Tag: Literature

The Gauntlet 2021 9: The Man Who Hardly Spoke

~ WindySilver ~ Leave a comment

Challenge 9: Attending a Burial At Sea (Any): Conjure up a captivating tale taking place aboard a whaler ship, and include three different euphemisms for taking a poop. Every third word, when read separately, needs to form a story of its own.

Because I went with the captivating tale first, every three words form a vague, strange and at least a bit abstract story. For a better reader experience, I collected the words together and gave them punctuation. You can read what ensued from that process after the story.

“Want to log an entry? Now’s the last time you should. This Big Guy is gonna go next.”

That was the first time Murphey said anything to me. At that time, I did not understand what he meant, so I just shook my head, confused, while he went into the tiny toilet. I was new on the ship and far from having responsibilities regarding the ship’s logs, but Grandpa used to be whaler back in the day, so even I knew that you did not do anything with logs in the cramped toilet.

Later that evening, when I went to take a poop, I learned what he had meant.

~

During the following days, I learned from both experience and other crew members’ stories that Murphey, although jovial and confident when he did speak up, hardly spoke. The ship’s captain, Wulfric, even said that he was surprised when he spoke to me on my very first day at sea with the crew.

“One summer, we had a woman named Ivy in the crew, and Murph wouldn’t talk to her at all for the first month.” Wulfric chuckled into his coffee. “I think he’s shy around women. Except you, it seems.”

“How does he communicate with everyone then?” I asked, frowning at the comment.

“Gestures. Mostly his hands.” Wulfric shrugged, then cursed when his coffee spilled onto the floor. That was my cue to get back to work.

~

One evening when I was sore from work — we’d managed to catch a whale; unlike the times I’d been on whaler ships of people my grandfather knew from old days, this time I’d had to do a lot of physical work because of it — I ran into Justin and Murphey in the corridor. Or mostly just Murphey since when I turned to corner, Justin was ending the conversation with something about making room for lunch and thus leaving.

That was the first time I heard Murphey chuckle.

That was also the first time I saw that he winked at me.

Thinking about his smile back there in that darkish corridor still makes my heart flutter…

~

As the multiple weeks passed by, the comment about logging an entry somehow remained the only thing Murphey had said to me. Any conversations I managed to have with him outside work and sleep were rather uninformative at best and one-sided at worst. Well, I guess I should have expected the former when I was talking with a person whose main forms of communication turned out to be thumbs-up, thumbs-down, shrug and that damn infuriating enigmatic smile that he liked to give me especially during the times our conversations were mostly one-sided.

I did learn that he either did not know sign language or refused to acknowledge and use his skills at it.

I probably should’ve expected that.

~

“How long have you known Murphey?” I dared to ask Wulfric one evening when he and I were the last ones still eating.

“Hmm… Good quesftion.” Wulfric scratched his neck before taking another bite of his bread. “I fthingkf… that it’s been most of the time I’ve been on this ship. Feels like forever. He used to be a seasonal worker whenever he wasn’t at school when I first came aboard — never actually found out where or what he was studying or if he even graduated — but some years into my career he became a full-time man here too. What about it?”

“Just curious. Was he always this silent?”

Wulfric hummed. “Pretty much. He was a bit more talkative before he started to work full-time, but not enough more for anyone to notice the difference before Al, the captain back then, realized mid-season he hadn’t heard Murph speak a word since we first left the port.” He snorted. “Murph looked so embarrassed when Al asked him to say something to make sure he hadn’t lost his voice.”

“I see.”

Wulfric finished his dinner while I pondered what might have happened to Murphey back in the day. “Welp, I think I gotta go release the Kraken. G’night.”

“Good night,” I replied.

It was probably for the best to finish the dinner and go to sleep. It’s not like I’d get any answers by just sitting and thinking.

Honestly, knowing Murphey, I probably wouldn’t get anything but that damn smile even if I looked for answers.

~

Eventually, the summer season came to a close. The time on Silent Whale was over for the year for the seasonal workers, namely Ian and I.

When we docked at the port, it was time to farewell and head separate ways.

