Curse

Storm Crow · Feb 02, 2007, 12:48 AM // 00:48

I made this thread so myself and other writer-freaks (no offense

) like me can post the short stories and excerpts of stories they've created. Feel free to post your own, all are welcome. If you're looking only to criticize and not contribute, please DO NOT post here. Thank you.

I guess I'll start this off with a small excerpt from something I wrote that never got anywhere, and two tiny stories that for some reason I haven't combined into one. I guess you could call them an original and a sequel, but whatever.

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A Remembered History

He saved her, she saved him. It sounded so simple put that way, but it was much, much more. They recalled that night, now so long ago, together, hand in hand, she remembering him, and he remembering her. That night, they were so close, yet so very, very far away. That night, she saved his life just as much as he saved hers. That night, that changed their lives forever. Just that night...Just that night.

It had been only too long. Malikai was grown now, the Sisters had gone, and they were alone: isolated on the Isle of the Dead, found by the Sisters what had only been too long ago. They key to the Great Onyx Gate had long since been lost, and they oaken doors rotted away.Only too long, only too long.

Garria, Varda, Ksaiya: they were all gone. Garria had gone back to Ascalon, Varda back to her inn, and Ksaiya now a performer in the Henge of Denravi. Aerily, Mierna, Revvarah: they were gone. Aerily had gone back to her wolves, Mierna back to Kryta, and Revvarah rejoined the Emperor's army in Cantha. Bennah, Sikara, Jadyn: they were gone. Bennah had become a headmaster in the Shing Jea Monestary, Sikara had returned to Elona to be a nomad with Xander, and Jadyn had returned to her squadron in the Sunspears. Gone...They were all gone.

Even the children had grown and gone. The one they had loved so much, no so much older, and some with children of their own. Malikai, Clarice, Klieo, Nalia, Jean, Akemi, Cadeyrn, Deimos, Xander, Bastet. All were gone. They had left the nest to start their own journeys, to start their own lives, as their mothers had: roaming the faraway lands of Cantha, Elona, and the furthest corners of Tyria. Eventually, all would find hisbands, wives, and have their own children, one day, to return to their childhood home, to begin a new legacy, that of the Onyx Children. But those days were long in coming...

Heartbreak

The wind blown rain pounded hard, echoing through the Onyx Hall. She made slowly to the lower oaken doors, pulling up the heavy bar and setting it aside. Water rushed through to the Hall as soon as it could edge through whatever crack it found. She didn't bother to shut the door again behind her.

Her boots caught and squelched in the mud that lie on the pond bottom as she walked through th now knee-deep water. She made her way across the pond made lake and to the opposite shore. She shivered through her Hydromancer's armor as she walked through the iron gate. Her breath shuddered in a shiver as she turned the final corner into Dwayna's Court, and the rain softened. She stood before the pure Goddess, shivering, shuddering, as she looked sorrowfully into the mural's eyes.

And as the rain fell once more from the blackened skies above, she missed him all the more terribly, and her own tears fell with those of Dwayna as she sank to her knees in the thickening mud, the Isle of Onyx that was once her sanctuary, now her hellhold as every tear that fell brought back more memories, each one becoming more painful than the one before, until, at long last, the pain of him not being there was too much, and she gave up her will to live, and was taken to the Mists, guided by the loving hand of her Goddess...

Hearbreak Reversed

Upon his return, he found her dead, lying on the ground in a heap, face buried in her hands. His breath became ragged as his eyes diverted from her body to the mural of Dwayna. Through the rain, the painting looked as if it was crying, mourning the loss of a Diciple of Air. He looked at it in disgust, loathing, and total hatred. He remembered now why he had turned to Grenth.

"Why?!" he questioned the mural, "Why her, why now?!" He shouted and cursed at it, damning the goddess to the depths of the Mists, before turning from her in rage and picking up his beloved's body and taking her back to her sisters.

The funeral was held the next day in the midst of a thunderstorm. She was dressed in her best. They laid her body on a stack of Shiverpeak Pine, soaked in ale, her favorite brew, waiting to be struck by lightning and set aflame. When it was, the twenty-one witnesses bowed their heads, and listened as the elements consumed her. Sisters cried, and children clung to their mothers. All except one, who instead held is head high, proud of having this woman as his mother. He turned his head to the man standing next to him, and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. That man his estranged father whom he had never cared for, was now his only reminder of what had been lost. One mourned a mother, and one a wife, as they looked at one another: father and son. Some mourned a sister, and others an aunt, but none knew the departed quite like the two of them. And their tears fell with Dwayna's as they gazed upon the ashen body of one beloved, now gone. Forever gone.

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I apologize if there are a few misspellings or grammatical errors, I'm kind of tired. Please, feel free to post your own stuff here! Hope you enjoyed them!

Unreal Cyn · Feb 10, 2007, 02:14 AM // 02:14

Not bad, Stormcrow, cool concepts you had there for those shorts. I like this idea, too. So here's just something I had entered for a GW-related competition that didn't make it. I hope you enjoy it and I'd be glad to see more short stories here

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Skins of Jade

The sun blazed from a cloudless sky, refreshing his spirit as with a cool breeze. Soft-coloured petals rained down upon him, filling his nostrils with the sweetest fragrance. Cymbals clashed and drums pounded amidst the cheers of thousands of throats, but for him, everything was muffled. Although dressed in many layers of armour he did not feel the sun’s heat biting into him. She was too beautiful.

Jaidan gripped his blade and followed her body as she flanked the Emperor up to the Temple. The Emperor’s retinue was small, but she would have still stood out had it been comprised of a hundred ritualists. Long, plaited hair and brown skin marked her as foreign to Cantha, but he could care less. He could not deny the feelings he had for her. Not anymore.

Her name was Keylah Rin, and she was the most stunning woman alive.
As though hearing his thoughts, she turned and glanced towards his company. Her sightless eyes were bound in many cloths, yet she seemed to find him amongst the ranks and smile. Jaidan felt as warm as a freshly-baked sweetbread as he returned the gesture.

A shadow flicked across his vision. He looked up sharply, espying an eagle as it soared over the proceedings. So beautiful.

His company’s commander marched before them and ordered them at ease. Jaidan lowered his sword, casting a final gaze at the Temple’s entrance – hoping to get another look at Keylah. She had already disappeared within, but standing there was the tall, rugged Emperor’s Personal Guard.

Shiro Tagashi perused the two well-armed companies of soldiers around the Temple with searching, liquid-black eyes. The stiff breezed ruffled the armoured cloths around his neck and tousled his hair like a living thing. As his gaze swept over Jaidan, it seemed that he was impaled upon two lances of cold ice.

What the hell? Jaidan tried to suppress a shiver.

With a sweep of his cape, Tagashi turned and vanished into the maw of the Temple. For a moment, a creeping sense of dread crawled down Jaidan’s spine, although he had no idea why. Cold arms of fear gripped his mind, knifing through to his deepest regions.

“Helluva day, ent it?” the soldier beside him whispered. Jaidan jumped and tried to push away the fearful feeling of dread.

“Yeah.” He replied, “I can’t wait to get back to Cavalon, Diun.” He glanced over at the small man, his best-friend since childhood. Together they had risen through the ranks of the Luxon army, earning both a name for themselves and a place at this year’s Harvest Festival. Only the finest warriors were allowed this close to the Temple.

“I saw your girl going up there. Gods, she’s divine.” Diun chuckled, his fat cheeks jiggling.

“Yes she is,” Jaidan paused sighing, “I’m going to ask her…to marry me. When we get back home.”

Diun beamed and was about to reply when a loud shriek ripped through the air. Every eye looked up, towards the scream’s source at the top of the Temple. As though time itself were mired in the clay, a black dot fell from the sky, enlarging to a body as it neared and suddenly crashed in a mangled heap of bones and blood on the pavement. The sound of the alarm gong reverberated in Jaidan’s ears.

“Oh Gods!”

“Men! To the Emperor!” Their Luxon commander hollered. He raised his sword and led the way up the steps and into the belly of the Temple.

Jaidan’s heart raced, each throb hammering against his chest like iron on an anvil. Through long hallways and ever-rising flights of stairs they passed, moving like the wind. Dread once again worked its way into Jaidan’s mind. He had to get to Keylah, but he feared the worse.

It felt like forever before his company burst through the Inner Door and came face-to-face with Tagashi, standing over the bodies of the Emperor and his retinue. Blood stained the floor and the walls like red claws, but Tagashi stood amidst it all, blood oozing down his blades and a tight grin on his face.

What is this?! Gods, Keylah!

Shock rippled across the ranks of soldiers as the realisation of what just happened sunk in.

Betrayal.

Jaidan remembered nothing of the frantic charge against Tagashi. Men fell like chaff before his twin-blades. But not Jaidan. He found Keylah’s body near that of the Emperor and already he was at her side. He hugged her limp form close. In the ensuing chaos, no one noticed him.

“Keylah!”

Her abdomen had been sliced asunder, and she had already lost a massive amount of blood. Yet still she lived, shivering against Jaidan’s body. Her breaths came quick and painful, but still she fought against the fingers of Grenth that yearned to close around her. Jaidan gingerly brushed the cloths around her eyes – she had never seen what hit her. Tears came now, and agony ripped a moan from Jaidan’s very gut.

The woman he loved was dying. Why? Gods, why?!

“Jai…Juh…dan,” Keylah whispered, “Wha…happened?”

He was just about to answer when he suddenly realised that everything had gone silent. Reluctantly he turned, and beheld the carnage behind him. Bodies lay strewn about like rag-dolls. Diun’s corpse lay near to Tagashi’s feet – mouth agape, eyes seeing nothing. Tagashi stood hurt, and curling tendrils of red mist rose from his body. In the blink of an eye, both the Luxon and Kurzick commanders were upon him, cutting through him with his own swords.

With a blinding flash, Tagashi seemed to explode.

Jaidan’s flesh immediately felt as though afire. Skin seemed to peel away, leaving nothing. Panic settled on him like a gripping hand as his heart beat frantically.

“This can’t be happening! No! We’re going to get married…I love you Keylah! Everything will be alright!” He whispered to her, burying his face in hers. He said and felt no more, as a searing wind covered them both, encasing them in skins of jade forever.

Storm Crow · Feb 10, 2007, 03:29 AM // 03:29

That was awesome, Cyn! I loved it. And I'm also glad to see that someone posted here. For a while I thought that I had been exiled from Lyssa's Fiction and that everyone either hated me or had followed others who do.

Keep up the good work!

RobbyTheSheef · Feb 13, 2007, 07:36 AM // 07:36

Heya, my works may contain profanity and vulgarities. If they were movies, they'd be rated R, at least. If you're the faint of heart, or a kid, don't keep reading this. If you read below this line, you have agreed not to be offended. Oh, and it has NOTHING to do with GW.

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Untitled work of Non-fiction

The cold steel of the barrel rests on my left hand. The coarse wooden, worn out handle in my right. I stare at it with the intensity of every war human kind has ever known. I’m going to do it. The bottle of Jack Daniels No. 7 rests in my lap, its cold glass shell hiding the demonic hellfire it contains. I lay the gun on my knees and firmly grasp the bottle by its neck and bringing it to my mouth. It burns its way down to my stomach. My hand shakes. Not a weak shake. Or a junkie shake. A shake of fear. A shake that tells me it’s going to happen any minute now. I slam the bottle onto the floor next to me. It shatters into a thousand glistening mirrors. I can see myself in every one of them. The disgusting shell of a man who has done nothing in his life but hurt others and himself. For no reason than because he could. My hand bleeds and is now jagged with broken glass. Blood pours onto the floor. I think to my self. “F*ck, that could ruin the hardwood.” Even in this moment I’m preoccupied with stupid shit like floors and telling myself that people give a shit. But I know now that they don’t. After a few attempts I manage to grab the gun. My hand shakes so much I can hardly hold it. I pull the hammer back. It clicks. It’s laughing at me. Even it knows I deserve this. The barrel fits just right into my mouth. It’s cold and I like the metallic taste in my mouth. I manage to fit a thumb into the trigger guard. I pull slowly on the trigger. Dragging it to its proper position. Back. It goes off and all I feel is the sudden jolt of life ending. Finally. I got what I deserved.

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There we go! More to come when I get around to typing things up. Criticism is welcome, so long as it's constructive. Yes, it's a true story. Well based on one, not like I was there. I apologize if you thought I was lying about the vulgarities and such, but I warned you. Peace.

Storm Crow · Feb 22, 2007, 10:29 PM // 22:29

I found this one last night before going to bed. It was written somewhere in the early September, late August range, but, I guess it's still decent.

Animated Friends

As the warrior fell by her hand, she was energized, and drew strength from death. That strength was enough, just enough, to animate a minion. Her deathly chant started, and flesh and bone was manipulated and formed a giant creature, armed to kill with a horn atop his head and a massive claw of muscle and bone. Though this was her first, she felt like a trained and experienced Minion Mistress, and chuckled lightly to herself as her bloody creation lumbered toward her. She cooed to him to follow her, and her blue-gold eyes sparkled maniacally. "Come now," She cooed again, "We have things to kill, and friends to animate."

