Alfarell

A 378-post collection

Challenge #04752-L365: His Little Sister

Nineteen years have passed since Karkaul was blessed, and her son has grown into an able, popular priest of the faith. But now his father rumbles and the boy, who’s always seemed so human, must dive into the depths of his father’s molten core and seal that rift guarded only by faith in his heritage.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04710-l326-pray-responsibly -- Deathshead419

Karkaul's son was named Nalani, and was almost typical of a demigod. His skin was as dark as basalt, his muscles firm as granite. His hair was like the clouds that his father threw into the sky. His eyes blazed in the night with the volcano god's fire. Just like his father, Nalani could have a temper. Quick, explosive, and often laying waste to a lot of things around him. But also, like his father, creating something new and useful in the process.

Of course Karkaul taught him how to sing to his father, how to make the proper offerings and say the proper prayers. And once Nalani reached a certain age, he brought in a lot of young women that Karkaul could preach to. Not that they were paying a lot of attention to the sermons.

Nineteen years to the day after Karkaul prayed for a miracle, Nalani woke in the middle of the night.

Support me on Patreon / Buy me a Ko-fi

Continue Reading

Prompts remaining: 43 Submit a Prompt!
Ask a question

Challenge #04747-L360: Just a Little Help

When the child of humanity embraces the Divine Flame, they lost the gift to sense human hearts. From then onwards, their only purpose was to watch over the earth, bound to endless sea of stars and moons.

They continue to cherish life, yet could no longer perceive neighbours as living beings. -- Anon Guest

Humans should only become deities in retrospect. It's just safer that way. They do have the saying, Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

But there's always the statistical

Read more »

Challenge #04743-L359: Unwelcome Heroes

Outcasts. But they were completely immune to fire, and even heavy smoke did little more than cause one of them to sneeze a bit. So what did they do? Became one of the best fire-fighting brigades anyone's ever known. -- Anon Guest

They say that fire cannot harm a Dragon. They also say that heat rarely bothers a Devil. Of the two, Drakkonbred and the red-hide Kobolds are more likely to withstand a given flame. As for the devilborn, the only way

Read more »

Challenge #04742-L358: Gifted Family

The dragon was very sick, it knew, save for a miracle, it would not survive until its egg hatched. A human woman with an infant, kind, even if very poor. The egg gifted, a vision given, please take care of my child. The hatchling loved the human as if she had given birth to it. And loved its human sibling very much to. -- Anon Guest

Time runs away from all of us. We like to believe we have more than we

Read more »

Challenge #04736-L352: Not Another Faerie Tale

A chimneysweep out late at night sees the darndest thing: a carriage racing away from the palace as it turns into a pumpkin. Even stranger, a crystalline slipper falls from the fleeing vehicle, one that fits the chimneysweep perfectly. And then, word spreads through the city that the prince is looking for the lovely lady who wore a glass slipper to his ball. -- Deathshead419

Just like trusting government systems based on waterlogged women handing out swords, one should not chose eligible

Read more »

Challenge #04732-L348: One Taste of Home

The camp was quiet save for the soft sound of weeping. Bibrid, in their guise as gnome, sat next to the young individual and asked what was wrong. The person was homesick, but it would be at least another month or more before they got to see home again. He, of course, listened and his best to be soothing. He understood what it was like to miss one's home. -- Anon Guest

It does a child good to spend some time away

Read more »

Challenge #04727-L343: Earned Adoption

The human family wept, for illness robbed them of being able to have children. The kobold warren nearby decided to trust them and brought a nest of eggs. They loved the young kobolds as deeply as they would their own flesh and blood. And the sorrow was turned to joy. -- Anon Guest

The good news, such as it was, was that Hirren and Aldin had survived the mumps. The bad news was that it had stolen the young couple's ability to

Read more »

Challenge #04721-L337: Den of the Unwelcome

Where can someone go when the world is on the hunt and there seems to be no safe harbor? -- Deathshead419

The thing with running was... you had to keep running. Stop and relax, and they would catch up with you. You learned a thousand ways to stay out of sight. You learned a hundred ways to avoid notice. And you had to learn what was safe to eat more than once. Especially if you wanted to survive for one more meal.

Read more »

Challenge #04719-L335: Newfound Family

Come to find out, this a new kind of fae. Magic, it seems, can sometimes spontaneously poof life into existence when there's a sudden buildup, like this youngster. Choosing a name was one thing, but learning how to care for them was another. There was going to be a learning curve for both. First, clothes, then, food, maybe? This very young one was going to be their foundling, but they were also going to be quite an education.

https://peakd.com/fiction/

Read more »

Challenge #04717-L333: Sweet Justice

One of the waitstaff, technically they were still just a trainee at the Drunken Horns, when the adventurers returned a few nights later to, once again, enjoy a party, yes they DID make reservations first, asked softly. "So.. what happened to the watchmen bullies?"

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04627-l243-money-with-menaces -- Anon Guest

Mudita, as a young adoptee of the Drunken Horn, had been on cart service when the corrupt Watch squad came in. Watching a bunch of evil-minded goons get comeuppance

Read more »

Challenge #04715-L331: Lossless Operation

Oakroot showed them the place where he came from. A place where kids were all but farmed out, or tossed out of thought of as worthless. The ones who owned that place... disappeared. The adventurers had their base of operations now, and lots of new sons and daughters to help. The first time the sound of honest laughter from a child was heard, some in the party wept, for they were healing.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04643-l259-found-family-free-fuddlement -- Anon Guest

Oakroot

Read more »

Challenge #04714-L330: A Simple Misunderstanding

The dragon had so much gold in their cave that their hoard, built up over many generations, had gotten way out of hand. So they began to melt the gold into jewelry, though that did tarnish it. But it was not to give to the rich. Each piece was carefully crafted and handed out to poor travelers in the forms of bracelets or necklaces. And in each one a dragon's blessing. Vicious animals, and cruel opportunists, would feel the need to be.

Read more »

Challenge #04711-L327: Patience of the Doctor

They called me freak and fled. I realized, it was not prejudice, it was fear. They constantly had bloody noses, and not from being struck. I had no choice, I gently sedated them and checked them. It's good I did, they were not long for this world. Now, they will be able to grow up into an adult. -- Anon Guest

[AN: This prompt was rearranged from being freeform poetry for space reasons.]

Life should never have settled in this place, but

Read more »

Challenge #04710-L326: Pray Responsibly

The last, aged priest of a God is searching for an apprentice to take on the scriptures and learn the proper rites before it becomes nothing but a curiosity for scholars rather than a living, breathing practice linking people over millennia. -- Deathshead419

Karkaul, High Priest of the Volcano God, was looking for an orphan, an unwanted child, or one in bad circumstances to take under her wing. The greys of age were already showing on her temples. She needed the time

Read more »

Challenge #04709-L325: Difficult History

Vholno, son of a traveling bard, always thought he was a normal human boy born to a wandering man. But when patches of green appeared on his skin, his father told him that he was born of a liaison with a dryad. Now Vholno ventures deep into the wilds in search of his mother and what fate awaits the son of the forest. -- Deathshead419

[AN: I see what you did there :) ]

Dad had taught the goat to dance for their traveling

Read more »