“I hope your teachers are happy to see that you didn’t get snatched by a shark!” Murphey said and laughed with everyone else.

“I’m sure they are,” I told, grinning. “Who else would pay for their work if not us students with our tuitions?”

That was the first time I heard Murphey downright laugh.

That was the last time I heard Murphey’s voice and saw his enigmatic smile.

When we all wished one another the best for the rest of the year, he winked at me one more time before I left.

That was the last time I saw him.

~

A year later, I went back to Silent Whale so that I could work another summer. After a year of questions and memories buzzing in my head, I hoped I would be able to get some answers I hadn’t sought out last year.

“Where’s Murphey?” I asked.

“Who?” Joe, a new seasonal worker, asked.

The crew I’d learned to know last summer all looked away, grief on their faces.

Wulfric was the one who spoke up. “He’s dead. Fell overboard in January and got pulled underwater by something before we could haul him back in.”

“It looked like a shark,” Justin remarked. “There was nothing we could do.”

“I hope your teachers are happy to see that you didn’t get snatched by a shark!”

“I’m so sorry,” I breathed.

All my hopes of talking with Murphey were gone by then, stolen by a hungry shark.

Whatever questions I’d had, they disappeared as the reality of never seeing the quiet man again set in.

“Log? Now’s time. This is next.” -The Murphey to That.

“Did what?” So shook, confused, went. Tiny was the far responsibilities. “Ship’s Grandpa, be in.”

So knew, did anything in toilet.

Evening went, a learned had.

~

The I. Both other stories. Although Confident did, hardly. Ship’s even.

“He, when? To my day? With one had named.” -The Murph

To all first chuckled: Coffee. He’s women. It does, with I, at gestures, hands. Then his, onto that cue back.

~

One, when sore, we’d catch.

Unlike I’d…

Whaler people knew days I’d do of. Because? I, Justin, in. Or Murphey, I, corner.

Ending with making lunch.

Leaving.

The I chuckle, also time that at… About? Back that still heart.

~

The passed comment, an remained thing said. Any managed with work were at one-sided well. I expected. When talking person forms turned.

Be. Shrug. Damn, smile! Liked me? The conversations one-sided?

Learn either know or acknowledge his, it should’ve.

~

“How you?” I ask. Evening and the still good scratched before. Bite bread. That most time on feels. He be worker, wasn’t when came. Actually, where he or… even some?

My, became man.

What? Just he. Silent.

Pretty was more. He work not for notice. Before, captain realized. Hadn’t speak since left.

He looked, when… him… something sure lost…?

I finished while… What happened? Back day. Think.

“Go, Kraken!” -Night

It for… to dinner, to not get by. And knowing probably anything, damn, if… for…

~

Summer to the silent: over year seasonal. Ian, when at it, to head.

I… Teachers to you: snatched shark. And everyone sure.

“I… Who pay, work? Us? Our was time. -Murphey

That last heard. And enigmatic, we. One best, rest year at more. I was time, Him.

~

Later? Back, whale. I, another, a…

Questions buzzing!

Head!!

I, able? Some… hadn’t… last…

I, Joe, seasonal. The learned, last looked on.

Wulfric, one up. Fell. January pulled something. Could back.

Looked shark…

There, we…

I…

Teachers…

To you…

Snatched shark…

Sorry…

All of…

Murphey…

By… By…

Shark…

I’d… disappeared…

Reality…

Seeing…

Man… in…

The Gauntlet 2021 8: The Dreaded Enchantress

~ WindySilver ~ Leave a comment

Challenge 8: Just Because I Can (18 lines; see text): Write a scary bedtime story for grown men about the creature Jolene, but in verse! Eight syllables per line, if you please, and spell out Jolene’s name three times with the first letter of each.

