Prompt: Boscage
The castle of the Brier Rose
Around which a forest grows
Four hundred feet wide and horribly dense
Forming a blooming and deadly defense
A hundred men and then two hundred more
Were given their packs and sent to war
To cut through the plants, bushes, and trees
That kept the castle on its knees
But not a single man came back
So the crown took a different tact
A young peasant girl was picked to go
So they could learn why progress was slow
She was gifted a pack and some shears
And told to not give in to her fears
So she rode west as quick as she could
Until she found the magical wood
Around it were corpses by the tonne
All baking in the midday sun
Some were impaled on the flowers
Others crushed under collapsed towers
But something weird compelled the girl
And she decided to give it a whirl
She pulled the shears from her pack
And started to cut, slash and hack
She dug a tunnel through the trees
With quite surprising ease
She wandered deeper and deeper still
Because of a mission, she had to fulfill
Another woman arrived six weeks later
Having been told to find the traitor
The one who had totally abandoned her mission
and not reported the castle’s condition
As she looked around the trees
She sniffed the foul breeze
All the bodies were still scattered around
And the girl was nowhere to be found.
As the sun began to fall beneath the sky
The woman let out a long deep sigh
She got on her saddle and prepared to leave
Predicting the punishment she would receive
But before she left she saw the strangest sight
A candle glowing in the darkest night
One that was strange and unnaturally bright
Coming from the tower with the tallest height
The woman wondered what this could mean
Until she spotted some movement in the green
The deep tangled forest parted like the tide
So the girl just shrugged and rode inside
Neither girl was seen again
But to this day stories explain
That if you go to the castle at night
You’ll see three shadows in the tower’s light.
Jonathon Greenall is a freelance writer, artist, and tabletop roleplaying game designer who has written for CBR, Polygon, Nintendo Life, Gayley Dreadful, Enbylife, and many other publications. They have also published several popular and highly-praised tabletop roleplaying games including “You Have One Ability….The Ability To Fuck This Up,” “Macarons, Milkshakes, And Magic,” and “Wander Wizards.”
Jonathon has always been fascinated by media, from the big hitters to the small, obscure, and often overlooked titles that linger on the sidelines, capturing both the on and off-camera stories that make these shows so fascinating.
Jonathon is also a major anime fan, having been exposed to the medium through shows like Sailor Moon and Revolutionary Girl Utena. Since then, Jonathon has maintained a passion for anime, watching most new shows each season and hunting down overlooked gems from previous ones.