Contest Entries

Chapter One: Dooms Clock Ticks

"Where am I? Who am I?" I wondered as I tried to remember. Everything was blurry and I felt thirsty. This was all I could think of:

A lady figure sat down and pulled up a deck of 10 cards in her hands with a cup in her other hand. She encouraged me to pick a card. I was skeptical of the cards in her hands. I had a feeling it was all going to be bad news. Still, I had paid for her to tell me my fortune. I was a believer in fortune telling. Still am. So I picked the sixth card from the left.

"You are going to have grave obstacles along the way. It will take quick thinking and fast acting to dodge those obstacles. There will be a way to dodge them all. All of them. But you need to think fast or else you are going to get squashed. Please choose your next card."

I did the third card from the right this time. It was a number eight of hearts. Surely that would be a good sign. I looked up at her with hope but got a frown instead. Something was the matter.

"In eight months you will have to find the doom clock before it strikes 12 and deactivate it. If you don't deactivate it then the whole world as you know it will be doomed. When you deactivate it you will find your lover waiting for you on the other side. Please pick your last card."

I sighed. This was not going as planned. More doom. Fearfully, I picked the fourth card from the left. It was a king of hearts. I didn't know what to expect from this one. Twitching my fingers, I waited. I hope my last prediction would be a good one.

Try as I might, I couldn't remember the last prediction. It drove me crazy. I needed to see that fortune teller again so that she could help me remember the last prediction. However, here I was, looking around, lying on grass on my back, in the middle of trees. I didn't remember how I got to this place. Where was I? Slowly, I rolled over and crawled to my knees. Nobody was around me. Then a flash of memory of being in a tornado inflicted me. Was I here because of a tornado? My heart pumped even more at the thought. This wouldn't have been an ordinary tornado. The world looked different than the towns, cities, and farms that I was used to. Of course, there were places in the world that had trees. But I don't remember seeing these kind of trees before. It felt unfamiliar.

Just then, a large red dragon came swooping down and landed where I was. It moved its face near to me and I could tell this dragon was large enough to swallow me whole. I wondered what it was doing and why it even existed. I closed my eyes, surely I must have been dreaming. But when I opened my eyes the dragon was still there. It must have seen my clumsy movements because it laughed.

"Just what do you think you are doing? Want to join me and bring peace and rule the world mortal?" It laughed very hard.

"No. Nobody in their right mind wants to rule the world. But would love to bring peace. Let me think about it and then I'll have an answer. But I might answer no again," I said.

"Very well. I'll let you think about it then. You have a week to decide. The doom clock isn't working yet but it will. And when it does the world will be mine and you can be the commander of that world if you join me. I will stop at nothing to get what I want."

Prompt: Image of deck of 10 cards and a cup and candle.
Word Count: 643
Contest: "Chapter One - CLOSED till Spring 2025"