Once, there was a great knight who had proven his strength against all the powerful monsters in the land, save one. He had slain dragons and demons and necromancers, but one monster had eluded him. The knight, in preparation to hunt this monster, donned his sword and shield, and made to leave town, telling each person he passed of his glorious quest. Each person he told of his mission responded in the same fashion, which was to say "But you need not hunt this monster, are your great conquests not enough?", to which he would reply, "Of course not! I cannot rest while even a single monster lurks in this world!" and would be on his way before another word could be said.
After saying his goodbyes and acquiring suitable provisions, he left his home in search of the great monster, and before long, he came upon it. The monster was a gruesome thing, with black and red leathery skin, great bat-like wings, and claws the size of daggers. When first the knight laid eyes upon it, he was struck dumb by its sinister appearance as it sat in a sparrow filled fruit tree, stuffing its red covered face. The knight quickly regained his composure and shouted as loud as he could at the thing, "Beast! Come down and fight me, that I might take your head and free my people from your tyranny," causing all of the birds in the tree to fly away and giving the monster a reason to take note of his presence. But the monster did not bother with him, it simply flew away on its giant wings. The knight, of course, made haste in following, that he might not lose sight of the beast.
When next they met, the knight stood on the edge of a cliff, looking down at a shepherd and his flock of sheep. Upon looking up, however, he noticed the monster flying from the top of the cliff, carrying one of the sheep in its massive claws. In his haste to keep up with it, the knight slipped and fell, tumbling head over heels to the bottom of the steep cliff, and fell unconscious at the bottom. When he finally woke, it was dark, and after gathering his wits, he set out in the direction he had last seen the thing heading.
By morning of the next day, he had caught up yet again, but this time, the beast was waiting for him. It sat in the middle of a field, facing the direction it knew he would come from, and on seeing him, it rose and gave a great bellow. It said, "Warrior, leave me, for though your company has been amusing, I cannot allow you to follow me home, as it would cause a great many deaths." To which the knight replied, "But of course there would, I will slay each and every one of you!" At this, the monster knew there was no avoiding combat, and flared its wings in acceptance of the knight's challenge. The knight charged and brought down his blade with all of the strength he could muster, but the thing swatted it away as if it were naught but a blade of grass. The knight was, as you might assume, a bit surprised by the lanky beast's great strength, but nevertheless, he brought a dagger from his belt and lunged. And suddenly, he died. His head torn from his shoulders with a single sweep of the great monster's claw, and the thing continued on its way home.
The End.
Tell me what you think? It's my first real story, and I thought it was decent enough.
Oct 4 2011, 1:52 pm
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Boxcar
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Hmm, not bad. An amusing story for sure. I'm not sure if it was suppose to be comedic or serious though. Perhaps that's up to interpretation and not any intention of your own.
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It was supposed to be a little of both, really. A lot of what the story is about is up for personal interpretation though.
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Well, it's good, but the ending left something to be desired.
Like, I was left wondering what the monster meant by "a great many deaths." I wrote a story once. It involved tentacles and rape. | |
I'll be writing another from the monster's point of view that should explain that. But you are left wondering because you assume that it lives alone in a cave or some such nonsense. His home has more of his people, and obviously if it was known where they lived, a great many warriors like the knight would go there in search of glory and conquest, only to meet the same fate as the knight.
Something I tried to put into the story was that not everything is as it seems at first glance. If you really analyze some of the situations, you would realize that they don't make much sense if you think of the monster as a monster. The first, and most obvious example of this is sparrow filled fruit tree. What bird sits in the same tree as a blood thirsty monster, but flees at just the shouting of a man. Once you take that into account, it's pretty obvious that the monster was eating the fruit from the tree, not the birds in it. Most people would never notice this because they have already come to the conclusion that the monster is a monster because the knight says so, and the story is from his point of view. | |
Well, for one, I assumed that it was the only monster left, since the story said so.
Wait, I guess it says "powerful monsters." So, if we're being very verbose, I guess that doesn't mean it's the last monster completely. And, I can't wait for that story. | |
I guess that did come out a bit wrong. I suppose I meant he had slain some of each type of powerful monster except this one, not actually ALL of them. I guess that would cause the last bit to make less sense.
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