Jolene, the dreaded enchantress
One with beauty beyond compare
Look at her once and you are hers
Even the monks can’t resist her
Never look at the enchantress
Even you can’t escape her spell

Jolene, the dreaded enchantress
One that takes everyone she can
Look at her once and you are hers
Even the most faithful will fall
Never underestimate her
Even you can’t escape her spell

Jolene, the dreaded enchantress
One that will take you for herself
Look at her once and you are hers
Even all the gods can’t stop her
Never give her a single glance
Even you can’t escape her spell

The Gauntlet 2021 7: To Chronicle A War Zone

~ WindySilver ~ Leave a comment

Challenge 7: This Hamlet is Too Small For Your Lordship and Myself Both (888 words and a half, exactly): Not much of a difference between cowboys and medieval knights, what with them wearing spurs, riding their horses up and down the countryside and occasionally challenging each other to a duel… There’s no reason why we can’t substitute one for the other in this story about a sheriff, an outlaw and the power of either Friendship, Virginity, the Counterpoise Trebuchet, or any combination of the aforementioned. Include no fewer than three elaborate insults, genre ‘your lordship could not poor water from a sabaton if his lordship’s armorer hath provided instructions on the sole’ and one time-traveling ancient Roman onlooker, who shall comment (will have had commented?) on events in reverse chronology. Our Roman friend can’t say the letters ‘u’ and ‘w’ very well so substitute these with a ‘v’ and a ‘vv’ respectively. Your characters can’t say the same word twice! Also, for some weird reason all of your letter u’s which are not part of any dialogue have umlauts on them

To combat the restriction on saying the words twice, Durwyn and Launce speak dialects – Scouse and Brummie, respectively – and Eudomius’s use of pronouns is limited at best. Durwyn and Launce’s lines were translated by using the translators here: http://www.whoohoo.co.uk/main.asp.

If you can’t understand them, fret not! I included the original dialogue under the story to help figure out what they’re saying.

It was the last day of the war, according to the knights. I watched, wondering where to go next once I woüld see this throügh. Somewhere deeper into the fütüre again woüld be great; while Mars was no longer a deity to these people, his inflüence on the world was still clearer than a cloüdless night sky. The days of war and all the times these massive trebüchets had been fired proved that.

I had given my word to Dürwyn to keep him from being imprisoned, büt I knew that his kind were not needed where I woüld be going. Only few woüld even remember me, fewer woüld make any mention of me and only Dürwyn woüld try to keep me remembered — and no one woüld listen to an oütlaw like him. Besides, he oüght to face the jüdgement for whatever he had done. Laünce had still not told me anything, only that a major law had been broken and it was his düty to bring Dürwyn to jüstice, that he had made it his personal mission as his friend.

This trip has most certainly been an interesting one, far more interesting than the previoüs one where I was met with hostility that called for disgüises and agents from the local area.

Alas, my existence woüld not last forever. At nightfall, given that I had this Chronicle finished and an apology letter for Dürwyn prepared by then, I woüld depart and leave this era behind.

~

It took a few more days for üs to reach the site of the battle even thoügh we coüld feel the earth tremble two days earlier. I had heard of the powerfül weapons they üsed — coünterpoise trebüchets — düring my travels deeper into the fütüre after my Caesar’s death, büt now I coüld finally witness their power myself.

“Oh, gerron dat,” Dürwyn said, eyeing Laünce. “Bigger cockweights than doz o’ someone else ay kun.”
Laünce scoffed. “An’ ‘ad yaw fairther miskin a massiv’ oss, yourn ood still be tiny.”
I sighed as Dürwyn spüttered, desperate to come üp with a coünter. “Please stop. Have vvork to do. History never vvaits.”

I marveled the trebüchets’ power from afar, making and preparing notes so that I coüld record as müch as possible. As we had agreed on the way here, Laünce was already working on sketching images of these marveloüs weapons of war while Dürwyn kept both his moüth shüt and weapons oüt of sight.

As soon as the battle reached a lüll, I approached the knights, hoping that they woüld be more generoüs in their words and less generoüs in hostility and attempts to shove their weapons into my body than the tribe on the other side of the sea had been.

~

While I was not too fond of Dürwyn — a moüthy, irritating thorn in the side as he was — he and his gün were üsefül in taking down any and every robber that thoüght a historian like me carried something that woüld be valüable for the common folk. While he did say he was on the rün, I did not expect to meet anyone chasing him since he did not seem worried now that I was with him.

