22 October 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3264: The Harvest Ball

This post was inspired by today's 5-minute writing prompt in the Freewriters Community - COSTUME

Enjoy !

Image by Lisa Yount from Pixabay

Every autumn, there was a Harvest Ball in the village of Sweetwater.

Sveta was excited; she had just come of age and it would be her first ball. She put on her finest gown and dabbed herself with enough scent to hold the aroma from Lake Drudge at bay for the evening. As her mother garlanded her hair with wheat stalks, she said, "Now Svetlana, I know you are dying to go to the ball, but heed my words; only dance with people you know well."

But of course teenagers don't listen.

Everyone in Sweetwater over the age of fourteen attended the ball. Nearly two hundred people. It wasn't a big town, just a farming village on the edge of the Principality, really.

But the Town Hall was large enough for more than that, and to Sveta it seemed completely full. People she knew, neighbours she'd grown up with all her life, but some folk she wasn't sure if she recognised or not. She thought they were, but many people wore masks even though it wasn't officially a masked ball.

So she found herself dancing with a young lad in a jewelled mask. She didn't think to ask how jewels could come to a town like Sweetwater, she was enjoying herself too much. The evening passed in a blur.

In the morning, she was nowhere to be found.

Her parents hunted everywhere within the town's palisaded walls.

Finally, the Mayor shook his head sadly and told them, "I am truly sorry. The Lords and Ladies always come to the ball, and I'm sure you warned her not to dance with strangers. But it is clear she has been stolen away by the fae. You'll never see her again."