October's Dragon Story Contest!

Share any written short stories, novels, or poetry

Moderator: Tea House Moderators

Locked
User avatar
Namyre
MagiStream Donor
Member of The Herbalist's Guild Member of Artificer's Association
CreaturesTrade
Posts: 3249
Joined: September 2nd, 2012, 6:42:33 pm
Gender: Female
Location: Texas

October's Dragon Story Contest!

Post by Namyre »

THIS MONTH'S THEME: Halloween!

Rules:
Spoiler
• Must include a dragon. As in, main character.
• Story must be in a spoiler.
• Use proper grammar.
• Use hard intentions.
• Follow the theme.
• No begging.
Failure to follow the rules= your entry will be ignored.


What is/ is not a dragon:
Spoiler
Wyrms, wyverns, serendins, leviathans, crystalwings, serpaens, verikan, drakes, amphiptere, quetzalcoatls, amphista, arkai, axolotls, anything resembling a dragon counts. You can PM me if you're still not sure. (If it has "dragon" in the name, it counts, obviously.)
However: calidims, anagui, ankylocrocs, sohbek, xocomel, rose imps, icists, basilisks, manticores and direcores alone would not qualify. That means you'd have to squeeze in another, more dragon-like creature.


Prize:
Image

BE CREATIVE! Have fun!! And remember, the contest actually ends
October 30th, 11:59 PM so that I can judge the entries on the 31st or later, because of the little kiddies knocking on my door for candy. ^_^
User avatar
Leorobin
MagiStream Donor
Member of The Dark Brotherhood Member of Artificer's Association Member of Preservationists Association
CreaturesTrade
Posts: 1941
Joined: August 5th, 2009, 12:52:30 pm
Gender: Male

Re: October's Dragon Story Contest!

Post by Leorobin »

Should there be a min or max word count?
User avatar
SheWolfWarrior
MagiStream Donor
CreaturesTrade
Posts: 2189
Joined: January 17th, 2013, 3:33:50 pm
Gender: Female
Location: Somewhere on Chicken Smoothie

Re: October's Dragon Story Contest!

Post by SheWolfWarrior »

Finally! Here it is. But it's not yet finished. This is just the first part.

Username: SheWolfWarrior
Title: Storytime
Spoiler
It was a cold October night. The forest lay silent under the dark and moonless sky. Not a single creature stirred, as it was too cold for any activity. A quiet wind blew through the almost bare branches of the forest, causing a few leaves to float to the ground. The sound they made as they hit the leaf covered ground echoed through the silent forest.

But within this quiet night, happy and playful laughter could be heard. For within this forest six young dragons huddled around a fire sharing scary stories they made themselves.

“That was a good one Sapphire, gave me chills near the end.” praised a small red and orange dragonlet.

“Thank you, Brimstone. I worked very hard on it.” replied Sapphire, a medium sized dragon with deep sapphire scales.

“You’re welcome, Sap.” Brimstone said. “Well, Nightlore, I do believe it’s your turn. And you always come up with the best ones.” he added and all eyes turned on a large dragon with dark purple scales, who had been silent for most of the stories.

Her crimson eyes lit up when her name was mentioned and she leaned in close to the fire. Casting a eerie shadow upon her face. She didn’t hesitate to get right into the story.

“Twas a cold night, not a single soul stirred. The bare tree branches jutted across the moonlit sky, like angry claws slashing at the moon. The wind whistled it’s haunting song through the trees, rustling the rotting leaves that lay on the cold ground.

Though, when most dragonlets would be snuggling with their mothers, one was walking around. The young dragon didn’t intend to be wandering within this forest, he simply got lost and was trying to find his way home. The moon shone on his emerald and gold scales. The blue fur in his mane swaying as the wind blew through. But this dragon was not alone.

Deep within the forest something swift and black followed the young dragon. It’s hollow red eyes staring at the dragon. It’s feet barely made a sound as it swiftly flowed through the trees. Making it appear as a spirit, lost and hungry.

It didn’t take long until the dragonlet felt something watching him, stalking him. His breathing quickened as he stopped moving and glanced behind him. When seeing nothing he began to turn his head in every direction, frightened of what would be there. When seeing nothing he faced forward again, muscles now tense. A tear feel from his eye, the sound as it splashed on the coarse leaves echoing through the barren trees.

“I just want to go home!” the young dragon complained, now starting to shiver. “Mother! Where are you?” he desperately called.

“I’m right here, Drakon.” a soft female voice whispered.

Drakon flipped around, since the sound came from behind him. But much to his surprise, his mother wasn’t there.

