Writing-challanges-and-prompts - Blog Posts

Bjorn was not a pet. Alloise was not a cold-hearted killer. Shanra had not sold her soul for her magic. Thorn did not have an impoverished childhood. They had not banded together because of some great, shared tradgedy. They were not as three sisters with a beloved companion. They did not posess a great destiny. Many of the tales that would be told of these four in the years to come would get many of their details wrong. But a few of them would remain true.

Alloise was their leader, but only because when bad things happened, she was the first to react, the first with a plan. Often, once the initial panic had abated, it was Shanra who would come up with a more detailed plot.

Bjorn was one of them for his own reasons, reasons he never shared with the rest of them. His species was naturally reticent, vocalizations used almost completely for aggressive challenges. But his grasp of the common tongue was fluent, and while his words were thick and difficult to understand when he did voice them, if one listened carefully, they would find a devastatingly sharp strategic mind under them.

Shanra was indeed tender-hearted towards all things fluffy and cuddly (of which she considered Bjorn a member), but she was also the most skilled hunter - even better than the bear - and was single-handedly responsible for keeping them from starving. The most impressive thing? She never used magic to hunt. Claimed it caused the meat to spoil.

And Thorn? Stories would lay upon her the title of “Betrayer”. They spoke of a love for Alloise souring to hate. They spoke of a lust for power that darkened her heart. They warned of snakes in the grass and a lover turned enemy. All the songs of Thorn lay sour upon the tongue.

And all of them were true.