It's okay, I guess. I was thinking about my pretty Necromancer at the time, obviously, and decided that I hadn't written much about her in a while, and so came up with her first minion aimation.

Silver Polarbear · Mar 07, 2007, 04:20 AM // 04:20

First i want to say that I enjoyed all the previous postings. I will share a teaser excerpt from a story i am currently working on. I hope you enjoy it. This is still in a rough unedited form.
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The Seer

The Seer threads her way through the mist shrouded battleground. Slowly, she navigates past shadowy objects; dead, broken bodies, weapons of all shapes and sizes jutting from the ground like the cold bony hands of Death Himself. She wanders blindly through the fog shrouded night, compelled to search, for what she does not know. After what seems an eternity she stumbles up a small rise near the center of the plain. The site of the fiercest fighting yet seen between the two armies. Both sides fighting to a standstill, creating a large mound of bodies around the tattered and burned remains of a spear haft jutting into the air. Here, just hours before, two mighty armies clashed and fought their way to a slow grinding halt. Neither side able to gain the advantage; neither side able to claim the battlefield.

As the sun fell to kiss the horizon, the armies on both sides began to slowly withdraw to their respective encampments; those whose injuries were surviveable helped off the field by their comrades or slowly making their own way, hobling and limping to a warm bed and the attention of the camp healers who would bind, bandage and for those most seriously injured, healed with the precious magic that only the most talented of healers can access.

The Seer stands silently, rooted in place, her mind spinning and swirling at lightning pace. This is the place! This is the time! Here in this silent fog shrouded night in the middle of a blood saturated plain. This is it! All of her life has been a preparation forthis moment and every moment to follow. This is what the pain and sacrifice, the toil and tears have been prepareing her for. She slowly fills her lungs with the soggy air, takign note of all it can tell her. The scent of sweat, blood, death! Death, clinging to everything. Oozing its way across the land like a slow motion wave. Yet under the slimy coating of death lies so much more! Power, so much power! So much power and energy has been released during the preceeding battle that she can feel the echo, ebb and surge of it still moving through the world. Two supremely powerful individuals have faced off here! She must know more! This, after all is what she has been preparing for. Nearly 300 years driven by a compulsion she still does not fully understand, and now it has brought her to this place and time.

The fog seems to coalesce around her, forming impenetrable walls of white vapor; imprisoning her here in this place. As she continues to study her surroundings she becomes aware of a stirring movement in the fog. Far overhead a small opening appears, as if torn open by a set of titanic hands. One lone star winks at the Seer, as if trying to conceal a childhood prank from the unsuspecting target.

The scant light reveals to her the faintest glimmer near her feet. Apprehensively she lowers herself to kneel next to the object; now revealed to be a blood-soaked shred of cloth. There, in the presence of the newly dead; congealed blood and mud seeping into her robes, she kneels frozen, as the cold wisps of vapor brush across her skin. The tension grows within her as she slowly reaches out, her hand hovering in the air a mere hairs breadth from the soaked piece of cloth. The barely visible gilding on the cloth tugs at her consciousness. As she picks up the tattered shred of cloth, a tingling shiver crawls its way slowly up her spine, arcing from vertabrae to vertabrae and finally lodging at the base of her skull. Spreading tendrils of dread, like shattered lightning, through her mind. Tilting the cloth into the meager illumination, she finally recognizes the device, or at least the remnants of it that have not been torn away. She can see the intricately stitched patterns inlayed into the fabric, layer by layer, over months of painstaking effort. It is still so new that there is no wear upon the fabric; beyond of course this day's hard useage. The precious moon thread, as yet unscavenged, still twines its way around the thread of silver, giving the device its' unique gleam. As her fingers begin to trace the stitching a glow begins to build, slowly gaining strength and illuminating the immediate area. The light grows stronger, emanating from the thin scar slicing its way across the Seers' face. From her hairline, through the left eye, down to tug at the corner of her mouth and over her chin, to terminate in the center of the void at the base of her neck. The light brightens and pulses until it culminates in a blinding flash. As the darkness rushes back to reclaim it's rule over the night, the Seer crumples forward, face down into the muddy remnants of war.

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I hope you enjoyed it...even thoguh it is kind of rough still.

Storm Crow · Mar 16, 2007, 08:28 PM // 20:28

Here you go, as promised!

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4:30 AM. The earsplitting sound of a buzzer ran through the eighty-fifth floor of Skygate Enterprises; Android Department. Her eyes opened quicker than she could pulse off a shot from the Shadeseries Nola 115 at her hip, and, needless to say, that was pretty fast. She threw the light blanket off her slim frame as she swung her legs off her hardly military-issue cot. She stood, took her 115 out of its holster and laid it on the small table next to her cot, and picked up the pair of custom-made earplugs from their spot, inserting them into her ears as she pulled off her Mem-Tek sleep suit and stepped into a small Sonishower and hit the power button. The earplugs sealed off all noise as high-frequency sound waves shot from the device's walls, knocking all impurities from her 5' 7" frame in ten seconds flat. She was only too glad Sam had designed the plugs for her, as she would have lost her communications otherwise. Hidden nanotechnology always came at a price.

Sam was not unlike herself: young, fit, and overall capable of some amazing things. His tawny hair was always unkempt, and his lab coat stained. His eyes were marked with bags and crow's feet prematurely, as he rarely slept. He knew her inside and out, but it made perfect sense. He'd designed every part of her that wasn't human, which was now a bit less than a quarter. He'd designed her; he'd designed her life. That was why she took his orders: she owed him. Too much.

"Good morning, Xiana!" Sam's voice rang clear into her ear. Her eyes went instinctively to the ceiling.

"Could you give it a minute?" Xiana sighed, "I haven't even gotten dressed yet."

"So you're saying I should stick around?"

"Camera o--"

"Okay, okay! I've got it, call me back when you're done." Sam said, and a click popped in her ear.

Sometimes, Sam's technology didn't suit her. Just sometimes.

She dressed in her typical white Mem-Tek, and laid back on her cot.

"Projector. Sam." she ordered. She winced as the projector in her left iris buzzed into life, casting a live feed of Sam's lab over her ceiling; she still wasn't used to it.

"Now, what the hell did you want?" she asked the multiple computers projected over the ceiling.

Sam's chair was heard rolling across the laminate checkerboard tiles. He was so into things from the centuries before it wasn't funny. He even refused to use his own hoverchair technology, and still took showers with water and used a twenty-first century coffee pot, too. Imagine!

"What the hell I wanted was to borrow you for a minute or two," he said, putting on his best sweet face.

"And by 'a minute or two' you mean a few hours, and of course by 'borrow' you mean brief and debrief on several new things you've designed for me. Correct?"

"Hit the nail on the head, again."

"What's a nail? And why am I hitting it when I could shoot it?"

Sam sighed and hung his head, "Never mind." He tapped a key on his flatboard and the connection was cut.

Xiana left the Android Department, flipping her all-access badge to the autonomic guard and muttering simply "Business."

From here, things were simple. The fourteen stories above the Android Department were dedicated to Research and Development labs, most under Sam's watchful eye. Her father, CEO of Skygate Enterprises Jonathan Arriet, used the one-hundredth story as an in-work apartment. Sam's lab was just under where her father's office was in the apartment in Dev-Lab 84.

She turned down the extensive corridor, toward the equipment elevators that ran 24/7 up to the labs, bringing in everything from complex chemicals to pen-tab office pens. She knew most of their routes up to the labs, and chose LE-DL 7, or, in layman's terms, Lift Elevator – Development Level Seven. That particular elevator ran up to the labs every four minutes, starting exactly at midnight for its first run of the day. That meant it would have started its way back up at 4:36, and if she timed it right, she wouldn't have to wait any longer than ten seconds.

"Five, four, three…" Xiana counted slowly, rolling the ammunition cylinder on the top of her Nola's barrel toward its "KO" setting. "Two. One."

She pulled the 115's trigger faster than Skygate's database could locate a personnel file, which it could do in a matter of milliseconds. A small lead-plutonium ball struck the notch just above the retinal scanner, causing it to blank out for a moment and give anyone access to the upcoming elevator by stating their employee code.

"Please state employee access code." A computer voice stated in feminine tones.

"Arriet, 4293-XA-51, access level Alpha-Beta-Omega." Xiana said in perfectly practiced accuracy.

"Granted." The feminized computer said.

The reinforced aluminum doors slid open silently, coming to a cushioned stop in their housings. She boarded, and waited for the doors to close before touching the plasma pad on the back of the doors on Sam's office.

The elevator stopped and the doors rolled back again. Sam's lab almost oozed disarray from every surface. All sorts of devices whirred, buzzed, and blipped all sorts of colorful tones from high pings to low drones.

"Why is it that I can call you sane when you have all of this in your office?" Xiana asked as an orbital ball reader, a small device that circled buildings and read levels of different chemicals and heat, rolled off a nearby table. She didn't bother to try to save the ancient history.

"Because, I've saved your career and your life on more than one occasion." He said flatly, looking up from the bank of monitors stationed at his desk.

It was true. He was to credit when it came to her existence. She didn't even give her mother and father as much credit for her being alive as she gave Sam. When her heart had repetitiously stopped beating when she was fifteen, Sam, then seventeen, had had a week to design and create an automatically functioning heart. Back then, tissue printers weren't very common, so Sam had designed her heart from a rust-resistant metal called illarinum. This heart could be remotely monitored and controlled if necessary. That was five years before.

He'd also designed every other part of her that wasn't human. This included the nanotechnology in her eyes and ears, the shock resistance plates in her ankles and knees, her illarinum-laced torso skin graft, and the circuit board on the left side of her face.

Her nanotechnology allowed her to communicate with anyone who had a line her system could tap into. Small discs, located on her eardrums, vibrated when the microprocessor in her iris translated sound waves into HTML (hypertext markup language) and relayed the information to the discs, which acted accordingly. Sound and video feed lapse was fine-tuned down to a few milliseconds, by Sam's expertise.

Her video system worked much in the same way. It relied on three things: her microcam, projector, and another external camera. The microcam was placed in her left iris, and ran at almost all times, along with the microprojector. The camera had a direct and secure line back to Sam's office. No one could breach the line without a twenty-three digit security code and the answer to one of hundreds of thousands of questions locked up in Sam's database.

The projector ran one of two ways: screen mode or visual mode. Screen mode set the projected image on a large surface, such as a wall or ceiling, while the vision mode was the same, but concentrated down to a range of view size. Vision mode was often accompanied by a custom, translucent screen, cleverly disguised as a pair of sunglasses that were typical among the common people.

The shock resistance plates in her ankles and knees had been implanted when she was eighteen. They added a total quarter inch to her height, and had enabled her to effectively jump from the hundredth story of Skygate Enterprises without breaking a single bone. The plates themselves were made of illarinum, ensuring that they absorbed all the shock from contact, and spread it evenly upward over the minute or two after initial impact.

Her illarinum-laced skin graft had been completed in the few days after the shock resistance plates had settled into their permanent position. It was a simple, but time-consuming process. Stem cells were introduced to skin cells, taken from Xiana's arm, to create more of the same. After they had created enough to cover her torso, they were introduced into an illarinum electrolysis bath, a plastic box full of illarinum and some complicated chemicals with an electric current running through it, that made the super-light, semitransparent metal bond with the skin cells. When this was completed, it was grafted into place over the previously existing skin. They completed the procedure in only two sittings, once for her back, and once for her chest. The finished product was the equivalent of wearing a Kevlar vest, except much lighter: resistant to bullets up to and including .30 caliber gunfire and low-concentrated laserfire.

The circuit board, though, took much longer. Its circuitry was so complexly wired that it had to be done after it was inserted into its position. This accounted for several resizing trials after the first surgeries had removed tissue and bone to make room for the unit and its power cell, which ran off the calcium in her bones. The first three times Sam had tried to start the system, it had been too small to power itself, and so shorted over Xiana's heart, causing it to shut down. The first time her heart shorted out, she had flatlined for over six minutes. Sam had performed what would have been a complicated surgery to clear a blockage of platelets and restart the heart.

"Now, down to business." Sam said, shuffling through a few microdiscs that scattered his desk.

"Of course," Xiana said, and strode to the other side of the room. She sat in Sam's chair as he opened a maverick folder from one of the discs and accessed a file. When it opened, Sam tapped the microchip in his hand and a small beam of light flashed to one of his checkerboard tiles. The tile became transparent, and a field of small, reflective particles stood still in the one foot square from floor to ceiling. The first of his designs began rotating slowly in the field.

"This," said Sam, an air of pride in his voice, "Is the new Shadeseries. I've been working on this model for over a year. It's the perfect design for low-key jobs."

The image spun slowly, showing its every angle. It was more than small; it was tiny, no more than the size of a child's palm. It looked much like an old-style revolver, except that this only had two chambers that moved horizontally, and the trigger took up sixty five percent of the entire weapon.

"Shadeseries Lightbringer. Smallest yet, with just as much punch as your Nola at .9 cal. Works extremely well at short distances." Sam beamed.

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[EDIT]: added what I typed up tonight. Hope you like it!

