Challenge 2

Prompt: The story takes place a century in the past. A character will prepare 
for a religious ceremony, but the action is misinterpreted.

"You have always had the most beautiful hair," my mother says, running the brush through the blonde length. 

"Thank you, mam." I reply, closing my eyes to enjoy the feeling. Today is an important day for us. I am going to be performing a rite meant to satisfy the goddess Artemis. It is very important that she is satisfied or father's forces will be unable to travel.

"Now, my child, you must finish dressing. I will leave you while I go tend to the final preparations for the ceremony." With a final nod at my reflection in the glass, my mother turns and walks out of the room. 

Left on my own, I now turn to where my new chiton lays across the foot of my bed. I hold the fabric in my hands, admiring it's deep green color and silver embroidery. It was a beautiful gown, truly the most beautiful I had ever been given to wear. It even had little red wildflowers stitched along the hem. The green cloak meant to be worn over the chiton lay beside it on the bed, and I ran my fingers softly over the thick wool. I wouldn't need it for long. I sighed softly before donning the gown and cloak. I looked in the glass at my reflection and was amazed at the creature before me. Besides the paleness of my cheeks, I looked lovely. My hair had been pulled away from my face by my mother and braided from one side to the other. I turned slightly to examine the back of my head and noticed that she had left some of my curls to fall freely down my back. It looked remarkable, and I could feel a few tears making their way to my eyes. 

"Silly girl, there is no need for you to cry today. It is an honor that you have been chosen to serve your father in this way." I chastised myself as I breathed in deeply to regain my composure.

Only moments after I had composed myself, a servant stepped into my chambers. I turned to see my dear chambermaid, Cora. 

"Dear mistress, I wish that today's rite did not have to happen." she whispered, stepping into the room with me. 

"Sh. You mustn't say such things, Cora. You know as well as I that the rite must happen today or father's fleet will not be able to travel. They must bring Aunt Helen back." My words came out quickly. I was fearful of who might come in as we spoke of such things. Someone could interpret our words as treasonous. 

"I know, but I wish the goddess did not desire you, my dear mistress. We have grown together, and though you are the King's daughter, I still feel that you are my closest friend and companion. I do not know what shall happen to me once you are gone, Iphigenia." My dear Cora has tears in her eyes and running down her face as she finishes her small speech.

I can feel tears pooling in my own eyes, as well. I don't trust myself to speak, so I instead pull Cora in for a hug. Her arms wrap around my body, and I hold her as she sobs. When she has finished with her tears, I pull away and gently wipe her face with my hands.

"You will be fine, Cora. Mother loves you as another of her daughters. She will not let any harm befall you. Now, we must go to the altar near the docks. It is almost time for the rite to begin."

We left my chambers together and made our way to the place that I was supposed to sacrifice myself for the good of my family and my countrymen. As I approached the altar, I let go of Cora's arm. I must face my destiny alone. I made my way to my father's side before his fleet.

"Goddess Artemis, maiden huntress of the moon, we beg that you take this sacrifice - freely offered - and in exchange give us your blessing and the wind to quickly and safely reach Troy. In your name, goddess, I sacrifice my eldest child, my own beloved daughter, Iphigenia." With my father's words, I felt the air of a sword as it swung down towards my exposed neck. 

Suddenly, a flash of light appeared and I was no longer standing next to my father. Instead, I was standing next to a beautiful woman. Her long, black hair and silver chiton told me who she was before she could even open her mouth to speak.

"Artemis, my lady." I whispered in awe as I dropped to my knees and bowed before the goddess.

"Rise, my maiden daughter. Let us go away now." The goddess said as she held her hand out to me. I took hold of her hand and stood, ready to follow the goddess wherever she had destined for me to go.

Challenge 1

Prompt: The story takes place twenty years into the future. A character dyes their hair, but it is done for different reasons than people would expect. A character is tense throughout most of the story. During the story, a character drinks something that disagrees with them.

I am being hunted. The number of people outside of my apartment complex is proof enough of that. As a computer hacker, I expected to be caught by the police one day, but not so soon and not over something this big. I had found a leak. The leak was of government information; information that could make or break society as we know it. Not that there is much of society left to break anymore, though. The world had been slowly crumbling for years. The economy had slowly improved earlier in the century, but now it was on a downhill slope. The environment had been all but destroyed in most places due to a steady rise in population since 2015. After almost twenty years of population growth, people had realized that they needed more space. It had been ridiculous how quickly cities grew around the world. Borders needed to be expanded, but almost every inch of available land had been claimed already. Wars had already started in other countries, but I had expected that we would be fine here in America. I had been wrong. The information that I found was about a secret war. The government had been using the CIA to do the dirty work for them abroad; taking out powerful leaders who threatened our hold on the majority of the Western Hemisphere. It was shocking how many lives had been taken just to keep the power the government held so dear in tact. Now they were coming after me because I knew what they had done. I was just another problem that needed to be dealt with. I zipped up my overnight bag and stepped into the bathroom. Grabbing the bottle of hair dye off of the counter, I made quick work of turning my pale blonde locks a dark brown color. Once my hair color had been changed, I took the scissors from my kitchen and proceeded to cut the strands. I stared into the mirror and noticed that my eyebrows looked out of place with their pale coloring. I pulled out an eye pencil, coloring my eye brows with it so that they matched my new coloring. I had already used bronzer on my exposed skin to make it appear as though my skin were a different color. Looking down the length of my body, I was amazed at my change. I had managed to make myself look like my neighbors Hispanic cleaning lady with just a few simple changes. I was even wearing jeans and a faded pink shirt like the ones she always wore. I couldn't ponder over my looks any longer. I had to make my escape. Placing the note I had written for "the maid" and a check on my kitchen counter, I quickly grabbed my bag and left. I walked to the nearest bus stop, feeling eyes on me the entire time, and got on board just before a bus could pull away. I rode for hours until I was well outside the city. After getting off, I walked into a diner and grabbed a bite to eat. The waitress pointed me in the direction of a cheap, dingy motel where I would be able to sleep for the night. As I finished up my meal, she brought me a final cup of coffee. I took a sip just as she said, "That gentlemen at the counter sent this over for you and said your meal was on him." 
I turned to look and saw the flash of a badge before my world went completely dark.

Purpose

The purpose of this blog is to keep track of my own personal writing challenge, and hopefully, to encourage other beginning writers to challenge themselves to think outside the box and write. I may not post a new short story every day, but every post will be based on a prompt generated on Seventh Sanctum or submitted by my readers on Wattpad. If you are on Wattpad and are curious about my works, look me up. My username is SomeoneNamedDaisy. Thanks for all of the support!

Daisy Dashwood