January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- VICTORY TO HEX

[Ursa major]

.

Rules:​

Write a story inspired by the chosen theme and genre in no more than 75 words, not including the title.​

One entry per person​

All stories Copyright 2014 by their respective authors,
who grant the Chronicles Network the non-exclusive right to publish them here​

The complete rules can be found at Rules for the Writing Challenges​

Contest ends at 11:59 pm GMT, January 23 2014​

Voting Ends at 11:59 pm GMT, January 28 2014​

You do not have to submit a story in order to vote --
in fact, we encourage all Chrons members to take part in choosing a winner​

The Magnificent Prize:​

The Dignified Congratulations/Grovelling Admiration of Your Peers
and the challenge of choosing the next month's theme and genre​

Theme:​

COLD​

Genre:​

Dark Fantasy​

This thread to be used for entries only. Please keep all comments to the Discussion Thread​

 

[Juliana]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Blood runs cold
​

Blood, dark and sluggish, seeped into the dead woman's tangled hair and mingled with the mud.

Griff touched a finger to the sludge. "Blood's cold. Definitely not human. One of those half-elves... Bounty hunting scum."

Corinne shuddered. "He must really want me back."

Griff drew her close and kissed the top of her head, smiling to himself. He could already taste the bounty gold. Trust was such a beautiful thing.

 

[Starbeast]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

The Rising of Konak: A Horse's Tale​

Sorceress Kitty, explained forgotton history, the current Ice Age, and shortage of males to repopulate.​

"So, you'd like my companions and I, to..."​

Kitty smiled. Her female animaloid warriors breathed nervously.​

Konak swallowed, "We will stay." Then stood. "A toast, to you lovely ladies..."​

Suddenly the females were upon us, they were very affectionate and accommodating. Big eyes, hinted they've never seen a horse before.​

Eventually I became a King, and lived happily ever after.​

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

ONE IN THE EYE

We crouched in the church, watching the men approach through darkest night, seeking their pleasure.

Bloody Grimdark. No matter that women didn't have to be helpless, used and discarded, still the writers came. They called it Historical Accuracy. We called it Rape.

The torches neared. We enchanted the North Wind, embraced its chill and focused on the men. They ran at its touch and we waited for the lesson to spread.

Frozen popsicle, anyone...?

 

[Bowler1]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Nosferatu

Travelling through the Elven woods of Mirkwood I almost starved; their mocking laugh haunts me still.
Under the Mines of Moria I subsisted on Dwarves. Dark and bitter they tasted, like the lives they live.
Now here, at Dunharrow, my shadow extends to the youngest race, whose blood runs hot.
My cold eternal embrace will make ghosts of men, women and children.
Cursed they are and blessed am I, for here I stay and feed.

 

[hopewrites]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Ice-age Extinction

“Come back to bed Roth.”
Delicate fingers extended longingly from under a mountain of fur. Roth shivered.
“Not just yet” his voice quavered in the dark.

Snow fell.

When she slithered from under the bodies of her last meal, the wyvern saw Roth had sacrificed himself to the wall of ice locking them in the cave.

Disappointed she slithered back into the receding warmth of the stiffening mound of corpses. Spring would come…

 

[Mirannan]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

I think this fits the theme:

Caveat Emptor

Roger Faust was sorting ancient papers when he found his distant ancestor’s journal, the one from the play. It contained spells.

One worked. Belphegor, demon of sloth, arose. Bargain was struck. “Your soul, for life in comfort until Lucifer’s domain freezes over.”

Once signed in blood, Faust died instantly, went to Hell. “Silly boy, should have read your Dante. Didn’t you know Lucifer stands in the centre of a sea of ice?”

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Come, Ophelia

Angela leapt from the bridge in a perfect swan dive. Her rags rattled in the wind like the banners of a defeated army. Through a fog of burning tears the frozen river flew towards her. A moment of white agony, then an end to sorrow.

The ice embraced her, drawing her into its secret world. Its people watched her with innocent jade eyes. Angela felt her skin harden into frost, and knew she was home.

 

[reiver33]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

The Bridal Path

“Cold to chill the blood and stop the heart. A legacy eternal, passed from mother to daughter. You will make a beautiful widow.”

The bride gazed down upon her wedding celebration. “Ants. Ants beneath the boot-heel of history. They live and die, heedless of the truth in their midst.” Her breath left no trace in the still night air.

“And yet life goes on.”

“For some.” She waved to her new husband. “If not all.”

 

[TitaniumTi]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Bunyip

For millennia, it lay quiescent in the cold depths, but the people remembered to light their home fires a safe distance from the water. Then the newcomers arrived, the world began to heat and the swamps became parched.

