Writing Exercise: Rory's Story Cubes Voyages

I managed to convince someone else in the writing group to pick up a set of Rory's Story Cubes, though she bought the Voyages set, which is more fairy-tale themed. We rolled the cubes and got the following symbols:

• A giant and a small person
• A crown
• A chalice or goblet
• A puzzle piece
• A pill
• A ladder
• A badge or a star
• A pagoda
• A bowl with food or something piled inside it

Here's what I wrote:

Once upon a time, a giant left form his enchanted castle. Actually, it was his brother's castle, but the brother had chased that little thief down the bean stalk and not come back. So he guessed it was his castle now. All the geese were gone and the cook too, so food got scarce pretty quickly. Sure, plenty of wine was left and he could drink from any goblet he wanted, but wine doesn't fill a stomach the way it should. So he set off on an adventure. For food.

He dressed in the finest clothes, since he was king of the castle. His brother's crown fit well but the robes were too short. He was curious to meet the other inhabitants of the cloud kingdom and wanted to make a good impression. He came upon an abandoned village.

The town hall was empty. So was the post office. And the stores. Especially the baker's, the fruit seller's, the butcher's, and the pub. It was a strange puzzle. Where had everyone gone? Why had they taken all the good" The village only had one street. It was easy to check everywhere and find nothing. Not even one pill at the apothecary's.

A cough sounded on the breeze. The giant looked up and didn't see anyone. The building were rather tall here. The giant went to the hardware store and found a ladder. He climbed to one roof where he discovered the sheriff hiding.

"What are you doing up here?" asked the giant.

"Uh...hiding from monsters," answered the sheriff.

"What monsters?"

"The ones coming down the road," said the sheriff, pointing down the road. The giant turned and saw nothing. He turned back and the sheriff was gone, only his badge left behind.

The giant looked over at the other buildings, seeing pale, scared faces of the other villagers and their piles of wares. "What's everyone doing up here?" he asked.

The people started to laugh nervously. The apothecary spoke up. "We were afraid of the lord of the castle coming to the pillage the village again. We need our stuff for the coming winter."

The giant nodded and said, "But I'm not the king!"

That's as far as I got. My initial thought was that the giant would use a ladder to go down to the surface world and be in Japan, enabling the pagoda, but that didn't happen. The bowl of food would show up eventually.