The already bored sultan was visually examining the majestic tent while walking. It was decorated like a bazaar:Persian rugs, golden tassels and silk cushions. He paused in front of the couch, while staring at the three naked sleeping odalisques on the crumpled map of Europe. One of them was wrapped in Abduction from the Seraglio. An owl called to him from the darkness of the night. "Bad omen", he shuddered, causing him to forget his own thoughts. You could hear some movement outside, at last. The scout entered with a short bow. Your Holiness, I've been riding across the whole valley and there is no wall. The giaour lied to us, we will attack at dawn.
(Translated by Oana Ionescu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)Real Fiction is a collective project started in 2013 by Florin Piersic Jr. The concept of Real Fiction continued to exist as a Facebook group, after a volume of stories was published at Humanitas Publishing House. (In May 2023, the group has 11,260 members.) The authors write ultra-short stories, with the texts limited to 500 characters (in Romanian, so the length of the English translation might be a little different) - a flash-fiction exercise on a topic that changes every few days. The group's coordinators are Florin Piersic Jr., Gabriel Molnar, Răzvan Penescu, Luchian Abel, and Vlad Mușat. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale. 
