Gilded Tarot-- three card story exercise

This is a thread for us to post examples of our three card story exercises. Of course, if you write a four or five card story you can still post it here. This is a way to have fun while looking at the cards as a sequence, as beginning, middle, end. It is not meant to be a reading.

I have time to do a couple.

Knight of Swords - Nine of Wands - The Magician

(Figures, I couldn't flip easy cards )

His name is John. He's a cop. He just made the biggest drug bust of his career. His adrenaline is still rushing from the buzz of bullets flying by his ears from just moments ago.

This bust did come with a price. One of his fellow officers was shot in the line of duty. He'll be ok though. The bullet got him in the leg. John knows that these things sometimes happen, he just has to keep on going. Doing what he loves, and what he knows to be right.

John knows that he has all the tools at his disposal to be a great cop. And he knows how to use them. Tomorrow is another day, and he'll be right back into the action again.

RubyRuby,

I love that story!

Here were my three: 9 Swords-The Hermit-King of Cups

Lecia is a princess. Beautiful, smart, intelligent. She was reared in her childhood by wisewomen tolerated at court under the auspices of wetnurses and nannies. She has grown up strong willed and been trained to use her mind. As her girlhood passed and her womanhood blossomed, she ripened to marrying age and was promised to a king in a union that would stabilize political ties. She is smart enough to see the advantages of this and feels drawn to her duty. She has convinced herself to submit to her nuptials, but the night before her wedding she awakes from a terrible sleep. She feels the teachings of her past call to her, and knows she cannot deny who she is- a strong woman meant for more than spinning and keeping house in a strange man's castle. The owl, an old familiar of one her beloved crone caretakers of childhood, bids her to leave and follow him to a place she can escape.

She so flees and is guided to the house of an old man, dressed in ragged clothes. He doesn't look like much, but he guides Lecia on a path back to inner truths and the wisdom she pondered in her youth.

As for her jilted groom......

Having never met her intended, Lecia does not know him, only that the idea her represented to her was something against which her mind and spirit rebelled. But her intended is not a man of action or extreme force. He does not ride forth from his castle to seek her. Nor does he mean to claim her back by force, dragging her kicking and screaming from her hidden and austere life in the concealing cliffs. Instead, he was a man of great feeling and would not make a choice of the heart without the power that knowledge of his intended would bring him. He had to know who this woman was and what kind of queen she would be.

As the weeks passed with the strange bearded man, Lecia began to wonder who he really was. He seemed kind enough but kept much to himself, and encouraged her to simply... be. She did not dress in finery, but wore a simple woolen shift much like the man's old robes. Lecia found she was growing into herself more than she ever had. She rediscovered simple joys and truths as she quietly read, gathered herbs, and meditated through the days and nights. She wore her hair down her back, or in a simple braid as she had when she was a girl. She began to shed the manners and rules of polite behavior she had learned at court that concealed her true independent nature.

One night, the man joined Lecia at star gazing out on one of the cliffs. This was unusual, but Lecia welcomed his presence. She had begun to love her host as a peaceful and caring man. As they rose together to return to the small shack, he stumbled and fell on the rocks, crying out that he had surely cut his leg on the shards of his broken lantern. She ran to him, and cried out herself. Her heart immediately lept to her throat and her hands, full of caring, made to help him up and ease his suffering. As she bent over him, she saw that his cloak had been loosed and his countenance had completely changed.

He was no longer an old man, but a man only a bit older than herself, with the same burnished hair, like polished cherrywood, and a short brown beard of one more youthful.

Indeed, to add to this shock, Lecia found that not only had she been tricked by clever diguise, but that this young man now before had not even been hurt at all.

He explained to her color drained face that he was indeed her intended, and the past weeks and months had been only a charade to discover her true heart and nature. As anger flaired in Lecia at being manipulated and deceived, the man's dreamy eyes looked up at her. She found herself going liquid inside, drowning in the pools half covered by his heavy lids.

Lecia knew instantly that she would be his queen. She knew that she had met her match in love, and that life with this man would, at times, overflow with rewards. And yet, she knew that while she would forgive him, she would never forget what he was capable of. Perhaps she had finally met her match...

