Gerhart, a wandering griffon with a full-metal spear, accepts a quest from an innkeep in an out-of-the-way village the whole of which is suffering from terrible nightmares. The source, it seems, is a unicorn wizard in a tower out north a ways and atop a barren mountain; a simple enough thing for one of his skill and armaments to dispatch, but seeming only as what dark spell has captured the village digs its claws too into his consciousness.
Written for Bicyclette's A Thousand Words Contest II
Chapters (1)
Good grief. Absolutely loved this.
The pacing was super punchy by the end. I would’ve loved to see more of that slight acceleration that lists the prose as he ascends further and further toward his goal. But the setup is still intensely colorful and full of purpose, and it does hit just right with that delivery.
Fantastic decisions in both prose, and character.
extremely griffon proper nouns
i mean understandable reaction to cosmic horror
ooh now that is a good disquieting mental image!
the setting of medieval Griffonia does make a good background for the blood and horror of this kind of story, and i do hope you have a longer one of this kind in the works. the prose really captures the floridness of sword and sorcery pulp, and deserves room to breathe!
I half-expect this story to end abruptly and anticlimactically as a griffon holding a metal pole in a thunderstorm meets the inevitable.
I do love the stylistic homage to Robert E. Howard. Very strong Cimmerian vibes with Gerhart.
In all, this is quality pulp, but you hit the word limit hard. That last paragraph has to do a lot of work to give the story even a semblance of a conclusion. Still some outstanding old-school adventure… though the horror angle isn’t quite there. Some of that is subjective, but this is less “go mad at your insignificance” cosmic horror and more Howard taking over from Lovecraft in ”The Challenge from Beyond.” Who cares about relative insignificance when there’s something you can punch?
In all, a great story, just an imperfect fit for the constraints of the contest.