The Last Word (Knight short story) Puns

This was a story that my classmates and I were read to by our school librarian in the late '80s. I can remember quite a bit of the plot, but search attempts just lead me to sites dealing with Greek myths.

The story is set in the present day (at the time it was written). There is a boy who is very beautiful, and somehow the spirit of the Greek mythical character Narcissus or Echo (one of the two - not sure which) possesses him. The only way this manifests, however, is that every time he speaks, he repeats the last word (maybe just the last syllable?) out loud. So: "I'm going home-ome." or "What is she doing-ing?" This is due to the spirit possession repeating all of his sentences, but with a small lag that is only noticeable at the end.

Anyway, this "vocal tic" catches on with the kids at school, and it becomes a trend for everyone to do it deliberately whenever they talk. The teachers are (understandably) annoyed at this, and put a ban on any of the students talking this way. This gets everyone to stop, except for the protagonist, as he cannot help it. He is called on to answer a question in class, and does the "ending-repeat" thing, and gets in trouble - sent home or given detention or some such.

The way that he finally overcomes the possession is that he goes to a pond in the woods (?) where, in looking at his reflection, Echo and/or Narcissus manifests themselves. But he plays a trick by putting on a grotesque Halloween mask, so his reflection looks hideous, and thus scares the spirit away. At that time he also says, in a scary voice, something along the lines of "You're so beautiful, I could eat you right up!" (At the beginning of the story, it is related that when he was a small child, an old lady said that to him, and it scared him and created a traumatic memory. But he is able to use it to his benefit in the end.)

Any ideas? You guys are amazing at answering these arcane questions!

Enjoy this little story I wrote. It's meant to be a little multivalent so beware your assumptions (reactions so far have been delightfully mixed - though none negative).

http://minuteclickingwheels.tumblr.com/post/19620721375/silence-in-the-city - because the formatting on tumblr is quite nice.

You can also comment on the document, if I set it up right.

Edit: Changed from google docs link to tumblr.

Like the title says, I had an idea for a short story, but as I was writing it, the characters and the story showed that there was more than to it than I had originally thought. Now, I feel it’s coming close to the end, but having expanded the story so much, it has evolved beyond the original and I feel there are a lot of inconsistencies between the beginning and the later portions. Should I go back and revise these as part of my first draft? Or should I finish and let it sit, and do major cleanup during the 1st revision? Thanks!

JRR Tolkien wroth The Lord of the Rings inspired by his experience in World War 1-- a turning point in World History where war was mechanized on a scale not seen. He went on to be a Professor of the English Language at Oxford, one of the premier universitys for that helped establish the first true Lingua Franca.

The films are an excellent representation (from a historical perspective) of a motion picture, a revolutionary means of story telling.

All things considered, this leads me to expect the trilogy to be preserved and taught more than any other story in the last hundred years.

The story follows a teenage girl who pretends to be a boy because she thinks that only boys are allowed to be knights. She's very shy around the other knights and avoids going out to swim with them and changing or bathing around them because she doesn't want them to find out that she's a girl and risk getting kicked out. The twist of the story comes when the protagonist is convinced by the other knights to go with them to a river or lake where they're swimming, though she herself doesn't undress to go in the water and instead sits near the body of water. That is when she notices the other knights undressing to go swimming and realizes that all of the other knights are also girls. Apparently, the law that prohibited girls from training to be knights was archaic and had been changed long ago, and it was only the protagonist's father that didn't want her to be a knight.

I am unsure if the story was set in a fantasy medieval setting or just a historical medieval setting, but it was definitely set in a medieval-ish time where knights were a thing. The story was quite short, definitely not longer than 5000 words.

While I can't remember any of the character's names, there were some big hints that the other knights were girls even before this twist was revealed, so their names were quite gender-neutral or even inching towards feminine. The protagonist also notices a lot of their physical traits like long hair, cheekbones, that kind of stuff, and the way they're described makes you think that the other knights are not quite masculine.

This is a short story, not a novel or book of some kind. I read it online, at most 3 years ago, for free. I was between 19-21 years old when I read it (I'm 22 now). I am uncertain about the target audience of the story, as it seemed to have some queer themes - the protagonist often admires the features of her fellow knights before she knows they're also girls, and I think she continues to do so after she finds out.

