Dec 13, 2019 – willowdot21

For visually challenged writers, the image shows a landscape wearing a light dusting of snow. From the hill, where skeletal heather and brown grasses pierce the snow, a valley spreads out below, lit by the rays of a pale sun.

After the noise of the battle earlier the silence cut like a knife. The snow was doing a good job of covering the dead and dying. From nowhere came silver rays from the sun bathing the valley in an almost gentle way.

It seemed almost impossible that only at dawn she had stood on the horizon looking toward the castle wondering what was to come. There had been no snow or cold when she had arrived. The witches still held sway over the climate around the castle. Yet as she had stood in the early morning warmth wondering about her future she had felt the temperature drop and seen the white of the Vampire winter approaching.

Realising there was no time to waste she ran to the castle altering those within to the incoming danger. Not bothering to morph from wolf to human she bounded up the stairs howling. She halted at the sight of Ewan, relieved to see he was back to his old irritating self! He confirmed this by patting her head. ***********

The men, dwarves and elves were ready, Rachel told Ewan that the warewolves were on their way. Everything was set and ready, the battle was nigh.

The snow and ice covered the ground silently, it didn’t fall from the sky it was just there. The temperature plummeted, the men’s breath frosted their beards as they saddled their horses, the dwarves drew their cloaks about them against the cruel wind, their axes glinting in the pale morning light. The elves lined the turrets their quivers full of wooden arrows tipped with silver.

The men on horses rode out across the draw bridge and lined up outside the castle in a phalanx the others formed a line infront of then with their spears and weapons raised. Not one of these brave men had ever fought vampires before. The dwarves were ready inside the gates singing and banging drums. The women, children and the old were all inside the castle praying to their gods . Alicia, Lisa and Rachel stood on the ramparts with the elves.

Then of a sudden a whispering, a screaming, a moaning carried across the valley and up the hill towards the castle. “They are here” shouted Alicia, “where” shouted the men. Too late they were upon them , bodies flew around, and were torn apart, men’s and horse’s hearts ripped out and thrown upon the ground. The vampires were invisible they picked the men off simply and cruelly. Within minutes men lay dead and dying, disemboweled, quartered some just drained of blood.. The elves fired into thin air and many arrows met their mark, revealing the evil vampires, writhing and screaming as they caught on fire then turned to dust.

Not a man was left standing not one survived the carnage. All the while the vampires fill the air with their screams and threats.

Hope stirred in her cot, she visualised the Vampire hoards and broke their veil of invisibility. The Elves took aim and fired their arrows up into the sky from where they rained down on the the enemy. The dwarves now came into their own as each vampire swooped at them they used their honed weapons to decapitate as many as they could. Sadly the dwarves took heavy losses.

Lisa and Alicia felt Hope’s power and they joined with her willing the sun to shine at its brightest and hottest. Slowly their powers joined and the warmth in the sun turned into heat. The elves could see the younger vampires crawling up the castle walls and taking advantage of the light they shot at them mercilessly. Rachel looked out to the plains where she saw that the hoards of Vampires were still massing. All was lost how could they cope how could the beat these numbers? The humans barring the women, children and old all dead, all gone. The Dwarves were valiantly holding the castle but for how much longer!

Then a miracle happened the Vampires began to feel the effects of the sun.. they began to burn, black dust from them coated the snow. Their war screams turned to wails of anguish and pain as they died.

The order from the ancients went up R

“Retreat, Retreat” and soon the sky was full of retreating and burning vampires.

After the noise of the battle earlier the silence cut like a knife. The snow was doing a good job of covering theb dust and human dead and dying. From nowhere came silver rays from the sun bathing the valley in an almost gentle way. The heat was gone and the cold had returned. The vampires had gone for now they would be back at night.

Hope stirred in Lisa’s arms as her power subsided so did her mother’s and Alicia’s. “Sleep for now Hope my darling” whispered Lisa, ” they shall not have you” The child smiled in her sleep.

To be continued.

If you wish to read Lisa’s and Rachel’s story up to this point you can find it here.

This is part of Sue Vincent’s #writephoto.

Today is the thirteenth day of Advent, leading up to Christmas. I would like to re-run my take on the Nativity story. I first wrote this in 2011, in the style of prosetry.

The lady down the road from the Hotel Delph was busy knitting as she always did but this time not for herself. She had heard of the young couple up the road in need she would help them in the only way she knew, in deed.
She could knit a jacked and some booties too, blue ones with a little duck and egg freeze. Her project was going well she was doing fine, she had not kitted this fast for such a long, long time.
Her fingers gnarled now with arthritis had lately let her down she usually had to stop working after a short while and the pain just made her frown. But somehow since she had started on this knit her fingers moved like magic and she was so proud of it.
Her face was relaxed and once again she wore a smile. For some reason she was free of pain it made her want to dance and sing that she could knit again. The children came to see her, they had not done so for so long, in days gone by they came for cakes and paid her with their songs.
The children started returning the day after the couple had arrived, she found that she could bake and knit again. The children made her feel alive. She had been so lonely, she realized it was her fault but now with this new found strength she would bring all loneliness to a halt.
Happily she pondered on her new lease of life, she loved the children visiting and she loved that young Jo and his darling wife. The young wife had touched her hands and wept for her pain. It was soon after that, that she noticed she could use her hands again.
Like the others she was excited waiting for the birth of the new king, she was doing what could and knitting gifts for him!