Posts
I'm so behind right now. I'm only at 5896 words, as of yesterday I should have been at 6400 (That's with my goal of doing at least 1600 or more words a day). By the end of today I should be at 8000 words. If you do the math, that means I have to write 2104 words today. That will be a record thus far.
The reason that I'm behind is because even though I had all of Monday off from work, I didn't write but a little over 1000 words. I tried to make up for it yesterday. I wrote for an hour before I went to work (a little over 1200 words in one hour, I'm proud of my self) and then I wrote during work and my lunch break. That gave me somewhere over 1700 words for yesterday.
Today I only work from 10:30 to 3 so I have a lot of time to write today, except for the fact that my husband has today off as well and the apartment needs some serious cleaning. I'm hoping to do some writing before I go to work and while the hubby is still sleeping in. Which of course means I need to stop writing here and get to work on my NaNo! ;P
~Kricket
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
NaNoWriMo An Excert
So I finished the prologue of my NaNoWriMo novel, Avalon! I did 1,444 words today, which brings me to a total of 3,127 words! Yay!
And now for your reading enjoyment:
Prologue
The sun was barely rising above the crest of the world. The birds had just started to greet the dawn, but no other creature stirred; except the Unicorn. She had risen before sunrise, a silent cry of grief causing her to leap from her bed of moss. It was wail unlike any she had heard before; full of eternal grief and pain.
Now, she was awake and traveling through the fog laden forest to the top of Mount Alpha, the Mountain of Beginnings. It had been many centuries since she had walked this path. Despite the fact that they were siblings, the Unicorn never had much of a reason to visit the Dragon. The world was changing and the outcry the night before had made her realize that this visit was overdue.
Early morning walks were the Unicorn’s favorite. The crisp autumn air filled her nostrils with the scent of quite decay. Her ivory, cloven hooves crunched through the fire colored leaves that littered the path. A chill breeze tossed her silver mane and whispered in her ear, asking for a frolic.
“Not now,” she whispered back in the language of the wind. “But would you please tell the Dragon that I will be there shortly?”
The wind danced around her diamond horn in agreement and then whisked up the trail ahead. The trail began to get steep and rocky, but nothing could stop the Unicorn’s natural grace. She leapt from rock to rock, shimmering in patches of sunlight.
As the path leveled out she came up to a sheer rock face. A small stream was coming from a the base out of a crack that only a mouse could fit into. Unperturbed, the Unicorn continued forward and stepped through the magical barrier.
Beyond the barrier was a sacred place called the Vale of Joy. This was the place where the Creator had fashioned the first in a series of magical Creatures. This is where the Unicorn, and her chaotic brother, the Dragon, were born. It was from here that the terrible wail came.
The unicorn made her was across the vale, enjoying the feel of the pure water over her hooves. There was such a sense of peace here; and a huge amount of magic. She followed the stream to the far side of the vale where a 500 foot waterfall dropped in front of a cave and into an endless pool.
Wrapped around that pool was a 300 foot black dragon; but he wasn’t an ordinary color of black. His scales were so dark that they seemed to absorb the light around him instead of reflect it. It was the closest one could come to looking into a black hole. He was completely still and for a moment the Unicorn was concerned. She slowed her pace and finally stopped where the stream met the pool.
“Dragon?” she called, her sweet, quite voice carrying over the roar of the waterfall.
The Dragon opened one flaming red eye and considered the Unicorn for a moment. The Unicorn found her self tensing up, ready to run or fight, she wasn’t sure which. She was caught in the eyes of a predator. After a long moment he closed his eye and turned his head away.
“What do you want, little sister?” His voice crackled and snapped like a dying flame.
The Unicorn’s silver eyes widened at the strange note in his voice. She had never heard sadness in him before. She stepped out of the stream and began to come around the side of the pool so she could see the Dragon more closely.
“What happened Dragon? Why have you come here after so long? Was that your cry last night?”
The Dragon sighed and shifted his weight to face her. “You ask too many questions.”
“You never give enough answers.”
The Dragon sighed again and looked down into the pool. The Unicorn was surprised; normally he reacted very well to her clever comebacks. “Ok then, one question at a time. Was that your cry last night?”
“Yes.”
“Why? What happened?”
“That’s more than one question,” the Dragon looked back over at her. When she didn’t respond he let out a breath of smoke and shifted his weight again, putting some space between himself and the edge of the pool. “Come, little sister, it is a hard story to tell, so I shall show you it in the water.”
The Unicorn was being more surprised by the moment. She nodded and walked to the waters edge. As she laid herself down she noticed that the Dragon’s normally hot hide was cold; there was a stone-like quality to him.
Once she was settled she looked down into the deep pool. There was no telling how far down it went, after a few dozen feet it was nothing but blackness. From over her head, the Dragon reached down and touched the water with one ebony claw. As he did so, the Unicorn could feel the release of magic from him. The ripples expanded through the pool and suddenly stilled into a picture that moved.
In that picture were the Dragon and his mate Dragcona. Dragcona was a 200 foot, ruby red dragon. The Firstborn female of the Dragon race, just as the Unicorn was the Firstborn of the Unicorn race. Dragcona had a reputation for passion and ferocity. As the Unicorn watched she saw Dragcona leave her cave and take to the air. As the picture followed her flight she noticed that Dragcona’s belly was swollen with eggs.
“Oh my, I didn’t know…”
“Keep watching,” the Dragon demanded.
The moving picture followed Dragcona as she hunted down a Great White Stag. In the Dragon culture, eating the flesh of a Great White Stag a few days before a mother laid her eggs guaranteed that all the eggs would hatch. As Dragcona ate the Stag, a human, wearing armor and riding a horse came charging out of the forest and stabbed Dragcona in the belly with a lance.
The Unicorn could not stop the gasp that escaped her throat. There was an angry rumble from the Dragon’s chest behind her. The picture in the water then depicted Dragcona attacking and killing the dragon slayer and flying back home to her cave, obviously wounded.