Unreal Cyn · Mar 28, 2007, 06:18 AM // 06:18

Let me start off by saying that I really enjoyed all of the latest postings here. I thought that The Seer was fantastic and engrossing, and I'd love to read the finished work, Silver. Robby's stuff was pretty hard hitting and intense too, cool work man, share some more if you can. And most recently I found Storm Crow's to be pretty good too, even though I found Xiana to be a tad annoying and perfect. But hey, she's a cyborg and the character works. I'm into sci-fi too, so I'd enjoy reading the rest of that story. Good stuff from everyone! Here's another (very) short story that I hope you will also enjoy. It uses a similar formula to the last one I posted.

For the Money

“You shouldn’t drink so hard, Ryan. Francine says it’s not good for the liver.”

Ryan regarded his sister from over the top of his cold-sweating bottle of Dwarven vodka. She moved effortlessly about the kitchen, preparing all sorts of small meals and drinks. Most of her dreadlocks were tied up in a colourful head-tie, but they still dangled about her neck as with a life of their own.

“It’s a tavern, Natalie. What the hell do yuh expect me to do?” he grunted, taking another long swig.

She turned and rested her hands on her wide hips, “I rather you going out and looking for a job. Look at you – you’re a f**king mess.”

Ryan wanted to retort with a scathing remark, but all that came forth was a defeated sigh. He glanced at his reflection cast in the glass cupboard to his left. There he sat; bloodshot eyes, unkempt facial hair, bedraggled clothes and a bottle of vodka in his hand. For a moment, Ryan cursed his fate. Why could he never get anywhere in life but on Natalie’s nerves? He hammered the bottle into the table – shattering the glass – and rose from his seat.

“I don’t need to hear this shit.” He muttered angrily. “Don’t you think I know I’m a loser? I’m gone.”

“Then go then, Ryan. You’re always running from everything, you coward!”

He turned and strode out of the kitchen and into the dimly lit common-room of the tavern. Natalie called after him, but he did not care to respond. It was not that he hated her – after all, she was the only one had left; it was that he hated himself. He hated what he had become; nothing but a pest, a social degenerate. He loved Natalie more than his own life, but she deserved better. I gotta apologize to her. I gotta find a job and get out of this rut. But not yet. He needed time alone, and then he would try to make everything right.

Pushing open the door he was enveloped in the frigid night air. The moon painted the environs in silver and shades of grey, yet shadows lurked and pooled in corners and crevices close at hand. Stars glimmered brightly on the indigo tapestry of sky, forming large constellations of ancient heroes.

“Coins for a poor beggar?” called a soft, sickly voice.

A wizened old lady stood beside him, half-shrouded in darkness. He had not even heard her approach.

“I don’t even have coins for myself. I have nothing.” He said, turning and striding down the street.

“Maybe you haven’t looked hard enough.” She replied. Ryan turned and to his amazement; the old lady was gone, melting back into the darkness. Must have been the alcohol talking. I’ve had hallucinations before.

Ryan sighed and wrapped his arms around himself as he began a brisk stroll down the street. Each breath came out in thin streams of mist, for even in Kryta, their proximity to the Shiverpeaks allowed for ice-cold nights. He turned and regarded the dark peaks to the east, massive walls of rock that reached for the stars.

Suddenly, a muffled scream echoed in his ears.

Ryan froze and glanced behind. The street was empty, but something felt out of place. He wanted to continue walking, but the night suddenly felt alive; the darkness grasping towards him with malicious intent. Fear gripped him, as his heart began to race. Sweat beaded on his face and slicked his palms. What the hell was that?

Briskly he made his way back to the tavern, pushing through the doors and into the still-empty common-room. He stopped short at the door as a scent of light smoke burned his nostrils.

What in Rurik’s name?

Another scream, this time much more strained, reached his ears. It was closer now and Ryan suddenly recognised the voice.

Like a lightning-bolt, Ryan crossed the common-room and burst into the kitchen. Food burned on the stove, and there on the ground next to the table he had left laid Natalie. Her clothes were torn and frayed, and blood pooled on the floor beneath her. A dark figure stood over her, and steel blades flashed in his hands.

“Wuh…what are you doing? Oh f**k! Oh my Gods!” Ryan cursed. The only person in the world he cared for lay dying on the ground. Who was this person to do this to him? To destroy the last thing that mattered to him?

The person stood, turning to Ryan with a detached interest. Cold grey eyes burned at him from between the folds in its mask. The black attire and the obsidian blades labelled this person as an assassin, but Ryan had never heard of assassins in Tyria. Why had he come for Nataliae? What had she done? Is it because of me somehow? Natalie managed to find Ryan with her eyes.

“Run.” She mouthed, blood trickling from her half-open mouth.

No. Not this time, sister. With a lunge Ryan pounced towards the assassin, grabbing the broken vodka bottle off the table in mid-flight. Ryan brought the bottle crashing into the assassin’s head just as he sent his daggers into Ryan’s stomach.

“Why, you…f**king…bastard?” Ryan cursed through clenched teeth.

“For the money.” The assassin replied simply. And Ryan’s vision faded to the deepest darkness.

Storm Crow · Mar 28, 2007, 09:54 PM // 21:54

Nice job, Cyn! At first I was confused about whether Natalie or Francine was Ryan's sister, but then I reread it and it made sense. I'll try typing up the rest of that thing tonight after I finish some homework.

Happy writing!

[EDIT]: Added the rest of untitled sci-fi work to the previous post!!

Storm Crow · Apr 01, 2007, 06:01 AM // 06:01

Now, this is a first for me. This story is the first example of my Guild Wars related work that does not include a reference to my characters. This originated as a post in The Inn, and after a few days of writing, gave birth to this. I give to you, the members of Lyssa's Fiction...

Paid in Gold

She sighed, pushing her hair back slightly and settling further into a slouch on her stool at the bar. Nothing happened here much anymore, but that was fine with her, she esteemed the old place. She spun her mug around by the handle, smiling lightly and laughing a bit.

"'Ello, Haley." A pretty little woman with her brunette locks tied back in plaits started, a smile perched upon her lips. Her accent was slightly Deldrimorian, as if she'd spent a bit too much time around the Dwarves. She sounded tired. "Can I gitchyou anythin'?"

"What's you're strongest?" The woman on the opposite side asked, turning her head up to look at the barrels beneath the bar.

"That'll be our dark ale, but I'm sure you won't be wantin' to be drinkin' that at this time ah night."

"No, I'll take whatever's just weaker than that."

The waitress shook her head, exhaling and casting her eyes to the floor. She took the mug and filled it up again, setting it back on the counter and taking the twelve gold pieces that had been laid there. The woman thanked her before taking a gulp and sliding off the stool, walking toward the set of stairs behind her.

"Don't be staying up too late, Lyssie." The woman called back to the barmaid, smiling.

"Oh, dunchyou be worryin' 'bout that, now. Head off to bed, yerself."

"I'll bring this back to you in the morning, then." She raised her glass.

"I'll leave a place for it."

"Thanks. Good night, Lyssie."

"You, too."

She continued on up the stairs, treading lightly over the cracks in the old floorboards. Lyssie was a nice girl. She deserved much more than to work for a few measly pieces of gold in an inn that hardly anyone visited anymore.

She tiptoed up to her room, a small one, with a single bed in the center, pushed against one wall, and a hearth for keeping warm. She shivered as she walked in, though. She'd left the window open and the cold Krytan night air blew in. She set her mug on the mantle and pulled the tight-fitting frame down through its notch to the sill, tucking the curtains closed. She breathed deeply, twirling her fingers in the air for a moment and flipping her hand up, creating a small ball of flame. She held this in her gloved hand while she fumbled with the tinderbox next to the hearth. She built up a small pile of kindling, laying a few sticks and twigs over the top, and let her flame grow. She picked a few good logs from the stack in the corner, laying them carefully above the flickering little fire. They popped and spat back at her before settling down and charring. She brushed her gloves off on her skirt and turned back to her bed.

She sat heavily on its edge, the night's drinking finally setting in on her mental state. She pulled her boots off slowly, taking some precious time to pull at a bit of mud and leaves that had stuck in the intricate tread on the bottom before setting them near the door. She worked her gloves off, too, meticulously pulling at each finger until they slid off her tender hands. She'd gotten herself in trouble with a warrior the day before, and had ended up grabbing his blade a bit too tight with both hands. There weren't any Monks around, so Lyssie had bandaged them up with a bit of an old rag for her. She unwrapped them now, pulling them off carefully, taking extra care when she got to the final twist. They were scabbing now, and it would be a few more days before they would begin to scar. She tossed the old bandages in the fire; she would let the wounds aerate overnight before rewrapping them the next morning.

She set her gloves with her boots and pulled back the covers, laying them over the end of the bed so the heat of the fire would warm them. She grabbed the mug off the mantle, now, sitting back on the cooler sheet to drink it down. She took one sip, then another. As she drank, the flames before her began dancing wildly, curving this way and that, running from an invisible evil. It made her head hurt, as she contemplated why they ran, and from what. Another sip, they ran faster, another and faster still. Harder and harder her head began to pound, throbbing uncontrollably as alcohol overloaded her system, wreaking its disgusting havoc on her entire body. It seeped, like the poison it was, throughout her, taking control. She shuddered. The one spat of competition drinking hit her now; a burst of the strongest ale hit her like an overpowered hammer. She became short of breath, dizzy, and dropped her mug, shattering the glass on the warming sheets, sending the alcohol seeping through them. Her face contorted into a strange expression for a moment, before she fell backwards, unconscious.

|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~ |~|~|~|~|

When she woke, she was hot; sweating, sticky, and uncomfortable. It took a while for her to come to her senses and understand where she was, but when she did, she acted quickly. At first, she tried to run, but the soles of her feet hurt, and the doorknob was burning hot. Her mouth was dry, cottony, as if someone had shoved a piece of linen into it while she slept. Perspiration dripped down her forehead and into her eyes, burning and adding to her panic. Then, as if something was washed over her, she turned back to the cause of her flight: the alcohol-fueled flame burning on the sheets. She suddenly became calm, and she felt like she was watching everything from a third person view. She pushed her hands out before herself, sending a cooling air of ice over the flames, smothering them in a blustery haze. She sank to the floor where she was standing, running her freezing hands through her hair and over her neck and arms.

Just then, a panting Lyssie came through the door, a wooden pail of water in hand. Seeing she didn't need it, she tore off her apron and dunked it in the pail, soaking it. She balled it up, ringing out the excess water, and blotted it across her customer’s legs and feet where they had suffered good burns.

"I guess you won't be getting your mug back." The burn victim chuckled.

"I'm not worried 'bout the mug, I'm worried 'bout you, Haley. Why duhyou keep gettin' yerself in all this trouble?"

"Just the way I am, I guess." She shook her head.

"Yuhneed to stop it, or yu'll end up dead! Now, c'mon, we just booked a Monk in today, we'll see if he can fix yah."

She pushed herself up, her feet felt as if they were tearing into open sores as she put weight on them. She hobbled along slowly, wincing slightly the entire trip down to the bar. The Monk sat at a table further back from the bar, sloughing over his glass of white wine. He looked up as Haley inhaled sharply; she had misstepped and put her weight fully on one of her burns. He stood, and walked briskly toward the pair.

"Sit, sit!" He persisted, "You shouldn't be on your feet if that's what's injured." He pulled out the closest chair and ushered Haley into it. He sat on the floor in front of her, and took her left foot in his hands. "Nasty burns." He said, running his fingers over the open wounds. They tingled and fizzed in a blue-white light for a second before the Divine light faded, revealing perfectly healed skin beneath. He repeated this on her right foot as well. As he helped her up, he saw the gashes in her hands and healed them with an orison before asking if she felt right.

"Well, I can walk and my hands don't hurt. I'd say it's pretty good." She smiled. "Thank you."

"Any time, it is my job, after all." the Monk took his patients hand and shook it with a firm grip.

“Oh, come. I must repay you. Lyssie, put this man’s drinks on my tab. Have all you’d like, um, what did you say your name was?”

“I’m afraid we haven’t been properly introduced. My name is Oliver.”

“Haley. Nice to meet you Oliver.”

“Likewise. Now, I’m terribly sorry, but I must be going. I have an appointment in town that I can’t miss. Maybe I’ll see you when I get back.”

“That would be nice.” Haley smiled.

Oliver walked quickly toward the door, his sandaled feet hardly making a sound on the floors.

“Well, Lyssie, what do you say about a little breakfast?” Haley asked, “I’m starving.”

“Sure. Is some toast and fruit okay?”

“Wonderful.”

Lyssie strode to the bar, taking a lovely looking apple and a pear from a basket beneath the counter. She pulled out a small knife, making quick work of the fruit while a few slices of bread toasted nicely on the hearth. Haley sat at her usual place as Lyssie slid the plate of fruit down the bar to her and tended to the toast. She came back with four pieces, slathered with a large pat of butter. Haley picked off the top piece, taking a large bite and savoring it before munching on an apple slice.

“Y’know, Lyssie,” Haley said through the apple, “That Oliver guy was cute. Why don't you try talking to him later?"

