Story of Julian/Vocab Prompt

My first English Class in High School had us use vocab words in context to show that we understood them. So we had to write what was essentially a short story, but usually these were less than the full length of page. I had the idea of having all of my vocab prompts being of the same continuity.

First Prompt

Julian was on the run from the police for something that wasn't his fault. He was sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit. In fact, it wasn’t even a crime, because no law was broken. Julian was simply suspected of superstition. The High Priest of the Darkenian thearchy had died, and Julian was blamed for this malady. The High Priest was eating a massive feast after fasting for several days. As the tradition holds, every citizen must provide a meal for the High Priest when after he is done fasting. Julian was a baker, so he made some bread for the High Priest. The Ravenous High Priest had fasted much longer than is healthy, and imbibed his meals. He didn’t chew his food, he swallowed it whole, as one would swallow a cup of water, except at least ten times faster.  His table manners were atrocious, and he was eating faster than thought possible.  Most of the food that he ate were exquisite foods that were meant to be eaten slowly and savored, that had many different layers each with their own unique taste. The High Priest had mushed it all together and ate the soggy mess like he was in a food eating contest. Then he came to Julian’s bread. Julian wasn’t a rich man, but he was a very good baker, he had simply made a loaf of bread. However, the High Priest had lost all idea of how to eat a loaf of bread and attempted to swallow it whole as he had done to other foods. He found it impossible to swallow this whole loaf of bread. He began to choke, but he had lodged the loaf of bread with such force down his throat, that he could not remove it. Soon the Darkenian High Priest choked to death. No one was around to perform the heimlich maneuver, because everyone who was at the feast was in the citizen’s cafeteria, just outside of the room where the Darkenian High Priest had been eating. This was not tradition, but everyone made a unanimous decision to eat in a different room. This decision was made because no one wanted to be near the Darkenian High Priest, because he was eating like a hog. A few minutes into the Darkenian High Priest’s choking fit a Darkenian Priest of large status came into the room, to see how close to finished the Darkenian High Priest was. They entered the room seconds before he died. They knew that the High Priest had choked on bread that was made by Julian, and parsed that Julian must have caused the incident. Julian didn't know that anything was wrong until, 4 guards came up to him, each in full metal armour, and a two-handed pole-axe. At the moment when he walked up Julian, he knew something was wrong. They ushered him outside, so they could execute him, without disturbing the banquet. As to the gallows Julian questioned the guards on what was happening. The guards stayed stickly silent, each walking menacingly. Julian walked in a cage of guards. There was a guard on all sides of him, and if he were to attempt to escape, a guard would block his path. When Julian reached the gallows, a guard reached forward to grab the noose, Julian took that moment of opportunity to escape. Julian sprinted out from behind the guard that was reaching for the noose and ran for the seaside which was a mile away.

Second Prompt

Dale was Julian’s pseudonym and the name of his false identity. Dale was disguised as in his false identity as a paltry, old, beggar. Most people avoided him because he was revolting, with his disgusting clothes, and had this strange aura about him, that made people paranoid, people never gave Dale anything, for this reason, and because he didn’t beg. He didn't beg, because he was a baker, and at night he would slip into the open plains, and grab some wheat, and make a campfire, and make bread to eat. Then he would skulk back to his place on a flattened cardboard box about 5 yards from a grocery store. People were suspicious that this obviously poor beggar never begged, and thus never was given food, yet somehow he was in his place by the grocery store every day not starved to death. Dale never spoke because if he did he would reveal his secret identity as Julian, so the only way he communicated was using correspondence. John Keif was the owner of the grocery store that Dale lived next to, and didn’t like Dale, because nobody came to his store, because they wanted to avoid Dale. They would have to walk past Dale in order to reach the Grocery Store, and no one wanted to do that. The lack of customers was making John Keif lose business, and would soon go bankrupt. John Kaif was highly suspicious of the mysterious Dale, because Dale always had enough food to eat, even though there was seemingly no way for him to procure food for himself. John Keif also didn't trust that Dale was his actual name, he thought he was a criminal. John Keif wrote his disquisition of Dale’s true nature in The Darkenian Daily News Paper. John wrote about how the little communication that Dale did was through writing, and that he would only not be able to write if he was a mute, and he gave a summary of the artifice that Dale has written. That Dale’s anecdote must truly be false, and that Dale is hiding something from the citizens. Poor Dale hadn’t realized he had vexed John, and was wondering why he was away from his store so long. Then he saw the sign that said going out of business, and for sale. Then the next day Dale read the newspaper with the article by John Keif about Dale. Dale felt bad about what he had inadvertently done to John Keif and his business. The next day when John Keif came back to his store to give a person willing to buy his store a tour of his store, he and everyone else noticed that Dale was gone, and so was his cardboard. In fact all traces of him had vanished, it was like had never been there.

Third Prompt

Julian couldn't find a single place of refuge because libel about Julian’s supposed murder had traveled to settlements faster than he had. The people reading the libel are then convinced that Julian is an infidel because he “caused” the High Priest of the Darkenian Thearchy to choke on bread. The members of the Darkenian society are too resolute to accept that the High Priest’s death was just an unfortunate accident. To be honest it was the High Priest’s fault for eating too fast, and the witnesses’ fault for not giving the High Priest the Heimlich Maneuver. Some citizens don't believe the propaganda, and would be willing to help Julian except that they are afraid of being lampooned by the government and their peers for helping a traitor. This is why Julian has trouble finding refuge. In order to escape government officials that were constantly searching for him, he took upon himself a false identity of Dale. He first tried to completely start off a new life as a homeless person, who lived on a piece of cardboard next to a grocery store. A search party came and questioned everyone, including Dale, regarding information or the location of Julian. Dale had to remain temperate as the Police Officer questioned him, because becoming incredibly nervous, agitated, etc would be suspicious and cause further questioning, but more towards whether he knew about Julian personally, and would eventually lead to his discovery. Luckily Julian was able to remain calm and the questioning passed smoothly, and the rest of the citizens of the small town thought nothing of it. This town was far away from the urban city where the “murder” took place, and was in a more rural area. Citizens didn't think that the killer would be in this little town, so most people weren't suspicious of Dale, except for John Keif, owner of the grocery store.