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Sorry it was so long, everybody. My libran nature makes being concise very difficult!

Great stories, both of you. It really is interesting to see the cards come to life in this way.

Here is mine.

Nine of Cups
The "Mice Will Play" was the most popular pub in the village and Henry the equally popular owner/bartender. He loved his work and knew all the regulars. He felt proud of his skill in facilitating the good cheer of his customers by carefully orchestrating the serving of different brews. He wished everyone well and barely knew what malice or suspician felt like.

Page of Cups
Now, Henry is far less sure of himself. He feels like a boy again. The most beautiful woman he has ever seen is in his pub's small sitting room. Just sitting there, with her friends (castle folk from the looks of them) drinking his best mead. Hesitantly he approaches her with a goblet of his best faerie-brewed sparkling wine. She takes a sip, wrinkles her nose as if perplexed, and.... laughs. A delicate tinkling sound that sends a shiver up Henry's spine even as it causes his heart to sink.

"We only drink faerie-brew at New Years Eve" She tells him. The courtiers and ladies around her giggle softly behind raised hands. But she does smile at him and this seals his fate.

Knight of Swords
Henry will sell the pub and go to the castle. He will start out as a wine steward but his work has given him knowledge of men's hearts and skill in speaking with them. Soon he will become an accomplished courtier. He will gain in sophistication but also become more suspicious of other people, perhaps even becoming a ruthless and combative schemer. He will eventually rise to a position where he is noticed by Lady Mesmerelda but will there be much left of the old Henry?

--Myrrha

Those are great! OK, here's another one

Wheel of Fortune - Knight of Wands - Seven of Wands

It was his destiny. His fate was in his hands. He knew what he had to do. The battle was looming, and he knew he would have to engage. He had a passion for the fight. Who would be his enemy tonight...

I love both of those! Myrrha, I got a kick out of the name you chose for the barkeep- he really does look like a Henry, for some reason!

OK here's another one:
Tower-5 Cups- 4 Pentacles

(I'll try to keep this one shorter)

After having been away from home for years on the Crusades, Phillip returns home. He looks forward to finally finding rest and basking in his family's love. Instead, he finds his house in ruins, and his only son cast out of this mortal coil by the very fire that claimed his tower. He finds nothing left in the rubble but some of his beloved wife's fine gold chalices, which were part of her dowry. He remembers his life with her and his now lost son, and sinks to the ground in mourning. It seems the very birds are singing a sad song. And yet, if he learned one thing while fighting abroad for a cause he became disillusioned with, it was how to survive out of sheer steadfastedness. He gathers these gold cups and sets forth to remake himself as a merchant, leaving behind his past identity along with his buried dead. In the years to come, Philip does become a successful businessman, with many worldly riches to show for his work. He has traded in his armor for fine silks. He keeps his treasures close to his heart, for they are now all that is left to warm it.

I'm going to give this a try. Here are my three cards:

The Magician
Two of Cups
Ten of Wands

Claire and Cindy have been best friend since grade school. Totally insepreable, they did everything together. Went ot the same colleges, took the same classes, even got a job at the same company. They were inseprable, that is until James started working with them. James was handsome, well spoken, charming and very charismatic guy. He was a ladies man, he never seemed to be able to settle down with just one woman. He could and didn't want to stop looking at woman or even trying to keep his hands off them. Claire and Cindy both secretly had a crush on James. They did not tell each other about this crush. Thinking that the other would laugh at them, telling them they should know better then want a man like James.

One day Claire and James were working alone late one night. Things happened and James and Claire started a secret relationship. James assured Claire it was because they worked together that he didn't want the bosses to know about their relationship. He thought it would be frowned upon by the bosses, maybe even get one of them fired. Claire agreed to keep the relationship quite, she didn't even tell Cindy.

Shortly after Claire started seeing James, Cindy did also. This went on for months before either one know that the other one was seeing James. It wasn't a pretty sight when they figured it out. The once insepreable friends were now enemies, thinking the other betrayed them. Soon after James broke both relationship off and got a new job.