“I found her there a little while later,” the Dragon said, in a hushed voice. “She was sick and the wound would not heal, no matter what magic I tried. The Human’s lance had been tipped with dragonsbane, and a lot of it. He also managed to strike the sack that the eggs were resting in.”
The Unicorn stood and faced the Dragon, tears in her eyes, “Oh no…”
“She lived three days after that. Just long enough to lay the eggs last night. Six of the original twelve were already dead from the dragonsbane.”
The Unicorn was silent with shock. As she stood there in front of him, the Dragon began to cry; great golden tears that splashed to the ground and hardened into pools of living gold. He made no sound, just the silent rain of tears.
After a long moment he spoke, “I came here to see if this place would heal and keep safe the remaining six eggs. They lie by the volcanic vents inside the cave behind the waterfall.”
“Why didn’t you call me when Dragcona first got wounded?” the Unicorn asked.
“What would that have accomplished? Unicorn magic is different than Dragon’s. Your healing powers would not have helped,” the Dragon snapped.
The unicorn lowered her head, “Maybe your right. I would not have been able to help her. But I can help her children.”
“How?” The bitterness in his voice was almost more than the Unicorn could bear.
“They are still young, not even hatched; they have hardly any magic at all. My healing powers will work to burn the dragonsbane out.”
“Are you sure?”
“Mostly. But it can’t hurt to try, right?”
The Dragon regarded her for a long moment. She felt a warm tingle run over her skin and vibrate in her horn. The Dragon was sensing her with his magic, trying to see if what she purposed could work. Finally he nodded, rose and led her to the cave.
As they passed under the waterfall, the Dragon held out his wings above the Unicorn to shield her from the water. The inside of the cave was dark, lighted only by the wavy blue light coming from the fall. Deeper in there was an orange glow where vents that led straight to the massive fire at the center of the Earth released light and heat. Clustered in the middle of these vents were six large watermelon sized eggs. Each was a different color of the rainbow, red, yellow, orange, green, blue and purple.
The Dragon began to rotate the eggs with gentle claws, making sure the heat was being distributed evenly among them. The unicorn walked around the cluster and then stopped in front of the purple one. Bending down she touched the egg with her horn and closed her eyes. In her mind’s eye she could see the tiny dragonling inside its egg, floating in warm golden liquid. Around the inside edge of the egg there was a noxious green oil-like substance that was creeping ever closer to the defenseless dragonling.
With a flick of a thought the Unicorn poured her magic into the egg. It appeared as a silver glow that wrapped itself around the dragonling and then expanded out, pushing the dragonsbane out of the egg. She opened her eyes and saw that the green oil had pooled around the outside of the egg. She touched the oil with her horn and it instantly went up in a puff of smoke.
The Unicorn looked up to see the Dragon watching with admiration in his eyes. She smiled at him and moved on to the next egg, repeating the same process for each one.
“Thank you,” was all the Dragon said as they left the cave and walked into the bright light of mid-morning.
“I’m sorry,” the Unicorn said, watching her hooves pace over the vibrant green grass. “I’m sorry that this had to happen to Dragcona. I know what it is like to lose a mate. When Thor died, I thought my world would end. He was Firstborn, like you and I, and we had been together from the very beginning.
“Losing someone that has been that close to you for that long is hard to take. But trust me, brother, when I say that it will get better. Once those little dragonlings hatch, nothing else in the world will matter to you. You will find your life has meaning through them. Remember that.”
The Dragon looked down at her, his red eyes not as smoldering as they were before. They walked around the edge of the pool and stopped were the stream spilled out across the valley.
“Do you know how many Dragon’s are left in the world at this moment, sister?”
“No.”
“Not counting me or my children, only twelve.”
“What? I—”
“Of course you wouldn’t know.” The Dragon said, looking out across the vale that was untouched by the seasons. “You can not feel the presence of the Creatures of Chaos like I can. And Dragons are not the only ones that are diminishing in number, the Griffins, Phoenix, Were-Creatures, Demons and other Creatures of Chaos are either all but gone or in hiding. And it’s all the humans fault. They hunt us down and kill us because they think that we are evil, monstrous, or that we are out to kill them, when most of us could care less!” The Dragon’s voice became gruffer the more he spoke, and little flame licked out of his nostrils.
“We must put an end to this! The Humans have gone too far. I believe it is time that we Creatures take back the Earth that is ours!” The Dragon spun around to face the Unicorn, forcing her step back a pace from the heat that was emanating off of him.
“This Earth is not ours,” the Unicorn looked straight into those raging eyes, willing him to calm him self and listen to what she had to say. “Remember long ago? The Creator told us that this Earth belonged to them; that they would one day be numerous and cover the whole face of the Earth. We have always known that this Earth would not be able to hold all of us. They are creatures of Science, we are of Magic, and the two do not coincide very well.”
“So what do we do? Lie down and die for them?”
“No, we must leave.”
“Leave? Where would we go, pray tell?”
The Unicorn sighed and began to pace back and forth, her eyes lost in thought. “There is another place besides Earth that we can go; a place that is uninhabited by Humans or any other Creature of intelligence. It is a place of deep magic. I believe the Creator made it just for this purpose. He must have known that we and the Humans could not coexist for long, and so He prepared a way for us to continue with our lives and be safe.”
“Do you mean Avalon?” a voice from the other side of the pool asked. The Dragon and Unicorn spun around to see a tall young man, with wild curly brown hair and wearing a plain gray robe. He stood with his arms folded inside of his large sleeves, mischief twinkling in his gray eyes.
“Intruder!” the Dragon roared as he leapt into the air.
“No Dragon!” the Unicorn ran across the top of the pool, her hooves hardly touching the water, to stand by the human. She raised her horn and shouted at the Dragon, “Do not hurt him! He means no harm!”
The Dragon circled above, acid saliva dripping from his roaring maw. “He has come without authority to this holy place; a Human in the Vale of Joy! He must die!” The Dragon dove down, intent on feeling this man’s bones crunch in his teeth.
