This is the third week of the Steem Monsters Common Card Fantasy Writing Contest series. Congratulations to last week's winners of the Crustacean King contest, top dog @foxfiction and all the runners up.

My entry, "The Ballad of the Crustacean King," though it didn't place, got over 500 upvotes. That was quite encouraging. If you haven't read this narrative poem, I encourage you to do so.

The third contest involves writing a backstory for Flesh Golem.

Image from the contest announcement page

Below is my humble submission:

Feet of Clay, Heart of Flesh

I am mud. Formed by the Summoner's own hands, my mind is numb, my feet are clay, and my hunger grows with every bite. I chew my victims like the cud of cows and make no sound for warning, for words have little substance that flesh can discern.

In ancient days long gone, this body of flesh rose up from the soft marl of earth. Fertilized by the bones of lost battles and watered by the blood of victors and their foes, it took their form in mockery of their quest for glory. The slow evolution of mud and clay into hominid started with a simple clump. Little by little, it rose from the heap, day by day growing, unseen by the life forms that preceded it, undetected by nature itself, and unprevented by any force that could have done so had it the foresight to know what I would become.

Like a statue in honor of some torpid beast, I huddled motionless, waiting. How long I held my pose no one can guess. But that cold, hard monument at long last took its first breath, its first step, and here I am.

Out of the land I crawled. Back hunched, knuckles dragging, the weight of my skin heavy on my frame. Flesh I had not tasted, though I craved. The first taste fortified me, gave me impetus to labor for more. On the hunt, I stalked every life form I could find, gnawing and chewing on muscle and sinew, ravaging cartilage and bone until there was none more to devour.

Silently now I roam only to consume. Quick as death, furtive like the wind, I am upon my prey like a thief in the night. Flesh Golem I am. I am mud.

Suggested summary for the front of the card: From dust it came, to dust it shall return. Dawn to dawn, Flesh Golem roams seeking only to devour to weak.

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