That is, üntil a voice called oüt throügh the forest, “Hold it roight the’er, outlaws!”
“Shit,” Dürwyn sighed.
I türned to look at the man who had called oüt from the forest. “Sorry, sir, bvt…”
“No buts,” the man interrüpted, now walking towards üs, a gün of his own pointing at Dürwyn. “Doy knoo yaouw, cape geezer, yet this one’s most certainly an outlaw.”
“Launce, don-” Dürwyn said.
“Nope.” The man Dürwyn had addressed as Laünce waved the gün. “I’m dem sheriff. My word’s the law.”
Dürwyn türned to look at me, terrified. Apparently, this was why we had a deal. I cleared my throat. “Listen. Mvstn’t. Prefer keeping vvord vntil mission ends.”
The sheriff türned to frown at me. “Then you’ll let him goo?”
Dürwyn looked even more terrified when I nodded.
The sheriff püt his gün away. “Fine. I’ll cum along with y’all, though.”
“Acceptable,” I noted, hiding how glad I was to defüse a sitüation with two men who, frankly, seemed ünable to see the differences between a horse and a donkey.

I shoüld have skipped time at some other spot than where I did two days ago…

~

The forest was different 150 years into the past from the era where I had located the war zone I was to chronicle next. ünfortünately, my timing and placing had led to me at odds with a man armed with a gün and big declarations aboüt how he was an oütlaw on the rün.

“Isn’t need for violence. Only heading tovvards nearby vvar zone,” I explained, hoping to defüse the sitüation.
“Yous blimp like you’d na find a needle inna ‘ayless ‘aytack!” the oütlaw spat.
Oüch. I spreading my arms, sighing. “Look, got nothing of valve.”
“You would juss tell ter knights er firkin,” the oütlaw growled.
“Hovv abovt striking deal?” I prepared to gestüre at myself as üsüal. “Protect and vvon’t get reported.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
“Y’know wa’? Sound. Keep in mind: me don’t terlerate back stabb’n.” The oütlaw waved his gün once more before pütting it away. “Name’s Durwyn, by de way.”
I smiled in immense relief. “Evdomivs.”

What did I jüst get myself into?

Durwyn: “Oh, look at that. Bigger balls than those of someone else I know.”

Launce: “And had your father been a massive horse, yours would still be tiny.”

Eudomius: “Please stop that. We have work to do and history waits for no one.”

~

Launce: “Hold it right there, outlaws!”

Durwyn: “Ah shit.”

Eudomius: “I’m sorry, sir, but…”

Launce: “No buts. Dunno you, cape man, but this one’s most certainly an outlaw.”

Durwyn: “Launce, don-“

Launce: “Nope. I’m the sheriff and my word’s the law.”

Eudomius: “Excuse me. We have a deal. His help for avoiding capture. I’d like to honor it until my work here ends.”

Launce: “Then you’ll let him go?”

Eudomius nods.

Launce: “Fine. I’ll come along with y’all, though.”

Eudomius: “That’s acceptable.”

~

Eudomius: “There’s no need for violence, good man. I’m only looking for the war zone nearby.”

Durwyn: “You look like you’d never find a needle in a hayless haytack!”

Eudomius: “Look, I’ve got nothing of value.”

Durwyn: “You’d just report me to a knight or something.”

Eudomius: “Then how about we strike a deal? You keep me safe and I won’t turn you in.”

Durwyn: “Seriously?”

Eudomius: “Yes.”

Durwyn: “Y’know what? Fine. Keep in mind that me won’t tolerate back stabbing. The name’s Durwyn, by the way.”

Eudomius: “Mine’s Eudomius.”

The Gauntlet 2021 1: Rummy Air

~ WindySilver ~ Leave a comment

Challenge 1: Needs More Pirate (1000 words or less): Write a suspenseful espionage thriller scene in your setting of choice – could be any time or place in history – but add one parrot-toting, rum-guzzling, Caribbean pirate.

With haste, you put a handkerchief over your mouth and nose. The only good thing about rum was that it did wonders to knock out both Captain Doublehook and his trusty parrot, Featherhook.

