To Fight Addrog – January 2022 Picture Prompt Short Story Winner

To Fight Addrog

By: Abigail Metzger

    I’ve been locked up in these dry dungeons for who knows how long. I’ve seen nothing in weeks but the iron bars making up the entire front wall of my cell and the bright light from the arena shining through. 

      If it were a year earlier, when I was still a prince - when I still had a chance to avoid this mess - I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me that a labyrinth was inside this mountain, much less an entire population of native volcano men. But here I am and it's only fitting that I should be cursed with the name Theseus. That guy, the one I was named after, had great luck, unlike me… All he ever had to fight was a Minotaur.

     “Theseus!” The guard with a head so bald that the light glared off it like a torch, banged his energized fist on the door. I’ve seen him before, he brings weapons in front of my cell every other morning to sharpen and bind and tend them in front of me. A dagger, a shield, and a gleaming silver sword. Oh yeah, they’re my weapons by the way. But, you know, if you want them, I would give you anything to take them out of my sight so that I never have to see them again. Those infernal weapons meant I’d be dead before the sun sunk into the sea.

     “What are you doing here?” I snapped as I slumped down against the back wall. I knew why he was there, I just wanted to irritate him one last time. 

     “Shut up, Theseus. To your feet and get these on.”

     I looked up and there were the weapons, all glistening in his arms as he shoved them through the cell bars along with a pathetic little suit of armor that I was exposed to wear for the show of it. I guess the spectators thought it was flashier than the prison number on my back. I put it on as the guard walked away briefly. I fingered the gauntlets. The plates were thin enough that even I could cut it. Old Addrog should be able to slice through this like Christmas ribbon.

     The guard unlocked the cell, slowly swinging the large door open. I grabbed my weapons before getting shoved out and led down to the labyrinth entrance. I waited and prepared myself what extraordinarily little I could. Sheath my blades, hold up the shield, and try not to think of all the things I still had to set straight in my kingdom. All I could do now was take a long shot at something that I desperately needed cooperation with.

     The king of the people who were cheering in ledges safely above the death trap I was about to grace with my presence, boomed his obnoxious voice. All he did was announce the beginning of the “sentence”. I wasn’t being punished. This was just what the king and his subjects called ‘entertainment’. Rock shards and little raw jewels came raining down as confetti, I heard a great head splitting scream from within the mindless series of twists and turns before me. 

     My throat dried up like a desert with anxious thirst as we waited for the other soldiers to arrive. Heart sinking with every gauged rain of ‘confetti’ and following roars as the crowd rallied Addrog. Though it wasn’t like White Scales needed any rallying. He was always ready for a good hunt no matter the amount of encouragement he got.

     The despair of my situation was rising in me, I could feel it. Who wouldn’t? There was beating inside my chest that could test the ferocity of a stampede of wild stallions. I turned to the guard beside me, his bald head flashing sun in my eyes. I had one last thing left in this world and I wasn’t going to let it get eaten with me. 

     Backing up against the wall of the arch tunnel just before the entrance, I slinked further into the shadow, in effect the bald guard hissed, “get back here!” Coming after me to drag me back out. But there’s power that you get from coursing adrenaline; as the guard came close enough to grab me I took hold of his shoulder armor and whirled him around. Shoving him up against the wall with all my strength, he growled in his language very unfriendly things and shouted, “I could kill you for this!”

     “Yes.” I glared. His eyes were full of flickering embers. “But then the king would kill you for spoiling his show.”

     Baldy quit squirming. “Then what are you doing?” He sounded like a worried and exasperated person as he spoke, letting out his breath. 

     “Just,” with one hand still pinning his shoulder to the wall, I reached into my tunic and pulled out a small book with brown leather binding, its short title in gold letters across the front. “Just take this, it is all I have left to give my kingdom. Please,” I let go of his shoulder, “give it to my sister. Out of the two of us, you have the best chance of seeing her. Tell her that she was right all along.”

     The guard turned the book over in his hand and looked up at me, “why should I?”

     I choked on the hot, dry air, I had nothing on me to bribe with. “I- read. Just read any of it and if you can’t find a reason in there to give me this last hope of reaching her, then fine. But if you do-“

Then the king roared three grating words, “let Addrog feast!” The crowd erupted and the entrance was knocked open, without a second to think I was shoved inside and the door was slammed closed. It rang with clanging echoes as the lock clicked shut. My heart jolted out of place. My shield was on the other side of the entrance. 

Art by Alexander Forssberg

Congratulations Abigail!

From the first paragraph, I was captivated.

This story has an air of adventure mixed with dread that hooks you from beginning to end. You do a great job at giving enough information to know the basics of what's happening, and concealing enough information to infuse the story with mystery and intrigue.

Just from these few paragraphs, I became curious about the world, Theseus, what could be in his leather notebook, and why it was so important to get it to his sister.

All of this was set up wonderfully. Which in turn does make this short story work more like a first chapter rather than a short story, but with how well written and exciting it is, it had to be crowned the winner!

Thank you so much for submitting this short story, Abigail! I had a great time reading it and was genuinely disappointed when it ended. I hope your adventures with Theseus don't get cut short, and that he may star in a novel one day!

Thank you to everyone who submitted for January's Picture Prompt Contest! There were so many amazing submissions that made choosing the winner quite the challenge!

 I loved seeing how each writer took inspiration from the picture and manifested it into all different and creative stories. So many talented writers submitted this month, and I truly hope you submit again soon!

Future Picture Prompt Contest Update!

For the past few contests the word count limit was 1,000 words. Mainly because it encourages writers to be more intentional with each word they use, plus it makes it easier to read and judge all of the submissions. 

But we are now updating it! The word count limit from now on is going to be 3,000 words!

 Hopefully this this new word limit will make it easier for all who participate to write complete and whole short stories. Something that was a bit difficult to do with only a 1,000 word limit.

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