The Unicorn Challenge.
A magical new weekly writing opportunity from her – Jenne Gray – and me.
Visit her blog every Friday to see the photo prompt, and post your amazing story in her comments section.
Or on your own blog, and stick the link down in her comments.
The rules are:
Maximum of 250 words.
Based on photo prompt.
That’s it.
To hear me read my story, just click here:
Fairy Tale
I drag the Princess through the Forbidden Forest.
She is small and slender, almost waif-like, and her full-length formal gown was never designed for woodland pursuit.
Her long red hair is dull with sweat, and matted with fragments of leaves and bark.
She is already exhausted and, of course, terrified.
Her eyes reflect the horrors she has seen tonight.
But she is determined, and surprisingly strong, very much her father’s daughter.
When the gremlins infiltrated our security, I knew the Enchanted Castle was doomed.
The protective Ring of Magic crumbled, and hell’s fury was unleashed.
The Black Wizards on their Death Dragons swooped over the walls, their spell-strengthened scimitars slaughtering everyone before them.
The Mountain Giants crashed through the gates, eager to gorge themselves on our flesh.
The Grey Goblins with their double-bladed axes hacked their way to the inner sanctum.
I saved the Princess by slaying Grue-Ghast, their king, but my Sword of Honour, forged by the Fairies of Doon, melted in his foul carcass.
We escaped through the secret passage, but the Great River is impassable here, swarming with alligators awaiting their rewards.
The trees offer some protection, but the Red Dogs are on our trail.
Ahead of us lies the Old Bridge, we can cross there into Sanctuary, where evil cannot follow.
Because two-headed Hunting Dragons soar overhead, we need to go underneath, where Trossach the Terrible Troll lives.
My last hope evaporates when I hear his words.
‘Look, children, dinner has arrived.’
Sound Bite Fiction 
What a last line! Grate ending (as in grated parmesan to flavor the dinner)
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Laughing.
Don’t count your cheeses before they’re cooked!
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Great little tale with all those dark secrets. Yay!
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I love ‘Yay!’
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What a gathering of malevolent monsters! I’m breathless by the end, hoping against hope that the two fugitives will escape to some safe place, with better security.
It sounds like a story of our times. 🤔
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Well, Margaret, don’t tell anyone, but this is part of a much bigger piece and the two do survive the Terrible Trolls!
And yes, some of these monsters are probably Tories!
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Thank goodness for that. Tories eh? They’re lurking everywhere. Beware.
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Damn! Where’s that subscription form!
Last week, pulp detectives, this week, swords and sorcery.
Dude, way to work the styles (a regular Guthrie Govan of fiction genres*)
Both Visual and visceral… with your trademark sharp-angle close, in this instance, humor as a tasty palette-cleanse before the next course/installment.
*high praise for the skill and talent to capture (and work in) multiple writing styles and such.
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A chap doesn’t like to get typecast, Clark, or, heaven forfend, predictable!
Glad you enjoyed.
*flattered by comparison to guitar maestro
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Just wonderful!
The imagination! (I know, two ‘!’s – but the story merits them.)
I want to delve into the glorious words in your descriptions, run my hands through them and savour them.
Children somewhere – and their parents – are waiting for this story…
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Thanks, Jenne, I like this too, but what to do with the full version, hmm?
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Write and expand to a fantasy novel, using Dungeons and Dragons to structure and feed the story!
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The full version already exists, Liz, but finding an outlet for it seems well-nigh impossible.
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I feel your frustration. Self-publishing and do massive amounts of self-marketing? Hire haggises as mascots and circus performers? Do a serial podcast, where the first 3 chapters are free, as entry to a pay per vew site? Hire a really good illustrator because while you can’t judge a book by its cover, the cover may draw readers in? Start a Go-Fund-Me to pay for all the aforementioned stuff and nonsense?
And let us know how it worked, because inquiring minds… 🥀🌹
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I’ve self-published two full-length novels (and some other stuff) on Amazon and done pretty much zero marketing because I don’t want to. I love writing and have no interest in the rest of it. Both books have been well-received by their small readership, which include contributors to this Challenge, and that’s pretty much the end of it. Maybe if I die…
PS You clearly have no idea what it costs to hire a haggis!
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True. We don’t have Haggis here in the Midwest. Yeah, I’d rather write than waste my best energy on trying to sell…🍎
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Well, the response here to the short version – unsurprisingly – suggests there’s definitely a public for it.
How to find the way in?
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Pingback: Questions… – Tales from Glasgow
Delighted clapping here! Brilliant!
“Ooh, father! Do read us another. PLEASE!!”
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Thanks, Nancy, a writer lives for a reaction like that!
This is in fact an excerpt from a much longer piece that I keep wondering what to do with.
I love writing about dragons and stuff, there is such freedom when you can use magic to resolve bad things!
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Then I’m thrilled to have given you a reason to live! lol
The world could use a bit of dragon magic, don’t you think?
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Always
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Quite a change from your usual writing. I am not much into fairy tales, but this was well written and engaging. I love the ending, ‘Look, children, dinner has arrived.’
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Thanks
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