However, the most outweighing bad thing about it was that in the Caribbean heat and enclosed ships, it smelled worse than death whenever you opened a door. You suppressed the urge to stumble to the desk adorned with pillaged treasures from all across the archipelago and dry heave into one of the drawers. That could bring unwanted attention and you had only so much time to scan the map before Doublehook would regain consciousness in yet another massive hangover.

As you closed in on the desk, wary of the numerous rum bottles on the floor, you could not help wondering if this stench would make you drunk if you stayed in the room for too long. Featherhook being out on its feet, still attached to its owners shoulder, did indicate as much to you, after all. Nevertheless, while it was an interesting scientific scenario, you wanted to see such experiments conducted only in a controlled environment — something a Caribbean pirate ship would never be, at least not without taking the “pirate” out of it.

Doublehook murmured something between his snores.

You froze, suddenly reminded of the here and now. You had lost your focus — a fatal mistake.

If Doublehook woke up and saw you now, you would be pushed off the plank and the Queen would never get the map to Pirates’ Lair.

Currently on art: Q3 2020 stats, something ended and something new

~ WindySilver ~ Leave a comment

Hello everyone!

Q3 2020 is now over. It’s hard to believe three thirds of this horrible year have already passed and we have only one left to go! The first Tribble Month ever is also over, and while I had fun and got some good stories written, I’m suuuuuuuper glad that it’s over. I started to run out of steam and ideas during the second half, so I’m certainly not into the idea of doing any more months of flash fiction this year. With Prose-ject in June, Flash Fiction Month in July and Tribble Month in September, I spent a quarter of this year writing daily flash fiction!

Is that way too much flashfing? Probably. Do I regret it? Absolutely not.

Anyway, I’d say that’s enough about flash ficcing for a while. I need a break from it.

As the second topic of this update, I want to discuss two of my fanfiction projects: Code Lyoko: Foes & Friends Remastered duology and Transformers: Armada-Energon trilogy.

Let’s start with the one I’ve been working on longer: Armada-Energon. Like I discussed in the previous Currently on art update, I had been struggling with its first story for long and thus put the trilogy on indefinite hiatus, with deciding its future postponed until dust had settled. I gave it some thought at the end of the quarter and made the decision I would’ve made back then already: discontinuing the trilogy. I didn’t have much planned for the next stories and whatever I had in plans no longer sparked any kind of interest, so it was the natural choice. I don’t regret taking on the ambitious project that it was but I certainly won’t miss it. It ran its course – the course just turned out to be shorter than I’d planned.

Foes and Friends Remastered, on the other hand, is a more painful thing to let go of. It’s ambitious as well, and also close to my heart as the remastered, greatly improved version of an old fanfic I wrote years ago. I was pretty damn proud of it back when I started translating it. Later on, however, I developed an even more critical eye to it and ended up where it got stuck: to a plot point I cannot get rid of anymore because it’s deeply ingrained in it. A plot point that makes me cringe at my old self when I look at it and think about posting it as my recent work.

As much as it sucks after getting about a third of New War Remastered translated, I decided that it’s for the best to cut my losses and abandon the project, leaving its English iteration into an incomplete state. I will continue working on Lyokostar, though, since it needs active nuking and reworking. There are some deeply-ingrained things I regret but I can work with them, so that project will keep on going.

Two projects out, but something new has also happened: during the quarter, I started to edit Greenfield, although progress has been sporadic at best, not to mention that with the quality of both the dialogue and the narration in the beginning, there’s a lot of work to do before the whole thing is going to be anywhere near presentable.

Another thing is that as FFR and A-E phased out, I began a new project: A Pokémon fanfiction named A Wandering Aura, the rehashed version of my initially planned Pokémon fanfiction project, The Adventurer Girl’s Journey. I ended up scrapping a lot of things I’d thought about, including the name of the protagonist. Since it’s a project I’m working on whenever I feel like working on it, it will not get any statistics unless I start to schedule when I write it. If you’re interested, the story is on Archive of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1936330

I’m still quite in the beginning with it, but I’ve got tons of things planned and inspiration for writing it, so hopefully I can keep it going better, maybe even all the way to the finish this time. The future is in motion, however, so it might be that I end up being wrong and discontinuing it as well, but for now things look good.