"Oh, I couldn't do that." Lyssie blushed, "I'm sure he's already got a girl. That was probably what he left for."

"Lyssie, he's a Monk. I'm sure he lived his entire life away from women until they let him out of the Monastery."

"Maybe I'll make small talk when he gets back. He seems like an interesting person to talk to."

"There's a girl!" Haley smiled. "Now, I'm going to run into the city for a while. I need to pick up a few things and I'll be back before happy hour."

With that, Haley left. She walked down the hill and into the bustling trade city of Lion's Arch. A lot of travelers and collectors settled here, shouting above the crowds to buy and sell their wares. Haley wasn't interested in that, though. She had a contact that came into the port every few weeks from Elona, her home country. He had been a good friend of hers since they had met in Kamadan a few years before. It was a long and complicated story, too much so to write here. She slipped through the thickening crowd, toward the docks and her contact's ship. She stepped aboard and took a commanding presence over the crew.

"Where's Kai?" She demanded of one of the riggers.

He pointed toward the captain's quarters. She walked away, and the crewman spoke after her "He said for no one to bother him!"

"I'm sure he'll make an exception." She threw open the doors, closing them just as hard behind her.

"Did you get it?" Haley demanded.

Kai turned from his maps. "Haley." He walked over to her and attempted to stroke her hair.

She smacked his hand away. "Did you get what I wanted or didn't you? Business now, playtime later."

"Yeah, I got your...whatever it is." He said. "Did you bring me my gold?"

"Let me see it first." Haley retorted. Kai walked to his desk and unlocked a small wooden chest. From that he pulled another, heavier locked box, and unlocked it as well. He removed a small bundle, and reassembled the boxes. He placed the bundle in Haley's awaiting hand. She unwrapped it, sliding the gold and gem-encrusted medallion from its protective cloth.

"It's beautiful!" She gasped, turning the medallion over and over in her hand. The piece reflected every bit of light it caught, throwing it back in a cascade of brilliant, blinding colors.

"I believe that thing and my work to get it earns me a pretty penny." Kai said, some amount of anger sliding quietly into his voice.

Haley threw him a black bag. "It's all in there."

"So, what is that thing anyway?"

"This, you incoherent fool, is the most precious thing in all the land. This is the Medallion of Komalie. This little piece of gold and gems can reopen the Door of Komalie, and give me access and control of the Foundry of Failed Creations. This can make me the most powerful being to ever reign this world!"

[EDIT:] Re-ran through spell check. Everything should be correct, now.

(Thank you for pointing out one more, Cyn! <33)

Unreal Cyn · Apr 03, 2007, 05:08 AM // 05:08

I think payed should be paid, but otherwise that was pretty good. Haley seems an interesting character. I don't have anything to post tonight tho. Keep the stories coming everyone!

Lurio Mystras · Apr 06, 2007, 02:36 AM // 02:36

They do all come from seemingly real stories in the Guild Wars world, don't they? I guess another story about love and anguish can't hurt anyone...
__________________________________________________ ______
The Desert

It was late at night as the company finally reached their destination among the ships in the Crystal Desert. Shale Retelh sat down heavily, weary from the long journey. They had traveled since dawn, trying to get from the Desolation to the lands of the Forgotten. Finally, as stars began to give way to the barest light of early morn, the Elonian group reached the edge of the town known as Elona Reach.
"Fitting, ain't it?"
Shale turned at the sound of a friend's voice. He and Ledhe had been friends since childhood, and had risen together through the ranks of the Sunspears.
"It is fitting, Ledhe. After all this travel, it truly is Elona's reach."
As Shale set down his pack and staff and began to set up his tent, he heard a faint noise coming from the company's rear. Unbeknownst to the legion, a group of Forgotten led by Issah Shiss has followed them since they left the Desolation. The company, being as weary as it was, barely noticed, except for Shale. He turned and walked out towards the area where their sentries had been posted, seeking the source of the noise.
"That you, Shale?" a female voice asked.
He looked to the source of the voice. It was one of the few females traveling with the company, a Dervish named after the goddess of healing, Dwayna.
"Yep, it's me," Shale replied. "I just thought I heard something, and I came out to see if you had noticed."
"No, I haven't heard anything," Dwayna said. "But then we've all been on our feet since almost a day ago. Perhaps it was a trick of your exhaustion."
"That may well be," Shale said. "But still, I'd like a chance to take a look."
Lighting the candle he had taken with him, Shale walked out past the edge of the sentry line. He turned and cast its light on his surroundings, but saw nothing.
"Huh. Guess Dwayna was right," he said to himself.
Returning to the encampment, Shale was puzzled to find a soft light glowing inside of his tent. He cautiously walked toward his tent, beginning the first lines of a spell that would bring fire upon the intruder.
Seeing the small icon beginning to glow in front of Shale, the intruder identified herself quickly.
"Shale! Stop that! It's me, Dwayna!" she called.
"Dwayna? What are you doing here?" he asked her.
"Well, my shift on sentry duty ended, and I...I wanted to talk."
Unsure of what it was she wanted, Shale walked into the tent and sat down a safe distance from the Dervish.
"Shale, I know this may come as a bit of a surprise, but..."
She broke off, sounding unsettled about her words.
"Dwayna, you know you can tell me anything. Now, what is it?"
"Well, you see, I..have feelings."
Big surprise there, Shale thought.
"...about you. Or..rather, for you."
Shale's jaw nearly dropped in surprise. But then he finally took the chance to really look at the young lady. He realized that she was strikingly beautiful, with sand-colored skin and a bold, but soft, face.
"Dwayna...I...I had no idea. But as I look at you, and think of you, it is hard for me not to feel the same way."
He moved closer to her.
"Dwayna, every chance we soldiers get to be with a woman, let alone have feelings for you, is...well, it is rare. I...I love you," he said, his mouth moving faster than his mind.
"Shale, I know this sounds like the typical 'sleep with me, for tomorrow we may die', but...there is a chance. A chance we may be able to spend our lives together. I don't want to waste that. Ever since I saw you, my feelings for you have grown."
"Dwayna, I feel the same way for you. I barely even realized it until just now, but it is true. This one chance..."
He moved even closer, to the point where he could identify every eyelash covering her stunning green eyes. Their faces were so close...
<> <> <>
"To the front line! All soldiers to the front line!"
Shale was rudely awakened by the commander's shout, and was instantly aware. Still locked in an embrace with Dwayna, he moved carefully, but it was to no use, as she, too, had been awakened by the shout.
Their eyes locked, knowing that it may be the last time they saw each other, as with any battle. Shale moved toward Dwayna and kissed her passionately before moving to put on his robes. He wished he had more time, but knew that there was none.
They exited the tent and followed the crush of other Sunspears toward the sound of their commander's voice and the sounds of sword clanging against sword. Shale chanted spells of protection and power, and prayed to his god Balthazar that they should survive the battle. Utilizing her speed, Dwayna reached the front lines ahead of Shale, and he lost her in the crowd. Stopping, he invoked the full power of Balthazar, bringing down storms of fire upon the Forgotten, who had chosen the morning for their ambush. Rushing toward the line of soldiers that comprised the main body of the Sunspear regiment, he saw the rest of the group's Elementalists and Monks, and rushed to them. Joining the ranks, Shale began to rapidly choose enemies to destroy with the might of his fire magic.
Minutes went by. The battle raged, as the Forgotten continued to come on strong. Finally came a break in the attack. Shale used the opportunity to sit down and catch his breath. Feeling his energy begin to rejuvenate, he sought out Dwayna amongst the front lines. To his relief, Shale saw her, being healed by his friend Ledhe.
Suddenly, a renewed attack began. Shale looked, and saw a large Forgotten. He ignored it for the time being, as it seemed to be a general, not a fighter. The Forgotten were quickly decimated, and the general moved back towards the safety of his own lines.
Then, seeking to use the break as an advantage, Shale saw a lone fighter running out towards the general, backed by a small group of other Sunspears. The main body moved to their aid, but it was too late. A huge mass of Forgotten closed off the group's retreat and moved in for the kill.
Shale gasped. He had seen Dwayna among the attacking group! Using the full amount of his energy, Shale ran towards them, bringing fire and meteors down on the Forgotten. The Sunspears began to catch up, and, aided by Shale's quick attack, wiped the Forgotten out. Shale sprinted to the Sunspear group, but was brought to his knees by the sight of his beloved Dwayna lying among the dying, with a gaping wound across her torso.
Roaring in pain, Shale used his most powerful magic to attack the general, sending a ball of fire straight at him. The fireball found its target, and the general went down hard-never to rise again.
Shale arrived at Dwayna's side, and held her tenderly. She gasped in pain.
"Sh-shale?"
"I'm here," he replied, tears leaking from his eyes.
"Shale, you-you were right. It was one chance. But I am ever the more g-glad we took it."
Dwayna..no! Don't talk like that! The monks are coming! You will be okay!"
"No, Shale. Maybe you will..but..I..." she spoke weakly. "I am too...far gone...already. Shale...remember-remember this-I love you. And I alway-always will."
With that, Dwayna slumped against his arm.
"Dwayna? Dwayna!!! NO!!!!!!"
Shale roared in agony. Tears ran from his eyes as he lay his head against Dwayna's cooling body.
"Dwayna...I must be with you! I will make it so!"
As he spoke, a giant wurm rose from under his feet, along with a number of scorpion-like Devourers. Shale screamed as he attacked furiously, but he was far outnumbered. Hit a number of times by the poison of the devourers, Shale slumped to his knees.
"I..will be with you...soon, my love..." he spoke weakly.
His vision going dark, Shale rested on Dwayna's broken body. When the Sunspears finally arrived, he was gone.
_________________________________
Comments and criticism are greatly appreciated!

Hecate Lyonset · Apr 14, 2007, 08:22 PM // 20:22

I would post something here and add on to this if I had something other than anime//game fanfiction prepared. Unfortunately, I do not. I should get working on something then: it might press me to actually figure out the stories of my characters that still have yet to be officially created.

>_< I hate having an ancient computer.

All the writings here that I've seen are absolutely superb! Especially Storm Crow's and Unreal Cyn's. -giggles-

Well, maybe I do have something that can be posted that's not too fanfiction-y... >_>;; Alright, let's give it a go! Although I should warn you of the slight graphic content of blood, ...vague child-birth, and slight God bashing as well. ^^;;;

----------

Bum, bum.

Rhythmic beats of a drum sounded throughout the dark and dank room. Within the large walls, the sounds beat, mixing in with others of the same stature to sing a lowly melody. The tune was soft, but it had a forbidden sound to it that sent shivers crawling up the people's spines.

The drum was accompanied by various instruments from the wind category. Perhaps even an organ was in the mix.

The room the sounds echoed in was indeed very large and dark. The walls appeared to be made of ancient stone. Pillars held the ceiling at extremely high levels, their gray stone-like appearing to be as tall as giants of the beanstalk. On the floor laid a purple and red carpet with the biggest urn possible. Many dancers were placed at even intervals around the giant urn, making a firm square shape in front of it to the edge of the carpet.

A pedestal of lights that had a purple sheen lay decoratively around it. It added a delicate luminescent beauty to it.

The dancers moved like water on glass in perfect formation; one never falling out of step with the other. They raised their arms high over their heads in perfect formation. One step out, a single bow of their bodies made to round about to fashion that of a wheel on a buggy.

Their spokes were their arms that spun rapidly around their small, leather enclosed figures. Arm guards bent fluidly to allow rapid successions of movement. The solid wooden frame was their fleshy outer covering that served to support the movements. Dancing glass on sand... the beauty of the elements was a sight to truly behold.

"Dancing angels, eh Zhao-kun?"

"Stop calling me that, you imbecile." The two men walked forward, the short, bulky, fat, plump one's body shivering earthquakes upon his lard-like frame, swaying from side to side in the nonexistent wind waves.

"Yes," the rapacious man spoke, shimmering his fat little hands together in glee. Greedy, aggressive glee.

Another drum beat echoed the sound of a water drop on a white window pane repeatedly in a small fashion. Other musical melodies flew blissfully into the two men's ears. The beauty of the music washing over the shore like the oceanic view...

Despite their greedy disposition, both men had a taste for art. Their taste in art required the destroying of a natural cycle and resurrection of bones and dust done by dancers of blood... but in the end it was worth it to see the look on their faces as the humans finally become what the bad guys always point out in the movies. What they point out and never fix.

Don't try to fix them, they're not broken.

Define broken.

Define the word and then we shall see. Is mankind really broken? Or are they the intended definition of perfection; the one intended by the imaginary God they all believed in.

Define it all. Define perfection, define broken, define normal, define happiness!

You really can't, can you?

There is no answer.

The ultimate question is not of the purpose of life, but the definition of those mere words. It's all more complex than it should be, isn't it?

But why though?

Neither of the men could answer their own questions, but merely feel the emotions and the rush of adrenaline they got while thinking up the plan to show the humans those definitions. To show them what perfection was; what broken meant; what normal becomes; what happiness remains. These words could not be defined in words, but told when shown to.

It can only be taught, not learned.

