Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 29 for Wednesday the twenty-ninth of October, 2025.
It Was Supposed To Be a Joke
by Elizabeth Guilt
Typical slow Thursday, and a short man slunk up to the counter.
"I'm here about the poster."
Great. Steven's latest hobby is designing ornate prank - obviously prank - flyers.
"Oh? Need a unicorn groomed, do you?"
"No. I want to part-exchange my kraken. Do you remove the old one when you deliver?"
"Seriously?"
"Mine's useless. Sluggish, pale, tentacles scarred to buggery."
"It's not..."
"Can't charge tourists a few grand to slay a beast that won't fight."
"Slay?"
"They all think they're Sir Galahad. None of 'em survived so far, but.."
"You killed..."
"I need a new kraken. What are your terms?"
Recently, I was walking through Sheffield with friends and we saw a shop-window advert offering money off what the internet calls "a very well-known brand of rectangular backpack". Someone misread it, and thus the part-exchange kraken was born.