a collection of word-inspired spontaneities.

Spoiler

Challenge by a friend in RL: write a couple pieces in the typical medieval fantasy setting. Start with one word on the first line. If you have any more suggestions for those words, please tell me; I kind of ran out after about 15 minutes. Also, is this worth keeping?

Vernacular!
The heralds spoke with many words and formalities, but twisted their tongues
at speeds that such words became lost in the
sides of their cheeks and the roots of their teeth. Letters curled up
and rotted away like bacteria, leaving them destined to be
old, toothless men with stories to tell and no tongue to tell them with.

Majesty!
Should the purple robes become mussed by the throne,
the broken backs of servants could only grovel more; and
should the silver platters tarnish with the decay of their kingdom,
the royalty would throw balls. They seem to think that closing their doors
and lighting their fireplaces would keep the cold out,
and chase away war. No matter the gaiety and the plushness
of their dress, they would not, and soon, the winds would
push away their great oak doors, and the festivies would be swept up in battle.

Abscondence!
For the thief does not wish to carry his pride during the day;
the night is a time for ensuring one's survival, and with candlestick and silver in hand,
that is exactly what he does. He can only that the cleaver may let his flesh be,
and that the watchmen are too blinded by the danger of the forest to notice
a threat such as he.

Poverty!
The fields carried wealth in them, gold in color and warm in stomach,
but the poor men's hands were calloused and bled onto
their tools of labor, the rubies of those who didn't have royalty in their blood.
When their children cried out, the hunger
pangs were overwhelmed with those of the heart, aching and growling for something more.
Sometimes, the patriotism for their beloved rulers wavered, and taverns
were filled with more than midnight gropings and spilled ale.
Cellars could be used for more than storing food.
There were plans to be made.


Thanks for reading!

Of course this is worth keeping! What a silly question.

I would suggest, in the poverty stanza - first of all, maybe a comma in the third line after "calloused" or change "onto" to "into" - I know neither of these is technically correct, but I read "hands were calloused and blend onto" as one line, like the hands were bled onto by something else, if you get what I mean? So then when I came upon "their tools of labor" I was confused and had to go back to the line before and realize that the hands bled onto the tools...but maybe it's just me. Also I would put "pangs" on the same line as "hunger" since "hunger pangs" refers to one thing.

Other than that, good job, but I feel like the last stanza could be made into a short story or even a novel!

~Blue

Absolutely keep it! I loved them Im kind of a medieval lover and i loved these. Great job