What the young dragon didn’t know was the voice he heard came from the ghostly beast which stalked him. It’s plan is to drive him insane, then take his soul. It had done it many times before, to many lost creatures. It only came out on nights like these though. And it was the reason nothing stirred. All the woodland creatures feared this apparition, and for good reason. It was a powerful and seemingly invincible being.

“Come son, follow me. I know the way home.” the voice whispered to Drakon.

He looked in the direction where the voice came from. The part of the forest he heard it from was darker and creepier. “You s-sure Mother?” Drakon called out to the darker forest.

“Of course I’m sure child, this way.”

Drakon hesitated at first, but the quickly dashed through the darker part of the forest. “Okay Mother, I’m coming! Don’t leave me behind.”
Last edited by SheWolfWarrior on October 24th, 2013, 1:09:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
Kinda on hiatus here. If you'd still wish to chat and RP with me, follow this little spider to my CS account.
Image
I'm a Jesus Freak. For without the love of Christ, I'd be nothing.
User avatar
Psixi
CreaturesTrade
Posts: 78
Joined: March 6th, 2013, 9:48:19 am
Gender: Female
Location: A tree in Thunderclan, trying to get internet connection.

Re: October's Dragon Story Contest!

Post by Psixi »

Entering!

WIP
Spoiler
All Hallow's Eve touches every region of the world in one way or another. Some know of it and wait for it eagerly, some use it to laugh and play, some use it for mischief, some ignore it with all their might and others only barely notice the presence of ghosts.

Of course, I never said our main character was going to fit into one of those groups, didn't I?

Kenaz streaked across the leaf littered ground, like one of autumn's late flames trying to catch up to the green-devouring blaze of fall. Dying flickers of sunlight glinted off of her scales.

"Hey! Kenaz! Wait up!" The exasperated voice of Thurisaz halted the small, etainian quetzalcoatl, who turned to wait for her companion.

Her eyes twinkled as she looked down at him.

"Come on Buff'lo!" She taunted, balancing on an old log. Thurisaz looked at her with vague amusement.

"The ghosts can wait, you know!" He reprimanded her, catching up.
I know God will not give me anything I can not handle.
I just wish He didn't trust me so much.

Image
Clicking whole pages with snaplinks! ^^
User avatar
Mathcat
Member of Artificer's Association Member of Preservationists Association
CreaturesTrade
Posts: 5070
Joined: July 7th, 2010, 6:56:30 pm
Gender: Female

Re: October's Dragon Story Contest!

Post by Mathcat »

Username: Mathcat
Title: Return to Seacliff
Spoiler
It was a dark night, but not especially stormy, and Aela was grateful for that. It was hard enough keeping the crystalwings in line without adding bad weather to the mix. Aela had thought to impress Rilaine by bringing her some of the newly-discovered saerulis crystalwings, but Sunny, her own pteira crystalwing, was having trouble keeping them in line.

The sensible thing to do would have been to stop for the night, especially with fatigue rapidly setting in, but Aela was reluctant to stop. Even with Rilaine's crystals rapidly turning the area into a sort of large "mystery spot," Seacliff Keep couldn't be far away. Unless Rilaine had been tampering again, she ought to be seeing the keep's lights in a few minutes. Besides, it was Halloween - not the best night to be away from human settlements, especially for her. Someone who was already a magnet for the supernatural out on Halloween? She'd probably get some long-dead sorcerer popping up for a little...chat.

Aela stared off into the distance, looking for the lantern that always decorated Seacliff Keep's highest tower, and cursed. Oh, she'd be having a word or three with Rilaine. Turning off the warning light, especially on a night like this? It would serve Rilaine right if some poor beast impaled itself on the tower or some lost traveler missed the keep by a mile for want of a guiding light. She suspected Kaldan's guiding hand in that. Rilaine might think the world of the keep's latest arrival, but Aela - and Joloran, in agreement with her for once - had had their suspicions about Kaldan from the moment he'd stumbled into Seacliff.

The lantern wasn't the only thing missing, though, as Aela soon realized. Even with clouds blocking the moon, Seacliff's bulk should have been visible as she approached, but there was nothing. Muttering curses at a certain magi who was clearly overly fond of redecorating, Aela had Sunny circle for a minute, but soon realized there was no point.

"Might as well land and make the best of it," said Aela, patting the crystalwing's shoulder as she directed her toward the cleared patch of land where she'd thought Seacliff would be. She could feel Sunny's fatigue in her faltering wingbeats, and there was no point in asking her companion to exhaust herself over Rilaine's meddling. If a ghost did show up, well, she'd just have to deal with them. Aela had helped no less than three rykeirs find peace, so she could probably talk a ghostly sorcerer into sharing spooky stories if she had to.

