Instant Story

Challenge #04615-L231: No Expectation of Reward

You are an elf, why should you help us?

"It has been a millennia, and you still believe the war rages?"

After what WE suffered? Our people have kept hidden here since our ancestors came to flee your chains!

"I was not one who chained you, ones like me let you free."

You're going to have to prove it.

"I think my friend and I can help. Please, it's time to let the hate finally end and come back into the light. You've lived here, in fear and darkness, far too long." -- Anon Guest

It was one of those little places that had been isolated from the rest of the world for an uncertain amount of time. Peaceful, idyllic, and entirely undeserving of the impending disaster billowing towards them. Wraithvine got ahead of it in the nick of time, expending all hir magical capability to halt it before he could harm the little vale.

Viewed from a safe distance - say, the central marketspace of the main town - it was quite the lightshow.

Iminar had been trying to hustle hir children further from the literal cloud of doom. Ze could only carry two of them and had to hustle the rest along. Praying that the rest of the panicking crowd wouldn't step on anyone. She'd looked back to yell at Luda, who was dawdling, and slowed to goggle at it. Just like Luda had.

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Challenge #04614-L230: Recovering Lost Information

The Machine was defeated. The all-seeing eyes, gone. The mouths now open, all of them, but silent. Prisoners, slaves released. The dying, saved. The Oppressors, stopped. Their children? Taught a new path. The Faith in the Machine, now Faith in the Future.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04594-l210-general-ludd-returns -- The New Guy

The Machine provided everything. That was what they knew. It provided food, shelter, work... and a swift death. The mouths of The Machine no longer ate them. It no longer

Challenge #04613-L229: Adequate Warning is Insufficient

Some doors should remain closed. Woe befalls those who do not heed that wisdom. -- Deathshead419

There was a dread portal. It was large, and a very strange shape. Around its frame were images of skulls and bones. Depictions of disease. Predators with snarling mouths and bared fangs. Horrible monsters poised to attack. There was a bar across the door of immensely heavy granite. It was chained into place with D'varuv eternal steel. There was also a massive stele, also of solid

Challenge #04612-L228: Save Other Souls

A being villagers are calling a lich is stalking the deserts where the weave between worlds wears thin. Yet it is more like a living ceramic doll, the bones baked inside the clay. It withers crops, summons alien horrors, and steals the souls of the old, the sick, and children during the long nights leaving them comatose.

Wraithvine finds hirself frustrated trying to deal with this bizarre threat, but a gruff mercenary wielding a cursed sword who was tracking the lich may

Challenge #04611-L227: Carcinisation Supremis

Geologists have discovered that old continents are not dissolved, but sink down to near the center of the earth. And now a dead continent is rising back to the surface, sending up alarming signals, as though something trapped for a billion years is stirring. -- Deathshead419

[AN: The mixture of science and unadulterated bullhockey in this prompt is going to be fun to balance]

Geology doesn't usually happen quickly. Sure, there's volcanic events, but those are, in geological terms, freak occurrences. Continental

Challenge #04610-L226: Irredeemable Security Measures

A pair of down on their luck ne’er-do-wells try to rob a bank during a blackout, hoping the cash will set them up until the good lady of fortune smiles upon them. Neither expected to find a monster in the vault, and, well, you can’t really call the police for help in the middle of a heist, now can you? Oh dear… -- Deathshead419

They'd been in the bank late to try begging the manager for leniency on their loan

Challenge #04609-L225: Unattended Children Will Be Stolen By Adventurers

How did young Oakroot fall in with a bunch of Heroes? It goes back to an uncaring family that blamed him for everything, and anything, that ever went wrong, a child who internalized self blame, and self shame, and a kind fighter who picked them up out of the midden, where the child was tossed when money grew scarce.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04586-l202-unexpected-hero -- Anon Guest

It had been a long and bloody exhausting journey just getting through these woods.

