The knight’s armor clacked softly against the stone floor of the cave, shock and realization dawning in his expression and draining his adrenaline, his limbs collapsing as his fight left him. His brow furrowed as he thought hard, trying to remember how the kingdom’s war against the dragon had started. He quickly found that he couldn’t, the kingdom’s people had been aware of the dragon for centuries. They hadn’t had any problems for so long, the attacks were completely unexpected… or so they’d been told.
Outskirts villages burned, livestock slaughtered, gold stolen… the palace had blamed the dragon. Stirring up fear and contempt, raving about centuries of peace broken, calling for soldiers and volunteers willing to make the trek to slay the dragon and save the kingdom.
But there had never actually been any proof… no dragon sightings, no scales or talons left behind, not even claw marks, only the declarations of their kings.
As the knight has his crisis over the dragon’s revelation, the dragon had released him, moving off of him and backing away. The knight made it to his knees before hanging his head, pulling a rosary from a small pouch on his belt and began to pray.
“Oh Lord, forgive us. We’ve made a terrible mistake.”
“You pray not only for yourself?” The shock in the dragon’s booming voice was palpable as it resonated off of the cave walls. It was enough to jar the knight from his prayers, looking up at the dragon with a face full of regret.
“Our kings have lied to us. I cannot take back the pain you have suffered at our hands but I can apologize for my people, being so quick to judge despite centuries of peace and no evidence. Teaching generations to hate you out of spite.”The knight had made it to his feet over the course of his speech, resolve steeling his shoulders. “If you don’t mind, I’ll be heading back to the kingdom.” He gave the dragon a quick bow before turning on his heel back to his camp, armour clanging against itself and the stone floor.
“What will you do?”
The knight gave a last glance back over his shoulder, before answering the dragon’s curiosity, calling out as he continued on, “I have a king’s head to remove.”
"GO AWAY!" bellowed the dragon to the man currently pinned beneath one of their paws. "I've done NOTHING WRONG!" "You lie! You've slain dozens of noble knights over the centuries-" "In self-defense, because YOU ALL KEEP TRYING TO KILL ME!!!"
The Duties of The Older Brother Of A Magical Girl:
1. Do not get in her way while she’s fighting monsters.
2. Do get in the way when humans don’t know boundaries
3. Do kill the men who put hands on her without permission
Magical girls kill monsters all the time, but they're not allowed to kill humans. But you're not a magical girl; you're her older brother.
He’s been chasing me for centuries for stealing that bottle. I’m not about to let him catch me now.
You drank a snake oil salesman’s drink only for it to make you actually immortal in the old west now 300 years later you see that same salesman
Duplex Dream
I grew up in duplexes and trailer homes
A trailer home for two with no fence for the yard
No fence for the yard is no pets, just us two: me and you
Us two, mother and daughter; it takes a village to raise a child
Our village was small. Small but good, dysfunctional but strong
Raised in dysfunction, but strength brought me up; helped me grow despite the odds
The odds that I wouldn’t make it this far; my own doubt that I'd ever see eighteen
Eighteen years don’t seem so long, but I always thought something would cut them short
Cut short but not by my own hands; it was just so hard to look for life ahead
But now, ahead of me a future lies, one I did not expect
My expectations far surpassed what I might have ever imagined
The imagination and dreams of that little girl who struggled to grow
But grew nonetheless from the love I found
Found but never lost in duplexes and trailer homes
- A. Yenzer
Not the chosen one. The one who chose to.
“Burn.”
The power of a spell is inversely proportional to the amount of words in its name. You, hated and exiled, invented the first single word spell:
I scream “SCREW YOU”
To the lies I tell myself
Insecurity runs rampant
In a head full of the voices of others
Hatred and jealousy spawn venomous words
And insults that burn
Like acid in the blood
And shred self confidence
So combat fire with fire
Until hate has no more fuel to burn
And the words of others
No longer sting
Spit venom at that hateful voice
Until the infection of their jealous words
Is burned out by the fever of self-love and spite
- A. Yenzer
How many tears had the Doctor shed,
Before his sorrow was thoroughly fed?
How many times has the Doctor wept,
Comfortless, until he slept?
Each day, after the close,
It was enough to water a Rose.
When he realized she could never come home,
And that he was left to hopelessly roam.
After the angel made them blink,
And she said goodbye with a final wink;
Nourishing an almost bond,
Flowed enough to fill two Ponds.
Finally, a River,
And, alone, he was left to shiver;
When after the final breath,
Greeted like an old friend, was Death.
- A. Yenzer
to my fellow writers:
i hope you find the strength to finish that chapter, to finish your outline, to edit a bit more, to be kind to yourself
Home Is Where The Heart Was
My chest was a home
Filled with warmth and light and love
My sternum the front door
That had welcomed many a friend and family
My ribs were once brightly painted siding,
A soft gray exterior that protected the treasures inside
My heart pumped hot water through my arteries
Providing warmth for nightly baths and mugs of hot cocoa
My lungs were the sturdy walls that kept the roof above our heads
My diaphragm the soft carpeting and cool wood
That had known running and cuddles from feet and paws alike
My spinal cord and nerves kept the lights on and the temperature just right
My vertebrae were a strong foundation
Solid and secure, keeping everything upright
My chest is an old, abandoned house
My sternum is the slamming storm door
The broken latch leaving it to swing wide in the wind
My ribs, the battered siding
Years of abandonment leaving them caked in dirt and grime
Termites and rot have eaten through the panels, leaving gaping wounds
My heart is the failing water heater
My arteries are the corroded copper pipes
My lungs are the creaking walls
Shifting and sinking, slowly collapsing
The wood floors of my diaphragm have sunken in, and the carpet is threadbare
Torrents of tears have seeped in through the leaky roof,
Now darkness grows from rotted wounds and mold scars stale strands
My spinal cord is the busted breaker box; My nerves: fraying electrical wires
My vertebrae are the crumbling foundation
My chest will be condemned someday
Caved in like a house of cards, not wood and stone
The love it once housed has moved on
And its protection is no longer needed
There will be no one there to witness it’s fall
And no one to grieve for the memories lost
- A. Yenzer
It will develop like everything else through time, care, and effort.
it’s okay if your prose is ugly right now. it’s just pre-gorgeous.