“Well, My Liege… she did locate the pea…”

“Excellent! We have at last found a woman delicate and refined enough to – what? Oh no…”

“Yes, Your Excellency. I’m afraid she ate it.”

“Not another one.” The king sighed. “Well, give the girl a snack and send her on her way.”

Chelsea Utecht is an American living abroad in Tbilisi, Georgia where she teaches literature and writing. A recent participant in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, her work has been published in Shooter Literary Magazine, The Gravity of the Thing, and Fifty-Word Stories. More about her and her writing can be found at chelseautecht.com.