Challenge #04608-L224: There's a Song About Smiling For Them

Galactics learn about some of the large predators that still live on earth. Including enormous reptiles like the Nile Crocodiles. Which are not only known to eat humans, if they can catch one, but are among the largest reptilian predators on the planet next to some snakes. -- The New Guy

The Alliance Guide to Galactic Wildlife has this entry on Terran reptiles: Most of them are venomous, poisonous, or otherwise dangerous. Do not approach unsupervised. Not even if their owner has

Challenge #04607-L223: Ultimatum Solution

All Wise and Glorious King Nydon has a problem. His daughter was (allegedly, cough, cough) turned into a goose, and while a magician duo has restored her form, the poor girl still has a bird brain. The magic twins tell the king only a quest with the one who found the goose-girl can restore her memories, the irritated pair being tasked with taking her to Wraithvine (who’ll get a few choice words in private).

Sequel to this: https://peakd.com/fiction/

Challenge #04606-L222: Nonviolent Defeat

"You WILL tell us how to undo this ship's lock-outs!" / 5...

"You know we'll find your crewmates before too long an FORCE them to tell us if you don't!" / 4...

"Playing ignorant Human??" / 3...

"What... why are you counting down like that?" / 2...

Good night.

(Immense amounts of gasses flood the system, no one, pirate or human, is left awake.) -- Anon Guest

[AN: This prompt was edited for better brevity shorter prompts are better for me]

There's an ancient -and very

Challenge #04605-L221: Murder by the Seaside

A seaside town is plagued by crows. Dark birds nesting in the roofs by the hundreds, cawing at all hours of the night, and ominously following the residents. They call Wraithvine {who might bring someone along if ze feels like it} to save them. For surely this is an omen of impending doom. --Deathhead419

Murder was afoot in Shorevale. It was also a-wing, nesting, and being a general pest, because crows had decided to infest the entire little fishing village. They

Challenge #04604-L220: Much Ado in Ynsmuth

The leader of a coastal polity must renew a marriage alliance with the merfolk kingdom. Except he believes he has no daughter to offer. And so the leader’s youngest child must imbibe a transformative potion to wed the undersea prince. However, the intended bride seems upbeat at the prospect, for she is eager for the chance of changing into a more fitting form… -- Deathshead419

Ynsmuth had to renew its treaty with the merfolk in the deeps near their harbour. Part

Challenge #04603-L219: Look Upon My Works, Ye Mighty

A great king is perturbed when, whilst excavating the site for his masterwork, the monument which will secure his place in eternity, the workmen discover ancient statues and old foundations hinting that some unknown empire may have tried to do so before him.

And even worse, it seems like that empire might have been mightier than his. Someone needs to look into what’s going on here… -- Deathshead419

It was almost the perfect place to put his monument to himself as

Challenge #04602-L218: Sew the Story Goes...

A lonely old woman sews a daughter for herself from soft cloth, downy feathers, and well worn buttons. It would be blessing if some fae creature or god breathed life into the dear one, wouldn’t it…? -- Deathshead419

You know the stories, don't you? Once upon a time, there was a lonely old... miller, baker, tailor, tinker, dressmaker, toymaker, pick one... who didn't have a spouse or a family as they began to grow old. What happened next changes from tale

Challenge #04601-L217: The Last Great Lords

The skies darken over three decrepit lords and their ancient castles which time has passed by. What will become of their traditions, their secrets, their eon old rivalries, as the world beyond seeps in bit by bit? -- Deathshead419

At their mightiest peak, the Elves split this continent into three civilised realms. Their names once caused lesser beings[1] to tremble, and were nigh unpronouncable to all but Elven tongues. Nursery tales would reduce them in later centuries to Lord Forest, Lord

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Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #04615-L231: No Expectation of Reward

Challenge #04614-L230: Recovering Lost Information

Challenge #04613-L229: Adequate Warning is Insufficient

Challenge #04612-L228: Save Other Souls

Challenge #04611-L227: Carcinisation Supremis

Challenge #04610-L226: Irredeemable Security Measures

Challenge #04609-L225: Unattended Children Will Be Stolen By Adventurers

Challenge #04608-L224: There's a Song About Smiling For Them

Challenge #04607-L223: Ultimatum Solution

Challenge #04606-L222: Nonviolent Defeat

Challenge #04605-L221: Murder by the Seaside

Challenge #04604-L220: Much Ado in Ynsmuth

Challenge #04603-L219: Look Upon My Works, Ye Mighty

Challenge #04602-L218: Sew the Story Goes...

Challenge #04601-L217: The Last Great Lords