Item - The Wounded Falcon

This is a small-scale but reasonably satisfying mini-adventure. The entire story involves one hunting expedition, and details are sparse enough that the setting is left up to interpretation -- could be historical, fantasy, or anything else you care to imagine where hunting with falcons might occur. In spite of the open setting, the writing is detailed enough to be engaging, and the choices are diverse enough to keep the reader interested and challenged until the end (I failed quite a few times before finding the true path). A lot of different techniques are tried out here -- one choice yields an inventory item needed for later success, while another causes an injury that causes subsequent failure; some choices are strategic while others are purely directional; one choice literally amounts to randomly choosing from a list of page numbers. In a larger work, some of these mechanisms would be frustrating and inadvisable, but in the context of this short story, they all prove interesting as they demonstrate some of the possibilities of interactive writing. In the end, I guess that reveals this work as a writing exercise as much as anything else, but at least it's a writing exercise that provides a few minutes of entertainment without overstaying its welcome.

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