The Night Of Tranquility

• Justin Jones, Grade 11, Clontarf Beach State High School
• Short Story
• 2011

Excellence Award in the 'Step Write Up 2011' competition

The woman walked graciously across the green lawn, its thin stems slipping through between her toes. The train of her long, silky-white dress slithered against the sea of green, neither dirtying nor damaging its pure shimmer. Stars above glistened blissfully in the deep of the night, hovering still like tiny orbs.

This was the night; her father had foreseen it.

"The tower will burn,
The tallest will fall.
Terror soon begins,
At the end, there shall be no more.

On the Night of Tranquility,
The war looms
Its unpredictability
To which, ends in doom."

The words echoes within her head as she continued her stroll. The night was tranquil; no bird chirped, not a squirrel quivered in the leaves under the canvases of the giant trees around. A soft breeze moved across the acres ahead, carrying the cool temperature from icy ocean further on. A castle came into view, its many turrets silhouetted against the full moon dangling in the sky.

As she graciously headed towards the outskirts of the fortress, she raised her hand to her side. At the moment, two thousand soldiers all wearing thick silver body armour and carrying sharp lengthy swords, marched silently in file. In rows of two hundred, the army moved with swift efficiency. A mere two metres away from her dress’s train, they stopped.

The woman spoke, her voice cold. “Tonight the prophecy will begin. Tonight, you will raze the Cliff-face Castle to the earth. No man, woman, even the smallest child may live. Tonight you will fulfil your destiny. You will fulfil your duty to your Queen. You will punish this castle in honour of my dead father. Filthy blood will run tonight. Let the war commence.”

Raising her left arm, she stretched her fingers to their fullest extent in line with the tallest tower of the fortress. Then, she clenched them into a fist. As if being punched, the tower rocked slightly to the right and gradually fell further. It became disintegrating upon the castle; windows shattered apart and smaller turrets collapsed in its wake. Seconds later, flickers of yellow and orange shimmered against the lower parts of the other towers; a fire had begun to burn in the rubble.

“March forth.”

Suddenly, five hundred soldiers and archers moved towards the castle. The woman aimed her clenched fist at the defensive wall facing her. A large portion of it exploded inwards. Huge cement rocks crashed into sides of towers. Screams and yells cried into the night.

A distant voice echoed from the fortress, “Fire!”
It was then that the woman realised her mistake. One thousand arrows, tips flaming, soared across the green grassland in front of the castle. One by one, the rows of advancing soldiers fell. However, one specific, purposely aimed arrow landed directly in the woman’s heart. As she took her last breath, it was then, that the prophecy, which haunted her from the moment she had killed her father to take the throne for herself, was fulfilled at last.