The 55-hour writing challenge that I only had 5 hours to complete.
This morning I woke up and had a quick look on Twitter. Low and behold, there was another writing competition that I had not yet discovered:
It turns out this is a seasonal writing challenge hosted by the good people at the Australian Writers' Centre.
Now, as I had only just realised this was a thing, I'd only left myself 5 hours to compete.
Also, there were rules:
The story must be 500 words or fewer.
The story’s first sentence must contain the word FIFTY.
The story must include a four-legged animal.
The story must include the words EMERGENCY, BRUSH and BOARD.
Though I do love a good challenge, especially when there is a possibility of winning 300 quid.
So I wrote something brand new. I may have been influenced by some of the great new fantasy shows that have been hitting our screens over the last month, but I'll leave that for you to decide.
Without further ado, I give you:
The Totem Lord of Vertavalum
An army of fifty-five thousand strong consumed the cursed, bleak skies of Vertavalum on that fateful night. Fifty-five thousand dark souls who’d all sworn a blood oath to the Doom King Dhurt, lord and ruler of the Obsidian Islands.
Vertavalum, the land of the Totem Lords, held secrets and powers that King Dhurt fiercely desired. His army had come to take the land by force and brush aside any Vertavalian that stood in their way.
The dark beasts that littered the night sky were like nothing seen before by the folk of this free land. They had only heard rumours of the death dragons from the Obsidian Islands, but to see them in such numbers truly filled their hearts with dread.
Yet, the people of Vertavalum were not without a defence in the face of such an airborne emergency. Five elite brigades of silver-winged wolves clashed with the death dragons, howling victoriously as they shredded and tore through wing and flame.
Alas, their howls did not last long. Death dragons are formidable foes. Not only could they breathe incinerating fire, but each hosted four soldiers and one rider. If the defenders got too close, the soldiers would act as boarding parties and quickly dispatch them. Tactically, the brave silver-winged wolves and their single riders did not stand a chance. They started to fall from the sky in their hundreds, creating a scene of pure bloody horror on the land below.
Though all seemed like it was lost for Vertavalum, the very power King Dhurt had sought to steal was his army's eventual undoing.
Amidst the strewn war dead stood Atlason, the third Totem Lord.
Raising his family's golden framed banner, he called out in an ancient tongue towards the woodlands in the west. He became shrouded in a green light, and his sigil, which took pride of place in the centre of his banner, growled. His sigil, the mark of his house and gifted totem, was that of a bear.
Atlason transformed and became a bear the size of a mountain. With one swipe of his giant clawed paw, he cut the Doom King’s ariel army in half. Twenty-two and a half thousand with just one blow! Seeing this devastation, Dhurt called on his remaining troops to retreat, and they fled back to the Obsidian Islands. All but one of them.
Under orders from King Dhurt, General Kos of Udah Keep took a single death dragon and flew up so high that Atlason could no longer see her. Kos landed with stealth behind the Totem Lord, dismounted and waited.
Seeing the army retreating, Atlason transformed back into a human, assuming that his task was done. But in that moment of complacency, General Kos attacked Atlason, stabbing him in the back. She took his banner and, in doing so, became the Totem Lord of Vertavalum, and thus ushered in a new age of darkness.
Thanks for reading
The Typing Wolf
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