Fourth Prompt

Julian’s plan didn't work. His attempt to start a new life, by replacing his limbs with animal limbs and becoming a celebrity was flawed. His problem came when he tried to kill a wolf. He didn't have any tools or weapons to harm or kill the wolf. He found a pack of wolves, and he found that there was no single wolf far enough away from the other wolves to be able to be killed without the other wolves noticing. He attempted to bait a wolf away from it's pack by making the sound that a chipmunk, squirrel, rat, mouse, or other small rodent might make. However, this quickly backfired, when all the wolves started moving towards him to find out what the sound was, because all the wolves were so close together, that if one heard the sound, they were all close enough that all of them could hear the sound. Julian ran as fast as he could until he entered a small town, exhausted, and unable to do anything but collapse in fatigue. His current alias of Drake had been discovered, and when the townspeople found him, they recognized him as the criminal Julian. The townspeople bound him with rope and carried him off to another town. This other town was much bigger, a more urban area, full of gargantuan edifices that were much bigger than they needed to be. The townspeople knew they couldn't harm or kill him because the Darwinian society had claimed that right, and would severely punish any who took that privilege from them. The townspeople still wanted to punish Julian for killing the Darkening High Priest. The townspeople placed him upon large and tall pillar, which was at the same time a pillory.  Everyone gathered around the pillory and mocked and scorned Julian as the townspeople tied him to the post, with his hands behind his back, bound, restrained, and in an uncomfortable position. The pillar had a 5ft radius from the center of the circle which it was wide, making it effectively 10ft wide. This meant that Julian’s arms could not go behind his back, so they tied a rope around the pillar and tied his hands to the post. They tied his chest and feet and legs to the post. The post itself was 30ft tall, but Julian’s feet were 10ft above the ground. A speaker of the people, came up to inform the crowd of Julina’s transgression, that Julian had killed the Darkening high priest, who was congenial to this town in which Julian was humiliated. He informed the people that the High Priest did not deserve death because he had nothing to Julian that would ignite his wrath. Even if he did, it would not matter because he was the high priest. Julian had killed the High Priest in cold blood and for seemingly no reason. Julian thought himself of the hypocrisy this tale entailed. The darwinian society wanted to kill Julian in cold blood for no reason, except their own superstition, and said that Julian was worthy of death for killing in cold blood for no reason to murder the high priest. As the speaker finished his speech, the audience insulted, harassed, mocked, scorned, and otherwise humiliated Julian. This caused Julian to become abashed even though he had done nothing wrong, and did not deserve this punishment. The speaker received a scroll of writing from a messenger, and read it to himself, and then paraphrased what he had read to the audience, informing them that the Darkening council of priests was heading towards their town, from the Darkening capital, and would be there within a month. This caused a moment of confusion in Julian, because Julian knew he had traveled for a year consistently from the Darkening Capital, yet the priests were going to travel the same distance in a month. From this knowledge Julian inferred that the priests would take a faster method of transportation than walking for their sojourn to this village. In the evening the audience grew tired and went to sleep, yet Julian could not escape his bonds because the rope was tied tightly. It was not comfortable to bound with rope that is tied to a stone pillar. He remained in his grievous condition, bound on the pillar for a week. Twice a day, everyday during that week it would rain heavily for an hour or two, and the hot and humid summer air caused mold to slowly grow on the ropes that bound Julian. After a week the rops were mostly eaten away by mold, and Julian just had to wait til night, when no one was watching for him to slip from his bonds unnoticed. During the night he slipped his hands from the ropes and pulled the ropes off him, this caused him to fall which badly bruised him, but he was quick to get to his feet. He then stole the nearest horse drawn carriage, which happened to be a fancy, wealthy carriage with a healthy horse, and he was able to go on his way, the horse unaware that it was helping a convict escape. Julian searched through the luggage hoping for food, when he happened across a mirror, and upon further inspection of the fine mirror, he saw his reflection and was astonished. He didn't recognize the demeanor of the convict that stared back at him through the mirror. His reflection showed that he had changed quite a bit since he had last seen a mirror which was before he was a criminal. He used to be a self-renowned baker, that was wealthy, and in comfortable living. Now he is a outcast, convict, and a refugee, fighting to stay alive, and would appreciate a any amount of shelter, food, or substance, more than he would have previously appreciated the most fine of shelters, or the daintiest of dishes, he now finds a morsel of bread more valuable, than he would have found a gold ingot as a baker.

