The ULTIMATE writing challenge of 2025 - January

This is the first part of the challenge where one is supposed to pick one prompt from my Instagram post and write a short story about it. So go check out Catnip_karvonen to see the prompts and start typing away!

My instagram page

The prompt I chose out of the 3 options for January is:

"A stranger arrives in town with an object that could change everything. What is it?"

(DISCLAIMER: I haven't written that many short stories or creative writing in English before, so this is bit plain compared to what I would write in Finnish. But I wanted to make it more accessible to other people around the world so here we go!)

Do you write in another language from your native language? (for i.e English)

• Yes
• No

Neil runs to the street. Their hands are covered with flour, yet they just wipe them slightly to their red apron. The previous customer forgot their gloves on the table. But now that Neil is on the street, the customer has disappeared into the buildings of the small town.

Something catches Neil's attention. Something that they haven't seen in their whole life, but have read in books and heard in songs the elderly sing in the local festivals. A traveler riding a black panther.

How can it be? A black panther, in a mountain village? And with a mysterious rider who seems to carry something in their hands. How peculiar. Grandmother must be informed!

And so Neil runs back inside the sweet smelling bakery to let the guardian know about the sight. Luckily the tables are empty, so no-one is eavesdropping what Neil is about to tell to the eighty-seven year old lady on the rocking chair behind the counter. Neil doesn't stop to look at the marvelous pastries and freshly made bread, but rushes through the small door to the other side of the front exclaiming:

–Nana! You never believe what I just saw!

There was silence, yet the woman glanced towards the young adult.

–There was a black panther with a rider, they carried something! I can't believe that I saw it, Nana! It was just like from the stories you told me about mother for bedtime back then, Neil explained. The silence continued but a tear ran down slowly from the grandmother's wrinkled cheek. The thought of her daughter, Neil's mother, brought back the loss and memories. Neil didn't mind, they were accustomed to the silence and knew Nana would know what was happening even if she didn't ever respond.

The bakery door swung open for the fifth time that morning. Neil leaned towards the counter to see who was coming from the cold. To their surprise, it was the same stranger who Neil had just seen on the street. A dark hood was covering most of the face of the traveler who had to tilt their head slightly to fit from the doorframe. Like a myth would have walked out from a storybook. Filled with all kinds of weapons and talismans, carrying a weird-looking bag and a strange object that Neil couldn't recognise. The panther must be waiting outside, scaring the passing villagers...

They didn't dare to breath before the stranger took off their hood. Black hood was replaced with Eden black hair, braided along the scalp of the traveler. Darkish green skin faded beautifully to their black clothes. There were smaller talismans and symbols woven into the tight braid. The person's dark eyes stared intensely at the big loaf of bread behind the glass counter. Like they would see one for the first time.

–Are you hungry? Neil asked quietly. The noise got stuck to their throat, so they repeated the question after a small pause:

–Are you hungry? Would you like to buy that one loaf of bread or perhaps something else?

The stranger looked at Neil's short and curly hair that was covered with a hairnet. Neil would have preferred that stare to be on the bread rather than them. Yet the heavy silence just continued. It was starting to become overwhelming. Did they not understand the language?

The traveler glanced at the bread and began to move towards the door in firm motion. A slight increase of blood flow went through Neil's head, the person was starving!

–Wait! they shouted hastily.

–I can give it to you if you want some. Do you understand me? Hey! Wait!

At first Neil thought that they had angered the person, but when they stepped closer to the counter again, they were hopeful. The stranger understood. And without further thoughts, Neil picked up the golden brown loaf and placed it carefully into a paper bag.

–Would you like something else? We made these fresh mini-pies today and we haven't gotten any feedback about them yet, Neil smiled slightly while motioning towards the tiny pastries with carved edges on them. There was no signs of refusal, so Neil grabbed a napkin and gave one mini-pie from the small pile of the untouched delicacies.

While handing the pie, Neil's fingers brushed the customer's accidentally. They felt a weird tingle in their fingertips that they hadn't felt before...

–How odd, did you feel a small tingle there? they asked carefully. A slight nod before the customer ate the pie in one go. How odd indeed. This person was flipping Neil's whole world around in just one day. Not that they experienced a lot of physical touch in the village by anyone, but still.

–Well? Is it edible? they asked curiously from the traveler. A slight nod. Good.

Neil offered the bread in the bag with a broad smile. They couldn't wait to write about this to their small notebook the chief of the village had offered them. This day had been the most eventful they had had in weeks!

After taking the bread, the traveler offered the weird looking object to Neil. They took it carefully and noticed slight wrapping that covered the thing. With an encouraging gesture with their jaw, the traveler cheered Neil to open the package.

Slight difficulties didn't stop Neil from unraveling the contents of the gift. However they couldn't understand what they were looking at in the absence of the wrapping. Some sort of a disk, that was made of stone but was heavier than one would normally be. One fingertip thick, yet still light to hold in one hand. Or maybe it was just that Neil was used to handling heavy things with one hand because of their work. The strange disk was the size of a palm, carved with strange symbols and writing. The yellowish tint on the holographic disk made it look slightly moldy. But how could a stone disk be like that?

–What is this exactly? Neil questioned while turning the disk around in their hands. The traveler didn't say anything but motioned Neil to take it to both of their hands and whisper something to it. It looked absolutely absurd, but Neil followed the silent instructions. They didn't know what to say so they only whispered their full name to the disk.

After a few seconds of quietness, the disk levitated out of Neil's flour covered hands into the air in front of them and started spinning. A strange glow came from the disk as it started spinning. All three people of the bakery stared in awe at the strange object.

Suddenly, a bright light shone from the disk, blinding them all for a moment. After it stopped Neil opened their eyes. They didn't know what to expect, but surprisingly nothing seemed to have changed.

–Finally! I can finally speak again! shouted the grandmother. Neil turned towards the old lady:

–Nana? What's going on? You can speak again?

–Yes my dear! And I'm not the only one, smiled the grandmother.

Neil turned to the traveler. They were smiling slightly:

–Neil, right? Thank you for your service. I am Turqes, a southern warrior of the Lotuis clan. I found the truth teller and searched the owner for five years. I have finally finished my quest.

–Turges? From Lotuis? Those are the fairytales Nana told me about when I was a child! What is happening? Neil thought out loud.

–Yes, that is my name. And they weren't just fairytales...

–Indeed, I prepared you for this day, because I knew that one day you would need to know what to do to save us all. Your father cursed the whole land and took away everyone's ability to talk. But you were only a child with a beautiful voice so he wanted to spare you from his curse. He loved the way you were humming whenever you felt something strongly. Hence he made you the only one who could break his power before he died, Nana proceeded to explain with her rusty voice. Neil couldn't comprehend what was going on. They barely remembered their father, and to know that he had cursed the whole land... what?

Hope you liked it!

Leave a comment or a like below and see you next month!

Remember to share your own text as well, either to the comments via a link to your websites or other platform, or in Instagram. Feel free to email me your text to get some feedback about it.

Use #CKwritingchallenge25 in Instagram to let me know about your part-taking and to have a chance of getting featured on my page!

~Catnip Karvonen <3