Day 83 Writing Short Stories

Half

You know the land like the back of your hand. You have been in and out so many times that the terror of the ravaged land holds no terror for you. The death that protrudes from every inch of the place barely makes you flinch any longer. Sometimes there’s a corpse that makes you look away, but even that happens rarely. You are scared of how easily you accept the cost of war, how alienated your heart feels amongst those who see the war as utter horror and fear the time the orcs will reach their gates.

You no longer fear the orcs, either. You have snuck past them so many times that you think it takes only one careless, cocky moment, and your survival is not guaranteed any longer.

You go to the forbidden lands, where humans and elves fight side by side against the darkness. You have one task, and that is to end the war that has been going on for eons, since time began.

That is what you are doing now. This is the last task that has been bestowed upon you, a halfling. You have taken the other tablets to the farthest corners of the earth to bind the evil to your will. Only the middle tablet remains. You have left it last, as it goes to the heart of the battle.

You push past the horses, the archers, the swords, and the catapults. You have come there through the human side, who never sees you. Elves would notice your presence. So would the orcs. But humans never do. They see might and glory, and you are nothing of the sort.

The roar of the battle around you makes your steps quicker. The curved, jagged axe swings over your head and cuts half of the human just beside you. The orc roars with victory. It doesn’t see you either. You dart between its legs and arrive at the exact spot you are meant to be.

You lift the tablet in the air and say the words you know even in your sleep.

“Bring together what was always there. Show the true face of the land and let it whisper its truth. Draw the power from the tablets and end this all.”

The tablet in your hand shakes, and bright light shoots out of it, meeting the light from the other tablets. The battlefield around you falls silent. You see how an archer’s arrow hangs in mid-air, how an orc is frozen to its last roar, and how a sword never reaches its target.

The land trembles underneath them all, and the darkness that has fed from the war pushes out. You finally see your true enemy—the stained being, who knows nothing but hatred, greed, self-importance, and pride.

It screams as the blood feeding it has stopped running.

You keep speaking. “Vanquish the blackened heart and bring back the joy and love. Kill what needs to be killed and leave behind those with reason.”

You watch as humans, orcs, and elves around you fall to their demise—those too far gone to save. But this time their death doesn’t feed the darkness; this time it takes away its powers, shrinking the being to no more than the size of a penny.

You keep the tablet in the air, but release your right hand to wiggle a bottle out of your coat pocket. You flick it open and command. “I bound the darkness to the vessel of light. I bound the darkness to me.”

The penny-sized darkness screams as it swirls into the bottle. You shut the cork and push the bottle into your pocket, and watch as time ticks again. The arrow never reaches its target, the swords drop to the ground, and the orc’s roar turns into a gurgle.

—

Ha, I was sure I couldn’t write anything today because I needed to hurry to meet a client soon, but then this came out. It was fun to use classic fantasy elements and write this piece. What I got today was a period war quest done in the second person. No periods were filled, and war was turned into a fantasy one. I deem my choices great and now hurry to meet my client and help them with their quest.

Thank you for reading! Have a kind day and see you tomorrow ❤