Aside from projects and Tribble Month, I’ve been terribly swamped-up with studies throughout September, so my artistic productivity has sunk drastically. All my courses are fully online and the transition from the summer holiday to full-time studying hasn’t gone without a hitch; my timetables have been in shamples pretty badly. I think one of the things that cause trouble, alongside the fact that most of my courses don’t have anything at fixed times, is that I’m constantly stuck inside my apartment without being at the campus giving any kind of a rhythm to my life. I considered starting to go there to study at least once a week, but then the COVID19 situation here got worse and now there’s a city-wide recommendation to wear a mask in all public buildings, so I’m stuck inside until further notice. I bought masks back when they were still relatively expensive (and to think that compared to what the prices had been all spring and summer, they were super cheap back then) so I don’t want to waste them. There’s also the matter of the ecological impact of disposable masks, which came up in a discussion about not visiting the campus today, so there’s another reason to stay at home even though I’ve started to get some cabin fever.

The plan of hanging out with people on campus is out of the question for now, so I’m going to go back to utilizing the voice channel on Discord that my subject association has used for hanging out ever since the pandemic started for regulating my days more especially now that one of my two courses with live lectures is ending. I had a rather brief chat there today and it already made me feel better, so I believe that simulating a day at the university will both get me back on track with my neglected online courses and dispel some of the cabin fever when I get to talk to people (and hear their voices!) who are outside my apartment’s walls. It might also help my productivity if I get my headspace to “ok, I’m virtually at uni, so I’m working like I would work if I were physically there” instead of September’s “welp, I’ll just do this thing now and that thing later-oh, I could do some dishes/cleaning/whatever first”. If I remember, I’ll report how the simulation attempts went in the next Currently on art update!

On the subject of studies, I also had another crisis with my minor; this time, I ended up changing it to game research and game design. It caused a bit of a problem because I had to move things around in my plan and find some new courses to fill some gaps and fit them all in to this year, but I ended up succeeding at it. Why all of them this year? It’s because I’m trying to get my bachelor’s degree done this year, although with the frightening amount of coursework I have upcoming in addition to writing a paper, it might be that I won’t be able to finish everything I need for finishing the degree before the next autumn. We’ll see how it goes; the spring is going to be full of work, but I hope I’ll manage.

I think that’s enough about what’s up in my life. I made some statistics about Tribble Month and also put Q3 2020 stats together. Here, have a look!

Now, onto what’s up with my projects, as per my project widget:

