E is for Elves
Week 5 of the Alphabet Superset Challenge
Elves in stories have always been a part of my childhood. My mother used to make up bedtime stories featuring a little elf family and the shennanigans they’d get up to. She’s asked me for years to write an elf story and I’ve always told her she should be the one to come up with the concept instead. Elf stories seemed to belong to my mother. So when I was creating the idea and synopsis for this week’s mock cover, I couldn’t help but feel a little nostalgic.
The Fairy tale: The Elves and the Shoemaker
The genre: Action & Adventure
The Mock Title: Escape from the Murk
The Mock Synopsis:
Mona has always sen magic in the ordinary. Orphaned at nine, she remembered her parents were creative, and they shared that gift with her. She had the uncanny ability to make beautiful things out of almost nothing. So it made sense that she was apprenticed to her grandfather—the local shoemaker—and it made sense that she’d spend her whole life in the mundane town of Briskwater…until the night the flower bloomed.
Catching the glow from the bedroom, Mona plucked the lovely blue petals and turned it into a dye to make a wonderful pair of shoes. The next few weeks a lot of wonderful things happened. she sold her first pair of shoes, she got a promotion to senior apprentice, found a gold coin and nabbed the last chocolate cupcake at the local bakery. But not long after the good luck started, she started to feel…watched.
They came at night, dressed as dark as shadows, stealing her and her and her wonderful shoes away into the Hollow forest—where all were forbidden from entering. Mona was certain she was a goner until she was rescued by two incredibly brave—and incredibly tiny—knights in leaf green armor.
It all started with the flower. Turns out it belonged to the Fairy Queen of the Spring, and now she wants both the shoes—and Mona’s skills—in her possession. And she’s not the only one. The Queen of the Murk— the fall court of rot, shadow and dead things— wants Mona’s talent too, and is willing to hunt her down to make sure no one else does.
Mona has to rely on her two elf knights (well, elf-knights in training, if we’re being honest), Finkle and Feather, if she has any chance of meeting the Spring Queen and bargaining for her life back! Either that, or face eternal servitude in the Murk…a face worse than any mundane life.
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(Technically) This Week: is F for… not sure yet! Stay tuned!
Alphabet Superset: The goal of the challenge is to make something every week for 26 weeks. You can pick the output, the style, the theme. The important thing is that you stick with it! Learn more about the challenge here.