When he was only a few feet above them, the Unicorn reared up and sent a pure blast of magic from her horn and into the Dragon’s chest. The blow knocked him off balance. He was too close to the ground to pull up, so he rolled into the pool instead.
“Well that should cool him off,” the man chuckled. The Unicorn turned her silver eyes toward him, full of a silent threat to remain silent.
“You came at a bad time,” she said as she walked to the edge of the pool to watch the Dragon swim back up.
“True,” he nodded, “but I felt the need to defend my race in this case.”
The Dragon’s head then appeared above the water and glared at the Unicorn. “That was a low blow, sister.” He said as he climbed out of the water. “Now give a few good reasons why I should not burn this little imprudent brat where he stands?”
“Brat? I’m twenty-five years old, for your information.”
The Dragon didn’t give the human a glace; he just continued to stare down the Unicorn. She let out a calming breath, “This young man is called Merlyn. He is very powerful in the ways of Magic. I have known him since his infancy. I have never met a Human as powerful as him.”
“Have you been teaching him our ways?”
“Yes.”
The Dragon let out a disgusted snort, “So he can use them to destroy us no doubt.”
“Never, Great One,” Merlyn said, taking a step closer. “I honor and respect you and those of your kind. I have no intent of harming anyone. The Unicorn has been teaching me the ways of Magic so that I can help protect it.”
“Have you taken him to Avalon?” the Dragon asked the Unicorn, refusing to even notice Merlyn.
“Yes.” The Unicorn would not be intimidated. Despite his larger size, they were evenly matched in the ways of Magic.
“By the unknown name of the Creator, why?”
“Because he is going to help us keep the pathway open long enough so that the Creatures who want to come with us can get through.” The Unicorn was becoming annoyed now. “You know as well as I that not all Creatures have enough Magic to cross over by them selves. Plus, the two of us alone do not have the strength to keep the pathway open for very long. We need him.”
“We need no Human!” the Dragon lashed his tail, sweeping a few large boulders into the pool. “Those Creatures who can not get to Avalon on their own will just have to stay here. There is no helping that.”
“Yes there is. That is why we need Merlyn. I will not leave a single Creature that wants to come, stranded here!” the Unicorn said with a stamp of her hoof.
The Dragon felt himself start to calm in the face of the Unicorns anger. There was not much in this world that would cause the Unicorn to be angry, and despite there differences, he didn’t like to see her upset; much less be the cause of it.
He finally looked over at the man called Merlyn. His stare made Merlyn uncomfortable and he fidgeted a bit, but didn’t look away. The Dragon nodded at him, “So how can you help us, little Human?”
“Well,” Merlyn said, stroking his clean shaven chin. “As I understand it, the best way to keep the pathway open long enough to have many Creatures pass through it will require three great forces; Chaos, Order and something that is a mixture of both. You, Great Dragon, are a Creature of Chaos, the Unicorn is a Creature of Order, and me being a Human means that I am inherently a mixture of both. And since I am the most powerful Magician on the Earth at this time, I am the only choice you have.”
The Dragon snorted, “Surly a Human as young as you could not be the most power Magician alive.”
“He is,” the Unicorn said. “And he has the ability to do this.”
The Dragon looked at the Unicorn once more, “You trust him?”
“Completely.”
The Dragon considered for a moment. He turned his attention back to Merlyn, “You make one misstep and I will roast you alive and eat you before you can blink. And there will be no Unicorn to defend you then.”
Merlyn gave a crooked smile and nodded, “Agreed.”
The Unicorn let out a sigh of relief, “Very good. Then should we get to work gentlemen?”
And now for your reading enjoyment:
Prologue
The sun was barely rising above the crest of the world. The birds had just started to greet the dawn, but no other creature stirred; except the Unicorn. She had risen before sunrise, a silent cry of grief causing her to leap from her bed of moss. It was wail unlike any she had heard before; full of eternal grief and pain.
Now, she was awake and traveling through the fog laden forest to the top of Mount Alpha, the Mountain of Beginnings. It had been many centuries since she had walked this path. Despite the fact that they were siblings, the Unicorn never had much of a reason to visit the Dragon. The world was changing and the outcry the night before had made her realize that this visit was overdue.
Early morning walks were the Unicorn’s favorite. The crisp autumn air filled her nostrils with the scent of quite decay. Her ivory, cloven hooves crunched through the fire colored leaves that littered the path. A chill breeze tossed her silver mane and whispered in her ear, asking for a frolic.
“Not now,” she whispered back in the language of the wind. “But would you please tell the Dragon that I will be there shortly?”
The wind danced around her diamond horn in agreement and then whisked up the trail ahead. The trail began to get steep and rocky, but nothing could stop the Unicorn’s natural grace. She leapt from rock to rock, shimmering in patches of sunlight.
As the path leveled out she came up to a sheer rock face. A small stream was coming from a the base out of a crack that only a mouse could fit into. Unperturbed, the Unicorn continued forward and stepped through the magical barrier.
Beyond the barrier was a sacred place called the Vale of Joy. This was the place where the Creator had fashioned the first in a series of magical Creatures. This is where the Unicorn, and her chaotic brother, the Dragon, were born. It was from here that the terrible wail came.
The unicorn made her was across the vale, enjoying the feel of the pure water over her hooves. There was such a sense of peace here; and a huge amount of magic. She followed the stream to the far side of the vale where a 500 foot waterfall dropped in front of a cave and into an endless pool.
Wrapped around that pool was a 300 foot black dragon; but he wasn’t an ordinary color of black. His scales were so dark that they seemed to absorb the light around him instead of reflect it. It was the closest one could come to looking into a black hole. He was completely still and for a moment the Unicorn was concerned. She slowed her pace and finally stopped where the stream met the pool.
“Dragon?” she called, her sweet, quite voice carrying over the roar of the waterfall.
