Fantasy Prompt 1

Instructions: Write a 2 page sketch/ short short/section of a story that includes as many fantasy cliches as you can manage.

It was a dark and stormy night. The rain poured in sheets and the wind howled. A bolt of lightning illuminated the bleak sky and the soul creature crawling, helplessly away from the smoking rubble. Only a lone cloaked figure that road through the storm towards the destruction was silhouetted on the electricity lit backdrop. The woman dismounted her horse and rushed to the small shape huddled on the ground. Rolling him over, she noticed he was human; a young human boy with shocking black hair and a small scar on his neck. He was the one she’d hoped had survived. Placing the foundling on her steed, she rode off with him back to her tower in the east.
She arrived back at Tiëden Tower, her apprentice waiting for her at the foot of it. She handed her the small boy and told her to take care of him. She knew Eearwim had just lost a boy his age in a terrible raid about six months prior. She knew her maternal instincts would serve the boy well. This tragic event had brought Eearwim to seek out Lady Alasse and her knowledge. The good and powerful sorceress was well known for living the solitary life of a sage. The youngest woman to graduate the Sorcerer’s Academy and top in her class made her a most formidable woman.
She rushed to her study after leaving the boy in Eearwim’s charge. She pulled out seven specific parchments from around the circular room. Each sported a different insignia and had a message already scrawled in elegant handwriting down the center. She flourished her signature on each and magically emblazoned her crest on them to seal them shut. They would not open until the hands for whom they were meant touched them. She then fashioned a spell with her hands, her fingers weaving an intricate design. With this she ended and stared out her balcony awaiting The Summoned.
As she waited her eye caught movement in the skies and a large falcon swooped quietly onto her balcony and bowed its head. She rushed to its side and stroked its great neck lovingly and gave it one of the sealed parchments.
“With haste my dear friend.”
The falcon soared into the night and not seconds after his departure a small pop and cloud of blue dust appeared in the far corner of the room. A minute figure of a fairy hovered in the air and Alasse approached her and handed her the smallest parchment and nodded.
“To your Queen, young one.” she said and the tiny fairy disappeared in a puff of yellow smoke this time.
Alasse started to pace yet again on the hard wooden floor of her study awaiting the arrival of the rest of The Summoned to show up. She knew one would be as late as was possible and reluctant to come at all. There was no escaping the magical brand’s power of recall. He would come, just as it was planned and as it would remain. None could escape the call of the Chosen One and the destiny that befell the entire world now.
A cough interrupted Alasse’s pondering mind. Two figures stood in the door way. One was a bear; a large she-bear, with piercing green eyes and soft brown fur; and the other a young half-elf male. The she-bear was handed her parchment with no words spoken, who then left quickly. The young half-elf bowed lowly on one knee in front of Alasse.
“My most exalted lady, how it pleases me so, to be graced with your presence…”
She raised an impatient hand and silenced his babble.
“Ralgun, your father tried to flatter me and he did not succeed any farther than getting my gratitude for his help and you shall get no further either. Please take this and bring it swiftly to your lord.”
She shook her head as the half-elf bowed his head again and bolted out the door. She smiled slightly to herself and knew his son would grow up to be the same and so on and so forth. It was slightly refreshing, but dull fancy for anyone to desire her. She turned to look at herself in the mirror. She had aged little in the last 40 years of being here, but it was starting to show in her face. Small lines etched her porcelain skin and her red hair did not hold the sheen it once had. She still had her fiery green eyes, set under defined brows.
While she examined herself in the mirror, she felt a drop of water splash on her shoulder and as she turned, saw a small pool of water magically existing in the floor of her tower. A gorgeous creature floated erect and ready there in the magical pool. She was beautiful with pale green skin and long flowing locks the color of the sea itself. The scales of her tail were like an oil spill of color. She was holding a trident and awaiting her orders and the parchment that she knew was meant for her king. Alasse nodded to the mermaid and handed her a small trinket of her room, a feathered pen. She knew that the merfolk adored the charms of the human world. The mermaid dove back into her enchanted pool and it disappeared with her small splash.
With the clatter of hooves below her tower window, Alasse heard the approach of the sixth Summoned. She ran to her armoire and pulled out a small bow and an arrow. She fastened one of the final parchments to the shaft of the arrow and ran to the balcony. She saw the proud stature of the centaur standing and ready at the base of the tower, waiting for his parchment. He had olive skin and a broad chest to which was strapped the harness for his longsword. He lifted his head at the sound of Alasse’s footstep and smiled widely at her. She blushed slightly, knowing her love of the centaurs and their tribes. This one, Branus, held a very special place in her heart, and he always would. She knew that one day their love would be allowed and they would live that happy ending they both dreamed of. She shot the arrow down to him and closed her eyes longingly as he thundered away towards the woods.
She sighed a long a deeply saddened breath and knew she could not steal away a moment for herself in this dire time. She started her pacing again, knowing there were only minutes left in the hour that The Summoned were allotted to return to Tiëden Tower. She knew that this one would show up seconds before the hour had run out and it would by no means be a simple task.
As she thought this a large flash of smoke and fire lit the entire room as if the sun were peeking through the curtained balcony. Rothbart tapped his impatient foot on the floor as if Alasse were the one that had been keeping him.
“Can we get this little get-together over with already? I can’t stand the stench of your kind for more than minutes at a time. Of course this had to happen now. It always happens when you least need it to. Do you really need our help?”
He stared at Alasse and pointed an accusing finger at her. She shook her head and walked across the floor, grabbing the final, darkest colored parchment on her way.
“You really do know how to make an entrance Rothbart, and show up last and with seconds to spare. One of these times you’ll be late and it’ll be over from there and the next in line will take on your honored task.”
“Honored? What the hell does this have to do with honor? I pop up when some ‘Chosen One’ shows up and then we hope we’ll be alright if we help him out. I don’t think so…this is centaur shit and I don’t want any part of it. Why can’t my people just take care of it? For so long, have your fields and villages been kept safe. By the sweat and blood of our people, can you stay up here in your little tower, cowering away your days…no more…give me this Chosen One and I shall show you how to use him against The Evil!”
“No Rothbart. Stop this stupid discourse. Do as you are intended to do and bring the summons to your master. The Summoned do not challenge or question what they are meant to do. They do it and that’s it. Please…there is no time to waste.”
“Alright…this one time…but it’s not the last time you’ll hear that from me.”
She watched him make his dramatic exit and slumped in her chair. She conjured up a cup of hot liquid and started at its languid surface. If only it were that simple…if only there was another way…Alasse let one single tear fall on her determined face. There was no other way.