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Deus Ex Machina
The heroes rushed towards their imminent defeat. A dragon-like monster terrorized their village for years culminating in the mayor and his wife being attacked. The mayor was uninjured but his wife’s death had cast a shadow upon the village. It was finally decided that something should be done to stop the creature. The questers were chosen not through skill or worth but rather through a lottery like system where everyone but the mayor’s name was put into the plate. When the villagers questioned this his secretary claimed that he was simply in too much grief not only to even be put into the drawing but also to explain why he couldn’t be put into the drawing.
After the names were drawn one-third of the villagers were prepared to leave their families and lay down their lives to destroy the monster. They hugged their families for what was sure to be the last time and began to make their way out to defeat the monster. Everyone dismissed the moisture running down their faces as the rain falling from the sky.
The monster left a trail of sheep and goat intestines wherever it went. The questers were killed by creatures, ledges, and depression. Whenever they happened upon a village, they would stop and gather rations from any inns that had rooms available.
By the time they caught up with the monster he had withdrawn into a cave. It had been a full year since they had left their village and only a quarter of the original questers remained. The self-appointed leader was the former blacksmith halted the party and they set up a camp a little under a mile away from the monster’s dark abode to eat some of the rations from the village that’s largest rations were baked goods. In addition to a few baskets of fish the questers had come away with wheelbarrows of bread, pies, and even a few barrels of cinnamon buns.
Around two o’clock in the morning on their second day in the camp the monster left the cave and approached the camp, lured by the smell of all the baked goods and the smouldering remains of their campfire. A youth of maybe nineteen or twenty was the only one who saw the beast approach. He only managed to wake up one of the others when he sounded the alarm. The girl started to load the canyon as the dragon charged towards them opening his mouth to breath fire. The girl launched the closest thing that she could find, the barrel of cinnamon buns. The barrel arched through the air and the dragon’s head followed it. The boy ran with his axe towards the beast while it was distracted as another barrell flew towards the dragon knocking it back and giving the boy the chance to slit the monster’s throat.
The dragon’s dying roar woke all the rest of the campers and they turned to find the girl panting and the boy covered in blood. When asked what happened and how the battle was won the boy and girl just smiled as they looked at each other and said, “Really it was all thanks to the cinnamon buns.”
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This piece was from a prompt by CNBono17. Can you guess what it is? The story itself is about a mighty quest to slay a monster that is terrorizing the questers village.