The Dragon opened one flaming red eye and considered the Unicorn for a moment. The Unicorn found her self tensing up, ready to run or fight, she wasn’t sure which. She was caught in the eyes of a predator. After a long moment he closed his eye and turned his head away.
“What do you want, little sister?” His voice crackled and snapped like a dying flame.
The Unicorn’s silver eyes widened at the strange note in his voice. She had never heard sadness in him before. She stepped out of the stream and began to come around the side of the pool so she could see the Dragon more closely.
“What happened Dragon? Why have you come here after so long? Was that your cry last night?”
The Dragon sighed and shifted his weight to face her. “You ask too many questions.”
“You never give enough answers.”
The Dragon sighed again and looked down into the pool. The Unicorn was surprised; normally he reacted very well to her clever comebacks. “Ok then, one question at a time. Was that your cry last night?”
“Yes.”
“Why? What happened?”
“That’s more than one question,” the Dragon looked back over at her. When she didn’t respond he let out a breath of smoke and shifted his weight again, putting some space between himself and the edge of the pool. “Come, little sister, it is a hard story to tell, so I shall show you it in the water.”
The Unicorn was being more surprised by the moment. She nodded and walked to the waters edge. As she laid herself down she noticed that the Dragon’s normally hot hide was cold; there was a stone-like quality to him.
Once she was settled she looked down into the deep pool. There was no telling how far down it went, after a few dozen feet it was nothing but blackness. From over her head, the Dragon reached down and touched the water with one ebony claw. As he did so, the Unicorn could feel the release of magic from him. The ripples expanded through the pool and suddenly stilled into a picture that moved.
In that picture were the Dragon and his mate Dragcona. Dragcona was a 200 foot, ruby red dragon. The Firstborn female of the Dragon race, just as the Unicorn was the Firstborn of the Unicorn race. Dragcona had a reputation for passion and ferocity. As the Unicorn watched she saw Dragcona leave her cave and take to the air. As the picture followed her flight she noticed that Dragcona’s belly was swollen with eggs.
“Oh my, I didn’t know…”
“Keep watching,” the Dragon demanded.
The moving picture followed Dragcona as she hunted down a Great White Stag. In the Dragon culture, eating the flesh of a Great White Stag a few days before a mother laid her eggs guaranteed that all the eggs would hatch. As Dragcona ate the Stag, a human, wearing armor and riding a horse came charging out of the forest and stabbed Dragcona in the belly with a lance.
The Unicorn could not stop the gasp that escaped her throat. There was an angry rumble from the Dragon’s chest behind her. The picture in the water then depicted Dragcona attacking and killing the dragon slayer and flying back home to her cave, obviously wounded.
“I found her there a little while later,” the Dragon said, in a hushed voice. “She was sick and the wound would not heal, no matter what magic I tried. The Human’s lance had been tipped with dragonsbane, and a lot of it. He also managed to strike the sack that the eggs were resting in.”
The Unicorn stood and faced the Dragon, tears in her eyes, “Oh no…”
“She lived three days after that. Just long enough to lay the eggs last night. Six of the original twelve were already dead from the dragonsbane.”
The Unicorn was silent with shock. As she stood there in front of him, the Dragon began to cry; great golden tears that splashed to the ground and hardened into pools of living gold. He made no sound, just the silent rain of tears.
After a long moment he spoke, “I came here to see if this place would heal and keep safe the remaining six eggs. They lie by the volcanic vents inside the cave behind the waterfall.”
“Why didn’t you call me when Dragcona first got wounded?” the Unicorn asked.
“What would that have accomplished? Unicorn magic is different than Dragon’s. Your healing powers would not have helped,” the Dragon snapped.
The unicorn lowered her head, “Maybe your right. I would not have been able to help her. But I can help her children.”
“How?” The bitterness in his voice was almost more than the Unicorn could bear.
“They are still young, not even hatched; they have hardly any magic at all. My healing powers will work to burn the dragonsbane out.”
“Are you sure?”
“Mostly. But it can’t hurt to try, right?”
The Dragon regarded her for a long moment. She felt a warm tingle run over her skin and vibrate in her horn. The Dragon was sensing her with his magic, trying to see if what she purposed could work. Finally he nodded, rose and led her to the cave.
As they passed under the waterfall, the Dragon held out his wings above the Unicorn to shield her from the water. The inside of the cave was dark, lighted only by the wavy blue light coming from the fall. Deeper in there was an orange glow where vents that led straight to the massive fire at the center of the Earth released light and heat. Clustered in the middle of these vents were six large watermelon sized eggs. Each was a different color of the rainbow, red, yellow, orange, green, blue and purple.
The Dragon began to rotate the eggs with gentle claws, making sure the heat was being distributed evenly among them. The unicorn walked around the cluster and then stopped in front of the purple one. Bending down she touched the egg with her horn and closed her eyes. In her mind’s eye she could see the tiny dragonling inside its egg, floating in warm golden liquid. Around the inside edge of the egg there was a noxious green oil-like substance that was creeping ever closer to the defenseless dragonling.
With a flick of a thought the Unicorn poured her magic into the egg. It appeared as a silver glow that wrapped itself around the dragonling and then expanded out, pushing the dragonsbane out of the egg. She opened her eyes and saw that the green oil had pooled around the outside of the egg. She touched the oil with her horn and it instantly went up in a puff of smoke.
The Unicorn looked up to see the Dragon watching with admiration in his eyes. She smiled at him and moved on to the next egg, repeating the same process for each one.
“Thank you,” was all the Dragon said as they left the cave and walked into the bright light of mid-morning.
“I’m sorry,” the Unicorn said, watching her hooves pace over the vibrant green grass. “I’m sorry that this had to happen to Dragcona. I know what it is like to lose a mate. When Thor died, I thought my world would end. He was Firstborn, like you and I, and we had been together from the very beginning.
“Losing someone that has been that close to you for that long is hard to take. But trust me, brother, when I say that it will get better. Once those little dragonlings hatch, nothing else in the world will matter to you. You will find your life has meaning through them. Remember that.”
