An Incremented Dragon’s Tale Inspired by the Art of SamJFraser
There was no need to count the number of paces. Their path was already trodden, ten thousand times over. Every footprint was visible, as they went deep into the dirt. Mother and daughter moved through easily enough, even in the seventh day of their journey, because their booted feet fit perfectly into the prints of old. Continue reading
Prompt – A young hero, determined to live a plain simple life, has avoided his destiny so far. Fate is getting annoyed and resorting to ever more subtle ways to trick him into heroism.
It was a part of the world that hadn’t seen rain in over four years; there was no spot better suited to clearing his mind. He lived under a shelf of rock that kept the desert heat at bay. This was his first entire week of life without interruption, which allowed him to plant a seed of hope in that massive shadow. Perhaps he could stay there forever. Continue reading
Prompt: A man wants to save his mother from evil, but must become evil to do so.
It was too dark for a proper celebration, but there was nothing proper about the Black Gala. Nearly every guest had a gloomy look on their face, even as they danced in circles across the marble floor in the grandest room the entire region had to offer. Continue reading
Prompt: An alien girl’s escape pod crash-lands on Earth; she is the crown princess of her empire and is pursued by their enemies.
The initial impact was enough to knock her out cold, which was very bad for one of her species, especially the young. She was of the Kilinitt, and their imaginations were rich, sometimes overpowering their conscious minds. Sleep was always a battle to best the flood of dreams, and getting a concussion was like those dreams breaking down the castle gates. Continue reading
Author’s Note: This story was written live on stream with the audience bidding tokens (earned while watching) to determine the path of the story. The underlined phrases in the choice of three were the winning pathways. (This story used a different format of eliminated choices.) Stop by twitch.tv/blainearcade if you’d ever like to participate in our interactive fiction.
Alfheim – Elves Svartalfheim – Dwarves Jotunheim – Giants
Vanaheim – Gods Niflheim – Ice Muspelheim – Lava
The deep purple of the rent sky went on forever. In that forever, six realms could be seen, each hanging as fruit from the world tree Yggdrasil. There had been nine before, nine for incalculable time, but they were burnt to ash now, and the others soon to follow. It was Ragnarok, the death of the tree, and the movement of all the beings in all the remaining worlds was just the death rattle of life itself. Continue reading
Prompt: A man has the power to read minds, but it’s only activated when he drinks alcohol. He wants to be a hero, but he gets derailed once he starts drinking.
Avoiding bars was supposed to be the safe thing to do if you were an alcoholic. He had done that admirably, but this was Lassie’s. Lassie’s was a somewhat casual eatery that might as well have only been open on Fridays, because that’s where ninety percent of their business lived. That was when they sold the honey mustard chicken strips and wings for half-off, which is what convinced him to go with a few friends. Continue reading
Prompt: A poet pixie has to use her writing to save the world, but she only speaks in haiku.
It was the darkest place she’d ever been, and it wasn’t until that point that she truly understood what darkness was. Before, up in the forests, it was just like the weather, coming and going and never taking up all the air. There was always something to break it up: fireflies, the moon, the stars, the distant glow of human villages… Continue reading
Prompt: An old but beautiful woman meets the last dragon in a canyon. The dragon moves in to kill her; what stops him?
The canyon was not difficult to find, given the plethora of dragon bones around its edges. None of them were intact; every last skull and wing had been crushed to chips or powder. The mass grave was left, undisturbed, for decades. Even though every part of a dragon was rich in magic, nobody wanted the bone chips, for they feared their use in enchantments posed a risk of bringing the beasts back. Continue reading
Prompt: The mad genius woke from his cryo-sleep, groggy, his mind fading from consciousness every few seconds, and emerged from his lair. He looks out and sees a utopia ripe for the picking.
It wasn’t a very dignified rebirth. Dr. Larry Gooperson spilled out of the cryogenic pod and collapsed onto a flowing floor of living wood. He sputtered and spat, expectorating globs of the blue nutrient fluid that had remained undigested. He held one hand up, before even lifting his face, expecting his robotic assistant to hand him a towel or a steaming beverage. Continue reading
Prompt: A young female forced-to-be-leader of a great army struggles to come to terms with her fear of power and being the greatest leader ever.
The antique computer banks were their greatest possession. They had no water source, no reliable farming, and no livestock. The only thing their mobile town could do was crunch the numbers for everybody else who couldn’t keep their machines dry. They were the town of Flopheart, they were on the giant worn tires of an age gone, and they were led by a girl barely out of her teens: Rusher Larn. Continue reading
Blaine Arcade 