Courageously an armoured hero dashed out of the bushes, sword glinting betwixed the trees’ twigs as the forest laid in awe at his bravest of feats, he was met with a shrouded figure. The courageous Knight met with enigmatic confusion pondered the black silhouette on the whereabouts of the battle he heard, and explained to the ashen-black cloaked configuration that he is a Knight who was sent to deal with Mercenaries in these woods, on order of his Regal Majesty.

The form of cerement cloth did not speak nor did it stir to shift it’s positioning, yet stayed stock still with complete supremacy, as it’s nerves were nonexistent or as if it was just a figuration of accumulated smoke forms coming together to sculpt a human arrangement.

Moulded by anger, yet kept in chivalry’s grasp the Knight said again as kind as possible the whereabouts of his needed destination. Yet again the callous creature spoke not but raised a sallow shrivelled hand out of the wizened wrinkles of cloth, pointing towards a direction of woodland veil. The Knight ventured a “Thank thee.” And laboured to his destined course, with an edged sense of dread.

The Knight roved seemingly losing his way but determined out of sheer loyalty to see this task through he moved, pressing onward. As by refined luck he stumbled upon a barren battlefield; with coats of arms, swords, shields, bows, arrows and corpses plunged into the earth’s sullen soil left to rot. The Knight battered by the sight of foe and friend dead amongst his view muttered “Thy have been belated for this battle.” As he laid on his knees in utter uncompassing defeat a figure he come to know stood stock still in the distance, the Knight perplexed but intrigued pondered the cloak of a man again on what happened here.

Yet again just like clockwork the shroud did not speak but pointed to a corpse, with searing pain the beaten Knight crestfallen by his failure approached stumbling over corpse and shield a like. As he reached the black mass already crippled by weight of loss didn’t hesitate to follow it’s commands, the ashen cloud gestured a motion hinting towards the fallen dead Knight’s visor, with great depressing despair crushing his heart he slowly crept the visor upwards...With grand horror he stumbled back, not able to recollect what he just saw, he stared at the grim figuration it stared back.

He stood up trying to regain his senses, he looked again with the reaping horror as before he looked at the grim reflection and said with

Hey all, do you like skeletons? do you like fantasy? do you like skeleton related fantasy comedy? Well then you will probably enjoy The Skeleton Knight! A Tale straight from the crypt of Sir Jordine, the famous human commander of the Human-Draconic wars, who after eons of resting in his coffin is ruddely awaken by a duo of grave diggers and must now find out why hes still "Alive".

I would apreciate it a lot if you can drop a review on both amazon and booksie, the Amazon version is paid, but if you want a free version, the booksie link is available.
https://www.amazon.com/Skeleton-Knight-Vaelian-Short-Stories-ebook/dp/B07K2826PR/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=the+skeleton+knight&qid=1551863539&s=digital-text&sr=1-3

https://www.booksie.com/573018-the-skeleton-knight
Thanks so much for your time and uh...if you wanna see more of this world, i got a patreon ;)

The story is the first in the anthology book 'The Best Of The Realms III'. The answer is probably going to spoil the story for those who've never read it, so, spoiler alert!

I'm not talking about the imprisonment, but the whole 3 rings and being a twin and the thing with Nimra... In fact, I don't understand most of that story's narrative that takes place in the past, or the Caradoon family and their ties to the pact.

• Title : The closing credits

(It's a quick filler title I thought of. I usually decide titles when I finish the story)

• Word count : 484

• Genre : Surrealism/Sci fi (It's collection of seemingly unrelated short stories that make up the whole story.) The scifi aspect doesn't show up yet since the main character is describing their childhood dream.

• Feedback : All types of feedback.

This is the first "writing" I did in English. It's still a short intro, but I gave it a shot. I usually write in korean(first language), but I decided to try some writing in English too. Some parts of the sentences may not make sense:/

• Link : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZxDTSEw65IgNFwDs-qfjp2oUtkkFVxradseReEHxDUg/edit?usp=drivesdk

Edit: line to line feedback is possible

Would love some opinions and thoughts on this sequence here. I'm still very much at the infancy of my ability to write so any and all thoughts are welcome. This passage is taken from within the first chapter of my story as a way to showcase a bit of the life the main character leads and some of what his skills are.

