Prompted Short Stories

Elf Prologue #2

Read this: Today, I'm publishing two short stories that aren't prompted; they were completely my own idea. They were originally meant to be prologues to a longer story that I wanted to write, so they won't make much sense. I can't use them as prologues anymore because the worldbuilding has changed drastically, but I thought you might be interested in reading them. For these, I put a lot of effort and worldbuilding into them even though they're short, so they're going to be a lot better than my other, prompted short stories. The first one is right before a sort of  ritual in their culture. The second, this one, is lore about their gods and how their country, more or less, was started.

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Two small pointy-eared figures stood atop the barren hill. One, a female, was dressed in a bunad that changed colors with the shifting light of the sunset. The other, a male, had on a cloak of golden feathers. Atop each of their heads sat a circlet. The woman had a crown of silver with a colorful stone of calcitic marble on the front. The man’s was gold with larvikite stones all around the edges.

Distressed, the woman reached her hand up to her circlet, barely seen through her long, white hair. She closed her eyes for a moment, deep in thought. Then, she opened them. “Our people need us. Without us, they shall perish. And if we weren’t to take this upon ourselves, our people would surely come to an end. The land would wither, what little of it is even alive.”

The man reached up and took her hand from her hair, kissing it as he looked out upon the horizon. “It is true, we must. I am glad, at least, that if this truly must be done, I’ll be with you. Astra, my love, it is for the good of our people.” He looked at her with love in his eyes and went to move strands of hair from her face. The woman leaned into his hand, and shed a tear, causing a rainbow to appear in the sky before them. As the tear dropped onto the ground, a small purple flower grew, the only color seen for miles. “My dear, why are you saddened? We will be together, and we will be saving our people from death.” Astra embraced her husband and closed her eyes, leaning against him.

“ I will miss this, Aesir. Not having to rely on this dead, withering earth to sustain us. And for our people to see us and know we are there. Yes, we will be watching over them, but we will not be ourselves. They cannot feel our love. And if this doesn’t work, and we can’t help our people, or we can’t undo the magic once it’s cast...”

Aesir responded, “This will work. It simply has to. And you say this, my love, but they shall know us. They shall feel our love. For when they sit in our branches, they should feel the whisperings of peace blowing within our leaves. And our power shall give the land life with which they shall thrive. Let us go now, and save them.” And with that, they faced each other, closed their eyes and went to sleep. Around them, the sky burst into brilliant colors and the barren land turned green with foliage.

When the sky darkened again, instead of two gods standing at the top of the hill, there was a large tree. A tree that would give hope to all those who trusted in it. A tree whose colorful leaves and blossoms could save the life and mind of any elf.