Fifth Prompt

Julian has been riding the decorative horse drawn carriage for about 2 weeks now. The horse has no apparent care for who the passenger is. As long as Julian takes care of the horse and feeds it the horse it will continue to lead him farther into the wilderness. Every night he sets up camp, ties the horse to a tree, and feeds it. He also, takes a break every two to three hours to feed the horse, care for, care for himself, such as eating and going to the bathroom, and allowing the horse to rest and regain its strength. This horse drawn carriage he has stolen is made of fine metals, and is crafted decorative. The horse drawn carriage is made of fancy craftsmanship and wears decorations at the expense of effectiveness and speed. It is almost indubitable that this horse drawn carriage belongs to a person of much eminence and wealth. The horse itself was not bred for strength and speed, it was bred and groomed to look beautiful. It was too small to be a horse, this was because it is actually a pony. This pony has a silvery-white coat, that is very short cut, meaning the hair is not long at all. The mane is decorated with flowers. The pony’s feed consists of sugar plums, salted apples, and some unrecognizable and elaborate fruits. The Pony has a voluptuous belly showing that it is accustomed to being well fed, and not well exercised. This was probably the more exercise than it had ever done before. The Pony was accustomed to being well fed, pampered, groomed, well cared for, pretty much spoiled in regards to how it was treated and cared for. Julian soon reached the edge of known territory, all land beyond this edge was unclaimed, it was everyman for himself, with no laws to protect the innocent or punish the wicked. He knew that past here he would be safe, until the darkenian society buys this land. Which he knows they will if they believe that he is in this land, which they probably do, by tracking his not so subtle journey. He wondered to himself why no had yet claimed this land. As he entered this untouched wilderness, he noticed that the land was odd. The trees didn't have any leaves at all, they were full of spiky branches that jut out towards Julian like spears. He noticed a lack of sound, there were no birds chirping, or squirrels squirming. The grass was non existent, and the ground was a pale brown and cracked as if their had not been rain in a long time. The air was chilly like autumn air. The tree bark was twisted and cracked, and the color of charcoal. The pony’s steps caused the settled dust on the ground to fly into the air. It was a slightly wooded area, the trees were not very close together. The place was completely deserted, and seemed like it might be a desert, as many signs showed lack of rain. Despite their not being a single cloud in the sky, and it being noon day, it seemed very much dark in this area. The trees stood menacingly, and an aura of uneasiness, eeriness, and paranoia surrounded enveloped the area. Suddenly a thick fog materialized out of nowhere. The suddenness of it startled both Julian and the pony, causing Julian to jump, and the pony to gallop, Julian had to stop the horse by pulling back on the reins. Then when the pony was fully stopped Julian could see far in front of him in a clearing of trees and fog, on top of a tall hill, that might have been a mountain, there was a gargantuan castle. The castle was of medieval craftsmanship, it was pitch black color, and had four turrets, one on each corner of the square castle. A large spire rose in the center of the castle. It was mysterious that the fog was clear around it, and that he could easily see it through the fog that was in front of him. The pony showed great repugnance for the castle and started to pull the carriage in the opposite direction of the castle without having been commanded to do anything. This was strange because the pony was usually unerringly obedient. Tough Julian didn't mind, he wanted to get away from the castle too. Then as if in response to them turning to leave a wave of paralyzing fear overcame both the pony and Julian. The Pony stopped stiff in it's tracks, and Julian was having trouble moving as well because of his overwhelming and illogical fear. He knew that there was nothing to be afraid of, and even if their was, there was no reason to only become afraid now. With Great effort he turned his head around and peered over the carriage to see what was the source of the fear. Turning his head was like trying to turn it in the opposite direction that heavy weights are pulling it. When he finally could see the castle again he saw that a figure was riding a black horse from the direction of the castle towards him. A cold shiver crawled through his spine. Though the figure was in the thick fog, between him and the castle, Julian had no trouble making out his features, the figure was not at all obscured by fog. The figure defied the fog, as if the obscurity of the fog, was something that had no control over him. The fog was incredibly thick now, the fog around Julian felt as if it actually had weight now, and looked thicker than molasses. The figure quickly closed in on Julian, and was soon ten feet away, where it stopped. The dark figure had no discerning features except that it was completely covered with an unnecessarily large cloak, that had such a large hood that it folded on top of the figures head, making it impossible to see his face and head. The sleeves were way too long, and you could not see his arms or hands. The large cloak went far beyond his legs, and to make things short, it is simple to say that no part of the creature's body was exposed, because it was overly covered by the cloak. The horse was also wearing a massive cloak, designed for horses. The horse’s cloak was so long that it would ends just a foot above the animal’s hooves. The hood is long and elliptical, and covers the top and bottom of the horse's head. The opening is at the end of it's muzzle allowing Julian to see the tip of its mouth with its lips. It is impossible for the horse to see anything besides a small slit of ground just in front of its muzzle.  Booth cloaks were as dark as shadow and bigger than a normal clock would be. The alarming appearance of this figure terrified Julian, but its voice petrified him. The figure spoke in an almost silent whisper, with a wretched, deep, harsh, raspy, raspy, withered, unfriendly, crackly, inhuman voice with a hint of anger. The voice faltered many times as if unaccustomed to speaking. “ Trespasser! You think you can run from justice in this hallowed wood? The Darkenian order will never forget or forgive your sin. Julian! Yes I know your name. No malefactor can hide their ignominious deeds from me! This is my kingdom and no sun shall go unpunished under my jurisdiction! My territory is cursed, with undispellable magic. No man may ever leave without my permission, the spell enforces that rule. That is not all the curse does, for I know all that happens in my land!” Julian feared for his life, he knew he needed to convince this creature that he was not guilty, or else he would be punished by whatever cruel tortures this creature had planned for him. “I am not guilty, I did nothing that deserves punishment. I am a simple baker, and the High Priest just happened to choke on my  bread, he could've choked on anyone’s bread. They could have blamed anyone, they could have blamed the cook, the waiter, the restaurant, but they chose to blame me.” Julian’s persuasive argument was not at all heeded by the hooded figure, who had no care for his side of the story. “Silence! Don't try to delude me. I can not be fooled, for I know all. You will suffer for your crimes, the law of justice must be fulfilled!” Julian had an idea, he knew he was in unclaimed land, he knew that past the edge he had passed, there was no law for innocent or wicked. “I am in unclaimed territory, there is no law, so you can’t punish me.” The hooded figure wasn’t amused, he thought knew that this was unclaimed land, but as far as he was concerned this was his land, so it fell under his laws, besides he didn't see justice as a government law, he saw it as a universal law. “I am not the one to punish you, you will be punished by the Darkenian Order, and previous assassinations have prefigured that your fate is to become one of my servants. So as you are already here you might as well get used to it. I didn't make this law, nor did the Darkenian Order, is the law of the cosmos, it is as irrefutable as gravity, because you do not believe in the law of justice in this land, doesn't mean it doesn't exist, The same way as lack of belief in the law of gravity will not cause gravity to cease to exist, else my horse would fly. As my horse can not fly, I know that as the law of gravity can not be dispelled, neither can the law of justice. In the words of Babe Ruth for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That is the law of justice, it is a law of life.” As the figure monologued, Julian wondered what was underneath that cloak, the figure had such strange voice it begged the question, of what he was. Curiosity overcame fear, and as the figure was talking Julian pulled the hood off his head, the figure was so in entranced in his monologue, that he didn't notice his hood was off. His face was horrifying, or rather that lack of his face was horrifying, there was nothing there. Then Julian realized that cloak was bigger that he thought, and the hood was a good two feet above his actual head. He looked down into the cloak from above, by leaning having the pony move up to the horseman’s horse. He looked down into his cloak and saw a black vapor. The creature was apparently made of some sort of black gas, vapor, smoke, something that is a gas thing. But, besides his better judgment Julian tried to touch the creature, his hand passed right through its phantasmagoric body, or rather its absence of body. The ghastly creature was so enthralled in his explanations he didn't notice any of this, and Julian didn't hear anything that the creature had said because he wasn't listening. And that was just the beginning of the end.

