The 8th Fabo Story Competition - Writing

Over lockdown we wrote stories for a story competition known as the 8th Fabo story competition where we were given a story starter and then had to finish the story using 550 words or less. This was really fun because the story starter was based around magic abilities. At the start they get kits and get to have either a witch or wizard starter kit (read the rest below). I found this challenging because personally in fictional stories I like to have a whole plot but in this competition it was 550 and under so I had to work with it. If you have done anything similar or basically the same tell me in the comments and I will try to reply.

Here it is:

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Mark and Maeve skipped along the dark corridors of McMinty Towers, and into the dining hall. They expected to see their mother sitting at the head of the table. Instead, they found a letter pinned to the top of a large, black chest.

My Dear Twins,

First of all, Happy Birthday!

This chest contains two magical things:

1 x Witch-Starter-Kit   &

1 x Wizard- Starter-Kit

Please choose one kit. Choose carefully as you cannot swap your kit once you have chosen. However, Mark may choose the Witch-Starter-Kit, while Maeve might choose the Wizard-Starter-Kit. It doesn’t matter.

Please write down each spell you test, and the results. A few words of warning. When starting out, I advise all young witches and wizards to use their new powers wisely. Because spells, when not followed correctly can go terribly wrong. Terribly wrong!

Good luck. Good luck, I repeat. You will need it.

Yours in witchcraft

Mother Witch McMinty

Mark shrugged his shoulders. Maeve opened the chest …

Now you finish the story…

Inside the chest there are two kits laid out. Mark picked up one kit and around him, the wizard's robes floated, suddenly the robes wrapped around him. Maeve is immensely surprised and jumps back, then suddenly without knowing it was there Mark pulled out a small wand made out of curved and polished wood. Maeve grabbed the remaining kit and suddenly witch robes weaved themselves around her. Maeve and Mark look down at themselves with their magnificent robes. Without thinking, Maeve pulls out a spell book  lined with layers of dust. Maeve blows all of the dust off the cover and says to Mark “so what do we do with these new items”? 

“I guess we do what the letter says and try to cast some spells,” replies Mark.

They both grab their tools and walk down to the garden through the dark corridors. When they arrive at the garden they sit down and try to figure out what to do with their tools. Maeve tries to read the text on the first page of her book but it all just looks like scrambled letters. Mark has absolutely no idea what he’s supposed to do but is waving his wand in random directions and making up words. When suddenly out of Mark's wand flies a small bolt of lightning hitting a shrub and making it burst into flames. Maeve suddenly notices a word that she understands. 

“Aqua pluvia”, yells Maeve at the top of her lungs, and from the sky rains an extreme amount of water, splashing the burning shrub. 

Mark was astounded at what Maeve had just figured out how to do. Maeve then says “I think all my spells are written in latin because puluvia means rain and aqua means water”.

Mark replies by saying “well that was interesting afterall I almost burnt the whole garden”. Maeve and Mark then start looking through Maeve’s spellbook looking for spells they can try out. Mark eventually gets bored and starts yelling random made up words again but this time nothing happens. Maeve then notices a spell named spiritus potator. She says it and out of her book flies a small little pixie-like creature heading straight towards Mark. It’s about to hit him when he yells “exitium laser”, which sends a stream of red light straight at the creature obliterating it and also pushing everything away in a small radius. Maeve looks terrified as Mark holds his wand. Mark then says “you said that the spells were in latin so I said destruction laser but in latin, it's about the only thing I know how to say”. Maeve replies with “I can’t believe that you just shot a red laser out of a wand you barely know how to use,” Maeve then says ``I have no idea what that means but it sounded cool so I said it”. 

Mark then says “I think I know another spell but I'm willing to guess it's not going to work”. 

Maeve replies with “should at least try because what if it works, just make sure it doesn’t have destruction in it”. 

Mark then says in his most confident voice “invisibilitatem”, which makes him disappear. “It worked, I'm invisible! Now I just need to work out how to say visible, and find a Latin dictionary”.