There was none. No perfection, nothing broken, nothing normal, and no happiness.

To bring it back, one had to destroy it. Yes, indeed.

Chaos was such a beautiful gemstone that glowed like a radiant emerald in the moon-light cement stones of reality.

Be at peace, little ones. Rest your damned days to end.

The dusk of the human rule was destined to end upon the dusk of the day. Why not make it soon?

After twirling about with movements like a ballerina, they finally came to a rest on their bleeding knees. The dancers brushed their torn skin upon the blade in the floor once more to spill their blood as a sacrifice. All others remained that way, allowing the stone-appendage blades to pierce their skin and widen the whole already their as they rotated in a clock fashion; numbering the days. One stood up, the main dancer in the very front. She stood high on her feet, shoulders relaxed before suddenly thrusting her upper half forward and rotating it in an almost provocative signal.

The others followed, still tearing their knees into the blade. The blood spilled onto the ground, seeping into the stone barracks beneath them, filling up the tiniest of pathways that all lead to the urn.

The head dancer did nothing as her feet we impaled to the floor by two athame which seemed to have fallen from the gray sky. Her blood too seeped out and fed life into the urn, causing a sheen to emit from it; sending waves of tremendous excitement through the two men's veins.

This was it.

The coming of a new dawn.

The monstrosity emerged from it with grace like a gazelle, floating gently as a hanging cloth on the line drying out in the sun.

So beautiful.

The men were pleased and the dancers did not cease sacrificing their blood to the spirit. What little pain was felt by them was left unknown and not cared for.

Selfish.

Greed.

Arrogance.

Domination.

This is what they wanted, and this, they would assure that they would get.

"The spirit will pass on to the Spirit World. How long do you think it would take them to realize that the 'perfect' order of theirs was disrupted?" the little fat and short man spoke, looking to the older.

"What is perfect?" was all the other said.

--

"How are you doing?" the blonde woman looked to the brunette, her confusion possessive of her; not wanting to let go and dissipate forever from her memories.

"Z-Zhao-kun!" the woman stumbled to herself in light pink rosary cheeks. The man looked like a God in her eyes. How gorgeous he was. From his slightly tall figure to his brunette colored hair, then to those godly golden eyes.

She was infatuated with this man.

No, no it wasn't love.

It was the need to belong to him and only have The Look given to herself by only him and for him to only give it to her.

Which is why she was more than proud to commit the Sin of Intercourse and carry his spawn. The demonic spawn that she was destined to never see live for more than three minutes.

She was a human, and he a demon.

A strange demon, but a demon the same.

"I am wonderful, Zhao-kun. My stomach aches restlessly, but indeed I live." 'Zhao-kun' frowned deeply upon her optimistic outlook. He did not ask her of her state he asked of the unborn infant that was due any day now. He would take that child and raise it as his own.

When this authoress said that 'Zhao-kun' was an odd demon, she meant it.

"I must not allow my bloodline to be polluted by the likes of you." he glowered down at the woman. Instead of giving him the pleasing reaction that he had wanted of cowering in fear, she merely smiled up at him. Words left her lips that he thought she wouldn't ever say.

A low splatter echoed on the floor. He still hadn't the slightest idea, even when the scent of blood invaded his nose.

"My water broke."

They spent the next seemingly unending trail of hours full of screams, sweat, blood, tears, crying, and joy. But the joy didn't last long as Hinote's body fell limp to the laminated floor, her hollow back hitting with a loud thud and disturbing the silent rhythm of the sleeping infant.

The eyes opened once more to reveal sterling emerald, hidden behind a full head of sunshine. He disliked the child already. It closely resembled it's human mother. Blonde hair... green eyes.

This isn't what he wanted.

He took a look to determine his child's gender to discover it female, and he nearly died.

Zhao wanted a son that mirrored himself when he looked to the child.

Isn't that what they all wanted?

He scowled, looking over the child. She was tainted. Tainted by her mother's humanity. This child would not choose to live the dominate genetic.

Recessive she was.

Just like her mother.

How he despised the child already.

But then he saw something. A flicker of the lightest hint to a turquoise hue in her eyes. Turquoise... color of the flying lizards.

She was tainted.. And captured helplessly without a human soul as she needed.

This child was not Zhao's. It was not anyone that he knew personally. Indeed, Chinatsu was her mother, but no, not he to be the father.

Sometimes, your sins come back at you three times worse.

----------

Comments and concrit are greatly appreciated, and I do so hope you enjoyed it!

[EDIT:] I see that this forum isn't exactly HTML compatible, so I took the coding out...

Storm Crow · Apr 14, 2007, 09:26 PM // 21:26

-claps-

Yay, Kitty! It was somewhat confusing, but made enough sense...

-yay-

^-^

Hecate Lyonset · Apr 15, 2007, 12:04 AM // 00:04

I like my writing to be a bit confusing, because it catches the reader's interest. It makes them want to read more, and I like the responses that I get from being able to produce writing as such.

Although, that stuff only happens within the first chapter//prologue... v_v I wanna be cryptic like that more often! >_< OMG RAWR. -bashes head in- Why won't you work the proper way!?

...

-takes a Tylenol- 'Roa can yell very loud. Apparently my bashing myself bashes her, and it pisses her off T-T My head, oh the aching...

Vàna Rúndóttir · Apr 15, 2007, 03:05 AM // 03:05

(The First Part of a Story in which human characters meet a naiad, a being related to the Sylvari.)

