Story Arc #1: The Castle of Shadows

Risky Business

A chapter of a ‘choose your own’ story.

This is a collaborative web-novel; you might want to start the story at the beginning, here.

Want to go back one chapter? Click here to return to Zyra and ‘Up the slope…’ , or here to revisit Daniela and the chapter ‘Onwards and upwards’.

And please check out this article to find out how you can to contribute to this and other ‘choose your own’ stories in this publication!

You decide that it’s too risky to clamber into the hole. And while going back down the slope in the dim evening light is dangerous, at least you won’t freeze to death!

You begin carefully making your way down, skirting the larger rocks and jumping over smaller ones. Once or twice you stumble as loose scree gives way under your feet, but you keep going.

It is getting really dark now. A part of you had hoped that perhaps Zyra would come back to check on you — maybe even bringing a torch.

But no.

You are alone.

As you ponder over the unfairness of your situation, you take your eye off the path for just a moment, and step into a dark shady area near the edge of the route. Your foot lands on nothing at all, and you find yourself falling…

…falling…

…falling…

When you hit the bottom, you know that you have done yourself a serious injury... You groan, try to move, then realize that you can’t.

You’re stuck here. You pass out, then regain consciousness after some time. How long? Well, you don’t really know, but it’s now light in the sky above. You can now see that you have fallen into an ancient round structure.

Perhaps it’s part of the Fortress of Shadows?

But if so, you will never be able to explore it further, because for you, this is:

The End.

Or is it the end? You can zip right back to the previous chapter here.

And with this publication, you can always change the ending! Perhaps the protagonist finds themselves being nursed back to health by some magical healer. Or perhaps they lose consciousness again and then wake up as an android. It’s entirely up to you! I’m stopping here, but this is a collaborative story, and you are welcome to write another chapter.

New to the publication? Come join us at Choose Your Own Adventure–Collaboration to contribute. New to Medium? You can sign up for membership here, and support me at no extra cost.

And for some inspiration for your next piece of creative writing, check out my writing prompts below!