Short Stories

Story 1: Stop doing that!

| Prompt from Pinterest: The protagonist keeps trying to mess up the story by offing himself. The narrator keeps having to save him.

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It was a sunny day here in Herotown. Man and woman of all ages got up to greet the sun with breathtaking smiles. The baker was up early to create a new brand of flour that would help save world hunger. Across the street a young woman had discovered her passion for clothing and was trying to create a shoe that would help you walk faster.

But our story isn't about them. We are going further into the town. Can you hear the singing of birds from the square in the middle of Herotown? That means that we're almost there. From afar we can already see the brown, wooden house where our story takes place. 

Inside is a -

*Slam* 

Oh? I wonder what is going on, this wasn't planne- *Coughs* It appears that our hero got up early this morning. We will follow him on his way to save the princess. I think, dear reader, that he got a letter from the king. Why else would he be on his way this early in the morning?

"Don't follow me! I'm done with this story. I don't want to re-live it all over again! Do you know how many times I have been through this already? It isn't funny anymore. I quit. Today I will simply follow another route that won't lead me to that blasted castle. I'm not going to fight that dragon again. Do you hear me?"

Our brave hero was feeling out of sorts this morning. And since walking through a town isn't that interesting for you, our reader, we will simply continue this story on the path that leads us through a dark forest.

"No, wait! I just told you that- Oh bugger."

A dark forest laid ahead of our hero. With his heart thumping in his chest, he continued on his way. Who knew what he would find behind these dark trees?

"I know what I'll find. There are going to be goblins. Not nice ones. Oh noooo of course you couldn't give me the nice ones. You send me in this forbidden forest with goblins with razor sharp teeth. And now I'm going in. Isn't that fantastic? Just bloody amazing this is.

And in 3,2,1... Oh no, oh horror, what am I to do now? How unexpected. Whoooo.... There are goblins. Oh my, how will I ever get out of this jam? Especially now that I left my trusted sword at home. Whatever will I do now? Oh well, I might as well lay down and let them stab me I guess."

Even though our hero didn't have his trusted sword with him, he did not need to worry for there were travelers who had also heard the goblins' cries. They rushed out and came to our heroes defense. Swords were clashing and teeth were biting into flesh. But our hero lived. 

"For goodness sake... You're not going to win this time. I'm not going to fight that dragon again. I told you that before. I will find a way to end this horrible loop once and for all. Just you wait."

Our hero continued on his way.

"Fine, fine. Look, I'm walking. Happy now?"

The rest of the walk through the dark forest was pretty uneventful. Nothing dangerous jumped out at our hero. He was able to cross through the forest without getting even a single cut. 

"Yeah, aren't I the lucky type? Oh... I forgot about that. This is my lucky day!"

In front of our hero laid a huge ravine. The wooden bridge had collapsed some years ago. No one had bothered to fix it. How was our true hero going to overcome this problem?

"I'm not. That's how. I'm just going to throw myself down into the ravine and hope it will all be over soon. And trust me, if you find a way to bring me back to life after that, I promise you I will be even less fun in the next re-telling.