Creative exercises

Monsterous Villian

Restriction: a short story with a protagonist facing monsters/ monstrous villain
warning: mentions of gore and manipulating guardians.

She watched from high up, facing them with watery eyes. When she was sent out on this quest, she imagined something different. Villains, danger, tragedy, hardship, hunger, pain, and more. This? No. She didn't know enough to imagine something like this.

The Guardian that made her his champion, never mentioned things like this, and he never mentioned she would be alone. It was the Guarded dimension, but she expected guards or guardians.

Instead she has found Grimlins, vile and vicious, tearing at fresh flesh of some other kind. Goblins covered in warts and puss, nawing on a bone and using sharp hidden claws to swipe. Giants, gruesome in ways she had never seen, painting cave walls with blood of a still living goblin and laughing in delight amongst themselves. She saw horrors beyond what she ever wanted to see again, and imagined nightmares more real than what was before.

Now she was hiding in a tree, crying silently and praying that what she just found never found her. It was large, larger than her. It's teeth were crooked and blunt but she knows how that didn't matter. It tore through a tree, munching on bark as it stood guard to an enormous fortress; the fortress that the King- Demon King- hid within. There were flames surrounding it like a moat, bubbling and roasting all those close, except for the creature munching happily on its tree.

She needed to complete her quest and do her duty as the chosen champion, but her legs were weak and her arms heavy. Her head throbbed with the heat and anxiety welling up within her. She was ten. How could she go any further? The things belly bulged in a manner that stretched its skin and popped some veins, it's feet were bony and crimson, it's arms huge and swollen, and it's eyes were wide and unblinking.

"Be my chosen champion. Be the hero that I need."

She couldn't.

"Go to the Guard dimension. It has an infamous King that is prophesied to conquer the Enlightened Realm."

She should have asked more.

"There within a fortress in the dead of the land he will lie. Slay him with this frozen sunflower seed. Plant it onto his head and it will take root."

She can't.

"I have faith in you, my chosen one."

This was too much. She violently trembled, scooting away from the beasts. The horrible smells, the stench of decay and smog smothering her; the horrible sights, the rivers of blood and bogs with eyes; the horrible sounds, the screeches in the dead of night and wet snarls that followed; the horrible feelings, the harsh drenched air clinging to her and the withered ground being sludged on her boots and knees.

It was too much. She ran to a small crack of a cave and vomited- passing out right by it after sobbing for an hour to herself.