Welcome to Wings of Spring Little Writing Contest! Let Your Imagination Take Flight! This is just a little writing contest where your entries are short and imaginative. They will be judged by non-participants (if you would like to be a judge rather than write an entry, please PM me or post here to let me know).
Credits: Images by Gaia artists, banners by JoyRose using Pinta.
2. Entries may be submitted in this thread or via PM to me, to be posted in the next post.
3. Entries may be any format, including poetry, narrative, play, letters, etc., but they must be YOUR writing (not a retelling of another work) and they may not exceed 2000 words.
4. You may enter up to two entries, but may only win one prize. Please do not use mules to circumvent this rule.
5. Judging will be done by non-participants. Entries will be judged on creativity, style, and appeal.
6. Prizes: First Prize = 12,000, Second Prize = 8,000, and Third Prize = 5,000 pure platinum.
Using music to bring cheer to all while zipping thru the skies, All day long music and singing emanates from me, Those who heard my musical melodies have shining joyful eyes, The Airborne Rockstar Fairy that's me!
I think we are raised to think Easter is just about.. going on an Easter egg hunt!; but that's not quite what I believe , I think Easter is about rejuvenation, a new beginning, buds peeping out, birds a mating, singing in enchantement! =) It's also a very religious belief, but I won't get into that, even though, my grand parents and I, well when I was younger, watched the *Story of Jesus Christ* the movie series, and went to Church, and we even didn't eat meat , for a few days, and sweets, I remember this lol I was young, I listened, didn't have a choice, that's love for my grand parents respect 3noddingheart
But the best part, was I think, decorating real eggs, how patient my grand ma was, in showing me how to handle the egg, pearce a hole, in the top and bottom, let the inside , well blow the inside yolk and whites out! Then, painting, or drawing on the egg, pasting paper, now that was FUN! heart Just the gratitude, of having created such an art ^.^
I think it's the little things in life, we shouldn't forget, and the people along the way, whom make Easter a Great Holiday , Spring is also a very big part of this, just amazing watching the evolution, of the willderness, just outside my front door, countrylife, I love it !4laugh ohoh..think raising chickies, is also a very springy and Easter themed feeling too, they are just too adorable, I still can remember buying our first batch of 16 or 17 chicks, all different, still have about 4 of them here, they're almost 5 yrs old *smiles*
Some time ago in a land where the kingdoms and duchies were so many they patterned the maps like patchwork, there lived many knights. One such knight who fought for glory was the White Knight. He was a young man, large framed and strong, and rode a white warhorse. His coat of arms was white with a silver star emblazoned across it, worn over armour of silver polished until it blazed in any light. As the White Knight, he was identifiable by his emblem, clothes, and warhorse, and the others knew him by how he presented himself.
During a quieter period, the White Knight and his fellows were approached by an emissary from a tiny kingdom. The emissary begged the knights to come and rescue the King's daughter, who had been kidnapped before her marriage by a Black Knight. A Black Knight, a man who had no honour and shamed all others who bore the name of knight, would be a great opponent indeed.
“He was a terrible foe and none could stand against him; instead of a noble warhorse, he rode astride a beastly dragon.”
The knights burst into incredulous laughter. No man could tame a dragon! They were wild creatures and required armies to fight and the army would rarely defeat the dragon; more often, the dragon would simply leave to avoid the annoyance of the army.
The knights refused to listen to the emissary any further, all except the White Knight. The White Knight asked for him to arrange a meeting with his King.
The White Knight travelled to the kingdom and met the King and Queen. “He really does have a dragon?” the White Knight asked, having supposed the dragon had been an embellishment to lure heroes to the quest.
“Yes,” insisted the King. “If he had not that unhallowed creature, our own men could have defeated that blackguard before he got close to my daughter. But we have no dragon slayers. The men we have will not go to their certain deaths. The ones who go anyway do not return.”
The White Knight followed the trail of the Black Knight. Whenever he stopped, people would gladly tell stories of encounters with the Black Knight and the Dragon. The Black Knight was said to be a taciturn man who stuck his nose into disputes. The White Knight heard from more than one landlord that the Black Knight had intruded into their doings and a few fathers of daughters complained that the Black Knight had involved himself in betrothals, even breaking off engagements and absconding with at least one young woman.