Sixth Prompt

Julian was struck with an irrational and all consuming fear, after having waved his hand through the incorporeal body of this phantasmagoric creature. The creature didn’t notice Julian’s hand because he was too busy purporting to Julian the reason why Julian would be punished for his crimes despite being in a lawless land. The other reason the creature didn't notice his hand was that he couldn't feel it. The hand couldn't touch him, because his body was not physical. At the end of his speaking he ordered Julian to enter the carriage. Without control over his own movements Julian’s body walked awkwardly into the carriage, and upon entering the carriage Julian regained full control over his own body. Julian dared not make an attempt to escape, because he knew it was useless. If this creature could force his body to move against his will, then he wouldn’t be able to try and leave. The carriage headed towards the castle. As they grew near to the castle Julian looked out of the window at some small shacks that are literally one room houses. The creatures surrounding these shacks varying degrees of similarity to normal humans. They all looked as if they had at one time been human, but had been changed to become monsters. Most had skin that looked like it had been melted but reformed to solid before it slid off their bodies, making their skin sag and drag off their bodies. They had abnormal growths of limbs, and body parts on their body. Some of the creatures looked like they had been really changed. These specific creatures were of an entirely different class. These came in a wide variety of forms. Some were boneless masses of muscle and skin. Some of these blobs had skulls with empty eye sockets, and holes where the ears and nose once were. Others had the skin of their arms and legs ripped apart because their bones grew into large blade sized spikes. They walk around like 4-legged spiders either with their belly facing up or their belly facing down. They often had enlarged bellies, that had a carapace growing on them, much like a spider's abdomen. Their heads would sometimes have multiple eyes growing on them, and their eyes would be of varying sizes and color. Most common their eyes would either be entirely black as if it was all one large pupil, entirely white with no pupil as if it was all the white part of the eye or sclera, and even some would have their entire eye be a certain eye color and look like the iris made up all the eye. Even some would have unnatural eye color like red or bright green eyes, but instead of the entire eye looking like the iris, it would just be that color with no texture except for a slit shaped pupil that is runs vertical along eye. Their chin would be split and their lower jaws would move independently of each other, but and grew larger and sharper to look much more like spider mandibles. Then there was a different type of creature that would humanoid in shape, but instead of having a head, it would have a sphere that is the shape of the head, that is made entirely of normal sized eyes, each one facing outwards, and moving constantly all in different directions as if frantically looking for something. Each eye was a different color, some and many eyes were normal, but significant percentage of the eye was of a variant of the aforementioned strange eyes that the spider people had.  Where arms would be they would have arms sized tongues. That is what the arms looked like at least. They might not biologically function as tongues, but they appeared as a tongue stretching out of the mouth, but arm sized and replacing the arms. It looks like their legs were torn off at where the hip would be, as the hip was nowhere to be found. Instead the sound extended out into a large tail, and with little or no skin growing over the new muscles forming around the spine to use it as a tail. Other creatures seemed to be made out of an arrangement of different animal parts, or even parts of creatures of animals that don’t really exist, but the larger percentage of those creatures are made of human parts. An example of having parts that are from animals that don’t really exist is that some of those creatures have wings, however, the wings are coated with bone plates instead of skin. The skin that most real flying creatures have are either covered with fur or feathers, such as a bat or a bird. These creatures however, some had wings that were covered with bone plates which were to heavy, to allow the wings to be moved very fast. Then beyond that the entire creature was too heavy to fly even with proper wings. There were, however, creature that were made of different animal parts that could fly. Julian didn’t have enough time to look at all of the villages of shacks of different creatures, so there were more abnormal creatures that he didn’t see the reason he didn’t get to see him all, was then the carriage carried him into the castle gates. Before he entered the castle, he observed that the strange monstrosities seemed to be organized into villages based on their deformities. The monsters made of different animal parts would only be in villages of monsters with different animal parts, and spider people would only be in villages with other spider people. Despite halls of this fine castle having a lavish red carpet embroidered with golden patterns of flowers, the cloaked creature riding a horse rode upon the carpet, it seem his horse was also incorporeal, because it left no trail on the carpet. The carriage, however, was very much corporeal and left a muddy trail on the carpet, but the cloaked rider didn’t seem to care.  Eventually they turned a corner and the carriage came to a stop. The cloaked figure was already sitting on a throne at the end of a long and wide room. The throne was made of broken, moldy, and rotten wood. The seat had caved in long ago, but the creature sat upon it as if it was comfortable. Without command, Julian’s body acted on it’s own and carried Julian outside of the carriage, and as he walked towards the siting creature he fought for control over his body. Julian was able to turn his head enough to look back at the carriage he had been riding. The appearance of the carriage shocked him. It wasn’t that the carriage had a shocking appearance, it is that the carriage was not the same carriage he had entered when he rode to the castle. He knew this fact to be incredulous, as the carriage could not be a different carriage from the one he entered, unless he had switched carriages on the way to the castle, however, he knew he had stayed in the carriage the entire ride to the castle. The carriage he had entered had been a fine steel carriage coated in silver and gold, and precious metals and gems. The reigns had been made of fine leather, the wheels had been made of powerful steel that was decorated with a gold coating. The pony was as white as snow, and was decorated with flowers. But the carriage he had just left was as black as night, made of a molded, rotten, and somewhat broken black wood, as