It all started on a beautifully sunny day early in the summer holiday before the final year of college. Until that day, Vana had never even imagined that there could other races sharing the world with humans. She had read some myths and legends, yes, and some fairy stories, but to learn some of the truth behind them, to come face to face with them, well, that was unexpected to say the least.
Three young girls, due to start their final year at the college in Ashford after the holiday, were enjoying a day out together. Although they each had quite different characters, the three girls had been best friends since they had started attending lessons together as children in Serenity Temple at the Sisters of Dwayna School for Girls. On this particular Monday, they were enjoying a walk in one of the beautiful unspoiled forested areas which covered the foothills north-east of their home villages, which locals referred to simply as ‘The Forest’. After the confined student life they had been living in Ashford Academy, they appreciated the peace, freedom and natural beauty of the countryside.
The Forest was huge, extending from the fertile farmlands which provided for all the people of the county out as far as the mountains in the east. The girls had gone out early, and caught a lift on a trader’s wagon to get to a particularly beautiful, yet little frequented, picnic site within the forest, where they had enjoyed a delicious lunch of fresh fruit, home baked bread, and apple pie made from the finest Malone apples. They had then walked from there among the trees, deliberately trying to lessen their chance of meeting other people for a while, so that they could relax and enjoy themselves more freely as young girls rather than having to behave as the cultured young ladies their schooling was preparing them for.
There was no fear in those days in the land. Apart from the occasional black bears, there was nothing to endanger the girls, and the bears would leave you alone too if you respected their space properly.
At first they had been following a trodden path between the trees, but after a while one of them, Vana, had persuaded the others to leave the path and make their own way between the trees. Vana Runedottir was an adopted only child, having arrived in the land as a baby with her mother, and never having known her father. After her mother had died Vana had been taken in by the nuns of Serenity Temple, and subsequently adopted by a local childless couple. She became a shy and introverted child as a result of this trauma in her early life, and tended to play alone, inventing her own games, and becoming something of a romantic dreamer with a vivid imagination, and was also, according to her friend Minnie, quite naïve. But now, almost a grown woman, she enjoyed being with her close friends, and was normally very considerate towards other people, and well liked. Vana was a pretty girl too, with light curly shoulder-length hair, big eyes, and a contagious cute smile, though she wasn’t particularly pleased about being called cute.
Her friend Minnie Taylor, on the other hand, was quite the extrovert. She had two older brothers, and was quite confident in mixed company. She had had more boyfriends than the other two. She was attractive to men, with her flaming red hair, and liked to wear her best clothes without special cause. Her figure was good too, though Minnie herself always felt she would like to lose a little weight; something she would have found hard to do if she tried, because she enjoyed eating sweet foods. She usually livened up any occasion with her deliberate silliness. In fact, people who only met her at parties often never learned that she was really an intelligent and sympathetic person, since she often pretended to be a fiery haired flirt just for fun. She tended to be a little accident prone too, although it was difficult to know whether some of her accidents were deliberate, in order to amuse people or gain attention.
The practical one of the three was Anna Sà. She had lived in Ascalon County all her life too, just as her friends had, but her parents were originally from Cantha, who had arrived originally to trade here, but had decided to stay.
Anna’s Chinese name was Sà An Xin (薩安訢). An Xin sounds as if it means ‘to be at ease’ or ‘to keep one’s mind on something’ but the name literally means ‘calm and happy’, all of which qualities applied to her. Her parents had encouraged her to do well academically, and she had often been top of her class in school, and seemed to have little difficulty with her studies. This did not make her big headed though, in fact she was quite modest and encouraging to her friends. She usually wore smart clothes, her family being now comparatively well-off due to her father’s success in the trading business, and Anna was slim and elegantly attractive. But she had been brought up rather more strictly than the other two, and could appear to be quite serious and unemotional to those who didn’t know her. In fact, her habit of correcting minor unimportant facts, and her cutting wit, could make her seem rather intimidating to others, so her good looks, caring nature and sense of humour weren’t as widely appreciated as much as they deserved to be. So for example, when it came to social conversation, Minnie would chat away happily with anyone about all the latest popular songs and dances, whereas Anna was more interested in classical music, and Vana would rather just sing than talk about music.
Anyway, when Vana had suggested leaving the path to explore the forest more deeply, it was the fact that Anna was confident she would remember their way that had persuaded Minnie that they wouldn’t get completely lost.
To Vana, keeping to the path didn’t offer enough adventure and mystery. She wanted to see the forest as the wild place it really was, and not as a place for humans to go about their business, walking a well known path. Unseen birds called to her from high branches, leaves rustled in the breeze, and dry twigs and dead leaves crunched in a satisfying way underfoot.
Vana was happy to be with her friends, and was aware that this summer could be her last long summer break before she had to face the world as a grown independent woman, and either get a husband or a job. So this was a special time of final freedom between her childhood and adulthood. She knew that soon enough she would have little time or freedom to just relax, so she was making the most of her lack of responsibilities while she could. Not that she was afraid of responsibility, just happy that she didn’t have too much of it yet.
The girls walked through the forest for a long time without talking much, each one engrossed in her own thoughts, but each enjoying the company of the others in spite of that. Their friendship was close enough not to need constant chatter to strengthen it. Each knew the others well enough to understand what they were probably thinking anyway, and their differences were a source of pleasure and interest to them.
Anna for instance, took a great interest in her environment, and was enjoying the fact that this forest was still a natural place, unspoiled by human encroachment, and was trying to identify different types of tree, plant, and bird.
Vana was wondering how many other people had ever walked this way before and seen the forest from this perspective, and enjoying the fact that no one else had ever seen it in exactly this way before. Perhaps stone age people had once walked here, perhaps lovers had once trysted here, but no one had ever seen the trees looking exactly like this before and no one ever would again.
Minnie was wondering when they would stop to rest and eat the rest of the picnic they had brought.
“Hey, Vana,” she called to Vana in front. “Let’s find somewhere to stop and finish off our picnic. I’m hungry again.”
“Good idea. I could do with a rest myself. It’s so hot today. Let’s find somewhere we can sit down.”
Anna wanted to rest too. “Yes but there’s too much undergrowth here to sit down. We don’t want to flatten all the ferns just to have a picnic. Maybe we should go back towards the path.”
“Good idea,” agreed Minnie, “It’s such a nice day, and we seem to be missing all the sunshine under the shade of these trees. There was more light on the path because the trees weren’t quite as close together there.”
“You don’t want to get your skin tanned though, Minnie,” warned Anna, “You’ll look like a peasant.”
“Ah, I know, I know, we need to look fair if we’re to attract good husbands, but I thought of that. I brought some of Sarah’s primrose and oat bran cream with me. Even a vampire could go out in the sun with some of this on! And besides, it feels nice to just lie in the sunshine.”
“Why would looking fair only attract good husbands, Minnie?” smiled Anna, “Don’t bad husbands also prefer fair maidens?”
“Yes, maybe so, but I mean maybe we’d get more choice if …”
Vana interrupted them. “Shhh! Listen! Can you hear that?”
They all stood still and listened.
“Hear what?” asked Minnie.
“Can’t you hear water? It sounds like a stream to me.”
“Oh yes, Vana’s right, Minnie.”
“Perhaps there’ll be some cool water we can paddle in, and we can picnic there. Which way do you think it is?”
They stood still for a moment, turning their heads, listening. They all liked the idea of cooling their feet. But it wasn’t easy to tell the direction of sounds in the forest.
“It sounds like it’s over there to me,” said Anna pointing to her left.
“Yes, I think so too,” agreed Minnie.
Anna moved into the lead, “Come on then. A stream might allow more sunlight in between the trees for Minnie too.”
After a short walk slightly downhill they came to a clear stream of water, babbling through the wood. Overhead, the sun did shine more brightly through the leaves because the trees were not so close together here. Some pretty wild flowers bloomed along the bank of the stream and the water sparkled in the sunlight. The bed of the babbling stream was smooth pebbles, but there were no large rocks or fallen trees in sight to act as a good base for their picnic.
“This is nice,” said Vana with a smile, “Don’t those flowers look pretty?”
“They’re lovely,” agreed Anna, “I don’t know what sort they are though. Do you?”
Minnie seemed less interested in the flowers. “I’ve no idea, and we can’t sit here anyway. It’s too muddy.”
“I think we should follow the stream for a while and cool our feet,” suggested Vana, “Those pebbles look smooth enough under the water. I’m going to paddle.” She leaned against a tree and balanced on one leg to take off one of her shoes.
Vana’s open sandals had not been the most practical choice of footwear for hiking through a large forest, and she had also forgotten to bring herself a hat too, and had instead made herself a coronal of small wild flowers picked from a hedgerow earlier. The lilac flowers looked nice in her light brown curly hair, and added colour to contrast with her simple white linen dress with a white frill of lace around the hem. A rope belt around her waist gave the dress some shape.
Anna’s feet were hot too, because she was wearing stronger boots with thick woollen hose, together with a simple white smock shirt over brown short pants, and a peaked cap to keep the sun from her face. So she was quick to follow Vana’s lead. “Good idea,” she said as she bent down to undo her hiking boots.
“Wait for me, you two!” cried out Minnie, looking for somewhere less muddy to put down her backpack before also beginning to remove her shoes and ankle socks. Each of the girls had brought a backpack with food and drink for their picnic. Minnie was wearing clothes typical of the local peasant girls, a dark blue skirt, a bright yellow blouse, and a wide brimmed straw bonnet with a blue ribbon around it.
Vana was first into the stream, after pulling off her sandals without undoing them. She carried them in one hand as she tiptoed into the cool water and began to walk downstream. Minnie was next in, with her shoes and socks stuffed precariously into the top of her backpack, which she carried now over one shoulder. Anna’s boots had more difficult laces, and it took her longer to take them off. She tied her bootlaces together and hung her boots securely from her bag before she entered the water.
As they waded downstream the number and variety of flowers growing beside them increased, and so did the types and sizes of the ferns and trees in the forest. They didn’t pick any of the flowers but they all stopped to sniff many of them. The air was thick and fresh with the floral scents.
Minnie gazed up at the sky smiling. “There’s a nice bit of sunshine coming through the treetops here.”
“Yes, this is a lovely little stream,” agreed Vana, “I didn’t realise so many kinds of flowers grew wild around here.”
After they had walked for a while downstream, Vana saw a glade in front of them. The stream ahead ran over a small rocky waterfall down into a large pool. It was the sound of the waterfall they had first heard. The pool allowed the sun to shine down brightly between the trees that surrounded it, and the sparkling spray from the waterfall made the shafts of sunlight seem almost alive. As they got closer they saw a faint rainbow in the mist over the waterfall.
Since they couldn’t walk down the waterfall, to get to the pool they first had to leave the stream. They walked barefoot from the stream, over and around some large rocks, and down a short grassy slope to the pool’s edge. The rocks here were large enough to sit on comfortably, and the patch of grass large enough to lie on. The sun shone down onto the grass, lighting a variety of tiny colourful flowers that also grew there. There were a lot more taller flowers blooming around the edge of the undergrowth that separated the glade from the darker forest around it. There were even flowers growing in the shallows of the pool, beautiful big water lilies that the girls had never seen growing wild before. It was a magical place for a picnic.
The girls made themselves comfortable, and unpacked their food and drinks. As they ate their picnic, they saw colourful butterflies and watched three or four colourful irridescent dragonflies hovering over the pool.
Anna then asked, “How come there aren’t any taller plants here? I’d have expected ferns, bushes and trees to grow here instead of these pretty little flowers and short grass.”
The other two hadn’t realised that this could be unusual, but Vana hazarded a guess, “Maybe the soil isn’t deep enough for anything except shallow roots.”
“Yes, you’re probably right. Maybe it’s rocks just a little way below us.”
Vana got up and went to look into the water. “The pool seems shallow around this edge here, where the lilies are growing, but I think it drops away quite steeply just a short way in. I can’t see the bottom of it from here.”
“Throw a stone in,” suggested Minnie, “You can tell how deep it is from the sound it makes.”
Vana wrinkled her nose at the idea, “No, it doesn’t really matter how deep it is. It seems a shame to disturb the peacefulness of this place by throwing stones. Don’t you think this is a magical sort of pool? I can imagine ancient people might have considered this pool to be a sacred place. It’s so beautiful with all the flowers and the water and everything.”
Minnie smirked, “I don’t think ancient people would have the energy to walk this far into the forest. I’m pretty exhausted myself. I don’t think we should go on any farther after we’ve finished eating.”
“I didn’t mean old people,” said Vana, unsure whether Minnie had deliberately taken the wrong meaning. “I meant people who lived a long time ago. They used to believe that places like this had spirits living in them, you know. It was part of their religion. They might have thrown golden treasures into a pool like this so that the spirits would be kind to them.”
“Yes, she’s right,” confirmed Anna, “that seems to have been a pretty common belief in a lot of places. There must be something about the beauty of a place like this that is universal.”
“And timeless too. I was thinking before that this place must have been pretty much the same for centuries. Although, really, it’s constantly changing, from moment to moment, so no one has ever seen it exactly like this and never will again. The place is full of life which is always growing and changing.”
“Or dying,” added Anna, for correctness, “But changing yes.”
“Oh very cheerful!” Minnie rolled her eyes.
“Oh, I didn’t mean it in a depressing way. Life is a circle. There wouldn’t be any room for new born life if the old life stayed or kept growing. The thing which is timeless here is the great cycle of life, always changing, yet always the same.”
Minnie was not one for philosophy. She changed the subject, “Yes, well, have you eaten enough already, Vana? Don’t you want the rest of your bread?”
“Hands off it!” smiled Vana in mock aggression, “I do want it. I was only trying to see how deep the pool is.” She returned to sit with her friends.
The food was enough, and made them all feel good. Afterwards, they all felt rather comfortable, and a little sleepy. Anna sat on the rocks next to the waterfall, in the shade, leaning back against a bigger rock to finish her drink.
Minnie said to her, “No wonder your skin is so pale, Anna. You really like to keep out of the sun, don’t you? I think I’m going to lie on the grass here for a while. I don’t think we’re going to get too many more days as nice as this before we have to go back to school now, do you?”
“Probably not, no. But we can hope. Perhaps winter will be later this year. Cold weather doesn’t suit me. Put some of your suncream on if you’re going to lie right there though. You’ll get lots of freckles otherwise.”
“Yes, yes, I was going to,” said Minnie and started rummaging through her bag to find her lotion. She offered some to Anna.
Anna turned it down, “I’m fine, thank you, I’ll just stay over here. Don’t get all sweaty, we still have to walk back you know.”
“No rush, I’ll be fine after a nice lie down here. Do you think I should put some cream on my legs?”
“You should put it on any exposed skin yes. Your legs can get darker just as easily as your face.”
“But no man will see my legs until we’re married though. Shouldn’t I save the cream for my face and neck and hands?”
Anna smiled teasingly, “Well, please yourself, but if your husband wonders why you won’t take your brown hose off when he sees the tan lines you get, you’ll only have yourself to blame.”
Vana smiled at the idea of Minnie disappointing her husband. Of the three of them Minnie was usually the one more concerned about what men might think of her.
“Well, I won’t lie here for that long anyway,” said Minnie resolutely, who seemed to be taking the tease seriously, because she was studying her skin tone.
Vana decided to join in the tease. “You’re already going a bit redder you know.”
“You need talk, you’ll get burned all down one side if you sit like that. You should turn around and lie back yourself.”
“I wasn’t going to sit like this, I was watching the dragonflies.” But Vana did turn around to put her back more to the sunshine.
Minnie said, “That’s better. I suppose, out here, I could hitch my skirt up so that I don’t get a mark around my knees, couldn’t I?”
Vana raised her eyebrows, “Up? Wouldn't it be better to use something to cover your lower legs. Did you bring a towel or anything?”
“Oh come on! We didn’t come out here in the sunshine to cover ourselves up, did we? There’s no one else around here. I want to enjoy the sunshine on my skin while I can do that without being scolded by someone. The sight of my legs won’t shock you will it, Vana?”
“Of course not, I’ve seen your legs before. But you’ll just make it look like you’re wearing longer hose.”
“It’s not as if I’m likely to be wed anytime soon. Even if I get a little bit red, I’ll have plenty of winter time and long skirts to get paler legs again. You should hitch your skirt up too, didn’t we agree we could enjoy our freedom a little today?”
“We said we could make the most of the last of our childhood, but I don’t remember exposing myself out of doors even when I was younger. And we’re not children any more. You yourself commented on how those traders looked at us on the way here.”
“Yes, I don’t think they thought we were children. But we’re way off the beaten track here, no one else will see us. Even if someone were to happen this way, we’d hear them coming. I’m going to hitch my skirt up anyway.” And with that Minnie proceeded to pull her skirt up to expose most of her thighs to the sunshine.
Anna watched her and said, “I don’t think it’s going to look any better to your husband to see a line higher up your legs. If you’re trying to look even all over then the logical thing to do would be to undress completely.”
Vana knew that Anna was still teasing, and that not even Minnie would be so bold.
Minnie replied, “Well, if my idea was to look like a cooked chicken for a husband then maybe I would do that, Anna. But I’m just wanting to enjoy the sunshine for a little while. And besides, if a man ever gets to see so much of me, he won’t be concentrating on my skin tone.”
Anna laughed. “No, probably not. But you’re going to get your skirt all creased if you lie with it like that. And it’s short enough already without being creased up higher.”
“True. Maybe I should take it off then. I was thinking I might get grass stains on it anyway.”
Vana now began to doubt the assumed limits of Minnie’s daring. “What? You’re not serious, are you?”
“Why not? Would I embarrass you?”
“Er, well, no, of course not.” Vana’s blush was beginning to contradict her. “But this is a public place. Other people could come along here and see you.”
“I don’t think so, Vana. Isn’t that one of the reasons you wanted to get off the path, to get away from people? And we would hear anyone before they got here.”
She started to untie her skirt.
Vana looked at her in surprise. “If a man came by and saw you first he might creep up closer to get a better look. We could be being watched already for all you know. Wouldn’t you be embarrassed if a man saw you lying there so exposed in your undergarments?”
“There’s no one around but us! And, to be honest, I wouldn’t really, no. I don’t know why you were always so shy even with other girls, Vana. Do you keep your clothes on when you take a bath? How will you ever be happily married if you’re so shy?”
“I never thought about that. I don’t feel ready to get married yet. I sometimes think it would have been better if I’d been a boy. Boys get to do different jobs, to travel and see the world, and to study more interesting things. All that girls do is learn how to behave like ladies to get a husband and look after him and his home. It’s unfair.”
“Well, you’re not a boy, and you won’t be a good wife if you’re too shy to undress for your husband however well you cook and sew.”
Vana shuddered at the thought. “I know. Maybe if I met the right man one day I’d start to feel differently. But you’re right, I don’t feel I could be a good wife. I think women should not be treated as some man’s possession.”
“Perhaps it’s because you never really knew your real father, Vana,” said Anna, trying to help, but only confirming Vana’s feelings of inadequacy to her. “You have never been a man’s possession really, have you?”
“Well, maybe that has something to do with it. I do love my father, he’s treated me well, but a part of me always felt a little like a guest in his house.”
“What are you two on about?” asked Minnie in a surprised tone, “I hope I don’t think of my future husband as being like my father. I hope that my husband will love me in a different way to my father. I can imagine undressing for my husband, but not my father!” She snorted a laugh at the thought.
“We didn’t come here today to think about getting married anyway, we came here to enjoy our freedom while we can,” stated Vana, clearly wanting to end this topic.
“Yes, you’re right,” agreed Minnie, “and for me that freedom includes lying here with my legs uncovered.” She knelt up and took her skirt off. “Anyone joining me?”
Anna just shook her head and lay back against the rock.
Vana knew Minnie didn’t expect her to lose her inhibitions so easily so when Minnie looked at her inquiringly, Vana assumed it was to find out whether she had any further objections. “I’ll keep my eyes and ears open for you then. I hope you have time to get dressed again if anyone comes.”
“Don’t worry about it, Vana, I don’t need you to prod me to get dressed everytime an animal makes a sound in the forest. I feel quite safe here. In fact I think I might take my blouse off too. Don’t want to get grass stains on that either.”
Vana watched her friend take her blouse off and fold it with her skirt on the grass beside her. After putting some cream on her face and lower arms, Minnie lay back and stretched out in the sunshine like a cat about to enjoy a nap. Vana couldn’t understand how anyone could relax when only wearing scant undergarments.
Anna was smiling as she said to Vana, “Relax, Vana! Minnie isn’t worried, and you don’t need to worry for her either.” Anna pulled her cap lower over her eyes and made herself more comfortable.
Vana realised she wasn’t going to be able to take a nap herself now. She sat in the glade as her two friends relaxed, and listened to the sounds around her. She felt acutely aware of the noises in the forest now, when you really listened there were a lot. The stream, the wind in the branches, birds, insects, and several other less easily explained noises, perhaps small animals, or falling branches. The forest had seemed so peaceful, empty and quiet before, yet really it was so full of life.
She realised that her heightened sense of awareness was due to her friend’s state of undress, and, realising that it wasn’t empathy, since Minnie wasn’t feeling the same way, Vana tried not to think about why it should bother her so.
Vana looked for the dragonflies again.
A dragonfly flew quite close by, and she could hear the hum of its little wings over the splashing of the waterfall. Then a bird warbled a lovely song somewhere nearby, and she looked up into the trees to see if she could see it. She couldn’t. Anna appeared to be beginning to doze, as her head was tilted back against the rock. Minnie was still relaxed, with her bonnet over her face in the sunshine. They were all a little tired after their long walk, and their meal. Vana tried to relax herself, and lay back for a while, with her eyes closed. It helped, but she didn’t fall asleep. There were too many little forest noises.
After some time, Vana stood up and walked to the pool’s edge to dip her bare toes into the water, enjoying the coolness and the massage of the smooth pebbles on her soles.
So with the other two girls dozing, it was Vana who first became aware of the naiad. As she stood gazing into the water at her feet enjoying the peacefulness and magic of the glade, the thick foliage on the opposite side of the pool moved as if it had just been pushed. If Minnie had been properly dressed perhaps Vana wouldn’t have taken so much notice. But now, having just been talked of men creeping up on them, Vana stared into the foliage to see what had caused it to move.
Then there was a larger movement of the leaves.
Vana convinced herself that there was some kind of animal over there. Perhaps a squirrel had jumped into the bush from higher up. Or perhaps it was something larger. A deer? Did deer live in forests? In this forest? She wasn’t sure. It was not likely to be a black bear, the undergrowth over there was too thick for a large bear to have come so close, so she wasn’t concerned that some predator was stalking them. But it could just possibly be someone trying to spy on Minnie.
Vana stood quite still, looking in the direction of the sound. On the other side of the pool, to the right of the waterfall, the foliage was very dense and overhanging the water. She stared into the leafy shadows for a while seeing no more movement and no animal. But as she looked, there was another slight movement – some leaves moved together and she was sure something had just moved in the shadows behind them.
She decided that it couldn’t be a voyeur, because such a person would have seen her watching, and not made that kind of movement. This had to be some kind of forest animal come to get a drink from the pool.
She turned slowly to see if Anna or Minnie had noticed anything, but they both remained quite still and quiet, and may have been asleep, so she didn’t need to warn them not to frighten the animal away. Anna was not facing Vana anyway, resting back against the rocks, and Minnie was just lying still. When Vana looked back toward the bush, there was another smaller movement of the leaves, as if something was still there, perhaps afraid of the human in the bright white dress watching it from the other side of the pool.
Vana’s next action wasn’t brave, since she wasn’t thinking of the possibility of the animal being dangerous. She just wanted to see what it was. She decided to try and get a closer look. She walked around the edge of the large pool, trying to move very slowly and noiselessly, so as not to appear threatening to whatever the animal was. The foliage was quite still now. The animal was probably still there, and afraid to move again in case it gave away its position.
As she moved to the end of the pool furthest from the waterfall the ground under her feet became wet and soft, and she felt mud seeping between her toes. After the initial surprise of that, it didn’t actually feel too bad. Rather nice really, compared to the hard rocks. She continued around the pool very stealthily, trying not to make a sound herself. When she was as close as she dared to go without scaring the animal away, and without trying to get into the thick bushes herself, she decided to crouch down slowly so as to appear smaller and less intimidating to the animal. She crouched down slowly, without realising that her dress was now dragging on the mud. She didn’t take her eyes off the foliage in front of her and remained still, peering into the leaves.
After a while, she began to speak very quietly in a soothing voice, as if the wild animal would respond like a tame pet. “Come out, little one. I won’t hurt you. Let me see you. Don’t be afraid. I’m your friend.”
And to her surprise, as if in response, the leaves moved again for a moment. So she spoke again, “That’s it. It’s alright. Come on out. Let me see you. Come on.”