The Dragon looked down at her, his red eyes not as smoldering as they were before. They walked around the edge of the pool and stopped were the stream spilled out across the valley.
“Do you know how many Dragon’s are left in the world at this moment, sister?”
“No.”
“Not counting me or my children, only twelve.”
“What? I—”
“Of course you wouldn’t know.” The Dragon said, looking out across the vale that was untouched by the seasons. “You can not feel the presence of the Creatures of Chaos like I can. And Dragons are not the only ones that are diminishing in number, the Griffins, Phoenix, Were-Creatures, Demons and other Creatures of Chaos are either all but gone or in hiding. And it’s all the humans fault. They hunt us down and kill us because they think that we are evil, monstrous, or that we are out to kill them, when most of us could care less!” The Dragon’s voice became gruffer the more he spoke, and little flame licked out of his nostrils.
“We must put an end to this! The Humans have gone too far. I believe it is time that we Creatures take back the Earth that is ours!” The Dragon spun around to face the Unicorn, forcing her step back a pace from the heat that was emanating off of him.
“This Earth is not ours,” the Unicorn looked straight into those raging eyes, willing him to calm him self and listen to what she had to say. “Remember long ago? The Creator told us that this Earth belonged to them; that they would one day be numerous and cover the whole face of the Earth. We have always known that this Earth would not be able to hold all of us. They are creatures of Science, we are of Magic, and the two do not coincide very well.”
“So what do we do? Lie down and die for them?”
“No, we must leave.”
“Leave? Where would we go, pray tell?”
The Unicorn sighed and began to pace back and forth, her eyes lost in thought. “There is another place besides Earth that we can go; a place that is uninhabited by Humans or any other Creature of intelligence. It is a place of deep magic. I believe the Creator made it just for this purpose. He must have known that we and the Humans could not coexist for long, and so He prepared a way for us to continue with our lives and be safe.”
“Do you mean Avalon?” a voice from the other side of the pool asked. The Dragon and Unicorn spun around to see a tall young man, with wild curly brown hair and wearing a plain gray robe. He stood with his arms folded inside of his large sleeves, mischief twinkling in his gray eyes.
“Intruder!” the Dragon roared as he leapt into the air.
“No Dragon!” the Unicorn ran across the top of the pool, her hooves hardly touching the water, to stand by the human. She raised her horn and shouted at the Dragon, “Do not hurt him! He means no harm!”
The Dragon circled above, acid saliva dripping from his roaring maw. “He has come without authority to this holy place; a Human in the Vale of Joy! He must die!” The Dragon dove down, intent on feeling this man’s bones crunch in his teeth.
When he was only a few feet above them, the Unicorn reared up and sent a pure blast of magic from her horn and into the Dragon’s chest. The blow knocked him off balance. He was too close to the ground to pull up, so he rolled into the pool instead.
“Well that should cool him off,” the man chuckled. The Unicorn turned her silver eyes toward him, full of a silent threat to remain silent.
“You came at a bad time,” she said as she walked to the edge of the pool to watch the Dragon swim back up.
“True,” he nodded, “but I felt the need to defend my race in this case.”
The Dragon’s head then appeared above the water and glared at the Unicorn. “That was a low blow, sister.” He said as he climbed out of the water. “Now give a few good reasons why I should not burn this little imprudent brat where he stands?”
“Brat? I’m twenty-five years old, for your information.”
The Dragon didn’t give the human a glace; he just continued to stare down the Unicorn. She let out a calming breath, “This young man is called Merlyn. He is very powerful in the ways of Magic. I have known him since his infancy. I have never met a Human as powerful as him.”
“Have you been teaching him our ways?”
“Yes.”
The Dragon let out a disgusted snort, “So he can use them to destroy us no doubt.”
“Never, Great One,” Merlyn said, taking a step closer. “I honor and respect you and those of your kind. I have no intent of harming anyone. The Unicorn has been teaching me the ways of Magic so that I can help protect it.”
“Have you taken him to Avalon?” the Dragon asked the Unicorn, refusing to even notice Merlyn.
“Yes.” The Unicorn would not be intimidated. Despite his larger size, they were evenly matched in the ways of Magic.
“By the unknown name of the Creator, why?”
“Because he is going to help us keep the pathway open long enough so that the Creatures who want to come with us can get through.” The Unicorn was becoming annoyed now. “You know as well as I that not all Creatures have enough Magic to cross over by them selves. Plus, the two of us alone do not have the strength to keep the pathway open for very long. We need him.”
“We need no Human!” the Dragon lashed his tail, sweeping a few large boulders into the pool. “Those Creatures who can not get to Avalon on their own will just have to stay here. There is no helping that.”
“Yes there is. That is why we need Merlyn. I will not leave a single Creature that wants to come, stranded here!” the Unicorn said with a stamp of her hoof.
The Dragon felt himself start to calm in the face of the Unicorns anger. There was not much in this world that would cause the Unicorn to be angry, and despite there differences, he didn’t like to see her upset; much less be the cause of it.
He finally looked over at the man called Merlyn. His stare made Merlyn uncomfortable and he fidgeted a bit, but didn’t look away. The Dragon nodded at him, “So how can you help us, little Human?”
“Well,” Merlyn said, stroking his clean shaven chin. “As I understand it, the best way to keep the pathway open long enough to have many Creatures pass through it will require three great forces; Chaos, Order and something that is a mixture of both. You, Great Dragon, are a Creature of Chaos, the Unicorn is a Creature of Order, and me being a Human means that I am inherently a mixture of both. And since I am the most powerful Magician on the Earth at this time, I am the only choice you have.”
The Dragon snorted, “Surly a Human as young as you could not be the most power Magician alive.”
“He is,” the Unicorn said. “And he has the ability to do this.”
The Dragon looked at the Unicorn once more, “You trust him?”
“Completely.”
