Welcome!

to Elysiphim’s first story event! A whisper in the wind, a strange tree, and an odd creature, what things will unfold? Read the story starter below and make your choice! There will be a prompt you can submit to earn talons. Talons are the event currency. A special shop will open up once the halfway point of a secret goal is reached! Unlike other prompts, this one will reward a flat riyal bonus of 10 just for participating. Where you would normally calculate riyal, you instead will calculate talons for your piece! This prompt may be done Once per character!

Story

You hear it. It was quiet at first, a mere fluttering whisper in your ear, soft as the warm breeze that sweeps through the Elysium. But it grew louder. A nagging sense in your heart to fly. But where? You’ve heard whispers; tales told by other elysiphim about this same voice. They were fearful, excited, confused. This wasn’t the voice of The Weaver, their great deity. It was something else.

Unable to ignore it any longer, you take to the skies, wings floating above the golden clouds of the Elysium. You follow the voice, the whisper. It leads you to Eden, the garden world. You alight upon the green grass, comfortable and familiar. You are in a dell filled with fruit trees of great variety. You walk, padding across the landscape with ease. Then, you reach a hill. The voice grows louder. Up! Up! So up you tread. At the top of the knoll lies a tree painted in gold, an uncommon sight in the lace of rainbow colors of Eden. It reminds you of home. It beckons you forward.

As you examine the tree’s golden fruit, you hear it; the voice. But something about it was different. Tangible. You turn your head and there you spy a creature perching upon a branch, forked tongue flickering. It is a creature you have never seen before. Small, red, and laden with scales. You are about to turn away, when to your surprise, it opens its sharp maw to speak.

“I said, greetings.” It murmured.

Flustered, you apologize profusely to the creature.

“Worry not, small thing. You came and that is what matters.” It flicks its tongue between its fangs. “Good.” The creature blinks its dark eyes. “You are being lied to, you know.”

Lied to? Lied to about what? As if it could hear your thoughts, it responds, “Everything. You are being lied to about the world itself. Lies spun by your precious Weaver.” Its voice is silky, smooth, comforting, despite what it is saying. But no, it couldn’t be so. The Weaver could never lie. “It can, It does, It will,” it hummed, tapping a claw against the wood. “Proof. Do you want it?” It gestures below, towards the hanging fruit that grows upon its branch. “Eat. Eat and you will know. You think you know everything, but soon your everything will change. Eat,” it coaxes. You look to the fruit, your reflection shining in the gold of its skin. “The choice is yours,” it says, and slips into the branches above.

Make your choice in The Whisper Prompt!