To Vana’s utter astonishment, the leaves parted and she saw a girl’s head appear. The girl seemed only a little younger than Vana herself but she had long thick curly hair that was so white it was almost silver. Some twigs and leaves were stuck in her mass of curls. And the girl’s face was exceptionally pale, as if she had hidden from sunlight all her life. And her two big pure dark blue eyes were staring at Vana without blinking. The girl’s expression was a mixture of fear and amazement.
Vana managed to keep calm, and managed to smile at the strange girl. She said, “That’s it. Don’t worry. You can come out. I’m friendly.”
The leaves parted wider and the white haired girl crawled out of the bush towards her on her hands and knees, still looking directly and intently at Vana. Her big staring blue eyes were almost hypnotic. As she emerged from the foliage into the open, Vana was more than a little shocked to see that the girl was completely naked; her glistening white skin was evenly pale over her whole body. The girl crawled close to Vana, whose mind was racing through a mixture of shock, surprise, fear, amazement, excitement, wonder, and many other emotions while her body remained totally still.
The strange girl knelt up in the shallow mud, facing Vana. The two stared into each other’s eyes, both appearing equally surprised to see the other. Vana’s dress was still soaking up water behind her. The other girl sat back on her heels, with her back straight, her pale wet skin silky smooth. Vana couldn’t understand what a girl like this was doing crawling around naked, deep in a forest. Vana would have been less surprised by any kind of wild animal really, and in fact something about this girl made her seem like a wild animal herself, but that idea made no sense either, because this girl was too beautiful, too evenly pale, and too clean, to be wild.
Vana’s mind raced through possibilities. Perhaps the girl had been swimming here in this pool and was returning for her clothes and was embarrassed to find that three strangers had turned up unexpectedly. Yes, that seemed the most likely. But they hadn’t seen her clothes lying around anywhere, and why would she be crawling around in thick bushes? Well, to hide her nakedness from them, of course. She had such white hair. It looked more like a doll’s unnatural hair really, but then again not like wool or anything else but the finest silky hair. With those blue eyes, she was not an albino, but perhaps there was some other rare related condition which Vana didn’t know about which caused such pale skin and white hair like that but allowed pure dark blue eyes. Such clear blue eyes the like of which Vana had never seen before. This girl would make a great fairy queen, given the right dress, wings and wand.
That idea made Vana smile to herself. But something about this girl did seem supernatural. She looked like no girl Vana had seen before. The shape of her eyes could almost be Canthan, but they were too big and blue, and Vana had never heard of a Canthan with white curly hair before. And what would a Canthan girl with a rare skin condition be doing here anyway? That was just about as likely as her being a fairy. All these things raced through Vana’s mind very quickly. She tried to snap out of those silly ideas and be practical for a moment. This girl must at least be embarrassed, and obviously needed some kind of help here. Vana tried to stop staring at her so rudely.
“My name is Vana. What’s your name?”
The stranger didn’t reply, but just smiled at her. She had a wide smile and full pale lips, and a perfect set of gleaming white teeth. After a moment or two, Vana began to wonder whether in fact this girl didn’t speak her language. Everything about this girl was so unexpected.
“I’m Vana. You?” She pointed first to herself and then to the stranger.
The white haired girl didn’t exactly speak, but she opened her mouth roundly and made a strange noise with her breath. The sound was like wind blowing on waves in the rain.
Vana thought that the girl was starting to panic. “Please don’t be scared! I won’t hurt you. I’m Vana. Vana.” She pointed to herself again. Then she pointed to the girl, and looked quizzical.
As she pointed, the girl knelt higher, leaned forward, reached out towards her pointing hand, and gently but firmly took hold of her wrist. This took Vana by surprise too. Perhaps this girl had some kind of mental handicap. Best to stay calm and continue to be friendly to her. So rather than snatch her hand away, Vana opened her hand and then reached out her other hand too, palm upwards, to try to appear trusting and friendly. The other girl took hold of her other wrist in the same way. The two of them sat like this, looking into each other’s eyes. Then the white haired girl raised herself a little and moved towards Vana on her now muddy knees, and put both her hands gently against Vana’s cheeks. Her hands felt soft and cold and wet against Vana’s hot cheeks. But then Vana began to feel dizzy. Perhaps it was due to being in the hot sun before the shock of meeting this strange beautiful white haired girl whose hypnotic wide dark blue eyes seemed never to blink.
The giddy feeling worsened, and Vana closed her eyes for a moment, and tried to breathe more deeply. She felt the girl take her hands away from her cheeks and immediately the faintness began to pass. Vana opened her eyes again, and saw that the girl had sunk back onto her heels, folded her hands in her lap, and had closed her eyes. Vana began to wonder whether all this was a dream, and turned to check that her friends were still there. They were, and hadn’t moved or seen anything. She looked back towards the girl, and noticed the mud on her legs and knees and hands now. There was mud on Vana’s wrists too, and she wondered whether there was any on her cheeks now too.
She was about to feel her cheek when the other girl suddenly opened her eyes again, and pointed at Vana.
In a voice that sounded like Vana when she was a little girl, the stranger spoke slowly and deliberately, “You are Vana. My name is …” and she made the open mouthed breathing sound of wind and water again.
Vana was surprised: by the fact that the girl could speak her own language after all, that the girl sounded younger than she looked, and by the sound she made instead of her name. Vana asked her, “What are you doing here?”
The other girl replied, “Perhaps make mistake. Where you from?”
“We attend Ashford Academy. We came out here for a day in the countryside and a picnic.”
The pale one started visibly and looked around. It seemed as if she had not noticed the other two sleeping girls before, so fascinated was she by seeing Vana at her pool. Now at the mention of ‘we’ she turned to look at Anna and Minnie across the water, who were both still dozing. The girl with the strange name appeared to be afraid now, and began to move backwards on her knees towards the bushes she had just emerged from.
“No wait! Don’t run away!” said Vana. “They’re friendly too. We didn’t mean to intrude on you. We didn’t know there was anyone else here. They’re nice people. You’ll get on fine with them.”
The naked girl paused, part way back into the foliage of the bush, and looked back at Vana, and her friends.
“Really. They’re good people. We can all be friends. We’ll help you. Please don’t run away.” Vana felt that she had to keep talking to prevent the girl from running away, although she couldn’t understand why she suddenly seemed so afraid now.
“The one lying on the grass is called Minnie, and the one on the rocks there is Anna. We all met at school and have been friends for a long time. I’m sure they’d like to meet you too. Wouldn’t you like us to help you? What happened to your clothes? Do you need to borrow some? Do you live very far from here? We can help you. You don’t have to run away.”
The pale girl seemed to be reassured a little by Vana’s chatter and turned to face Vana again. She said, “I am not think good. I make trouble you. I never … erm … never mind. Thank you. I go.”
“No, wait, stay! Why are you doing crawling around here like that? We can help you.”
“I curious you. Mistake. Why you in my pool?”
Vana found her answer quite strange. She said, “Your pool?”
“This pool?” The girl splashed the water a little with her hand.
“We were just enjoying a walk through the forest, and we stopped here for a picnic. This is a lovely place, isn’t it? Where are your clothes?”
“I no.”
“Yes, sorry, it’s obviously a lovely place. But what happened to you?”
The girl looked puzzled. Vana thought it was due to her not speaking her language very well.
“Do you understand what I’m asking you? Has something bad happened to you? Were you abandoned here or something? Did someone try to hurt you? What mistake were you talking about?”
“I understand little little. I no needs. I too curious, make mistake see you. You new me.”
“I knew you? No, really, I'm sure I would remember you if we’d met before.”
“You new to me.”
“Ah yes, that kind of new. What language do you normally speak? Maybe one of us knows a little of it.”
“Language? Tongue?”
“Yes, what tongue do you speak?”
“Ah, I speak you tongue, yes. Help me?”
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying, we can help you. We’d like to help you.”
The girl reached out both her hands again towards Vana’s face. Vana’s instinct was to draw away, but something in the girl’s eyes made her not do that. She allowed the stranger to hold her head again as she had before. Almost as soon as the cool hands made contact with her skin, Vana felt a strange throbbing in her head, but this time it subsided rather than getting worse. Vana closed her own eyes to concentrate on preventing going dizzy again, and when she opened them again she saw that the girl has closed her eyes too. Vana felt strange shivers run up and down her spine, of excitement or fear or goodness knows what.
And then the girl let go of her again, and sat back before opening her eyes again.
“What did you do that for? Is holding someone’s face a greeting where you come from? Should I have held yours?” asked Vana.
“I am see better now, thank you,” replied the pale girl, less faltingly than before.
“Right, good, so will you trust me to help you?”
“Trust you, yes.”
“Good. So what happened to you? What are you doing here?”
“I am too curious. I see you at my pool and I want know more. I break … erm … I do wrong, I meet you. Maybe mistake, but done now.”
“Well, you’re not making much sense to me yet, but don’t worry, take it easy. We’re all girls here. None of us are shocked at you being naked, not really. Do you have a friend around here somewhere? Did someone take your clothes?”
“I have friends, yes. I no have clothes. We no need. You like clothes yes?”
Vana found this answer confusing. “Do I like them? I’m not into fashion like, say, Minnie there, but I like some. Which probably seems odd to you, come to think of it, since Minnie hasn’t got much on at the moment. But Minnie isn’t shy like me. Why don’t we go over there and wake up Minnie and Anna? Maybe one of them has some spare things, and I’m afraid we don’t have much food left, but we can share whatever we have with you, we’ll help you somehow.”
“I help you also.”
“You’ll help us? We’re fine, we don’t need any help. What about those friends of yours? Do you know where they went? Were you supposed to meet them here?”
“I have to think to where they are. I not think to meet someone here.”
“You mean you can’t remember? Did you get banged on the head?”
“No, I remember. My friends not here, far away. Friends say talk to you bad. I too... too young.”
“You’re too young to what? To talk to me?”
“Yes, I too young to talk to you. Friends think me this. Say Húman bring danger. But I curious. Meet you anyway. I curious on Húman.”
“Human? What do you mean by that? Is that meant to sound spooky? What danger are you talking about?”
“Oh bad. I think you not understand. I think I make more big mistake worse now. Maybe you unthink me, yes?”
“Unthink? I’m not following you. Listen to me, you haven’t made a mistake by talking to me, I will try to help you. But I need to understand what danger you’re in, and what happened to you. Come on, let’s wake my two friends, they will want to help too, I’m sure.”
Vana began to rise to her feet, and realised that crouching had made her ankles ache. As she stood up she felt her dress stick to the back of her legs too and realised it was muddy and wet. But she ignored those things now and extended a hand to the strange girl sitting in the mud in front of her.
“Come on, please, don’t be scared. You’re safe with us now. Anna’s family isn’t from around here either, maybe she knows something about your own language. Can you tell me what your language is called?”
“Thinking.”
“That’s okay. Just say something in your own language, maybe I’ll recognise it.”
The girl looked at her intently for a moment, and then said, “You no get it?”
Now Vana was puzzled again, and said, “Well, you need to say something first!”
“I know. You not get thinking. I thinked you not get it.”
Vana shook her head in exasperation. “I didn’t get it no. Did you expect me to read your mind or something?”
Then a chill ran down Vana’s spine. “Oh my word! You did, didn’t you? You meant that your first language is thinking, didn’t you?”
“Yes, thinking, I say that. Now I afraided you. I sorry. I sorry make you woo woo too.”
As she said ‘woo woo’ the strange girl rotated her head and eyes and Vana realised what she meant.
“You mean you made me feel dizzy earlier? How did you know I felt dizzy? Oh good grief, you’re not even human, are you? You can read my mind!”
“I sorry. Please don’t be scared! I won’t hurt you.” The girl’s voice now sounded exactly like Vana’s own when she had said this earlier. This had the effect of making Vana feel more scared, wondering what other abilities this strange girl … or being … may have, apart from mind reading and mimicry.
“Are you saying that you can read minds? And that you’re not an ordinary human?”
“I no understand read, but I see thinking. And you are Húman and I am … not Húman, yes. I not good see Húman thinking. But you help me big big.”
“You mean you’re learning about humans by reading my mind? This is crazy. Am I dreaming? What are you then?”
“I no know. I not know Húman tongue sound.”
“I’ve never met a non human before.”
“I’ve never met a human before,” smiled the pale girl imitating Vana’s voice and tone once again.
“Well you have to meet my two friends now. They would never believe me if they don’t see you for themselves.”
“I no understand ‘believe’.”
“Well, get up and come with me. Please.” Vana extended her hand again.
The white haired one looked at her for a moment, as if trying to decide whether to do as Vana asked, or to flee. Vana felt a thrill of pleasure when the stranger took her offered hand and stood up herself. The mud on her smooth shins seemed to slide right off her as she rose. She was slightly shorter than Vana, though if seen separately against a plain background people would probably guess she was taller than Vana, because her proportions were slightly different, longer shins, thinner waist, longer neck.
Vana led her by the hand towards Minnie and Anna. The chills she had been feeling down her spine earlier had now turned into a kind of electricity of excitement, since it was somehow, just about, almost believeable that this girl was not a normal human, as amazing as that would be. Vana wanted her friends to form an opinion about this stranger too, as the alternative was that Vana herself was cracking up. Perhaps she had just eaten something bad which was making her delirious or giving her hallucinations.
“I’ll wake her up,” Vana said, approaching Minnie. Vana crouched down, picked up Minnie’s clothes and covered her with them, before shaking her friend’s arm gently, and saying quietly, “Wake up, Minnie. There’s someone else here.”
Minnie moved her bonnet and opened her eyes and saw Vana bending over her. And then she saw the pale girl, standing just behind Vana, a mass of silky silvery white curls tumbling over her shoulders, glistening in the sunlight. Minnie visibly jumped at the sight, and sat quickly upright, saying “Wow!” making her blouse fall into her lap.
At the same time, the stranger, startled by Minnie’s sudden move, moved even more quickly herself. She jumped straight into the pool and disappeared underwater with hardly a splash.
“Wow!” repeated Minnie, “Sorry! I think I must have been dreaming. I could have sworn I saw a ghost or an angel or something standing behind you just then. It was all pale and white and shiny. It scared me for a moment.”
Vana hadn’t realised that the naiad had jumped into the pool behind her, and was now looking around for her. “Where did she go?” she asked.
Minnie laughed, “Into the pool.”
“Well, come on, we have to coax her out again,” said Vana, “Please don’t make any more sudden movements, and speak softly.” She moved towards the pool.
“You can’t be serious!” said Minnie, who really thought she must have imagined the sight. Then she noticed that the bottom of Vana’s dress was soaking wet and a bit muddy and asked, “Did you fall over, Vana?”
Anna woke up at the sound of their voices and turned to face them. “What’s going on?” she asked.
“There’s someone else here, Anna,” explained Vana, “but she’s very shy, and she’s hiding in the pool now. She seems very unusual to me, like a cross between a lost child, a wild animal and a fairy. I want you both to meet her too. She seems to be afraid of us. We have to coax her out of the pool. Try not to scare her any more.”
“Vana, have you fallen down and banged your head?” asked Minnie.
“No, I’m just hoping I haven’t eaten something bad. There is someone else here.”
Anna said, “In the pool? Are you sure you weren’t both dreaming? Maybe a fish jumped and woke you both?”
But Anna got up from her rocky resting-place and went to stand next to Vana, to look into the water.
Vana said to the pool, “Come out, don’t worry. They want to meet you and be your friend too.”
Minnie asked, “Who are you talking to, Vana? How could anyone hide in the pool?” She stood up to join them too, leaving her skirt and blouse on the grass. She said, “Did you bang your head when you fell over, Vana? I must have imagined it. Anna is right, there would have been a much bigger splash if someone had really jumped in there.”
Anna said, “And there would be some bubbles if there was someone down there.”
The pool surface was now steady, no ripples or bubbles could be seen to indicate that a girl was under the water. Vana said, “No, she’s real, I tell you. Please come out. We want to be your friends.”
Then a ripple appeared on the surface of the pool, towards the centre. They all saw it. Vana pointed and said, “There! See, she is in there.”
Minnie still thought that the pale figure must have been an illusion caused by the dazzle of the sunlight interrupting a dream. “That must be a fish. No one can hold their breath like that.”
So Minnie was most surprised when the silvery white curls re-emerged from the water in the centre of the ripple.
Vana coaxed, “That’s it. Come on. Don’t be shy. We can all be friends.”
“Yes, come on out,” said Anna, now beginning to understanding why Vana had been talking to the pool, “You don’t need to be afraid of us. What’s her name?” she asked Vana.
Vana called across the pool, “Come on out now. Tell Anna and Minnie your name. Let’s get to know each other better.”
The naked girl swam towards them and emerged from the pool onto the rock shelf amongst the lilies. She looked as if she might run away at any moment, but her shyness didn’t seem to be because she was naked, because she didn’t try to cover her body at all as she walked towards them.
Vana smiled, “That’s it. Come on out. Everything will be fine.”
Anna’s expression was one of amazement, but she controlled her voice as she said, “Hello. My name is Anna. What’s yours?”
“My name is ” and then that sound of waves and wind again.
Anna and Minnie looked at each other with puzzled expressions, trying to work out what this strange girl meant.
Vana sought to reassure her still, “You’re alright. I told you they were good people. You can trust them.” She extended a hand towards her again so that she wouldn’t slip on the wet rocks. The girl took her hand and walked out onto the grass.
“So where did you come from then?” asked Anna.
The strange one replied, “Here. I live here.”
Minnie was still trying to grasp the reality of the situation, “What? You live here? You mean you come here a lot?”
When the stranger spoke to Minnie, she sounded a little more like Minnie herself. “You not understand. I am not Húman. I am, er, what sound? I no understand much yet. May I inview you?”
Vana thought she meant ‘interview’ and said “Of course. What do you want to ask?” but the girl reached up and held her face again, staring into her eyes, just as she had earlier. Vana realised this time that she was going to have her mind read again, and tried to think of possible types of being that this girl might be.
After just a few moments of concentration, the white haired one let go of Vana and said to the girls, “I am a naiad.”
“Hello, Ann,” said Minnie extending her hand, “I’m Minnie Taylor. Pleased to meet you.”
The naiad laughed. “No, my name is not Ann. Your word for me is naiad.”
“What’s a naiad?” asked Minnie, whose knowledge of mythology was not as good as Vana’s.
“I think she means she’s a water-nymph,” replied Vana.