Geo was the deployed asset for the inspector team assigned to the investigation and he was bored as this was his third day on surveillance of the market, unawares to him though, his day was about to get far more interesting. Across the thoroughfare from where he stood, a trader and customer appeared to be haggling over a trade with nothing unusual to be seen. Geo's trained eye though begun to notice a rhythm and ease to the pair’s quarreling as if they were giving a performance not genuinely arguing. Geo continued to observe until he spotted some smooth sleight of hand which took place when the trader slipped the irate customer a slip that looked like it was for one of the cargo areas. Geo’s interest was now more than piqued and he radioed his handler that he may have found a possible lead, he neglected to mention to his handler that he was going purely off intuition as opposed to any hard evidence.

The trader and customer had continued the charade of haggling until the customer has walked off appearing flustered and, in an anger induced hurry, but Geo was on his tail before he slipped away into the crowd. Before leaving, Geo had recorded the details of the trader he had been observing for an enforcement team to deal with later. On this occasion Geo wasn't in uniform due to the nature of the op, but he did have his sidearm tucked in behind his jacket in a holster, his handler had been clear to keep it set to shock rounds while on the hab station for fear of combat rounds causing a hull breach in a civilian area. As the customer hurried away, he was checking over his shoulder and scanning his surroundings every now and then, disguising them as annoyed head shakes and wild gesticulating. It was a convincing display to passers-by who were used to the sight of those frustrated by trader stubbornness on prices but Geo new the signs of a man trained into counter surveillance further fueling his suspicions.

Steadily Geo's target made his way toward the cargo bays through the warren of corridors and junctions that made up hab 2. Geo hadn't spotted the target wearing a wrist device for directions so either he was a native hab 2 guy, or h

36 696. I did NOT expect that. Holy shit, that is a lot. Thirty short stories, Thirty-six thousand, six hundred and ninety-six words.

Only 4 consecutive readers but hey, this really made my day and I just had to share it!

I'm honestly surprised!

Hi everyone! So I just typed out like a ton of words and deleted everything without saving a draft, I love my life. Okay here it goes again:

After a year of putting it off, I finally convinced myself to finally just jump in and start writing. I had been giving myself every excuse as to why I shouldn’t be writing until I just got fed up. This passage is the first part in just one of many different short stories I plan to write that all take place in the world of The Chronicles of Sapia. Here’s some background.

2037 - The league of Sapia is formed in the aftermath of ruin by the countries of the Earth.

2089 - The first permanent city on another planet is founded; Curiosity, Mars.

2148 - Behind closed doors, the Interplanetary Investigative Institute is formed, and given “extralegal” prívelages. Tasked to protect the interests of the IFS, the Triple Eye uses any means necessary to deal with threats to the Federation.

2234 - Mercury becomes the last of the inner planets to come under IFS control, who know turn their sites to the asteroid belt.

2256 - The first independence protests erupt in Curiosity, setting into events a path that will lead to civil war.

2353 - The Aphrodite Independence Protest Massacres take place, leaving 23 dead at the hands of IFS Venus Security Forces. The flames get fanned.

2431 - In the underbelly of Curiosity a secret meeting is held, with members of independence from all around the federation in attendance. The Brotherhood of Autonomous Systems Is founded creating a network of operatives and information from all over the federation, capable of fighting back.

2501 - The first Military outpost in the Hellas Basin is captured by Brotherhood Mars división forces, officially marking the start of civil war between the IFS and the Brotherhood.

The short stories will take place in the last few years leading up to civil war, exploring all different aspects of life in a near future human civilization, what life looked like before the war. From solar farmers on mercury, to IFS automated drones surveying the furthest outreaches of the solar system. Criminals in one of earth’s many continent sprawling supercities, Triple Eye operatives on a hunt in the massive floating cities above the clouds of Venus, asteroid miners, brotherhood cadets, IFS officers, and something completely and utterly unknown.

Here’s the first part to the first story of my series, let me know what you guys think, if this is an interesting enough concept,