The Dragon considered for a moment. He turned his attention back to Merlyn, “You make one misstep and I will roast you alive and eat you before you can blink. And there will be no Unicorn to defend you then.”
Merlyn gave a crooked smile and nodded, “Agreed.”
The Unicorn let out a sigh of relief, “Very good. Then should we get to work gentlemen?”
Saturday, November 1, 2008
NaNoWriMo Day 1!!!!!
DAY ONE: NOV. 1ST
Alright! So today was the first day of NaNoWriMo! and I had to work all day. But, nonetheless, between very stupid and annoying members I was able to write 403 words, on paper. Then when I got home I wrote some more and my total for today is ::drumroll:: 1,683!!!! It's been figured that if you write about 1,600 words a day, you'll have 50,000 by Nov. 30th.
But the really amazing thing about this is that I've written that many words and I'm not even done with the prologue. Now that either means I'm really good or that I'm really wordy. Either way, it works.
I haven't been able to get on to the offical NaNoWriMo site NaNoWriMo to update yet. It's being really slow with lots of glitchs because so many people are on it right now. So I'll wait until later tonight when most of the world is asleep.
Anyway, I will be updating my journal here a lot as I go along, so sorry to anyone who watches me and could care less about NaNoWriMo, you'll just have to deal with it. :D
~Kricket
Alright! So today was the first day of NaNoWriMo! and I had to work all day. But, nonetheless, between very stupid and annoying members I was able to write 403 words, on paper. Then when I got home I wrote some more and my total for today is ::drumroll:: 1,683!!!! It's been figured that if you write about 1,600 words a day, you'll have 50,000 by Nov. 30th.
But the really amazing thing about this is that I've written that many words and I'm not even done with the prologue. Now that either means I'm really good or that I'm really wordy. Either way, it works.
I haven't been able to get on to the offical NaNoWriMo site NaNoWriMo to update yet. It's being really slow with lots of glitchs because so many people are on it right now. So I'll wait until later tonight when most of the world is asleep.
Anyway, I will be updating my journal here a lot as I go along, so sorry to anyone who watches me and could care less about NaNoWriMo, you'll just have to deal with it. :D
~Kricket
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Banzai!! And Some NaNo Stuff
So this past Saturday, Daniel and I went to Anime Banzai in Salt Lake City. It was loads and loads of fun! This was my second anime convention, but Daniel's first. The only other one I've been to was in Atlanta a couple years ago. We only went on Saturday because we both worked Friday. We got there around 9-ish and didn't get home until about 1:30 am. It was a long day, but fun.
And no, we didn't dress up. We thought about it, but we didn't have enough time to put something together. But we were seriously thinking about going as Ichigo and Rukia from Bleach. Daniel would make a good Ichigo if he had the orange hair. We did see a lot of cool and sometimes scary cosplay though. I didn't get a lot of pictures. I was too shy to ask people to pose; plus, I'm sure they got tired of it after a while.
The best part for me was the shopping. The exhibit hall with all the vendors wasn't very big but there was some pretty good stuff. I managed to get myself three purses. I got a book bag/purse of Mokona, which I've been wanting for years, and two very pretty messenger bags with Chinese dragons embroidered on them. Daniel got the first season of Bleach on DVD and a wooden replica of Ichigo's bankai sword. Plus we bought and consumed lots of Ramune. (I'll put some pictures up once I actually get them off my camera.)
Oh, and also we went by the Artist Alley and met some really awesome people, here are their dA sites: http://sk8rccd.deviantart.com/ (who drew a chibi of Daniel and I, way cute!) & http://anonymous-j.deviantart.com/ (who was really cool and nice)
My second favorite thing was the dance/rave afterward. We stayed until the very end and had a blast! We got lots of glow sticks and Daniel and I were kickin' it on the dance floor. Several times I saw people stop and just watch us. Daniel was spinning his around like they were numb chucks and I just flailing my arms around and hoping it looked cool. We were so tired by the end though. Daniel had to carry me to the car because my feet were hurting so bad.
All in all it was way fun and we'll defiantly be going back next year!
Oh and some things I learned for the next convention:
1) If you're going to be staying for the dance and actually plan on dancing, have comfortable clothes to wear, including shoes.
2) Bring a camera and make sure it has fresh batteries.
3) Don't be afraid to ask for pictures of people.
4) It's way more fun to go as a big group.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And now a quick blurb about NaNoWriMo.
I've got most of the story outlined/figured out. This in of itself is pretty cool for me. I've never really planned a story this far in advance and I'm really excited to get started! 2 more days!!!
Here's a short synopses of the story.
What if all the creatures of myth and legend were real, just living in another world? Gwen is about to find out as she steps into the forgotten realm of Avalon!
Well this has been long enough. Back to work on said story!
~Kricket
And no, we didn't dress up. We thought about it, but we didn't have enough time to put something together. But we were seriously thinking about going as Ichigo and Rukia from Bleach. Daniel would make a good Ichigo if he had the orange hair. We did see a lot of cool and sometimes scary cosplay though. I didn't get a lot of pictures. I was too shy to ask people to pose; plus, I'm sure they got tired of it after a while.
The best part for me was the shopping. The exhibit hall with all the vendors wasn't very big but there was some pretty good stuff. I managed to get myself three purses. I got a book bag/purse of Mokona, which I've been wanting for years, and two very pretty messenger bags with Chinese dragons embroidered on them. Daniel got the first season of Bleach on DVD and a wooden replica of Ichigo's bankai sword. Plus we bought and consumed lots of Ramune. (I'll put some pictures up once I actually get them off my camera.)
Oh, and also we went by the Artist Alley and met some really awesome people, here are their dA sites: http://sk8rccd.deviantart.com/ (who drew a chibi of Daniel and I, way cute!) & http://anonymous-j.deviantart.com/ (who was really cool and nice)
My second favorite thing was the dance/rave afterward. We stayed until the very end and had a blast! We got lots of glow sticks and Daniel and I were kickin' it on the dance floor. Several times I saw people stop and just watch us. Daniel was spinning his around like they were numb chucks and I just flailing my arms around and hoping it looked cool. We were so tired by the end though. Daniel had to carry me to the car because my feet were hurting so bad.
