This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 29, season 2, for Wednesday the twenty-ninth of October 2025. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.

Your one-hundred word story for the day is:

It Was Meant 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.

---

Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 30.

https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2episode29