For those interested, voting results for our summer writing challenge winner are now visible in the poll (see below).

Special thanks to all of you who participated: the entrants for sharing their stories with us, the visitors who commented and gave plus votes to select the finalists, and those who voted in the poll to choose the winner.

I particularly appreciate those who shared the challenge on social media. This kind of contest works best when you all get the word out so that we have a good number of entries, comments, and votes.

For those who may have missed the entry by our summer writing challenge winner, I’m posting it again. Feel free to give your congratulations in the comments:

By Cathy H.

If only Bran could stop the king, but he was too powerful, too sure he was right, too noble. Should the serpent be released, he would face it as his sovereign duty.

Bran’s leather armor creaked as he fought for balance when the tremors struck. His king- his brother- stood tall and strong, unswayed by the shaking ground. Squaring his shoulders, Bran forced himself to stand firm.

He squinted at the sky. Murky clouds roiled overhead, masking the sun, and as the light dimmed, the field shook again. Fissures opened like hungry mouths to eat the tall, dry grass and withered flowers, and with a thunderous crack, the rock sealing the gateway split to reveal the deeper, darker chasm which extended to the roots of the earth.

“‘And the Serpent who devours the World shall be unleashed’,” the king quoted. He set a hand on Bran’s shoulder. “I must go.”

“I understand.” It wasn’t a complete lie. Bran swallowed bile.

They ran side-by-side as they had in their youth, and jumped the expanding crevices. The fractured rock towered over the abyss from which the serpent would emerge to devour the world.

The king tilted his head to the sky, praying, but Bran watched the void, alert for any variation in the darkness. Finally, the dull gleam of the serpent’s coils caught the failing light.

“Drystran,” Bran said. “It’s time.”

His brother’s dark eyes bored into his, though the flicker of fear Bran saw might have been a reflection of his own. The king drew his silver dagger.

But… There was a way to stop the king.

Bran punched his older brother in the face. The king staggered back in surprise, and Bran wrenched the dagger from his hand.

“I love you, Drystran,” he said.

He hurled himself into the abyss to bar the serpent’s passage.

The rock snapped closed above him.