"To the Dragon Rider Jamca'ul" (A Fictional Letter)

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A Letter between two friends in a fantasy setting. (Author Notes at the end.)

To the Dragon Rider Jamca'ul

Dear, Jamca'ul. How are you doing?

I'm doing well, likewise my family. I bought a new Dragon for Kol'ian last fall. That was when you wrote to me, right? I just received your letter. Your words were so vivid I can almost see the laugh on your wife's face after you fell and broke your leg.

I'm glad you got better before you wrote. I would've been worried otherwise. Take care of yourself and your family.

Kol'ian wants to learn how to fly as soon as possible. It's Winter now, and I plan on training her come spring. The dragon I mentioned is a female we named Lumi. Kol'ian inherited my uncreativity with names. We laughed as we gave her the name, just like when you laughed as I named my partner Herc.

Building a bond with dragons is important before riding them, so I'm teaching Kol'ian to bond with Lumi. She's too impatient. I'm glad we have a whole winter to keep her in reins.

You mentioned The Drakes in your letter, are they up to no good again? You have a wife to protect now, so don't do anything reckless. Though, I'm sure you've done something now, by the time this letter reaches you.

Having a family taught me there are more important things than adventure, but I guess that doesn't apply when your wife's a former Bandit.

After Kol'ian masters riding Lumi, we plan on visiting you. It'll be her first adventure. What do you think?

Waiting to hear from you soon.

Your partner in crime, Ku'luk.

P.S: Stay away from The Drakes.

The End

Author Notes

This is a story I wanted to participate in in Reedsy's Storywriting Contest. For the prompt "Write a story about two Pen Friends." Unfortunately, I realized the contest had a $5 entry fee, and I wasn't confident this story could win. I decided to publish it on HIVE instead.

The goal of this story was to paint as much as possible about the world only through the content of a letter to a friend. How do you imagine the world's like based on the story? If you had a clear image in your mind I'll consider this story a success. I'd also love it if you smiled while reading some lines, as I did as I wrote it.

The story's drawing took a lot of time, but I'm proud of the result. I wanted the fantasy setting to feel a bit realistic so I based it on my memories of the "How to Train Your Dragon" setting. (If you want a drawing like that for your post(s) I'll do it for HBD payments.)

Thanks for Reading

I want to create more stories in a letter format, so if you liked this one, I hope you follow me to be there when I publish another one of this style. If you're new to my content, please check out my "Where to Start?" article If you already did, thank you.

For now, I leave you until we meet in another story. Salam! (Peace.)

* Story's Cover Image is made with Clip Studio Paint.
* @eturnerx from my Beneficiary Rotating List has a 10% share of this post's rewards.

hive-170798 theinkwell creativecoin ccc worldbuilding scholarandscribe slothbuzz aliveandthriving dreemport ctp
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28 comments
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Beautiful letter.

I always feels skeptical on paying to enter a contest. What if I don't win, I would loose my money, time and ideas used in writing it😥

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Yeah, I'm skeptical about paid contests for the same reason. If it was cheaper than my HIVE earnings, I might take part and publish on HIVE if I lost, but $5 is too much. I'm not confident of my level anyway.

Have some 🍕 !PIZZA with 💞 !LUV

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(Edited)

PIZZA!

$PIZZA slices delivered:
ahmadmanga tipped theinkwell
ahmadmanga tipped kingsleyy
ahmadmanga tipped kei2
ahmadmanga tipped whitneyalexx
ahmadmanga tipped universoperdido
@ahmadmanga(1/15) tipped @mmykel

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(Edited)

Your story is hilarious, where could I buy a dragon? I'm interested.

It is the first time I see that you have to pay to participate in a contest, you did well to publish it here and not there, although your letter is very good.

#dreemerforlife

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Wish I could buy a Dragon too, but my mother can't handle cats, a dragon would be impossible. Even if it existed IRL. !LOLZ

I wanted to say I saw contests where you pay to participate before, but I guess this is the first one for me too. It's weird though I understand their reasoning for putting a Pay Wall. They only want confident writers to take part and this will scare all the amatuers.