perhaps the black wood from the twisted trees of the cursed forest that surrounds the castle. The windows were decorated with tattered black curtains. The door wore several black metal chains, that crisscrossed the door, and had a lock in the middle where all the chains connected. The lock was made from a human skull. The chains and the lock looked as if they served the purpose to trap the passenger inside the carriage, by locking the doors and keeping them securely shut. The reigns were made of a black, rusted, iron, chain. The pony had somehow been either replaced by or transformed into a black horse, with a mane of wispy shadow, decorated with human skulls instead of flowers. The horse’s eyes were pitch black as if it had no soul. Then Julian suddenly stopped moving, and upon looking forward again, he realized he was five feet away from the sitting, cloaked, creature. At that point his body fell to the ground violently, and kneel before the creature, in the way one kneel before a king. There were huge stained glass mosaic windows lining the top quarter of the walls. The mosaics looked as if they had had once been full of vibrant color, but now, aged with time, the mosaics had dull grey colors, some of them with the slightest hint of a non-grey color. The colors would be a dull reddish-grey for example. Only if one were to observe the mosaics closely would it be possible to discern any hint of color besides grey. Many of the mosaics have holes and cracks in them. What can be seen from the non broken parts of the mosaics are images depicting horrific monsters and terrifying malformations. Then upon closer inspection Julian noticed that the images had originally been of radiant beings, and angelic figures. The malformations had originally been celestial blessings, the horrific monsters originally been beautiful and majestic creatures of a saintly aura. Through corrosion, erosion, weathering, ageing, dulling of specific colors, and having certain parts of the window broken or missing, it made the images seem horrific, when they had indeed been portraying glorious creatures and events. Then flying in from a large hole in one of the mosaics, an abnormally large black vulture flew in carrying a rolled up scroll of black parchment that was closed with with a green seal. The vulture was size of a human, and after upon having observed for a few seconds, Julian discovered that it was in fact a human, but changed liked the monsters from outside. The creature had a human head with elongated jaw that stretches out of his face, and the skin ripped apart around the beak like jaw, revealing the black bone of the jaw. The wings are what his arms turned into, having become more pointed, and growing breaking out from his skin, and having more skin grow onto it, creating the flaps of the wings, the feathers were actually unusually thick and long black hairs, and his legs grew wider which ripped the not growing flesh off him. His bones were all black, in the places where they could be viewed. The skin on his feet broke off and his toes joined together to create 4 large talon like toes. The human’s skin had turned as black as coal as if they had been burned. He flew down to the cloaked figure and handed him the scroll. The cloaked creature rolled up his sleeves by rubbing them together, and his black shapeless ,  arms made up of black, wisp, ethereal, plumes of smoke like substance that is pitch dark like night. The plumes of darkness condensed, and formed into solid, black, skeletal, and inhuman arms. The arms had hands, and the hands clasped the scroll. The touch of his bony finger sublimated the seal into foul smelling fumes. He then unrolled the scroll, and upon realizing he was holding it upside down, he then flipped it over. He read the message silently to himself, and then tossed it onto the floor, where it upon hitting the floor caught fire, and burned to ashes. The cloaked figure then spoke to Julian, in the same raspy, voice he had used last time, “Julian, My messenger has informed the Darkenian Council of the Darkenian Society of your presence here in my kingdom, and they have sent the verdict of your court case in crime to me. I have read the decree from the Darkenian Council, and your punishment is great and terrible, but not unexpected. You have been sentenced to an eternity as my servant. As you may have noticed, I have many servants. You have probably seen them in their villages on your journey to my throne room, they were all once human. They were all found guilty of unforgivable crime, and sentenced to an eternity as my servants. They are all no longer human, that is the curse of this land. This is the reason the Members of the Darkenian Society will never set foot in this land. This land is cursed with multiple curses, I have already told you of one, now I shall tell you another. Any living creature that sets foot in this land is slowly turned monstrous. The process in which they change is very slow, but when you are here for eternity, there is plenty of time for to change. Living creatures are only actively transformed while in this land, so a servant's favorite job is a job that allows or requires them to leave this land, because when they are not in this land, they are not actively being transformed into a monster. This is of little effect, because they will have to return, so they only delay the inevitable, and not by much. The transformation process is so slow, that it will be a few lifetimes before any noticeable change is seen in you. You might even think that you are immune to the curse, but as I speak the curse has taken effect on you and you are changing, very slowly, and an excruciatingly slow speed. Another curse that takes place upon this land, is that all who are in it, can’t die. This is of little effect, where would go if you could die? It couldn’t be heaven because you have committed treacherous sins, that make you worth my punishment, and it can’t be hell because this, this is hell. This effect of your immortality, will drive you insane, as I can inflict any amount of punishment and pain, without any fear of losing a servant. Many curses take place over the course of this land, and I shall tell you no more of the curses, the only way to discover these curses is through trial and error of things that are cursed or not cursed.  