Drabble STORY ARC #2: Seek and Avenge

The Burned Village: One Last Choice

Epilogue of a ‘choose your own’ story — drabble edition

This is a ‘choose your own’ fiction story, “drabble edition”. You can check out Chapter 1 of this story, ‘The Burned Village’, or check the previous chapter: ‘Golden Handshake’, by JF Danskin.

And yeah, I know that this story is not in any way a drabble. Sue me!

A few months later, snow has cloaked the landscape. You rub Scruff’s ears as you look towards your tiny village. Where once there were only charred husks of homes, several new wooden dwellings have been constructed, and more are underway.

You’ve put the loot from Ballax to good use. And recent compensation from the Merchants’ Guild helped a lot, too…

Your partner puts an arm around you and gives you a squeeze, then walks away, heading inside to see to the children. You turn, and notice two figures emerging from over the snowy hill beyond. It’s Dara Blackfeather, and with her is Taryn, a guard from the nearby town. You smile, and hurry closer.

“We thought you might be missing your old adventuring buds,” says Dara with a wink.

You chuckle. It’s true; wonderful though it is to have your family back, part of you misses the open road, the thrills, danger and magic of your mission to seek and avenge your family.

“Good to see you, but I’m doing just fine here,” you say after a pause. “I feel content at last.”

“Sounds a bit uncertain of that,” comments Taryn, with a sideways glance at Dara.

The elf smiles. “Cool. But… just in case you do want another mission, Taryn and I have been given an opportunity, and we need to put a team together. We’ve seen you in action, and you have the skills we need. Whaddaya say?”

You look from the elf to the human guard, and then back again.

“I…”

“Listen,” says Taryn with a smile, taking Dara’s arm to pull her away, “think about it, yeah? And if it helps, it involves another opportunity for revenge on the Merchants’ Guild.”

“You’re gonna love this,” adds Dara, as she starts to walk away across the snow. “We’ll be at the tavern at sundown.”

And you decide to…

1. Tell Dara that you’ll see her around, but you’re very happy with a quiet family life from now on (in which case, The End for realzies. Well played!)
2. Have a chat with the family, tell them you’ll be back soon, then go meet Dara and Taryn at the tavern to find out more about this mysterious new opportunity (click here).

Well, that’s it! (Besides all the loose ends, and the potential new story). I’ve loved working on Seek and Avenge, and we’ve come a long way since this early commentary (a YEAR, to be precise!), or this invitation to join the fun.

If you liked it, please do comment to let me know your favourite part/fav chapter of the story.

A massive thank-you to Sieran Lane who has been doing his very best to maintain a story map of the whole thing…

…and to everyone who has written chapters along the way, including Sieran, as well as Jonathon Sawyer (who helped to save Helga and Robbie), John Fanidis (who brought us the wolf creature), Andrew Crocker (creator of Ballax and Gremgor), Rayne Sanning and P. L. Goaway (who collaborated on the hilariously long moneychanger arc), Mojave Green (creator of Bruno and Scruff!), and J.C. Lovero (mastermind of the sprawling Lorenzo side arc!).

Did I miss anyone?

Finally, thank you to you, the reader. I won’t tag everyone who ever read one of the chapters over the last year, but a shoutout to anyone who engaged in any way, even if it was just one clap (but make it 50 next time, dammit!!) 😅 Special mention of course to superstar reader David Perlmutter, and to Bradan Writes Stories and Sweet Chaos who also helped with images.

So with that, farewell… And hey, if you like this sort of thing, why not take a look at the next drabble-length CYOA story from this publication: