Day 23 Writing Short Stories

Nature

Nature had made her like this. Death came easily, and she instinctively knew that she was worth more than any other soul trenching through the scorched earth. She and her kind were as dark and high as they came. And she was better than them. Better than anyone. Yet, somehow, she didn’t believe any of that any longer. That nature had made her so. That it was all there was, and it was a good reason to be like she was. There was no taking back all those kills she had done in the name of her vanity and greed, but part of her wished that she could have even saved one soul from her clutches.

Her dark elf army was restless underneath the halls. They were waiting for her command to spread from the castle they had taken to deeper into the valley of humans. One by one, they had been plucking the citadels, killing them down to the last man, leaving no survivors, leaving no humans to procreate. There was only a handful of them left, and she only had to push through the strange feeling nestling inside her and finish the centuries-old feud. She had done what her ancestors couldn’t do, and her army loved her for it. They hungered for blood.

Yet, that feeling still festered inside her. Somehow, for the first time, she knew what fear meant. Not the fear of the gods. No. That was for fools. She didn’t fear their wrath or their ideas of punishment. She feared the eyes watching back from the mirror. Her eyes. The fact that they now recognized that something was amiss in her logic. That this didn’t seem like the right thing to do. And it was not for the fear of revenge. She and her army could massacre so that there were no humans left. She would be praised. Her people would worship her for the years to come. She would be forever remembered. All she had to do was to surrender to her nature, but the right thing sat inside her like a thorn, tearing open memories she didn’t know she possessed. She didn’t know what to do with them. They spoke of a different world, a time when she didn’t have to be like this. When her heart had created and not possessed, but her army would tear her apart if she asked them to abandon their cause. She would have made herself bleed a day ago for even thinking what she now thought.

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I have to cut this short. I was getting to the point where I had a clear idea of where the story should go, but I have to leave for work. The story needs heavy editing, but I’m glad I got the concept down. But work. Sigh. In one more month, I will have my summer vacation. Until then, one has to do what one must to survive in this modern society.

The raffle gave me a voice-driven story today, with morality and tragedy, told in third-person narrative. I didn’t fully get to the tragedy part. But now I have to go—churn, churn, churn.

Thank you for reading! Have a day of clear reason ❤