As you are now my servant, you will need a name for me. If you were to know my true name you would die, but as you are in a land cursed with immortality, you would be placed into suspended animation, except you would sense time passing normally, you would not be able to see, or hear, or have any of your senses. You would be keenly aware of each passing moment. Time would seem to pass excruciatingly slow, and you would be dying for time to pass quicker, even though it would have no effect on you if time did pass quicker. You could not dream, or think, except it be to think of how painfully slow time passes. This would be torment enough to tempt me to tell you my true name. However, you have not been able to work for me if you were in suspended animation. So I will instead give you a fake name, a name by which you may address me without being placed into suspended animation. Julian, you may call me Gary! You may now speak your mind.” Julian had thinking about the servants, and he realized, that there would literally be no reason to Julian become a servant if he already had so many servants, he keeps most of them in villages, “I was wondering, why you want me to be your servant if you already have superfluous servants, so much so, that a single extra servant would make no difference.” Gary knew that Julian knew that Julian wanted to escape his punishment, after all who wouldn't? Gary responded as if Julian had asked release from punishment, “You will be my servant. The punishment is not for my benefit, but it is for your misery! You cannot escape your punishment. You have made your choice and now you must suffer the consequence” Gary’s voice carried through the room and echoed back with the same force and power that had been spoken from Gary. Julian knew that from what he had experienced and heard from Gary that the only way for him to escape would be for Gary to let him escape, however, Gary wasn’t going to let him escape. Julian’s only chance to escape would be to convince Gary that he was innocent and that the entire thing was a big misunderstanding. So Julian began to speak, “Gary please understand-” “I did not give you permission to speak” interrupted Gary. You are not even penitent of your sins. You feel no shame for killing the Darkenian High Priest.” Julian now realized that it was hopeless to try and convince Gary that he was innocent, and therefore he knew Gary would never let him leave. So he knew he would never be able to leave. He regained control of his body and didn’t quite know what he was supposed to do. If he did anything without permission he would likely be trouble. Then Gary spoke, “as your first task, you shall be burdened with personally feeding all of my servants.” And with those words he motioned with his skeletal hand for him to leave, and he did so his hand returned to its ethereal form as a shapeless black gas.  Julian’s body again started acting on its own to walk to a kitchen where more than fifty giant cauldrons as large and wide as a human is tall. He then walked over to a gargantuan pit in the ground that was full of strange withered plants. And with his body still acting on its own he took a bucket the size of a basket ball and filled it with the plants from the pit. Then he poured the plants into a cauldron, refilled his bucket, then he poured the contents of the bucket into the cauldron. He repeated this process until the cauldron was almost full. Then he filled the other cauldrons. All this he did against his will, his body moving against his wishes. It took him all day until all the cauldrons were full, but then his body kept filling the cauldrons, this time with water from a nearby lake. The lake water didn’t look clean, but he didn’t have a choice in what he did as his body moved by itself. He finished filling all the cauldrons by the next afternoon. Then he noticed that the cauldrons were each on their own sleds, and they had a harness that he put on without control of his own body. Then he started slowly dragging the cauldron on the sled to a village nearby. It took the rest of the day for him to drag the cauldron to the village. Then he walked back to the kitchen and dragged a cauldron to another village. He did this until each cauldron had been dragged to a village. The. He dragged the empty cauldrons back to the kitchen. This entire task of preparing that food, delivering the food, and bringing the food back to the kitchen took 4 days. When he got back to the kitchen he regained control of his body. He saw a sign in the kitchen that read, “Julian. Your meal is next to this sign, you then must begin again your task of making, delivering, and returning everyone’s meals. You shall start this task within 5 minutes of reading this sign. This time you will have to control your body, and make it carry out the order.” Upon finishing the reading of the sign, Julian speedily ate his meal, which turned out to be a dinner plate sized bowl of the same type of soup he had made for the others. After he finished eating, Julian went to work on preparing the meal for the servants. Julian was weary from having previously completed this difficult task over the course of 4 days without break, and now that he didn’t have a supernatural power forcing his body to work at full capacity, he found it a lot harder to complete this task. He dared not stop or fall asleep or rest. This time it took him a week to complete the task, and by the time he had returned all of the cauldrons to the kitchen, all of the servants were hungry again. He continued this job for a month, without rest, each time he finished the job he would have 5 minutes to eat a bowl of soup, before he had to get to work on the job again. Each time he did the job he grew more tired, weak, and less effectual at the job. He tried to go faster each time, but it was no use. After a month of continuously doing this job, it would take a full 2 weeks for him to complete a full round. Whenever he reached a village either bringing the cauldron or taking the cauldron, the monstrosities were ungrateful, mean, antagonistic, and despised Julian with such a keen hatred, they did much to make his life miserable. However, no matter what they did, they would never leave their village, Julian didn’t know why they didn't leave, but it helped him avoid their sabotages, so he would go as fast as he could when he was in the village to either quickly drag the cauldron into the village, set it down quickly and run out, or to take the college from the village, and drag it out as fast as he could. Sometimes the creatures would try to spill his soup, or they would grab onto it and make it hard for him to move it. Then one time Julian decided to explain to these creatures that it was in their best interests to make this job as easy as possible for him, because the easier it was, the faster he could get them their next meal. So when he dragged the cauldron to the first village he tried to get their attention, and so he could explain to them why they shouldn’t sabotage his efforts. He didn’t know why, but for any number of reasons the creatures paid no attention to him. It could have been, they were too hungry to listen and be reasonable, it could be that they have gone crazy from their torment, it could be they have lost the ability understand human language, it could be that their bodies make it hard or impossible to hear what he is saying, it could be that their minds have been changed into simple, primitive minds without the capacity to reason as a human does, it could be that they despise him so much, that it wouldn't matter what he said because they don’t like him, it could be that they despise him so much that their desire to bring him misery overcomes their desire for