The Anchor of Fohn

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An award-winning incursion for Trophy Gold, a runner-up in the May 2020 Trophy Gold Incursion Writing Contest.

For centuries, the Fertile Knot has been a productive farmland that takes its name from the intricate path that a specific cloud formation takes across the sky, looping and curling around in the same pattern of seasonal rainfall every year. On the ground, fertile farms and lush foliage mark the cloud system’s path across the sky.

A month ago, the cloud system’s movements began to deviate from the path it had followed for centuries, and, instead of rain, it began belching hail and lightning, destroying crops and livestock with drought and violent weather. After 30 days of this unprecedented behavior, a giant ship’s anchor fell from the cloud directly onto one of the region’s largest farmhouses, destroying the house and bringing the cloud to a standstill.

Horror and panic are taking root in the Fertile Knot as the crops and livestock die, the wealth stops flowing, and the sky apparently begins to fall. Worse, some townsfolk have gone missing, their bodies unaccounted for.