Current Contest
In This submission the written piece will be separated into 4 pages around a room, each corresponding to a different switch based on where in the room it is.
Entry 3 - The Story Teller - Mike Emeny
Echoes of the witch’s curse rang in the King’s hall, ‘Your queen shall feel nothing for you, lest she fill this vessel with tears and drink from it.’ Desperate to break the spell that had left his wife a cold-hearted creature, the king issued a decree: ‘A bounty to anyone that can cast this curse from my wife and help her feel again.’
The people of the land responded as storytellers, entertainers, magicians and more flocked to the palace.
First to try their hand was a warrior from the East. He promised that pain would wring enough tears from the queen to fill the vessel, and reluctantly the king agreed. The whip cracked again and again, the queen howled with anguish but the vessel stood only a quarter filled.
Next, a wandering traveller who had ventured from the South offered to heal the queen’s pain with balms and salves. The ointments stung and the bandages were firm. The tortured queen cried out as the king watched in agony, but the vessel stood at only half full.
To the Northwest was a History book covering our town's history from years 1000 to 1050, though it was missing about half of the book. The pages are missing after 1030.
Up stepped a peculiar sorcerer from the West who promised to match the witch’s cunning. He drew from a strange sack a creature that none had seen before. Its eyes were glassy, four paws scrambled at the air as the sorcerer held it aloft, and with the flick of a knife its life leaked into the vessel, filling it almost to the brim. "You have fouled the draught my wife should drink!" roared the king as he ordered the sorcerer out of his hall and hurled the vessel after him. The situation looked lost, until a kind-hearted story-teller from the North entered the hall, picked up the vessel and slowly approached the dais.
All eyes fell upon him, an expectant silence hung in the air. ‘Once there lived a fair queen,’ the storyteller began. His tale took the audience on a journey of wonder and awe, inspiring laughter and delight. All troubles fell away, worries forgotten and pain eased as the storyteller weaved his magic with words. When he was done, the vessel overflowed with tears of joy…