All in all it was way fun and we'll defiantly be going back next year!
Oh and some things I learned for the next convention:
1) If you're going to be staying for the dance and actually plan on dancing, have comfortable clothes to wear, including shoes.
2) Bring a camera and make sure it has fresh batteries.
3) Don't be afraid to ask for pictures of people.
4) It's way more fun to go as a big group.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And now a quick blurb about NaNoWriMo.
I've got most of the story outlined/figured out. This in of itself is pretty cool for me. I've never really planned a story this far in advance and I'm really excited to get started! 2 more days!!!
Here's a short synopses of the story.
What if all the creatures of myth and legend were real, just living in another world? Gwen is about to find out as she steps into the forgotten realm of Avalon!
Well this has been long enough. Back to work on said story!
~Kricket
Thursday, October 23, 2008
November=NaNoWriMo!
National Novel Writing Month
November is National Novel Writing Month!! And this is the first year that I've ever heard of it. Basically, it's a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel between Nov. 1 thru Nov. 31. Sounds nearly impossible right? Well it just be, but I'm going to try it anyway.
I only found out about this a week ago, so I haven't had much time to prepare. But I've already managed to do something impossible, I've actually outlined about four chapters of my story. I never outline. I'm usually a make-it-up-as-I-go-along type person. But I figured that since I only have a month to get the whole thing on paper, I might as well know what the heck I'm going to be writing about.
I'm doing a fantasy story that has a lot to do with various mythological creatures. It's been requiring some research, but at least it's fun and something I'm interested in. So far, I feel pretty confident in my ability to accomplish this. The story is forming nicely in my head. I feel like I've got some pretty good, concrete characters. I'm really hoping that the story is good enough that, once it's edited, I can start trying to get it published.
Just getting a whole story down on paper in one's lifetime is hard enough. If I complete this challenge, that will be a huge accomplishment. And I will finally be able to say that yes, I have, in fact, written a book!
Throughout the month of November, I'll be posting parts of the story. Either entire chapters or just sections that I thought were pretty darn good. So look forward to seeing those. Also, if I seem scarce here on the Internet, you now know why. I will be at my computer, but not on the Net.
And that's all folks!
~Kricket
November is National Novel Writing Month!! And this is the first year that I've ever heard of it. Basically, it's a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel between Nov. 1 thru Nov. 31. Sounds nearly impossible right? Well it just be, but I'm going to try it anyway.
I only found out about this a week ago, so I haven't had much time to prepare. But I've already managed to do something impossible, I've actually outlined about four chapters of my story. I never outline. I'm usually a make-it-up-as-I-go-along type person. But I figured that since I only have a month to get the whole thing on paper, I might as well know what the heck I'm going to be writing about.
I'm doing a fantasy story that has a lot to do with various mythological creatures. It's been requiring some research, but at least it's fun and something I'm interested in. So far, I feel pretty confident in my ability to accomplish this. The story is forming nicely in my head. I feel like I've got some pretty good, concrete characters. I'm really hoping that the story is good enough that, once it's edited, I can start trying to get it published.
Just getting a whole story down on paper in one's lifetime is hard enough. If I complete this challenge, that will be a huge accomplishment. And I will finally be able to say that yes, I have, in fact, written a book!
Throughout the month of November, I'll be posting parts of the story. Either entire chapters or just sections that I thought were pretty darn good. So look forward to seeing those. Also, if I seem scarce here on the Internet, you now know why. I will be at my computer, but not on the Net.
And that's all folks!
~Kricket
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Some Seasonal Poems
So I've finally gotten back into my poetry! I've been so busy lately that I just haven't made the time to sit down and write a good poem. But I manged to get out two this month!
This first one I write while at my in-laws house watching General Conference.
The Seasons Round
A rainbow born of Earth,
Little jewels aching for the Sun;
Joyous cries of birth,
A new breath of life;
‘Tis Spring.
Shimmering emerald heat waves;
A blazing orb high in the heavens
Raining golden life,
Igniting the world with light;
‘Tis Summer.
Flames through the trees;
Embers drifting down to Earth,
Smoldering in piles,
Crackling with laughter;
‘Tis Autumn.
Crystal lace in the air;
Doilies lay upon the ground
Lining every edge with white;
Fragile glass figurines;
‘Tis Winter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My favorite stanza is the one about autumn, that's the first one I wrote. And Daniel actually helped me with the arrangement of the poem. I wasn't sure which season to start with. But it works no matter what way you put it, because each stanza just flows into the next. I wrote it that way on purpose. You can also find this poem on my dA page here: The Seasons Round
This next one I wrote about a week ago and then edited it today. I submitted this as part of the WordSpill Project on DeviantArt. wordspill.deviantart.com
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Spill
Autumn forgot about me
I left her home of evergreens
And flames
Blindly fled into the arms
Of Winter
That cold beautiful
Distant lover
Blanketed in sleepy white
Dreaming of the distant
Dawn of Spring
Autumn forgot me
She past me by without a glance
Witer quickly followed
And stayed longer than I liked
Autumn forgot me
In this land of endless winter
She has no place to rest
No where to leave drop leave her
Drops of burning color
Autumn forgot about me
Forced to make room for
Winter’s elegant train
Autumn is a simple creature
Not as dramatic as her sisters
Seen only as a predessor of Winter
She is forgotten so quickly
Dissmissed as a time of passing
Autumn forgot about me
Or did I forget about her
Did I leave her
Does she miss me
As I miss her
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Scrub
Autumn forgot about me.
I left her home of flames
And blindly fled into the arms
Of Winter.
That cold and
Distant lover.
Autumn forgot about me.
In this land of endless snow,
She has no place to rest;
No where to leave her
Drops of burning color.