food, it could be that they are compelled by a supernatural force to act this way, it could be that the presence of food is too distracting to pay attention to anything else, etc. For whatever the reason, Julian could not convey his message to the monsters. He tried at each village, but he had the same result. He tried again when he took their cauldrons back to the kitchen, but they for whatever reason out of an infinite number of reason, they chose to ignore his words, and continue to sabotage his efforts. After another week Julian had been doing this terrible chore for so long, that he was unable to function correctly. He felt like he was dying, but then he remembered that he couldn’t die. This cursed land, had one reason for making people immortal, and that was so that they could suffer infinite torture. He was starving, but he knew it wouldn’t kill him. Then he realized something. This entire task was meaningless. If the servants couldn’t die, then there was no reason to feed them. He thought of 3 results to not carrying out his task; he would be told Gary’s true name; he would be forced to complete the task through some supernatural power which would make it easier, or he would be inflicted with some other punishment or given another task. As far as he could tell, the worse that could happen would be he would be inflicted with another punishment, but he figured any punishment is better than this punishment. If he was compelled to complete trough a magical force, then it would be easier, because he wouldn’t need to try, because his body would try for him. If he was told Gary’s true name, he would be keenly aware of passing time, but unable to use any of his sensors, or do anything. However, he wouldn’t be able to feel pain, exhaustion, or any of the negative physical effects. With having determined that all outcomes of not feeding the servants would be better than the outcome of feeding the servants, he decided when he got to the sign with his meal, that he would sit there and sleep after he ate. It was impossibly easy to fall asleep, as he fell asleep as he was eating. After what seemed like no time at all, he was woken up by Gary, and Gary was mad. Gary rebuked for his decisions saying, “You have reviled against me! You disobeyed my command and let my servants starve. You are humiliating me! What King has unloyal servants, that refuse to carry out his command, and what king wouldn’t severely punish their servants for such actions! What is the use of a servant if it can’t provide succor for its king! You have failed my simplest task, so how can I trust you to do anything useful? The answer of course is I can't trust you, so I will instead provide you with the worst punishment I can inflict. You must wear the Talisman of Eternal Torture!” With those words, Julian lost control of his body, he was forced to sprint to a graveyard on the very outskirts of the clearing that the kingdom was in. The graveyard was the farthest thing away from the castle while still being in the clearing. When he reached the graveyard he still didn’t have control of his body, but he slowed to a walk, and walked up to what appeared to be long dead monstrosity, laying on the ground ripped to pieces. The monster is of a type that Julian hasn’t seen even though he has been to all of the servant villages and fed all the monstrosities. Julian thought he had seen all of the monsters, but his creature was proof that he hadn’t. The creature’s color was a pale grey, and it  had a multiple heads. They were the heads of snakes, however many of these heads were on the ground having somehow been slashed off his shoulders. He still had about 20 heads on his body, but their were over a thousand of the heads strewn around the graveyard. Each head was the head of a different type of snake. Snake head on his body had the under side of the snake head and neck facing towards the middle of the heads were on the shoulders, and not on a snake neck was a scaly beak, with a 4 pointed fangs and a black-purple forked tongue. Its torso was a large snake body that was 20ft long and 5 feet wide. At the was a snake tail with a dolphin like fin on the end of the tail. The torso had been ripped from the shoulders. The positioning of the snake torso made it look like its head had been the beaked snake head. The there was 2 large snake eyes on the side of the torso 5 feet down from the shoulders. The eyes were 2 feet in diameter, and were perfectly spherical. When Julian was within a few feet of it, he noticed a Black, Iron, Skull. The skull was worn around the torso of the creature as a necklace by a chain of tiny black iron skulls that were 1 inch in diameter. Julian kept walking towards the creature, he felt his hand go forward reaching for the skull. Then the eyes of the creature's torso thrust open, and all the eyes of all the snake heads opened, whether the heads were attached to the shoulders or not. The snake heads started thrashing around wildly, and the many snake heads on the ground started to slowly slither their way towards Julian. The Torso with started thrashing it’s dolphin like tail up and down on the ground. Julian knew this act to be illogical. Surely this creature must be dead. He thought to himself. He then remembered, that nothing can die while in this cursed land. So despite it being illogical, that a creature’s head would survive while disconnected from the body, it has occurred because of the curse. Julian’s hand had not stopped reaching for the skull necklace, the creature was thrashing about in agony, and it started wailing in a hissing voice. The words, if it said any, were incomprehensible, but a clear message was sent. This creature was in mind-numbing pain. Julian realized this must be the Talisman of Eternal Torture! He tried to resist his hands movements towards the talisman, but he couldn't even slow his hands. Then he grasped the Talisman, and indescribable pain came over him. He did not let go, he couldn't let go, his body was still controlled by a supernatural force, he pulled the talisman off the torso of the creature, placed the Skull necklace around his own neck. As soon as he had lifted the Skull necklace off the torso of the creature, had the creature stopped thrashing. The creature went silent, motionless, and became as though dead. The creature regained color and slowly started to stir, as if waking from a long and deep sleep. As the creature vivified, Julian quickly became a pale grey, and at first was thrashing about in pain, but as it came close to a minute in passing, Julian slowed his thrusting, his mind was going numb. He was unable to think, or function. Then Julian lost consciousness. Despite being unconscious he still felt the pain, as acute as before. He suffered tormentous nightmares, each with one thing in common, the excruciating pain. Suddenly the pain ceased, he opened his eyes, waking from his tormentor slumber. The creature he had taken the Talisman from had taken the talisman from him, and thrown it onto the ground beside him.