It emerged and set forth in search of a new refuge.

The ranger slams down the phone. "I've heard it all, now. Some weirdo reckons there's a monster in the freezer department at the supermarket."

 

[mosaix]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Cold War

Dwarves dragged his sledge further South – towards the Pole. Antarctic bats scouted ahead searching out the best route. Mammoths to the rear hauled the heavy equipment.

The snow blinded him, the wind battered him, his blood ran to ice. Every sinew ached. Only being first could alleviate his suffering.

A bat hovered close, twittering – Sledge, two miles! Red and blue flag!

Amundsen! Scott urged the dwarves on and with freezing fingers grimly loaded his rifle.

 

[Boneman]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Bitter Harvest
​

His reign ended with the ice-storms that froze the Northern Lands. The Gods sent the elements to save mankind, freezing the bodies of every follower of the blood-drinker.


He sealed himself in his frigid tomb, along with the stiff corpses of maiden twins, sawing their iced necks open with a serrated sword.


A century later, convinced it was safe, the Gods sent the thaw, and men came to reclaim the land. Damned fools.

​

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

The Punishment
​

Jack shivered as he ran through the dark mountain caves, the snow and ice flying around him even here. The monsters were gaining on him, he knew; the furies, trying to catch him, drive him to insanity.

Suddenly he tripped, his head cracking on a boulder, blood spilling out into the fresh snow. His last expression was one of horror as his jailors descended upon him.

 

[BigJ]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

An Alpine Inquisition

A sultry whisper on the fierce north wind beckoned me as I slogged through the mountain snow. Through my armour, I felt the runes on my sword burning with divine fury.

Then I saw her. The Ice Witch of Bala’Thoth, gliding nude through the snow drifts, a vision of beautiful temptation flanked by fallen heroes astride daemon steeds. Her longing eyes reached out for me.

I drew my sword.

“This soul shall not be yours!”

 

[Droflet]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

[FONT=&quot]Hall of Statues[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Fargwa burst into the great hall. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]“For your countless atrocities, I Fargwa, champion of the clan Cormorant, claim your life.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Targa smiled and beckoned him on.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Flanked by rows of statues Fargwa strode to within a sword length of his evil foe. He swung his mighty sword at the smiling face. Targa disappeared. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]An icy hand touched Fargwa’s shoulder from behind, freezing bone and muscle.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]“Another statue for my collection,” said Targa. His smile broadened. [/FONT]

 

[Hex]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Changeling

Thin and brittle and made of twigs, it's nothing like your fat baby.

It doesn't even cry. Not when you lift it from the cradle and try to feed it. Not when you scream, tear its twig-thin limbs apart and bury it in the frozen earth.

Later, you dig it up again, weeping in the grey moonlight.

It's all you have left. Alien and broken, cold forever.

 

[martin321]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Love in a Cold Dungeon

Within the enchanted castle lay a sleeping princess, unrivalled fair, waiting for some hero to win her hand.

In the deepest dungeon, a knight swept aside black drapes, revealing the pale figure lying prone on a slab. Her hand was cold and lifeless in his grasp. No breath emerged from her ruby lips.

He kissed her tenderly. A stirring, then she clasped him to her bosom. The fangs in his neck were less welcome.

 

[Remedy]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

The Boreal Grasp

You will never see vapour billowing from his dark blue lips.

You will never smell the odours of sweat and toil.

Neither will you feel warmth from his hand upon your shoulder.

Yet, you may hear. Creaks and cracks in his gait, a relentless glacial march.

Slow is his path in your pursuit, but tireless. Vironix, the man of ice.

His embrace always comes, firm and frigid. Until his icicles exude into your frosty finality.

 

[Tywin]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Prospectors

Hungry eyes flickered in the darkness, reflecting the dying campfire.

The cold makes them desperate. People warned us.

He could hear soft footfalls in the snow ringing the camp.

Wilson was always impetuous. Who could doubt that I warned him not to wander?

The fire died with a hiss as he hefted a heavy pack and prepared to leave. The body sprawled in the snow nearby didn’t stir.

Eaten by wolves. A terrible accident.

 

[ratsy]

Re: January 2014 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Payback

Bells rang in the distance, alarming the city of the approaching army.

The defenders covered their faces with cloth to prevent frostbite from the ceaseless wind. Snow fell heavily and when Basil closed his eyes he saw an image from his past.

He held her small body as it bled; a red painting on a fresh white canvas.

He opened his eyes.

If it’s blood they want, blood they shall get

“Hold….Attack!!”