Past the tree line lies a hollow, and there you'll find…
The cave mouth lay before me, the not-so-secrets means of escape for the beast that preyed on our sleeping men last night.
Our cowherd guide had long since fled back to his home and perhaps even under his bed.
The beast’s talons had rent brave soldiers' throats before they even had a chance to cry out. Slaughtering strong men before carrying away the body of our prince to gnaw at his bones.
In the grey morning we stood, the three of us charged with its own murder.
To hunt down this fiend, this misery of legend, and find it alone in its nest and pierce it through the heart.
“Bring back its head,” the high chief had said, closing the lid on a coin-filled chest.
We had gazed upon that chest. A sum to change a life, to buy a village or become a worthy man. The princess had given us three, each a smile and a token of luck.
“I hope you all return,” she said.
“I hope you return,” we heard.
We three friends sought the same prey and chased the same prize.
In the deepest, darkest passages, I hope we uncover only one beast.
Photo by Mike Petrucci on Unsplash
This story is a part of a playful exercise to write every time I feel inspired by Unsplash Instant.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, here are the hundred or so I managed to share.
Just a piece of a story thrown into the wind.