Here’s a 200-word story, based on the idea of Story 2: The Lantern and the Sea:
The Lantern and the Sea (200 words)
Thalos had always lived alone on Graywhale Isle, tending the lighthouse that stood against
the endless storm. The island was forgotten by the world, a place where the waves never
stopped crashing and the wind howled through cracks in the stones. For years, Thalos had
kept the lantern burning, the light a guide for lost sailors. But it was for her—the one he had
lost—that he kept it shining.
One night, as the moon hung low, a soft glow appeared on the shore. Thalos thought it was a
trick of the fog, but as the glow grew brighter, he saw it: a fish, luminescent and large as a
horse, its scales shimmering like stars.
It swam to him, carrying something—fragments of a broken lantern. Etched in the glass were
words, the same words his daughter had once written in her journal. “Come find me, Father.
The sea remembers.”
Thalos’ heart raced. He had thought her lost to the storm, swallowed by the sea years ago.
But now—now she was calling him, from somewhere deeper, somewhere he had never dared
to go.
With trembling hands, Thalos extinguished the lighthouse lamp, his last light fading.
Let me know if you’d like to continue any of these!