The White Knight followed the townspeople’s directions to the Black Knight’s lair, shaking his head. How could a knight sink as low as to make common people’s lives harder? There was no glory in breaking up a marriage between a milkmaid and her father’s friend or forcing a landlord to keep recalcitrant tenants.
The White Knight finally came to the Black Knight’s base, a tower built up against a mountain and was accessible only by a long, coverless path with a steep drop between it and the mountain.
He took the path and the Back Knight intercepted him, flying on his dragon across the crevasse separating the mountain from the path.
The Black Knight dismounted and so did the White Knight.
“I am here for the princess,” said the White Knight.
“No.”
The White Knight unsheathed his broadsword and the Black Knight took a rapier from his back. The White Knight lunged forward.
The knights, though with different fighting styles, were equally matched in skill. The White Knight’s steed was not to be sidelined, however; when the Black Knight ventured too close to the warhorse, it kicked at him, catching him in the side.
The White Knight felt the battle was close to victory; his sword blows rattled the Black Knight’s arm and threw off his balance. Then, one powerful strike from his sword sent the Black Knight staggering backwards towards the warhorse. The Black Knight dodged away from the warhorse’s ready kick, but the previous injury to his side flared and he lurched, his hand steadying his ribs and unable to stop his decent as he fell to the ground, his head striking against an upthrust rock. He did not stand.
The dragon leaped to its master and tore off his close-fitting leather helmet. The White Knight saw the Black Knight’s face; slack, still, and pale but for an expanding swath of red from his temple. The dragon gathered the Black Knight into its arms and flew away. The White Knight continued along the path to the tower.
The door to the tower stood open. The White Knight entered without knocking. “Hello?” he called out. He came to a room upstairs which took up with entire width of the tower and was open to the sky on one side, letting in a flood of sunlight.
“Hello!” a woman inside greeted him brightly, not at all afraid.
“I am here to see the Princess,” said the White Knight. She did not look like a servant, but if she was the Princess why had she not escaped through the open door?
“That’s me,” said the Princess.
“I am here to rescue you.”
The Princess looked at him quizzically. “I was already rescued. By the Black Knight.”
The White Knight’s brow creased, thinking about the rumours of the Black Knight’s interferences. “You… didn’t want to marry the Duke?”
“I actually liked him, I would have been happy to marry him.” Her face clouded. “It was my parents I needed rescuing from. The Duke is away campaigning often. I wouldn’t mind that, but my father arranged that when the Duke was away, I would have to go to my father’s castle and my father would rule the duchy."
“You couldn’t have… asked the Duke not to agree?” asked the White Knight uncomfortably.
The Princess looked appalled. “Neither of them should have made the agreement in the first place without my consent! That’s what I like about living here with the Black Knight; he always consults me. That, and this concept of ‘privacy’,” she grinned. “I never had any privacy before and I really like it. The Black Knight knocks on the door if he needs to speak to me.”
“You live here with him?”
“You don’t need to sound so offended! There’s nothing untoward happening,” replied the Princess defensively. “You could consider me his housekeeper who is very bad at my job because I don’t really clean anything. I mostly do the shopping. He offered me a home until I worked out what I was going to do, after he learned of my family predicament, and I really like it here! He’d never do anything dishonourable!”
“How honourable can he be with black armour?”
The Princess drew herself up. “He doesn’t waste time shining his clothes until he can pick his teeth in them, like you obviously do! He spends all his time doing good things for people even if they can’t pay him, even if it’s not worth the tavern tale. I know about knights, and he’s the best I ever met. What other knight would offer a poor homeless dragon kindness and shelter when there is more glory in killing it and taking its head as a trophy?”
The White Knight wondered what to say. He had expected her to be happy he had slain her kidnapper. But he could not leave her here unprotected.
A great wind blew about them as the Dragon landed through the open portion of the tower wall.
“There you are!” cried the Princess. The welcoming smile fell off the her face as she approached the Dragon and saw its distress and the helmet in its hand. She took the helmet and saw the blood inside it. “What has happened?”
The Dragon noticed the White Knight and it snarled furiously and inserted itself between him and the Princess.
“It’s never like this,” said the Princess apologetically. “It won’t hurt you; it’d never hurt a human.”
“I know,” said the White Knight, remembering how the Dragon had not attacked him when he had fought the Black Knight.
The Princess looked at him sharply. “How do you know? Have you met the Dragon? If you met the Dragon, you must have met the Black Knight.”