Seventh Prompt

Julian regains his strength, and looks around. He sees that the strange monster that looks like an octopus or a squid, except that it is made entirely out of serpents. The strange monster was laying on the ground with the Talisman of Torture right next to it.  Julian asks the creature, “how?...why did you help me?” The some of the serpentine heads swivel around to look at Julian. Julian asks, “can you speak?” all of the serpentine heads now turn to look at him. All of the serpentine heads, at different intervals make sounds, each head making only one sound for a brief moment, the coalition of sounds work together to sound like hissing words. The creature says through it’s many heads, “I s-s-speak.” Julian, then asks his original question again, however, he uses more specific words, “Why did you help me? How did you take the Talisman of Torture off me without putting back onto you?” The creature swivels a ⅓ of his heads to look at the Talisman of Torture and hisses, “I… Already… wore…  the…. Talis-s-sman. … I … have… completed… his-s-s-s-s-s command. I… have … already… worn… the Talis-s-sman. He… no longer… controls-s-s-s me. He… has-s-s-s forgotten… about… me.” The creature spake very slowly. As if trying to figure out how to form words. Julian decided the best thing to do at this point is to get on this things good side. To be polite and civil he asks, “My name is Julian, what’s yours?” The creature says nothing for about a minute, trying to remember something long forgotten. Then it speaks again, “I… am……….H-h-rakesh-sh-sharr.” “Hraksharr?” Julian asks. “Hraksharr” the creature responds. Julian is then suddenly aware of the circumstance, and asks, “what should we do? We can’t just stay here, but we can’t leave because of the curse, and we can’t go back to the caste or else we will be tortured. So what should we do?” That’s when the decapitated heads of Hraksharr wrapped themselves around Julian. “What is the mea-“ Julian’s words are cut short as one of the snakes wraps around his mouth and head. A decapitated snake head whispers in Julian’s ear, “to pass unnoticed in this cursed land of monsters, you must assimilate to them. Another snake whispers into Julian’s ear, “I will make no mistake this time. I will complete my mission. I was a holy warrior sent from the neighboring kingdom to sanctify this land and cleanse this kingdom of evil. I have failed. I have succumbed to the curse and become a monster, such as the creatures I was sent to destroy! Even after my transformation, I still felt that it was my duty to cleanse this land. I disobeyed the evil tyrant at every chance I had. He took advantage of me and asked me to do the opposite of what he wanted. I tried to figure out what he actually wanted and do the opposite of that. To throw me off his track even further he would constantly change my directions. His caprice was unbearable, but I continued to oppose him. He finally had enough of me and sent me here to bury the dead, I of course did the opposite and I dug up the graves and found he Talisman of Torture, he had specifically told me to not touch anything that wasn’t dirt or rock. . So I decided I would hide the object. However, as soon as I touched it, my hands grasped around it and threw it around my neck. I was in so much pain that I had tried to decapitate myself, because death was infinitely more peaceful. However, the wretched proprietor of this unholy land, had cursed it with undeath. I was literally unable to die no matter my wounds. I grew more heads slowly over a period of years. Then that was when you came in. After a rimless period, for I could. It determine time. I had lost count of the days and nights. You came and freed me from my burden. The curse was lifted from me. I could handle the unholy objects without being possessed. I was therefore able to free you. Now, we must bring justice to this land. Everything upon this land is unholy, and a things unholy must die. This includes you and me! Julian, had liked his plan up until the point where he and Hraksharr died. “Can’t we just kill the king and leave?” The snakes that wrapped around him squeezed and he felt a stinging pain. I just told you that no one in this land can die? So why do you think that the King is an exception? We will turn ourselves in, and work for his insidious plans, until he trusts us. Then we will turn against him, by thrusting the Talisman of Torture onto him, and forcing him to hold it. This will incite immeasurable pain, and we will exhort him to lift the curse of undeath. He will still not be able to die, as he is intangible, and can’t be killed. We will be able to destroy everything in this land except for him, and that will have to suffice.” Julian can’t imagine how any of this could bring about any change, except for killing everything. The King would just be able to trap more people in this land after they were dead, and restart his kingdom. Julian was also very much  against the idea of dying, so he tried to persuade Hraksharr against this plan. Hraksharr, took no heed. Julian didn’t want to tell Hraksharr of the flaws in his plan, but felt this would be the only way to convince him otherwise. “Hraksharr! We can’t kill everyone except the King, because if we do, the king will just replace the curse, and restart his regime.” Hraksharr started to slither towards the castle, as if he had not even heard Julian’s argument. Julian decided that if Hraksharr was going to be stubborn, then he would have to be stubborn as well. “I am not going!” Julian declared. “Where are you not going?” Hraksharr asked as if genuinely confused. Julian replied defiantly “I’m not going anywhere! I won’t go to the King with you!” Hraksharr’s many snake heads seemed to smile, as the snakes grappling Julian squeezed tighter, and one whispered, “Of course you’re not going anywhere, the King is coming here!” With those words, Hraksharr picked up the Talisman of Torture and with great pain, did crush it with his beak. When the skull necklace broke, there was an explosion of unholy force. Julian felt as though he was guilty of every crime, including those he didn’t know about and was not a part of. His guilt was irrational, and he felt terrible anguish in his soul. He longed to requite his crimes, which he had not committed. A powerful scream came from Hraksharr’s beak where the skull necklace had been smashed. Hraksharr fell to the ground as if dead, and all of the snake heads grappling Julian went limp. A smoke was pluming from the main skull of the skull necklace, the eyes of the skull glowed black. If black was like light, this would have been blinding. The smoke that plumed from the eyes, nose, and mouth of the skull necklace was pitch black, as if all other blackness, was a imitator of this darkness. The plume of smoke took the shape of Hraksharr, and he materialized out of the smoke. The snake heads, and the body of Hraksharr turned into smoke plumes and joined into the material smoke in the shape of Hackshard. The creature that appeared as Hraksharr, but completely black, seemed to be smiling, and though it was entirely black, its features were very distinguishable. As it was still smoke, semi-corporeal, it hovered above the ground about a foot in height. It glided to right in front of Julian, then dissipated. There was now no trace of Hraksharr, the Talisman of Torture or that anything in this graveyard that Julian had seen had really happened. He turned to leave into the forest, but yet again the paralyzing and irrational fright, made it impossible to proceed towards the forest and out of castle boundaries. He tried pull free of his paralyzation, but with no avail, he eventually gave up. When he turned to look back at the castle Hraksharr was standing right in front of him, and he was still made of smoke. “Julian! Come with me to the castle, we shall escape, by using the King’s powers against him!” Hraksharr roared.  Julian was not to trusting of this creature, due to Hraksharr’s tempestuous nature. Hraksharr’s original plan had been to cleanse the land of all evil by destroying the wicked, until he grasped the Talisman of Torture at which point Julian came along and saved him. He saved Julian and had a new plan, this time to escape by torturing the the King into undoing the curse of undeath, allowing him to kill all of the minions and monstrosities of the King. Then he and Julian would escape this torturous life by killing themselves. Then what his plan was, was indecipherable, because he ruined the plan by destroying the Talisman of Torture and turned into a smoke monster. Now his plan is to escape by using the King’s own dark powers. Julian decided that the best choice was to pretend to go along with Hraksharr’s plan, and then at a crucial moment, betray him and leave.