The Birth of the Raven Queen Contest - My entry

Hello everyone, I've never taken part in any creative writing contest before, but when I saw this one by the Scholar and Scribe community, I knew this was my chance to exercise my creative muscles. The contest is The Birth of the Raven Queen and the idea is to write a backstory for our Raven. If you don't know who @ravenmus1c is, then you need to explore Hive a bit more. Raven is this fantastic musician that is involved in many Hive projects. She is a fricking Legendary card in Rising Star. Anyways, this is my attempt to get out of my comfort zone and write a fantasy story. And yes, it will start with Once upon a time.

Once upon a time in the distant Kingdom of Pizzania, the people were living their lives at their fullest, unaware of the threats looming over their land. Queen Crustinia and king Camembert did not want to burden their people with concerns over the future of the kingdom, but they were growing distressed every day. The royals have been trying to produce an heir to the throne for years without success. The rumours about the lack of a successor had reached the northern kingdom of Grapecuria, a land known for their shady schemes to grow their territory. They have been trying for a long time to take over a part of Pizzania’s state that borders with theirs without success. Now they see the troubles the king and queen of Pizzania are facing and the turmoil that might come over the succession process as an opportunity for them to assume control of the kingdom for good.

The barons have been meeting every day now discussing possible solutions for all the complications that might occur if they don’t find a suitable successor for the throne. After days of deliberation, baroness Fetarina suggested that they should consult the witch of East Calzonia. A group of barons went to her cottage personally to bring her to the palace. After a conversation with the royals, she went on to make her concoction of basil leaves to induce a vision. What she saw in the bowl brought hope to everyone in the room. In her vision there was a little girl with hair black as night and a birth mark in the shape of a star. She also said that there was music playing when the vision was showing the surroundings of the child. The queen was ecstatic with this information because it meant that the child would be found in the Bruskeria kingdom, which was an important ally to Pizzania. They could get an authorisation to send a party to search for the child without any problems.

A big group of the kingdom’s champions were sent in the search for the child. They looked high and low in all the islands of the kingdom until they found an old witch who told them where to find the little girl. The witch sent her raven to guide them to the farm where the girl was being taken care by an odd group of masked boys. The boys would not let those strangers take the girl with them. The only way they accepted the girl coming back with the champions to Pizzania was if they would come with them. So the group started the journey back to the kingdom, happy with the success of their task.

They were really close to home when they ran into some trouble. Soldiers from Grapecuria had prepared an ambush for them as they approached the Pepperoni bridge. The champions got really nervous to get into a fight as they were doing the most precious delivery of their lives and couldn't risk the child getting hurt in the process. That is when they started hearing a serene music that made them feel inspired and very confident in their abilities. They realized then that it was the little girl singing and smiling at them. Empowered by the music, they charged into battle certain that they could crush their enemies.

By the time they reached the citadel they were still singing and dancing, celebrating their glorious triumph. Soon the people gathered around them, curious to know what they were so happy about. They had sent word to the queen and king of their return so when they arrived at the stairs of the royal palace the whole court was waiting for them. The champions started talking at the same time, excited to share the details of their adventures. The queen silenced them and appointed one to tell the tale. He then proceeded to tell the whole court all about the journey to find the little girl, who so far hasn't spoken a word. After hearing the whole story, the king addressed the child and asked her her name. She was not used to the attention and got really shy, trying to hide behind the masked boys. One of them explained that the child was left at their door not long before without any note, and they haven't given her a name yet.

The queen decided then that she would name the girl Raven, as the bird played such an important role in finding the one that will grow to become the successor of the Pizzania throne.

That is all folks. I hope you enjoyed my adventure. A big thanks to @dibblers.dabs for all the encouragement.

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The banner was designed by me using images from Freepik:

Castle silhouette vector created by freepik - www.freepik.com

Raven vector created by NACreative - www.freepik.com

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