Vàna Rúndóttir · Apr 15, 2007, 03:12 AM // 03:12

Sorry for the length of that last one. The rest of the story, about how Vana became less shy, Minnie became possessed and sent to Sardelac Sanitarium, and Anna Sà became an assassin is much too long to post here.

white wolfgang · Apr 16, 2007, 03:45 AM // 03:45

This is my firt time posting my writing. This is actually a shortened version.

Some Backstory:
Naomi, a gorgeous elementalist, fell in love with Everest, who happened to be married. It has taken Naomi ages to recover from this and she is finally dating someone new. This is Abel.
PS i used commas not quotes
So different...
Hot. His lips felt hot against her chest. He kissed her so gently. Yet it was so eager. Naomi looked up. It was snowing, a beautiful white against the grey sky. As she stared she remembered Everest. How could she think of Everest while she was with Abel? But she did remember. He loves the snow, she thought. I do too. We do. Ah, there’s no more we or us. She was distracted yet again. She felt Abel’s lips move up her neck, and his gentle hands pull the clip out of her hair. The sky was gray. I miss those nights with Everest, she thought. Abel looked her straight in the eyes. He’s so sure of himself. He’s smart, but quiet. He’s Abel. Who am I? What am I? Thoughts raced her mind. Abel continued to kiss her affectionately. Yet Naomi couldn’t define herself without using Everest’s name. She slowly picked up Abel’s head in her hands.
Stop, she whispered
Hmm?
Please, just stop, this time she said it a bit louder.
Looking confused, he asked Why?
I ca…. Naomi began to choke on her words
Whats wrong? He asked again
Now she began to cry
Its Everest.
He looked very confused
He is the one. Please, I cant. Just go..
But it was Naomi who left. She began to walk off. In the middle of the Shiverpeaks, alone, unprotected, and broken.
---------
Everest stood there. In the distance he could see a girl. He knew it was Naomi. He just had this feeling. She was bleeding. As she got closer he noticed she was crying too.
He ran too her.
She stopped so close to him. She wanted to kiss him so bad.now crying she opened her mouth, but Everest talked over her.
What are you…
It was her turn
“I bet you didn't know that I’m terrified of the dark and every time I think of you, I smile. I bet you don't know that I hate thunder storms but love dancing in the rain or how much I love laughing with my friends and how much I truly enjoy being happy. I bet you don't know how many tears I’ve cried just for you, or how much I doubt myself every day. I bet you don't know how ticklish I am... Or how I can't make decisions, and how it drives me crazy when you
look into my eyes. I bet you didn't know that I would do anything to be with you, but mostly, I bet you don't know how much I love you.”
He kissed her. Passionately,warmly. It was so much different than before.

Storm Crow · Apr 16, 2007, 10:05 AM // 10:05

-awww-

I liked that, white. It was cute and well written. Bravo!

As for you, Vana, I will have to get to yours sometime later, I apologize for not reading yours first, but I am terribly busy this morning.

Unreal Cyn · Apr 21, 2007, 07:45 PM // 19:45

Hey folks, some excellent stories here so far, keep em coming! Hecate, I found your story pretty interesting and finely written, but you had quite a bit of philosophical analysis in there which I thought kinda detracted from the story. I thought the ending was pretty badass though. And White's tale was cool to me as well, but I'm not the best to comment on love stories. They just don't work for me.
But Vàna, damn that story was good. And I mean really good. You really immersed me in that one. The all girl cast worked really well in the setting and it was very well written; the dialogue, the metaphors, everything. I'd love to see more of that story soon. All in all, fantastic work guys, this is turning out to be a great collection of shorts thus far. I knew there were fine writers here in Lyssa's!