A philosopher, a mage, and a swordsman are sent on an impossible quest from which they know they will not return alive.
Music: “Fire Dungeon” by Benjamin Carr
[Video Description: “The Last Night of Grief” Trailer. Duration, 31 seconds. Music, “Fire Dungeon” by Benjamin Carr. Digital drawing. Facing forward stands a creature with three dog-like heads each with a different color of fur. The heads emerge from serpent-like necks from a central body with the top half of three legs visible. All eyes are glowing. All the snouts are contracted as if growling. All ears are perked up. A forked tongue emerges from the head at right. Snake-like fangs drip a drop of venom from the head at left. Behind and above the heads, an armored segmented body is visible extended up out of frame. Extending down from top left of frame is a segmented spiked tail curling upward. Behind the creature is the opening of a cave. Title card with the words “Short Story” and “Genre: Mythology,” and the story tagline are displayed at top of image. Tagline reads: “A philosopher, a mage, and a swordsman are sent on an impossible quest from which they know they will not return alive.” The title card and tagline fade. A watermark of the word “storyfeather” appears over the image. Lines from the story appear over the image: “The philosopher felt her heart go still. She felt the cold steel of the swordsman’s sword quivering by her right side. She felt the warm spark of the mage’s magic prickling by her left side. In that moment, and none other since, she had wished her friends would unleash their might and fury…” The last lines fade and the image blurs as the story title appears at center, and a text card appears at top that reads “Available to Read Now storyfeather.com” A watermark of the site URL appears at bottom right and fades at the end.]
Welcome to Year 9 of Storyfeather
Every year’s short stories (mostly) follow a theme. This year, I will turn the Wheel of Fiction to help me decide what to write. There are thirteen spokes on this wheel. Eight are occupied by the eight themes from the previous years of stories. One is a prompt to turn the wheel again. One is a wildcard (hmm…curious). And three are covered only in question marks. I suppose I’ll find out what’s beneath those questions as we go along.
Welcome to the WHEEL OF FICTION
The Wheel of Fiction landed on CREATURES for this week’s story. I did a general online search for creatures of mythology, aiming to find a rare creature. Then I saw an image of Cerberus, the three-headed guardian of the underworld from Greco-Roman mythology, a creature I’ve been aware of since ninth-grade English class (if memory serves). And a potential story image popped into my head of a snarling face with glowing eyes. Then I thought about making the creature a hybrid of different animals. From there I asked myself what this creature could be guarding and why. And who would be seeking what the creature is guarding, and why. The story also features a trio of characters called the Triarch, a ruling body that I first introduce in a Year One story called “The Three Circles.”
(Spoiler alert: The royal character in that first story is also a real…piece of work.)
[Video Description: Duration, 8 seconds. Choice wheel made on the Spin the Wheel application. Thirteen spokes or slices in various colors, labeled as follows, clockwise from the top: Objects of Power (the “of Power” is not visible), Prompts, Definitions, Turn Again, Elements, Creatures, S.T.E.A.M., Wildcard, Revisitation, (alternating question marks and apostrophes), Challenge, Draw!!!, (question marks). The title at top reads “The Wheel of Fiction V2” and below that the words “Spin the wheel.” Below that is the date of the spin, 3/5/2022. At top left corner is a flag icon labeled with the letter “F.” This represents a function of the application which interferes with true randomness by reducing the probability of receiving the same choice twice in a row. The wheel turns and lands on CREATURES. As the wheel stops spinning, an adorable cartoon of a three-heading dog surrounded by animated flames appears at bottom.]
Genre: Mythology
Tags: CAVERN, FEATHER, HOUND, MAGE, OBSIDIAN, PHILOSOPHER, SERPENT-HOUND, SOVEREIGN, SWORDSMAN
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