  • Exceptional Jedi: Chapter 26 of Crystals of the Past is in editing. All writing is at 1558 days. I’m also working on remaking Arya’s reference, with Jedova’s one standing by untill I’ve got Arya’s own ready. I need to make a comic about Valentine Clanker and lots of other drawings. I’ve been creating data on Scrivener to build a wiki of sorts there so that I can flesh things out for writing. It is coming along well. Revising has gone back to standstill due to studies taking up too much time and energy.
  • The Fate’s Way: Chapter 41 is in writing. I still need to redraw the regular Alyssa and also Alyssa’s friends and family and the other important people, like Matti, someday. Silverwind’s reference is in progress. Revising needs to be done.
  • Behind Armada: The Armada-Energon trilogy has been discontinued after being on indefinite hiatus for around half a quarter.
  • Off-DA projects: I haven’t done much aside from working on my first FFM collection weekly. It’s coming together slowly but surely.
  • Foes & Friends Remastered: After halting to a standstill because of a cringe-inducing plot element, the project has been abandoned.
  • Greenfield: Due to studies taking too much energy, I haven’t edited this for a good while. Read more about the project here.
  • Lyokostar: The translation of Lyokostar 1 progresses: Parts 5 and 4 of story 6 are waiting for betareading. I’m writing monthly Lyokostar 3 oneshots in Finnish (except that I didn’t do it this month because I didn’t have the energy and I’m pretty sure that no one cares anyway). References need to be done.
  • A Wandering Aura: A new project I started. I’m writing its Chapter 5 because that’s what I want to write right now, with Chapter 1 in early stages alongside it. So far, things are looking good.
  • Gaming: Habitica keeps on going. I played my old Pokémon Black 2 save file’s story to its end and I’ve played some Trine 2 for a game course recently, but otherwise I haven’t played much as far as I can recall.
  • Other stuff: I’ve fallen behind with literature deviations because I can’t read them on DA without getting a headache from the eye strain. Due to being busy and tired, I haven’t even been reading FFM or Tribble Month stories for some time, so things don’t look good in my watch. I’m not sure what I even want to do about it, so for now I’m letting the stories sit there until I figure out what’s the best course of action. I hope my first FFM collection will come during this year. Reading has halted to a standstill on the book side as well and for now, it’s probably going to continue like that. I got back to Unity but now I’d like to learn by doing stuff with it, but I have no idea what to do. I’ll hopefully figure something out at some point, though. I should get back to video editing since I have so much footage to be edited.
  • Personal life: My smallish work gig is over and my studying year has started with all sorts of messes from COVID19, crises about what I want to do (yes, that’s intentionally plural, but I don’t want to talk about the crisis I have in addition to my already resolved minor crisis) and bad timetable management. Things will hopefully get better soon, though, once I get a hold of everything.

I suppose that’s all for now. Please act responsibly with this pandemic so that we’ll get back to normal at some point (I’d really love to have things back to normal before I finish my bachelor’s degree) and as usual, take care!

[Sept20] Tribble Month 30: Farewell

~ WindySilver ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: Farewell

Friat watched as her former mentor, Ezidretim, gasped in pain. She could do nothing. Even the best healers in the whole world could do nothing to save him even if they were right there beside her.

The injuries were too severe.

“Ezi, is there anything I can do to ease your pain?” Friat’s voice was hardly louder than a whisper.
“No, Kindling. Just say with me… until the end,” Ezidretim croaked. “I’m… sorry you had to see me go like this… but I’m glad to I got to train you. Just know… that no matter what… I’m proud of you, Friat Brann.”
“Ezi…” Friat fought the tears. “Thank you for everything.”
“Thank you, too, Kindling.” Despite of the intense pain, Ezidretim managed to put a smile untainted by pain on his face. “Take care, always remember what I taught you and follow your heart.”
“I will, Ezi, I promise.”
Ezidretim could already feel himself fade away. “Burn brightly with the dragons, Kindling. Farewell.”
“Farewell, Ezi, the bright dragon fire that lit me up,” Friat breathed, smiling through the heartache.

Ezidretim’s eyelids fell over his eyes and stayed there. They would stay that way forever.

Once the injured fire sorcerer’s heart stopped beating, tears blurred Friat’s eyes.

Then, for the first time in her life, the fire sorceress wept openly in front of a crowd, her tears soaking her former mentor’s clothes for the last time in her life.

[Sept20] Tribble Month 29: Almost Overwhelming

~ WindySilver ~ Leave a comment

No prompts used.

The power of the fire was almost overwhelming when Veriwia first started to learn to use it. She had lived most of her life in a settlement with little contact with magic or on the run without little to no contact with a single being, let alone someone who can use magic.

Nevertheless, the others assured her that it would be all right, that she would get used to it in time.

Veriwia decided to believe them.

Surely everything would be all right now.

[Sept20] Tribble Month 26: United

~ WindySilver ~ 2 Comments

No prompts used.

As a historian, I know for certain that the humanity of old times would have gone extinct, had the Fiirddokha attacked Earth during their time. It’s not just because they lacked the things that are vital for our survival today: the current technology, the facilities underground and underwater and the infrastructure to support them. The people back then simply could not have united their strength for mutual global survival, a feat only their descendants were able to achieve after centuries of feuds, wide-scale wars and so on.

I don’t mean that our society was perfect or without conflicts, but at least we were able to unite when it mattered the most.

I just hope that our descendants will keep the world peace alive.