The Squid and the Sun

Fantasy Prompt #1: Enchanted artifacts

Listen up and listen good! Yesterday, I shared Fantasy Camp™ for the first time with the world (Instagram), and I’m overwhelmed with love. Friends from all walks of life: elementary school, summer camp, coffee shops, my first job, the ~internet~ and beyond, all here together. How could I possibly choose a bunkmate?

Many of you are writers, readers, artists, and creatives who I deeply admire. I’m so touched that you chose to be here. (And I’m sorry to those who did not choose to be here, whose emails I added to the subscriber list without warning or consent).

Let’s begin with a story.

In the beginning there was the sun. She was the womb of the world and from her warm center came the sea and the rains, the spiny spurge and olive shrub, rats and flying fish and little owls. By her rising, tides stirred and morning glories unfurled. Her warmth drew insects from their sabulous chimneys and her light called shelled hatchlings into the sea. Life came from her, and without her there was no life at all. She is called Sol.

In the evenings, Sol grew weary and sank in the sky. Her disc turned from white to saffron, golden to ruby. She was a painter and the sky was her fresco, her palette contained every color. All living things looked on with great reverence, trilling, spouting, flying, gazing. And in return she sent gifts of ripe fruits, laden vines, milking beasts, and seasons of rain. Even the relief of night was a gift from Sol. She was pleased with her creations.

One creature yearned for Sol more than any other. The one who dwelled in the depths, a colorless and lightless place where Sol did not go. The lonely squid. At first, the squid mourned his disunion from Sol. He salted the sea with his tears and in his grief, he grew arms like rays of sun and painted the seas with his inks of every color, just as Sol painted the skies. But in the darkness, he grew hungry, greedy for light. He swallowed every speck, every glowing fish and twinkling crustacean until his insides shone. And he grew and grew until his arms spanned the sea.

One morning as Sol awoke, the lonely squid reached his feeding tentacles up from the abyss. He wrapped them around Sol, pulling her down beneath the surface and into his wet beak until Sol was swallowed up. And her warmth was inside him, and her radiant light shone through his pellucid mantle. He pulled her down into the darkest place.

For many years, the world descended into darkness. Every living thing cried out for they knew that without Sol, there was only darkness and only death. Figs shriveled on their branches and dromedaries beat their hooves and bellowed. The world was trapped in night, and the only hope was a soft glow emanating up from the depths of the sea.

Sol battled the squid. She burned his insides with her warmth, she tore at his ink sac until he bled blackness into the depths. Each time she tried to emerge from his toothy center, he gripped her with his suckers and thrust her deeper into his soft body.

The squid grew tired, and so did Sol. In their weariness, they sank together into the deep. The glowing beast would die before he let Sol return to the sky. Her light flickered and grew dim. With the last of her strength, she tore at his rows of grinding teeth. She pulled and thrashed and ripped at them until four tiny teeth came free. The squid writhed and twisted up his tentacles in agony. He pressed Sol up higher into his body, but she knew better than to go out the way she came.

With the squid’s sharp teeth, Sol sliced and sliced through his mantle and burst free. She shot up through the sea, up and up, illuminating the inky depths. Higher until she breached out of the sea, rising again into the sky. At last, the world saw day again. Sol hung triumphant in the sky, the Squid defeated and the seas stained black. All of creation delighted in her return, growing and bleating and flowering in her light.

In her final act of creation, Sol bled from her wounds. Her blood was the purest essence of her being. Red, radiant energy. Where each drop fell, magical beings rose up, stewards of nature and vessels of her light. The Magi, her chosen people.

Sol tasked the Magi with many things, goodness and truth, piety and song, fear of darkness and reverie of light. And in the name of Sol, they would curse the name of the Squid forever — a hunted and solitary beast, bound to the darkest place forever.

Okay young ones, the moment we’ve been waiting for. It’s time to write.

• Find a comfortable place to write

• Set your timer for 20 minutes

• Sink into your imagination, let your true self run free

• It is safe to write from the depths of your soul

• Share your creations in the comments, if it pleases you

Optional: light a candle or put a little totem beside you (mine is a 3D-printed anteater)

Fantasy Prompt #1

A shopkeeper stumbles upon a magical artifact that contains powers rare and unimaginable. What is this object? Does it look remarkable or unassuming? How does the shopkeeper know it is special? Tell us in wonderful detail about this thing and how it might, perhaps, change everything.

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Next week: We’ll continue on to Prompt #2. Plus, I’ll share my own 20-minute freewrite based on the above prompt with delicious dark fantasy graphics and maybe more updates on the book writing process.

Remember, the comments section is always open (though, soon, for paid readers only). I’d love to hear from you and read your creations.

Madeleine
writer, camp counselor, squid keeper

P.S. Here’s the behind-the-scenes of book-writing land. I’m creating a new religion at the moment. RELAX, it’s for my book (~It’s giving L. Ron Hubbard~). As you can imagine, it requires SO MUCH research and lots of staring into the abyss. Like this…