plot help needed!

[almach]

Hey everyone! I hope you're having a lovely day. I come to you with a humble request for assistance because my characters are being stubborn. (And lo, no author was surprised that day.)

I need help figuring out the end of Act 1 in my current medieval(ish) fantasy short story.

Here's the situation. You're a warrior from a kingdom where magic is outlawed, sent to hunt down and bring back the head of a witch who has made an (unsuccessful) attempt on the prince's life. You find her deep in the forest, coaxing a plant back to life under her hands. Inexplicably, she knows your name before you say a word to her. (Creepy.)

You shoot three arrows at her: the first two hit her but she's not affected like a normal person would be, and the third one she redirects with a wave of her hand and it falls to the ground. She says if you try anything more extreme (like decapitation or fire-setting) she'll kill you, but if you turn around now and leave her alone, she won't hurt you. However, you know that if you return to your kingdom without proof of the witch's death, the court will have you executed for failing to perform your duty to the crown.

What do you do, and why?

ETA: You people are wonderful! I think I know roughly where I'm going with this. Will post the link here when I'm done.

Comments

[meridian_rose]

1) run away! Start a new life somewhere far from all this drama!

2) better option for the story; tell the witch you can't go back but that you've seen her healing magic and you're curious as to how she knows your name. Ask for her side of the story why she tried to kill the prince. Possibly become the witch's warrior if it turns out she's in the right - why should magic be outlawed? Maybe it turns out the warrior has latent magic?

Lots of interesting possibilities here, it sounds like a great story :)

[almach]

Thanks :)

Ah, but see, this is an erotic horror story, and the reason she attacked the prince is because she needs to find a physically & mentally strong mate, and what better way to do that than to commit a terrible crime and seduce whoever the royal family hand-picks to track you down? She's not trying to start a revolution; she's trying to start a family. (It's cute in a really twisted way!)

The warrior does eventually decide to stay with her, and I want it to be an actual choice (rather than mind control or something), so I'm trying to figure out how that's going to happen.

I have another story with a totally different setup/plot but with a very similar warrior character (they're based on the same person if you go back far enough in my notebooks), and his story is that he was very idealistic when he was young, dreaming a lot about the glory of battle, but when he actually joined the military he realized it was mostly just a lot of old men who drink a lot and tell blatant lies about winning fights and bedding women, so he ends up miserable while waiting for his mandatory service time to be over. I'm considering just grabbing his backstory and using it for this character, because secretly hating your life is a pretty good reason to run away from it.

My main problem is how to spin that so that it's clear to the reader that staying with the witch is really a desire, and not something done because "well if I go home they'll kill me so I guess letting this weird lady mate with me is my least bad option".

[meridian_rose]

I read a book years back about a witch trial (and the Black Death and Great Fire before it was all over) where it turned out the woman went through hell because of a vision that the man who would accuse her (she was a witch and good person) of evil intent would give her a child. I was pissed at the plot twist because I like my characters to have motivations other than "must reproduce" but I was already invested in the story, having suffered through other difficult subject matter around the trial, and I was two thirds through the novel so I did finish the book! It sucks I cannot remember the title or I'd add it to my Goodreads with a concrit rec because it was well told.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has similar ideas/characters. I think it's a good idea to use the backstory if it works well with this character and yes, hating your life would be a good reason to run away :)

"My main problem is how to spin that so that it's clear to the reader that staying with the witch is really a desire" Can you find a way to make it clear he has other options? Perhaps after he's been there for a while. Maybe introduce another character later (any gender) who he could leave with/he could have the offer to join the circus/run away with pirates LOL/the witch actually tries to send him away, whatever might give him an "out". Then it's clear when he stays, that he is making a definite choice.
If you need him to make that decision straight away I still think other options could be at the back of his mind. He's got a distant cousin somewhere, he's always wanted to travel by boat, anything that is another choice between death vs witch-mate. But he's intrigued enough to stay :)

[almach]

Ooh, wanting to travel the world by sea is exactly in-character for him–I think I'll use that. Thank you!

[meridian_rose]

Glad I could help :D

[foxinthestars]

I was thinking along the lines of Option 2 as well. If magic is outlawed, your warrior has also likely never seen it before and/or been told nasty things about it. What's it like for them to see it? Is it different from what they expected?

[foxinthestars]

Just read your reply above, and I'm thinking that magic being different than stories/expectations does have potential for building the warrior's fascination. Thinking along erotic lines, like, maybe he'd been told that magic was life-sapping (read: castrating/impotence-inducing --- this is something witches were often accused of in real life), but then the healing of the plant could be a good opportunity for suggestive (but horror-tinged) pseudo-erection imagery, the skeletal husk of the plant becoming firm and fleshy and suffused with vital juices and all that. Okay, that was a bit shameless, but I hope it helps.

[almach]

This is a really interesting idea, thank you! I hadn't even thought of playing with expectations vs. reality because I kind of had it in my head that he doesn't have specific expectations (on account of never having seen magic, like you mentioned) but it makes much more sense for him to have some (horrifying and wildly exaggerated!) expectations based on what he's heard. After all, things that are shameful/illegal are always the target of inappropriate drunk jokes, and I'm sure he's heard a few of those. (I totally appreciate your shamelessness, btw.)

[foxinthestars]

Happy to help!