When two siblings play a board game where they must collect seven magic rings, they discover that the game pieces may possess real enchantment.
This story is from Year 8, The Year of Revisitation
I revisit one of the stories I’ve already written, and write a new standalone story connected to or inspired by the existing one through a character, a place, an object, a continuation of events (okay, sequel), and so on.
In this story, written around the holiday season, I imagined two siblings being stuck indoors, their holiday outing thwarted, and playing a tabletop fantasy game that they were looking forward to playing with a much larger group. It’s not always easy to tell if a game will be fun and engaging, if it’ll be too easy or too hard, if the instructions will be clear enough to avoid argument among the players. But the one thing that’s true of all games is that they are not real. Powers and abilities and items gained are imaginary…right?
This story is connected to the Year Six story entitled “The Last Wish of Caducus the Wizard,” in which a dying wizard forges enchanted rings to help him speak to his baby granddaughter. (The game’s designer shares the name of the baby from “Caducus.”) And the concept of the seven necessities are introduced in a Year One mythical story called “Imberflos,” about a flower that decides to bloom when it is not supposed to.
[Video description: No sound. Duration is 11 seconds. Digital drawing of a game board as seen from above. A hand holding a half-filled glass of water hovers over the board. Two rings are visible on the hand. Printed on the gameboard are seven seven-sided polygons of various colors, randomly scattered across the board and connected by a path. Words are written in ornate lettering within the polygons, some visible, some not. Three dice lie on the gameboard. The words “New Short Story” is displayed, centered and in all caps, in front of the image. As the video progresses, the words fade away. A glowing light bursts above the polygon marked “Wonder.” Sparks zip around above the polygon marked “Light.” Sparkles float above the polygon marked “Change.” The story’s title “The Seven Rings of Necessity” appears. Below it the website, “storyfeather.com” appears.]
Genre: Fantasy, Mythology
Tags: AUGUST, BLOOD, BOARD GAME, BREATH, CHANGE, LIGHT, MAGIC, MYSTERY, NOVA, RINGS, SIBLINGS, TABLETOP GAME, WATER, WONDER
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