Day 226 Writing Short Stories

Chosen

The crows cawed and lifted into the air. They pierced the sky in half. He watched the flight of the sacred birds. The message was clear. The chosen one was birthed, as his bones had foretold. He was here in the village somewhere, hidden from the world and unknown to his destiny.

He was there to retrieve the boy. Without him, the kingdom would fail. So it was told. The dark forces already gathered at its gates, ready to steer the kingdom into chaos and violence. Darkness and its creatures would reign until the boy was old enough. Until then, he would have to guard and train him. He was their only light out of chaos and death.

He stepped into the stone closet, making his way down the narrow streets, past the people who could sense the demons and their like, waiting for the walls to fall. Inside the buildings, children already cried the feverish dreams of the future, afforded with sight the adults lacked. They knew what was to come. They knew not many of them would see their sixth birthday. They knew their souls were lost.

He had heard that cry before, centuries before. The darkness always returned with its demons and destruction. The human heart always invited it back. It was the arrogance, the greed, and the pettiness of the generation. The sins that plagued every creature he passed by, along with the king and his queen. The demons were there to get their own, welcoming them in with their open claws and scorching embrace.

There in the house, where the boy slept in his crib, there was hope and kindness. The mother and father knew the hearts of men, and they wanted him to take their child away. They only asked him to take the red-haired girl-child with him, too. It was their only price, and not a price at all. Their pain and their sorrow. They needed their children to survive.

He broke his vow, his customs, and principles. He took the child with him. The girl would be a child of his, but the boy would be the warrior the kingdom needed.

Wolf

The marsh engulfed the land, circling the waters and the mountains. The blue sky rarely showed behind the thick white clouds that came down the hills, only to be swallowed by the lake. Here, you grew strong and willful. Here, you knew what nature expected of you. Here, she played with her wolf, rushing in and out of the cold water. Her fiery red hair was braided back, and the loose linen clothes hung around her frame, clinging to her.

The wolf let out a howl as she soaked it with water.

She laughed and dived under the sea, and before she could reach the bottom, the wolf snapped its jaw around her braid, pulling her up, back to the surface, dragging her to the shore.

She let out a laugh and glanced at her mother, sitting not too far from them. She was immersed in her book.

The wolf let go of her hair, and she stumbled over the pup, burying her head into its wet fur. They lay there on the marsh hay in the last days of the summer.

Germophobe

A germophobe goes to a country where pecks on the cheek are the norm. I skipped this one.

The prompts are from the book A Year of Creative Writing Prompts.

I found it hard to write the Chosen prompt. I couldn’t find my way out of the stories told so many times before. I wanted to find my own tone, my own story and characters, but all I found were the crows and the red-haired child. Despite finding it hard to write, I had fun searching for the right words and the mood. I could see in my mind’s eye as the war rolled into the kingdom and all the death and decay—the dark ages. And how she would hold the destiny in her hands.

Now, I will escape outdoors into the rain and darkness.

Thank you for reading ❤ Have a joyous day! Soon the light will return.