Take a Chance On Me
Writing prompt and a bit of fiction …
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I’m putting this one behind the curtain because this is not just a response to one of the last 30 Days Fantasy Writing Prompts challenge (hosted by
and held in July 2025), it’s also a writing prompt for you.[Not a writer? Keep reading for Rhi’s thoughts on the Branwen Star story and then pop on down to find out who are some of my favourite writers on Substack.]
I’ll let Rhiannon start telling you about it. This was a scrawled note on the back fly leaf of the volume of:
A Star fell. Or rather, she abdicated and left a tiny village on a tiny island far to the north of the Scottish Hebrides for parts unknown.
But the story is so old and has been retold so many times, that the truth has blurred and become muddled, in a way that no other tale by a dreigiau môr bard has done so. Perhaps it is the Above Sea human influence at work.
Some bards say the Star drowned, others say she flew into the heavens and became the only star you can see on a cloudy night. Other bards say she ran off with an advocate and lived happily ever after. Still others say the two decided they’d be better off being friends.
One thing is certain: the Star fell and there were Consequences.
The story of the village after Branwen ferch Seren left her Above Sea abode is of no concern to dreigiau môr. Our world doesn’t contain weather gods and only the undersides of fishing boats.
Yet it’s a story that I often wondered about. Did the god Taranis fade away into cloud and star and simply become Weather? Did he find a new way forward with a new Star? Were the people of Sterah wiped out or did they survive?
When I was a brand-new bard, I was also grieving the death of my dearest friend Gorowyn and sought to drown my sorrow in work. I reviewed all the stories, including visiting the Bardic Library and consulting with the bones there. I journeyed Above Sea, traveling far to the north, finding the island of Unst, but no village by that name.
Among the humans, I learned that a people known as Vikings had claimed the area and very few of the old names remained. As to the story of a broken contract with a weather god? I couldn’t find any direct connection.
One of the potential threads that I like best is the grisly discovery of bones entwined on a bed in a cliff top hut. An elderly woman, one of the last residents of a nearby village, remembered the story of a woman named Mari who ascended the hill and never came back. From that, a poet spun a tale of a man and a woman who met in a cliff top hut, fell in love and lived a quiet, long life together.
I like to think that man was the god Taranis who chose love and mortality over a lonely eternity. However, there’s no evidence that the man was anything other than ordinary.
Alas, The Red Book of Rhiannon is meant for dreigiau môr tales, not human ones, so I cannot include it in this volume.
And now, dear reader/writer, it is your turn. Take any possibility or POV from the excerpt above. Answer one of Rhiannon’s questions or find new ones to answer.
You’ll have a month to work on this … after September 4, 2025, I will do a link round-up (“Rhiannon’s Collected Above Sea Tales”) and I’ll be sure to send reminders via Chat (if you’re a subscriber) and Notes (if you’re not). Share the link to your story in the comments below, so everyone can read it.
Nitty-gritty
Format: ANY! From micro-fiction to as many parts of a serial you can complete in the allotted time and all points in between. It could be poetry, play, or movie script. It could even be a comic or graphic novel (although I realise I’m not leaving enough time for writing and drawing and colouring).
Genre: sub-genre of fantasy: high adventure, mystery, magic realism, romantic, romantasy, high, low, middle of the road, fairytale, sword & sorcery, heck, any genre if you can make the connections.
My only rule: Two Three Rules:
No generative AI usage: in either imagery or words. Assistive AI (like spell check) is ok. LLM chat bots are not. If in doubt, drop me a DM.
Post your work on Substack and make it free to read.
Link to it in the comments below and let us know the sub-genre.
I’m not going to make you read the four stories before this coda (although you can if you like, I’ll link to them at the end), so here’s the gist:
Setting: the village Sterah on the isle of Unst, in the north of the Shetland Islands
Era: pre-Viking, population likely Pictish.
What’s Happened: The weather god Taranis contracted with a woman from a small fishing village to act as a warning beacon to the fisherman when the weather changed. This contract has been broken by the last Star.
Above Sea cast so far:
Taranis (the weather god, blond, buff, wears a loincloth and a cloak made of clouds and stars)
Mari (Star-in-training, bright, pretty, ready to assume the mantle)
Assorted elders, fishermen and fishwives.
Create your own characters and you might even want to play with the idea of descendants of these characters, or even hark back to how the contract was first made (I have dropped seeds on that score in the story).
I’ll be staying Under Sea and hoping Ardwyad and Branwen share whether or not they do get together.
Hey, readers who are not also writers, tune back in here!
I am boldly imagining some of my favourite writers joining in (and you might like to check out their work):
, or writing a romance for our two leads; writing about a descendent (of the village, or of the god) ending up on Ferris Island; , who already writes about gods so eloquently; or perhaps looking at the village’s death knell (hey you guys do get a bit dark but surprise me with romance!), , or delivering a rip-snorting adventure, bringing in the Grey, ’s expertise on fairytales, marketplaces and matriarchs, adding her fey touch.(Note: none of these writers are obliged to write a thing, but they are all worth checking out if you haven’t already.)
There are other writers I could include here but at least one of them just had a baby (can you imagine Judith and Tim honeymooning on the Shetlands,
? I can, although it’s probably not affordable on their salaries. Now, Ferris Island on the other hand ….) so if I didn’t mention you and I’m subscribed to your publication, I already feel more than a little obnoxious about tagging so many already! Join in, please!Also, if everyone writes about Mari and Taranis, I’d not be mad about it. Romance could use a boost on Substack.
I’ll start a comment thread below for you to declare interest. Once your story is posted, pop back to the comments and leave a link to your story.
The (Non-Essential) Story So Far:
Now. It’s over to you!
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Thanks for the shoutout, Leanne! I’ll see what I can come up with!
I’m in for this! Currently working on something that may accidentally blow out to a five part story 😅 such a cool prompt.