Story Arc #4: The Hero of Pendown
A Farmer… A Hero?
A chapter of a ‘choose your own’ story
This is a ‘choose your own’ story. Click here to return to the previous chapter. The beginning of the story arc can be found here.
What’s the Grand Hierophant Eshami doing here on your farm, you wonder?
Groaning after the morning’s exertion, you put down your spade, scrutinising the arriving elf. She is tall, powerful looking, with sparkling blue eyes, rich-looking robes, and a noble bearing.
Your gnome servants bow as she approaches.
“Brave farmer, we need you to save the realm!” says Eshami loudly, stopping a few paces away from you, and studiously ignoring a goat that begins licking her hand.
“Huh?” you say.
She pulls out a crumpled parchment, apparently ready to tell you more.
But you cut her off: “Look, Your Worship — this doesn’t sound like my kind of thing. I just inherited this here farm, and I’ve never found happier workers than these gnomes. They love me! And I’m so glad to be shot of those goddam kobolds…”
“But the realm!” The esteemed elf hurries closer, and grasps you by the shoulders. “Please. An enormous metal disk has appeared above the holy city. Our greatest warrior failed, and when I asked the people, you were their choice.”
Eshami breaks off, for the goat now butts her hard. She staggers off the path with a yelp, dropping the note. This the goat begins to eat, before two of the gnomes restrain it with a rope.
You sniff, then spit. Well — if the realm needs you, what choice do you have?
“Let me get my axe, then,” you say, glancing around. But it’s no longer leaning up against the farmhouse.
“We left it in the center of the corn maze!” blurts out one of the gnomes, and the rest giggle.
You swear. Moving your stuff, and turning the corn field into a maze? Maybe gnome servants aren’t so great after all.
“Wait here,” you say to Eshami, before stalking off.
Continue…
As well as continuing a story, this is a response to Bradan Writes Stories’s Monday Mashup #5 writing challenge. Hopefully I got all the prompts/constraints, including linking my story to someone else’s — it follows directly from Jonathon Sawyer’s chapter!
If you enjoyed this piece, you might also like the other ‘Choose Your Own’ stories from this publication (see below). Want to join us in writing collaborative choose your own adventure stories? Learn more here!