems of thick ferns sheltering his now-habitual observation point.

Squatting quickly, he searched the damp earth with blind hands for the fallen blade, beady brown eyes held by the bright radiance of the orange wedges left on the porch stoop.

He’d caught her glance, her sidewise smile toward the stand of fern where he hid; was her offering a gesture of friendship, or simply a ploy to capture and enslave him to do her bidding?

She didn’t seem the type, but you could never tell.

He yelped as his fingers finally found his knife, but he snatched it up and slid it into its scabbard as he made a decision: No need to mention this to the Brotherhood of Gnomes just yet

Darting out across the sand and gravel driveway, he scooped up the wedges and hightailed it back to the ferns before she had returned with a fresh cup of coffee.

 © Liz Husebye Hartmann (2025)

Tap here for Part 1 of this Six Sentence Story installment.