Duel between King Athelstan and Swaeft - THE VOTE!
Pair of cased percussion pistols by Joseph Kuchenreuter, in the Huntington Museum of Art - from Wikimedia Commons
The Writers' Study presents a Most Imposing and Spectacular
Duel
between the Esteemed Writers
King Athelstan and Swaeft
The Duellists having both Satisfied the Requirements, the Duel shall Begin!
You have ONE vote.
Advertising the competition is allowed - Requesting votes for a particular entry is not allowed.
Submission 1
Winter’s foul breath chilled every bone in my body.
The abandoned homes we marched by provided no source of refuge, for everything had been taken or destroyed, and the holes in the walls allowed the unrelenting, freezing wind to grace us with her presence, killing those she deemed unfit to carry on.
And yet we pushed onward, shouldering our muskets and shivering in our fur coats.
The lakes had long frozen into ice, leaving 200,000 men with no supply of water. The man to my right had lips as white as snow, and the man to my left had eyes so glazed over he may as well have been dead. We passed by abandoned farms – those that hadn’t already been burnt to a crisp, that is – with fields of dead crops wilting under the already weakening rays of the Sun. In these conditions, any one of us would have killed for even a taste of ordinary potatoes.
And yet we carried on, plodding forth to meet the enemy, if he ever deigned to show up.
Our faith in our Emperor was the only thing keeping us going at this point, but even that was fast expiring…as was I.
Submission 2
It all feels so cold. Half my heart is gone, and the other has turned to ice. I knew him for less than 10 years, but he was my whole life. He was my everything, he shaped me into who I am, and who I'll become. Today, almost 9 years after it happened I still can't comprehend that he's truly, fully gone. I remember all the happy moments. We didn't have much, but he always strode the extra mile for me. The time we saw Robin Hood. My first LEGO Star Wars set. Memories I'll treasure forever. Moments I'll never experience again. They say no father should have to bury their child, but to be a child while burying his father is heartbreaking. Even now as I think of it I can feel my eyes swelling up, and my throat clamping together as if a potato was lodged in there. I dread the day I forget each little moment. His eyes. His voice. Playing the Empire tutorial on the neighbour's computer because our couldn't. The little minute he was conscious and feebly kissed my hand before he minutes later lost his year-long battle with cancer. I miss him.
Re: Duel between King Athelstan and Swaeft - THE VOTE!
Those were both pretty intense, but also written in a very calming finalistic tone. They ring well and are well put together, and I commend the both of you on your efforts this time around!
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