Prompt: Interesting Instructions

[Prof. Sky Alton]

To a pot or vessel of brass over a medium fire, add a pint of witches’ tears, two feathers fresh-pulled from a cockatrice’s tail, six pea-sized stones of three-day-old hail from a mountaintop…

-Garth Nix, Frogkisser!

Thus begins a very important recipe that sends an intrepid hero off on a quest. It’s by no means the first of its kind: a collection of items that one must collect or actions that need completing to fulfil some great purpose has been part of literature down through the centuries. As with a lot of literary tropes, it’s been reinvented time and time again.

So, it’s your turn: write a story (200 words or more) where the plot is kickstarted by a recipe, list or set of instructions. It can be as fantastical/convoluted or mundane as you like so long as it’s creative.

You’ll earn 20 beans for completing this prompt as well as it counting towards the chance to snag our shiny Quill and Ink award.

There is no deadline as such for these prompts but if you’d like it to count towards your chance of earning the award for a specific year, we’ll need it by the end of that school year. If you’re comfortable sharing, then post below. If not, email your story to us via hol.bookclub @ gmail.com (without the spaces). Oh and remember it’s a good idea to check through your piece carefully for spelling and grammatical errors as they make it harder for people to properly enjoy your work.

[Iverian Gnash]

"I hope you can help me out," the letter started, "Annabelle's birthday is tonight and I need to bake a cake. She's very particular about the cake though and I'm not sure I can make it myself. I know you're really good at this kind of thing so can you make it instead and bring it tonight? Here is the list of ingredients:

1. Food coloring
2. Edible Glitter
3. Flour
4. Strawberries
5. Vanilla
6. Milk
7. Butter
8. Baking Powder
9. Salt
10. Sugar
11. Eggs

Thanks!"

At first I was mildly irritated. After all, I was not planning on spending the entire day baking a cake with... edible glitter. What even was that? I searched for a store nearby that had it and actually did find out it existed. Other than strawberries and the glitter, I had the rest of the ingredients, so starting the car, I went out in search. By the time I got home with glitter and strawberries in hand, I had only two hours before the party and I doubted I could bake a cake in that amount of time. Plus, I had no real instructions, so perhaps a simple look at other cake recipes would work?

I got right to work using a basic recipe. There was no mention of edible glitter in it, so I just started adding it to the batter. This was the sparkliest batter I've ever made. By the time it baked, the outside shone and I hadn't even put the icing on yet.

The food coloring was all sort of colors that I had had so I made a bowl of each colored icing. For the base layer, I put plain white icing on without any glitter. Then I started adding the different colored icing to various piping bags I had with different tips to them so the icing would come out in cool patterns.

Of course, I added tons of glitter to the icing and then began adding little flowers to the top of the cake. Glancing at the clock, I had thirty minutes left. I took my time with the glittery flowers. By the time I was finished, you couldn't see the top of the cake as it was covered in flowers of every color and looked beautiful. Then I took the remaining glitter (surprised I had any left at this point) and carefully put it around the sides of the cake.

And... ten minutes to get there I realized as I carefully took it out to the car and drove to her house. The entire cake shone and Annabelle was really excited to see such a beautiful cake. A bit short notice, but I was incredibly pleased with my work.

[Galena May]

"Blood, sweat, and tears, is all you need. You need three drops each of them to pour into the fountain of success, and the fountain shall tell you the quickest path towards fulfilling your dreams", said the High Archmage, "I shall see you when you are done."
A fountain of plain white water bubbled and gurgled at the center of the garden. "Blood, sweat, and tears," I thought to myself, "pretty simple".
I decided to prick the ball of my thumb with the penknife I kept in my pocket and drop three drops of blood into the fountain. It took me forever to gather the courage to execute the action. I had always been scared of hurting myself. When I was nearly about to give up, the High Archmage appeared before me again. This habit of turning up unexpectedly was annoying, but at the moment, it was such a relief. He held my hand and said, " Here, let me do this. It can take a little push sometimes to recognize that it really isn't that painful." And, with that, he swiftly punctured the ball of my thumb and drew three drops of blood and let it fall into the fountain. "Ouch", I said immediately, but smiled as quickly as I had said it. The pain wasn't excruciating. It had gone. It was over before I knew it. The clear water of the fountain showed a red tinge for the quarter of a second, then it went back to being the same as before again, taking away any momentary satisfaction of having successfully navigated the first step. I turned around to look at the Archmage and thank him, but he was gone again. Annoying, but okay.
"Sweat, okay, this should be easier, or at least less painful", I said to myself. An ominous chill crept over me as I realized that it was a cold, winter day. "I have to run", I said to myself. I ran round and round the garden, and almost fainted, but I still was not sweating. I prayed for the Archmage to come back, but he didn't. I covered myself with layers of clothing and tried again. When I really wanted to sweat, I began to run non-stop without rest. And, there came trickling down a drop of sweat, and another, and another. I had three drops of sweat. "Well done ", I said to myself.
"Tears", I thought. But, I wasn't sad. I tried to summon memories of all the bad things that had happened to me but these were so old and had grown on me that I couldn't cry. I tried to look at the Sun with bare eyes and stare, but I couldn't look long enough to cry, for my eyes started hurting and I gave up. I waited for hours and hours, trying to think about something really bad that mattered to me. I requested the Archmage to return, but he didn't appear. At last, I sat down in despair. "I guess the secret of success isn't for me after all", I said to myself in a sad voice, and burst out crying. Out came the tears, and now I had several drops more than three.
The Archmage appeared before me out of nowhere. "Congratulations! Well done!" he said.
"But, the fountain hasn't changed. It is the same as before. Where is the secret to my success?" I asked, indignantly.
"But, you already know it", the Archmage replied, " it's blood, sweat, and tears", and he smiled the next second. I was furious.
Had I not respected him so much, I would have berated him for cheating me.
But, then, a few thoughts occurred to me in a bout of self -reflection.
I needed blood but wasn't brave enough to draw it. The Archmage showed me that it wasn't painful. I could have drawn it myself had I been braver and more confident. In other words, I needed to face my fears.
I needed sweat, but kept taking breaks between my running spree, for I wasn't accustomed to the discomfort. But, the sweat appeared only when I ran non-stop, indicating that I needed consistency.
I needed tears, but I couldn't cry because I wasn't sad enough, except when I realized that my success was at stake. My desire for success had brought out the tears, meaning that I had to really want my success.
So, it clicked. That was the true recipe for success - the secret ingredients were courage to face my fears, consistency, and a burning desire to accomplish success.
"Wow", I said to the Archmage with a grateful smile on my face, "I do have the secret of success. But, the fountain? What did it do?"
The Archmage smiled with great satisfaction. "Oh! the fountain", he replied, "that's an ordinary one with no magical powers, of course".