Memoirs of Adventure Creative Writing Contest (NA) - Official Entry Thread

[Makoto_Rheize]

It’s been a long, winding road since I first returned to the Black Shroud of Gridania and enlisted in the Order of the Twin Adders. So much has happened. So many trials faced, friends made, enemies vanquished, allies lost. The good and the bad…

I’ve often been asked to reflect upon my life, and then select one moment, one memory as the greatest of them. To then regail my audience with such a tale of bravery and glory that would captivate even the most talented of bards and wisest of historians. Yet, when I am put on the spot as such, I instead find myself at a loss for words. How can I look back at the long tapestry of my history and pluck free a single thread to hold up as the grandest of them all?

I could share a more personal anecdote perhaps. About how I met someone, another wandering soul of Eorzea who wished for companionship on their journey. Someone whose smile never failed to lift my heart, whose humorous antics brought me to tears of laughter over and over again. Someone in whom I found a kind love I had believed beyond my reach. Someone who I have chosen to intertwine my tale with forever onwards. I could tell you about him, yes.

But even then, I am overcome with so many moments, so many meetings, and adventures, and conversations, that I again fail to single one out among the others as my most precious.

From felling the first primal I ever encountered -- the blazing embodiment of fire, Ifrit -- alongside fellow adventurers who would eventually become my dearest, trusted friends; to traversing the rift of space and time itself to aid a world on the brink of being consumed by eternal light, every step has been important to me.

Every step has changed me, forged me into this person that I am today. This Warrior of Light.

There are still pages left unwritten however. I have many more steps I intend to take before I find my rest. Many more journeysI wish to share with those dearest to me. Many new faces to meet and exotic locations to visit.

We are each writing our own tales. And if there is one thing I could ever hope to fully impart upon another Eorzean who, too, yearns for adventure, it is that your story is just as important as mine. It is just as beautiful, just as breathtaking, and just as worth telling. Your triumphs and your tragedies, each and every moment. So tell it, please.

The pen is yours.

With warmest wishes,

Another Grateful Storyteller



(Thank you for reading my submission. If selected, I would like the Bluebird Earring as my selected prize.)

[Celestinakitty]

They call it a calamity.

I call it the end of the world. Certainly, it is the end of my life. I spend the last few minutes on the wreckage of our ship as it - and indeed, all of us - continue our slow descent into the blue abyss.

Our ship, dodging flame, fire, famine, bringing supplies to the needy, robbing the Ascian ships of their extra unneeded wealth, restructuring the laws of our area of our sea, is on fire and sinking.

Some have called us pirates, but the crew of the Tuberão, Lalafell one and all, are loyal to our company, to our boss, and to what is right by Lymlaen. Though we may be called pirate, we are all independent souls, relying on the great gifts of the sea and the sky to bear us through this toil and strife.

It has been honest work for honest pay - in that we honestly did the work we were bidden to do. Not sayin’ all the work was honest, mind you, but our blood, sweat, tears, and toil were. We nursed cracks in our hands, our heads, as well as cuts to our souls and soles over mead, ale, and bread. We’d eat like kings and queens onshore, but live on salted dried fish and a handful of grain, boiled in a forge’s light on a ship. Feast or famine, we saw it all. Our coin gold, and good where we landed; never question the source, and it be plentiful.

Calm seas never quite were calm after that day. There was a mighty roar, just as the seers projected, and the wall of water fell upon the village. We were all on board, holdin’ on for dear life as the wave swept us out to Hydaelyn knows where. It took us a few days to get our bearings and we floated in an area that was unfamiliar, but we pressed on.

But tonight, a clear night at dusk, the great Leviathan rose from the depths to smite us down. We managed to go hard to starboard, but lashed up on rocks. In the rising flood, there are no survivors. I write this and cast it into the sea, my home for the last 20 years, in hopes that one day it will be opened. Lord Leviathan claims more victims, and sea has in fact swallowed all.

Lymlaen, be merciful… my body now belongs to you. See me safely home….



Captain Alili Ali, last of her name

(If I win the contest, I’d like the Gaelicap, please.)