This weeks objective was to write an escape story where the character in the beginning has changed by the end. This is the first of three ideas I had and wrote.

Magic Always Comes At A Price

‘Magic always comes at a price’ is what the man had told him but he hadn’t listened. Now he was paying the price, he’d become that which he sought to destroy, and the only way to free him was death…

2 Weeks Earlier

The village of Hogsmoor was a mere memory of the vibrant place it used to be. People now lived in fear, jobs were scares and people went missing regularly. The Great War had been raging on for many years now, whole cities now scattered in ashes. The giants were no longer friendly, the ogers no longer peaceful and the elves no longer trustworthy.  

Hoggle Tacksworth was a man on a mission. Too long had the village of Hogsmoor lived behind the fear instilled in their hearts. No longer would they cower as The Dark One paid them unwanted visits. If he could be killed the war would surely end, for there was no limit to his power and he played everyone like a master puppeteer.

Hoggle set out with only a dagger and a shawl as he left to kill The Dark One. The journey was long and hard, no longer could he rely on the generosity of the elves to feed him or give him shelter. They had been poisoned by the words of The Dark One.

A close encounter of life and death was encountered across the darkened moor. A woozle appeared out of nowhere, its red eyes the only light in the dark. It’s mouth rabid with foam. The woozle lunged, biting into Hoggle’s shoulder. He gasped out in pain. Swinging around he managed to cut the woozle deeply with the dagger and it howled in pain. Hoggle watched as the woozle took its last breath, before it collapsed on the ground, dead.

Hoggle soldiered on bravely despite the freezing weather or the rocky terrain or the terrible dangers he faced. To reach the blackened castle within the dry desert was his aim, the home of The Dark One was a terrible sight to behold but Hoggle would face it if it meant the freedom of so many others.

When desperation struck and Hoggle had been travelling for many more days than he would have liked he happened upon something that would become his salvation and his doom. It was a dagger, not much longer than his dagger but it was encrypted with a name. Hoggle starred wide eyed and deliriously happy at the object in his hands, it had his name on it, the name of The Dark One, his real name. Surely this would be the weapon to defeat him with.

Then he heard it, a sort of hiss and a gurgle, like boiling water or someone coughing up blood. He turned his body rigid to face the thing that was standing before him. Even in the face of certain death Hoggle was not afraid.

‘That does not belong to you’ said the thing.

Hoggle was not to be deterred from his mission.

‘I see the decision has already been made…but I warn you. Magic always comes at a price’ his laugh so sinister it sent shivers down Hoggle’s back.

He wasted no time killing the defenceless thing before him. He didn’t feel remorse or think of himself as a murderer because he believed he was freeing his village from its fear and the world from the war.

He should have listened to The Dark One, for as he withdrew the blade from the now dead body the writing upon the dagger had changed.

It no longer read ‘Rumplestiltskin’ for it now read ‘Hoggle Tacksworth’ and a new Dark One had been born…