Autumn forgot about me.
Forced to make room for
Winter’s elegant train.
Seen only as a forewarning
Of Winter’s tragic beauty.
She is forgotten so quickly,
Dismissed as a time of passing.
Autumn forgot about me.
Or did I forget about her?
Did I leave her?
Does she miss me
As I miss her?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm pretty proud of how the final scrub turned out. You also find this poem on my dA page here: Autumn Forgot About Me
And That's it for my writing update!
~Kricket
This first one I write while at my in-laws house watching General Conference.
The Seasons Round
A rainbow born of Earth,
Little jewels aching for the Sun;
Joyous cries of birth,
A new breath of life;
‘Tis Spring.
Shimmering emerald heat waves;
A blazing orb high in the heavens
Raining golden life,
Igniting the world with light;
‘Tis Summer.
Flames through the trees;
Embers drifting down to Earth,
Smoldering in piles,
Crackling with laughter;
‘Tis Autumn.
Crystal lace in the air;
Doilies lay upon the ground
Lining every edge with white;
Fragile glass figurines;
‘Tis Winter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My favorite stanza is the one about autumn, that's the first one I wrote. And Daniel actually helped me with the arrangement of the poem. I wasn't sure which season to start with. But it works no matter what way you put it, because each stanza just flows into the next. I wrote it that way on purpose. You can also find this poem on my dA page here: The Seasons Round
This next one I wrote about a week ago and then edited it today. I submitted this as part of the WordSpill Project on DeviantArt. wordspill.deviantart.com
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Spill
Autumn forgot about me
I left her home of evergreens
And flames
Blindly fled into the arms
Of Winter
That cold beautiful
Distant lover
Blanketed in sleepy white
Dreaming of the distant
Dawn of Spring
Autumn forgot me
She past me by without a glance
Witer quickly followed
And stayed longer than I liked
Autumn forgot me
In this land of endless winter
She has no place to rest
No where to leave drop leave her
Drops of burning color
Autumn forgot about me
Forced to make room for
Winter’s elegant train
Autumn is a simple creature
Not as dramatic as her sisters
Seen only as a predessor of Winter
She is forgotten so quickly
Dissmissed as a time of passing
Autumn forgot about me
Or did I forget about her
Did I leave her
Does she miss me
As I miss her
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Scrub
Autumn forgot about me.
I left her home of flames
And blindly fled into the arms
Of Winter.
That cold and
Distant lover.
Autumn forgot about me.
In this land of endless snow,
She has no place to rest;
No where to leave her
Drops of burning color.
Autumn forgot about me.
Forced to make room for
Winter’s elegant train.
Seen only as a forewarning
Of Winter’s tragic beauty.
She is forgotten so quickly,
Dismissed as a time of passing.
Autumn forgot about me.
Or did I forget about her?
Did I leave her?
Does she miss me
As I miss her?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm pretty proud of how the final scrub turned out. You also find this poem on my dA page here: Autumn Forgot About Me
And That's it for my writing update!
~Kricket
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Happy Late Birthday To Me!
So my birthday was two days ago, the 9th, and I am now officially 22. I don't feel any different, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to or not; but life is pretty much the same. Nothing happened on the actual day of my birthday. I didn't have to work, so I laid around the house all day. Daniel, on the other hand, had to work and then go to school until 8 pm. So, because of that, we celebrated my birthday the weekend before. Daniel gave me the first and only season of "Firefly" on DVD. I watched the whole thing in about two days and loved it!!! Such an amazing show. Fox was stupid to cancel it. I also got a subscription to DeviantArt, like I've been wanting forever.
On Saturday we went to this awesome Japanese steakhouse. You know, the kind of restaurant where they cook in front of you and the chef's do all these tricks and things with your food. It was surprisingly cheap for that sort of thing, but the food was delicious. Then on Sunday we went over to the in-laws where I got some small presents and chocolate cake. The last thing I got were flowers from one of my sister's who's back in Georgia. She's made that her trademark, sending flowers for birthdays and such.
In other news, I got a job a few weeks ago. I now work for a credit union here in Utah. It's totally different than any job I've had before and I really like it. I like the business atmosphere that you don't find in restaurants and the work it's self is fairly easy. I think I caught on to the whole process pretty quickly. I've only been doing the actual teller work for a week and a half now. My first week was nothing but training. But on Monday I'm moving over to another branch, one that's in a grocery store instead of a stand alone one. I'm excited about the move because this way I'll be able to work 30 hours, instead of 20, so I won't have to get a second job! I was really worried before that I would have to.
Other than that, not much else has been going on. I have today off from work, and Daniel is going to be gone all day today at school. So I'm going to do a lot of cleaning that's been ignored for the last week or two. And maybe tonight I'll do some writing.
~Kricket
On Saturday we went to this awesome Japanese steakhouse. You know, the kind of restaurant where they cook in front of you and the chef's do all these tricks and things with your food. It was surprisingly cheap for that sort of thing, but the food was delicious. Then on Sunday we went over to the in-laws where I got some small presents and chocolate cake. The last thing I got were flowers from one of my sister's who's back in Georgia. She's made that her trademark, sending flowers for birthdays and such.
In other news, I got a job a few weeks ago. I now work for a credit union here in Utah. It's totally different than any job I've had before and I really like it. I like the business atmosphere that you don't find in restaurants and the work it's self is fairly easy. I think I caught on to the whole process pretty quickly. I've only been doing the actual teller work for a week and a half now. My first week was nothing but training. But on Monday I'm moving over to another branch, one that's in a grocery store instead of a stand alone one. I'm excited about the move because this way I'll be able to work 30 hours, instead of 20, so I won't have to get a second job! I was really worried before that I would have to.
Other than that, not much else has been going on. I have today off from work, and Daniel is going to be gone all day today at school. So I'm going to do a lot of cleaning that's been ignored for the last week or two. And maybe tonight I'll do some writing.
~Kricket
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