Thanks for reading & Have some 🍕 !PIZZA with 💞 !LUV

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Taking your story away from the ordinary to the point of imagining what it will be like to fly a dragon as well as bond with it. Lovely.
A paid contest- if put your money where your mouth is was a phrase.

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Thanks for reading. I love writing stories in fantasy settings or away from the mundane. I wanted to write a story in a letter format for a while and I'm happy I finally did it.

Thanks for reading! Have some 🍕 !PIZZA with 💞 !LUV

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It turned out beautiful🤩 The pleasure is mine💕

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I love the ease with which the story/letter flowed. I could tell that those two were close. I imagined the kind of fantasy world they lived in just by talking about the dragons and drakes.

This was a sweet one. Well done.

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Your comment made me feel like I succeeded with this work of fiction. (Apparently, this letter doesn't contain all the elements of a story.)

Thanks for reading and Have a 🍕 !PIZZA with 💞 !LUV

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Trust you did. It was a delight to read.

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(Edited)

The letter is an interesting storytelling technique for a fictional story, @ahmadmanga. But readers are looking for the elements that make a piece of fiction a story, and it's very difficult to integrate them in this format. These elements include scene setting, character development, action, dialogue, a conflict, a story arc and a resolution. You will find our articles on all of these elements in our catalog of fiction writing tips. Your story is so short that you don't have the space to develop those elements. (If you read our fiction prompt posts, you will see that our guidance for short stories is a minimum of 350 words, but ideally 750-1000 words.)

Additionally, did you know that we expect writers who post in The Ink Well to engage in the community? We ask everyone who posts here to read and comment on the work of at least two other writers for each story published. Thank you!

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What does this work classify as if not a story though?

Anyway, I'll try to engage with two works in this community today. Thanks for the reminder.

Have some 🍕 !PIZZA with 💞 !LUV

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@ahmadmanga. We have shared what we are looking for in complete stories. Either that makes sense to you or it doesn't. But you might want to consider our feedback if you are looking to enhance the quality of your writing.

Here are a few questions that a reader might have at the end of this story:

  • In what sort of universe does this story take place? Dragons are evidently commonplace, but what are the other characteristics of the setting? Is it a huge metropolis? A kingdom? A settlement on another planet? Some kind of underworld? (Shrug.)
  • Who is Jamca'ul? All we know about him is that he is a friend of the letter writer and he broke his leg.
  • Who are the Drakes? They are mentioned in the letter several times, but we have zero information about them.

We are here to help people grow as writers. We provide resources to help writers who are interested in developing the craft. And we curate based on whether the stories published in our community include the qualities of a "story."

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Oh! Thanks for letting me know this was a good feedback I could use in my next work of this format!

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Looking at the letter from the perspective of the fictional character writing the letter.

I value the simplicity in the usage of words and coherence among the paragraphs but I couldn't sense the writers emotion. Though I do not know how long it has been since the writer last saw his friend but I felt their should be some sort of sense of longing in the letter, to show how much he must have missed the presence of his friend and how worried he is about his wellbeing and to show his new found happiness.

I feel like the words used in the composition of the letter couldn't illustrate or depicts the emotion or mood of the writer.

Pop in from #dreemport
#Dreemerforlife

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(Edited)

That's a well- written 👍 letter to one's pen friend.

Paying to enter a contest??? Everyone can't possibly be the winner so, only one person (who is the winner) can enjoy the payment he made and more, while the rest ends up losing their money 🤑 just like that. That doesn't sound so good to me.

#Dreemerforlife.

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Yeah, Pay to Participate doesn't sound encouraging, but I guess the contest creators did that because they want the participants to only think about the prestige and want only those willing to pay to get it.

!LUV

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This a fresh perspective to fictional stories. Fiction in letter format isn't that rampant, so this is creative.

#dreemerforlife

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I guess it's because it's hard to make a good story with a format like this. I'm thinking of writing another one in this format. Dunno if that'll be any time soon, though.

Even this story I wrote lacks many of the story elements, and I'm glad about the advice TheInkWell gave me on it.

!PIZZA !LUV

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