Sunny was reluctant to land, though clearly tired, and stayed so close to Aela as to make it hard for her to move. The saerulis crystalwings seemed uneasy as well, and Aela wondered if there were some predators nearby. She was reassured that Sunny was ready to protect her, but worried that there might be something to protect her from.

Aela quickly cast a light spell, making it stronger than usual so as to be certain of seeing anything that might be sneaking up on her, but there was nothing to see. The land was largely featureless - no trees, no bushes, little vegetation at all, and only a few boulders. If the view of the ocean was spectacular (which was essentially a given in this part of the world) and the cliff had a decent beach at the bottom of it, this wouldn't be such a bad place for a few houses - or a keep, for that matter. Aela wondered if Rilaine might be thinking of expanding. She'd need to recruit a few amphisbaenas to shift rocks, but otherwise the project wasn't so unreasonable.

Something still felt off, though. Some magi might have attributed that to Sunny's continued restlessness being catching, but Aela had learned to trust her instincts. She widened the range of the light spell, forcing herself to look for anything out of the ordinary. Something near the edge of the cliff caught her eye, so she walked over to get a better look.

Aela's heart sank as she knelt down, momentarily unable to believe what she was seeing. It wasn't that someone had taken the time to carve stairs down to the beach - that would be a substantial task for most magi, but not especially daunting. It wasn't even that the rope handrails bore the mark of Seacliff. It was that she still vividly remembered enchanting those very guardrails.

Aela straightened up and kept walking, spotting further landmarks now that she knew what to look for - the shiny patch where a fire spell had gone awry, the sandy patch used by generations of pygmy crystalwings, the shed crystals by where the crystalwings’ favorite perch had been. She finally walked over to one of the larger boulders and laid her hand on it. Any event powerful enough to have reduced Seacliff to rubble would have left some imprint for her to pick up on - some echo of the past, if nothing concrete or useful. Sunny was still pacing around nervously (and the saerulis crystalwings had scattered), but Aela, for once, ignored her. No creature could have destroyed the keep so thoroughly, and any ghost would be strong enough to manifest without her help, given that this was Halloween.

Aela wasn't terribly surprised when Joloran faded into view - after Rilaine, he would have been her second choice to have stayed around. He was solid enough to nearly pass for flesh and blood, except for some faint blurring around the edges, so it was a surprise when he seemed completely unaware of her presence. "I killed her. I killed all of them," he said hoarsely, staring off into the distance.

This was completely unlike the Joloran Aela had known. "I find that hard to believe," she said. "It's like Rilaine deciding to relocate to Synara City. Surely that's not the whole story." Joloran said nothing. "Look, if I can keep your greatest secret without thinking less of you, you can trust me not to judge now." And if Joloran had strayed so far as to be capable of wiping out an entire keep in cold blood, she could make sure his ghost did no more harm.

Aela gave Joloran a few more minutes to explain, but as he refused to speak more than the same two sentences (and always with the exact same intonation), Aela prepared to cast an all-too-familiar spell. "Tell me of what yet binds you to this place, that I might bring you peace," she said, sketching a series of glowing runes with the tip of her wand as she did so.

Joloran smiled sadly, the first expression she'd seen from him. "Too late. Not yet," he said, still gazing over her shoulder. Then, his look of distant sadness changed to one of horror. "Now, run."

Aela turned to get on Aela's back and flee, but it was already too late. She never even got the chance for a proper look at whatever was making loud, tea kettle yowls, and her last thought was hope that her crystalwings, at least, might be able to escape.

When Sunny left, complete with a saerulis escort, her way was lit by a crystal rykeir egg cradled gently in her talons.
Image
Wishlist here

Still on AO3 as Mathcat2 - stories for Magistream, Dragon Cave, Forest of Mirrors, and Jelle's Marble Runs, plus original fiction. New stories every Tuesday and Friday during November 2023.

(Signature decorations courtesy of HopingFaith.)
Image
User avatar
Namyre
MagiStream Donor
Member of The Herbalist's Guild Member of Artificer's Association
CreaturesTrade
Posts: 3249
Joined: September 2nd, 2012, 6:42:33 pm
Gender: Female
Location: Texas

Re: October's Dragon Story Contest!

Post by Namyre »

No more editing—the contest is over. I will return tonight to announce the winner.

The winner is Mathcat. Congratulations.
Locked

Return to “Tea House”