For @pillarspromptsweekly #0069: I rolled Woedica, holiday decorations, and survival. Cross posted on AO3.
The poor Leaden Key only want to decorate for the holidays :(
“Pass me the twine, won’t you?” Joel called back to the other initiate.
“What are you doing, initiate?”
Joel turned on his ladder from where he had been hanging mistletoe along the brow of the statue of Woedica. The Acolyte stood with her arms folded, her face inscrutable behind her mask. The same mask that he now wore and honestly it made it a bit hard to see where to hang things. “Decorating?”
The Acolyte didn’t move but he could feel the disapproval.“I can see that. For what purpose are you desecrating the Oathbinder’s shrine?”
“It’s Winter’s End. What’s the harm in being festive?” One of the other Leaden Key initiates had told Joel they always decorated for Winter’s End. Joel was starting to wonder if he had been having him on. His companion slowly edged toward the door while the Acolyte focused on Joel.
“The mistletoe I could understand if you didn’t hang it from Woedica’s crown, but these?” She gestured to the jolly, red bows hanging around the door frames.
“They add a little color, don’t they?” Joel said hopefully. He was beginning to think this situation would not end well for him. The other initiate was almost at door. Was it a bit too quiet, or was it just him?
“How exactly do you think this is going to end for you?” asked the Acolyte.
“We all drink hot rum and sing a few carols to Woedica?” said Joel desperately.
The Acolyte paused. “I don’t think we’ve had a good carol to Woedica in a while.”
The other initiate, who had made it to the door at this point, went stiff. “Uh, Acolyte–”
“Tak' that, ye hooded bastards!” The room lit up in a whoosh of fire.
Joel fell off his ladder and crawled around to the back of the statue of Woedica as the Acolyte started slinging spells back at the mad, dark haired elf that barged into the room. Fire licked the walls. “No, my tinsel!” He put his head between his knees and tried to breath deeply. He wasn’t trained in combat. He was going to die here, beneath this statue of Woedica with an uneven mistletoe crown.
The Acolyte’s voice fell silent. The entire sanctum was too silent except for the footfalls of the elven man.
“Thir's th' yin that wis oan th' ladder.”
The footsteps started to circle the statue toward Joel and he started breathing more rapidly. The footsteps stopped. Joel, with dread in his stomach, looked up to see the elf brandishing a scepter in his direction. “Wait, no!” Joel pulled off his mask and held up his hands. “I surrender!”
The dark haired elf paused. “You… surrender?” he said in a distinctly, polished Aedyran accent, completely different from the Hylspeak before. Maybe there were two of them…
The elf’s face twisted. “Ye fyndes never surrender!” he spat.
So he was crazy. A crazy, murderous elf that had burnt his friends and holly to ash. “I promise you, I’m surrendering,” pleaded Joel. “I never liked these guys much, anyway. It was just something to do on the weekends. I think the Acolyte was going to kill me for my holiday decorations, anyway.”
“Your… holiday decorations.” The elf looked up at the Woedica statue and his nostrils flared in laughter. He looked back at Joel before closing his eyes with a pained expression. “I will let you go, if–”
Joel grasped desperately at the hope. “If?”
“–If you promise me you will never wind up involved in a cult again.”
“I can do that, sure! Or, uh, not do that.” Joel scrambled to his feet.
The elven man lowered his scepter. “Now I would suggest removing yourself from this place as quickly as possible.”
“Can, uh, can I collect my mistletoe?”
The elf let a deep breath in and out his nose. “Is that really the most important thing right now?”
“...probably not.” Joel worked his way around the statue toward the door, trying to prevent turning his back to the man. “Um, Happy Winter’s End.”
The elven man blinked. “Oh, ah, yes. Happy Winter’s End.”
We’re going to continue to mix up the prompts a little with a monthly round of mix-and-match prompts! So on the first Monday of each month, we’ll have a new table of elements to combine for your fic this week.
Here’s how it works.
Below is a table of potential prompt elements. You get one from each row. Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Combine your three somewhat-random elements into a fic with all the creativity at your disposal!
Which element from each row should you use? Two ways to find out:
You can simply pick your favorite from each row and write a fic that hits all your favorite tropes; or…
Let the fates decide; roll dice to pick a prompt from each row!
Note that your fic is certainly not limited to these three elements. For example, no matter which character you get from row one, you can include any other characters in your story too! And feel free to roll again or pick your choice if the dice give you a character you haven’t recruited or encountered yet.
So, for example, I just tossed a die three times and got a 6, 5, and 2. My story should Ondra, traditions, and survival. Why not go toss some dice now and see what prompts you get?
Remember to tag your fic with #pillars prompts weekly and/or mention @pillarspromptsweekly for ribbon record-keeping. Fics posted to AO3 can be added to our collection there. And feel free to post this prompt’s badge, below, with your fic, or on your profile, or wherever you would like to use it!
