Welcome to another Fantasy Art Wednesday! Get inspired each week as fun fantasy artwork is combined with a writing prompt to get your creative juices flowing.

It has been a long, exhausting day of walking through harsh mountain terrain. You’re cold, hungry, your muscles are aching, and the sun is about to set. Suddenly you come upon this place, nestled onto the top of a nearby peak. The windows are lit up with a friendly glow, and there is smoke rising from the chimney. The musk of burning wood that carries on the wind makes you long for warm, dry clothes, and a hot meal. But this is a strange place to live, remote and barren, with no good place to grow food, keep livestock, or even hunt for game. Who lives there, and how do they survive in this harsh climate?

When I saw this image, it instantly made me think of my short story about Delevan, a young man whose village was destroyed by wyverns (sometime in my world’s extensive history). Salvaged from the wreckage was an important tome, and Delevan was entrusted to deliver it to a monastery in the mountains for safekeeping. The journey was not a simple one, and he met an unexpected danger on the way…But that is only one possible story. What’s yours?

(Artist Juan C. Barquet)