A/N: Happy flash fiction February 2024 everybody! This is a yearly prompt list done by The Storytelling Collective and should have some very fun prompts for this month all of which are based on J.R.R. Tolkien and his works. They are very short stories (hence the term flash fiction) usually 300-1000 words and are done usually once a day. There may be a few days where I play catch up depending on how my health holds up. This will be my third year participating I believe. I hope you enjoy and stick around to see what the rest of the month brings :)
Prompt: Still round the corner there may wait a new road or a secret gate
Ayleid ruins are known to be labyrinthine and full of traps. One never knows exactly what will be around the next corner. Will it be a zombie? A hallway full of swinging blades? Undead skeletons armed with axes and rusted daggers? Occasionally there may even be a lich or two, making it always a good reason to carry a silver sword or at the very least be armed with some sort of magic. I don’t know exactly what it is I’m meant to do here, beyond help somebody from the Mages Guild with uncovering the secrets of this ruin. Unfortunately for me, they don’t seem all too keen on helping with clearing the ruin of its undead residents, though there is one who could be of potential help. Standing in a large open room perhaps a third of the way into the ruin I follow the other mage and find we have come to what seems to be some kind of puzzle, and a potentially deadly one at that. There is a large pillar in the middle that must be enchanted and the other mage believes there are writings that are key to unlocking the secret of the puzzle. Of course, he has no idea how to translate them without a reference. I thought it was standard for all senior mages to know how to translate Ayelied writings, I guess I was wrong. Upon retrieving the reference guide the other mage informs me of the translations, each one corresponds to a different spell. Casting them at the pillar in order the pillar begins to transform into a staircase, with the last one completing it. With the puzzle solved the other mage informs me his ability to be useful is up and he will stay behind to examine the pillar more closely and report back to the others. With him now occupied with the writings and mechanisms on the pillar turned staircase that leaves me to clear the rest of the ruin myself, and all its ghostly inhabitants to unlock the secrets. Who knows what lies ahead beyond ghosts and ghouls from my nightmares, there may be an ancient undiscovered road, or a secret gate to long forgotten treasure…or another annoying puzzle.
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