The White Knight nodded. “Yes. I challenged him. He is dead now.”
“How could you? He was such a kind man! Always trying to help other people!” She began to cry. “You’re a terrible person!”
She wiped her eyes with the hand that held the helmet and glared. “I won’t let you do any more harm,” she growled. “I will be the Black Knight from now on and see justice done in his name. If” she looked at the Dragon, “you’ll have me?”
The Dragon turned away from the White Knight and touched her face with its nose. The Princess kissed the Dragon’s nose, then jammed the helmet on her head and mounted the Dragon’s saddle.
“Begone, scoundrel,” she shouted at the White Knight. “Go wherever evil breeds.”
The Dragon pivoted around and took flight out the open side of the tower and the White Knight was left alone.
The people he passed on the way back to the King's castle shut themselves into their homes at the sight of him. The knowledge that the White Knight had slain the Black Knight travelled faster than he could and he was more reviled than the most villainous landlord or town lout.
He arrived back at the King’s castle and, in an audience with the King and Queen, told them that he had failed in his quest.
“The Black Knight is unconquerable,” he said.
He left the castle immediately after, not even staying the night, but he did not return home. He wandered the land, questioning his identity as a knight. He had killed an innocent man trying to protect his home and vulnerable people; that was not the action of a knight.
He met many people, some of whom needed help. While once he might have hurried away, or given a small amount of his time, he instead pushed himself to aid in every just cause, no matter how small or insignificant he once would have considered it.
The White Knight did not have the time to polish his armour, nor the fine soaps that allowed his clothes to stay white. His clothes were stained grey and he did not care to waste his strength to make them white again.
Over time, the now-Grey Knight travelled back to more familiar places and he heard that there were two Black Knights living in the lands around the tower. He decided to investigate.
He approached the tower in the late afternoon in a heavy rainstorm. The door was opened by a man the Grey Knight recognised as the Black Knight he had fought and he bowed his head to him.
“We have been expecting you,” said the Black Knight as he led the Grey Knight through the tower.
“How?”
“We have heard of a heroic Grey Knight approaching the tower."
A warm fire was burning inside and three chairs stood before it. One was being used as a pillow by the Dragon and another was occupied by the Princess, who smiled and coaxed the dragon to move its head to her lap.
“Sit,” encouraged the Black Knight, taking the third chair.
The Grey Knight lingered by the fireside. His clothes were sodden with rain and he did not want to drip on the furniture. The Dragon began to snore.
The Princess nodded at the Grey Knight. “Nobody starts out as a Black Knight. It takes a journey, and lots of kindness. And a rainstorm,” she laughed.
The Grey Knight wrung his tunic sleeve out on the hearthstones and he and the Black Knight laughed with her. His clothes truly were black. The Princess looked at him genially.
Using music to bring cheer to all while zipping thru the skies, All day long music and singing emanates from me, Those who heard my musical melodies have shining joyful eyes, The Airborne Rockstar Fairy that's me!
Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2019 10:01 pm
Emmett Khan
Title:Airborne Rockstar Fairy
Using music to bring cheer to all while zipping thru the skies, All day long music and singing emanates from me, Those who heard my musical melodies have shining joyful eyes, The Airborne Rockstar Fairy that's me!
My first entry! Aha! Fantastic. I'll get the prizes in the next day or so.
I am working on an entry but it's been a rough week/few weeks.
I'm thinking we may extend the deadlines so relax and enjoy your weekend! I do hope you get a chance to enter - love reading your writing!
Thanks ^^ I try to use these contests as a way of actually taking down side-stories or parts of culture and the story I'm writing is one I've been meaning to write for ages. It's the narrative of a story which was used as a play in a novel and the theatre troupe leader had to adjust it from the original tale because about two thirds of the actors got sick with the flu and the altered version became much more popular. They decided to write it long-form because then they could take the credit for it XD Always use some royalty money to fix the stage XD
Yeah we've had four water leaks in the house, car broke down twice, fridge broke, employment-related stress and also a horse stood on my foot so... much tired.
I will try and push through ^^ It's just hard finding the words when I see the story so clearly without them. How does one express the setting of a public house which is filled with semi-nobles who enjoy each other's company but also judge the hell out of each other and consider the others fierce rivals? With backstory XDD Don't worry, though, I will have it under 2000 words, even if I need to do an abridged version for this contest and finish a full version.
