The Hero(ine)'s Journey - Katherine Roberts

I have just returned from the Other SAS’s annual retreat. This takes place at a top-secret venue in deepest Oxfordshire. Naturally, we are all sworn to confidentiality so I can’t tell you much about what goes on there, except that there is always some magic. But I would like to share with you the results of a dream workshop led by Jenny Alexander, who guided a few of us on the Hero’s Journey along our personal writing paths.

Imagine you are walking in a familiar place, when you see a sign saying “To the Treasure”…
I am in the local wood on the boardwalk, and it is raining so no one else is walking there today. The trees are dripping and the bluebells are out. All smells green and garlicky. I am approaching my favourite bridge over a stream, where I often imagine fairies, when I see a new path twisting through the trees where there are no marked trails. A sign says TO THE TREASURE. I think it is one of the farm’s regular treasure hunts for children so I hesitate because it might be something tacky and disappointing. But since no one is around to laugh at me, I decide to have a look.

You find the path blocked…
I duck under the leaves, push aside some vines, and find the path blocked by a monstrous “bird” that some local artists strung up in the trees by the boardwalk during a recent Arts Trail. It is a fantasy creature made of old grey canvas, black feathers, and a scary triangular beak/snout. It is meant to be a future people’s idea of a bird they have never seen because birds are extinct in the future, and it has come alive. It hisses at me. It has been tied in the trees long enough and now it has escaped. But it can’t fly because its wings have not been made the right way, and they are soggy with the rain. Also it has no eyes, so it is blind.

How do you get past the block…?
The “future-bird” cannot see me so I freeze, trying to make no sound. I think about going around it, but the undergrowth is too thick. Also it’s boggy because I am off the boardwalk. I am too afraid of its huge sharp beak and its powerful claws to try climbing over it, so I decide to fool it. I pick up a stick and throw it into the undergrowth. The future-bird hears the stick land and flaps off after it, getting its wings entangled in the bushes and shrieking as it flounders in the bog. I hurry past before it can get free, a bit afraid of meeting it again on the way back.

You find the treasure…
As I leave the future-bird behind, the sun comes out and the path emerges in a clearing where there is a barrow covered by greenery. I push aside some ivy and crawl inside, where I find a gleaming golden sword. This is the treasure! I take the sword, thinking it might be useful if I have to fight the future-bird, although I don’t really want to soil the beautiful blade with its blood, nor hurt the future-bird because it is the last of its kind. Also, I doubt my fighting skills because I have not been trained to use a blade. So I venture back warily along the dripping path, where the sun now sparkles through the leaves and gleams off my golden treasure.

What do you do next...?The future-bird is still stuck in the bog, but it has exhausted itself and the sun is drying its feathers. It steams gently, its wings spread in the warmth. It still cannot see me, but the sword is magic so it can see the golden light. It crawls towards me, as if hypnotised. It seems less afraid now, maybe because it is no longer lost and alone. I stroke its beak and it does not attack. Murmuring to the creature, I climb on its back, and since the sun has dried out its wings it can now fly. Although it is still blind, my eyes will guide us. As we take off and circle above the trees in the sunshine, I see the glint of water below us where the fairies live. We both feel amazingly free. As long as we continue to trust each other, we can fly anywhere in the world, and my treasure-sword will defend us from all enemies, past or future.

I added the last part after the workshop because I had only tricked my block on the way to the treasure and knew it would be waiting for me to return. Other writers’ blocks were dealt with the first time they met them.

You are welcome to analyse!