Random Creative Writing thread.

[Starwhip]

Our English teacher gave us an assignment to write a creative story using X vocabulary terms. It went so well, I decided to go all out, making a full-blown short-story/novel (Don't know which yet).

I can't really post it in the first "New Thread" bit, but I'll put it up in a moment. If any of you have something, or want to try, feel free to put it here.

[Starwhip]

Alright, here's the first bit. So much italics. Too bad the forum doesn't automatically do it for you.

[1] The Escapee

You may take the ground you stand on for granted, like most do; a nice, relatively flat surface, upon which you walk. But it can be quite intimidating, as I shall demonstrate. Picture yourself a few thousand feet in the air. Got it? Now, get rid of any support, so that you are falling several hundred feet in a few seconds. Now imagine what the ground would feel like when you hit it. That’s where I am now. Two thousand feet from a nice, crunching, bloody death on your peaceful ground. Add the fact that the few thousand pounds on my back is trying to kill me, and you’ve got quite the pretty picture.

And even worse is the fact that my wingmate is mocking me. In freefall beside me, just watching as I plummet toward the ground. Classic Kiternyae. This final fact gives me the nip on the tail I needed to let me spread my wings and begin spinning, fling my assailant off me, and pull out just over five hundred feet above the ground. And Kiternyae just continues to stare.

What?! I ask. She really gets on my nerves sometimes.

Nothing. Just the fact that you can’t seem to go five seconds without someone attempting to murder you. That’s all.

Oh, come on, not every fi- and another dragon manages to score a bite on my right foreleg. I howl and sink my own fangs into his tail as he retreats, drawing blood.

See? Five seconds.

You shut up. She just smirks and ascends back up to the rest of our squad. I follow suit shortly after, rejoining Stoern and Skyaerz at the starboard position.

Did Kiternyae have to save you again, Spirion? Skyaerz has his trademark edge in his voice, which he uses quite often to tick others off.

No, but if you’re not careful, I might be asking you the same question.

Sorry. He glances at me warily. Ah, well. At least he’s capable of fighting for himself. It takes the three of us just to keep Stoern out of trouble. If you just let him out of your sight for a few moments, he’ll go and try to take on an entire platoon by himself. Which he is by no means capable of doing. Obviously, he doesn’t seem to know that. As if on cue, a squad of enemy dragons shoots by overhead, and Stoern peels out of the tail position and angles toward them.

NO! Kiternyae and I both shout to him. He hardly notices our plea, and puts on speed to intercept the squadron. The three of us share a look, and bank to follow. Skyaerz flies directly after him, while I ascend high into the air and Kiternyae dives lower. Meanwhile, Stoern has nearly reached the dragon in the tail position, and for some reason it still hasn’t noticed him. Oh, boy, here we go… again. I signal to the others, and wait. Skyaerz is first, loosing a blast of white fire at the group. Now they notice us. Then Kiternyae strikes, knocking the point position out of the game by breaking several wing joints. Skyaerz comes in for a second time, burning quite a large hole in the tail position’s wing. The dragon screeches and falls from the sky. Jeez, he has hot flame. At best, most dragons can only manage a little bit of blue-white. I can hardly do fire at all. But he goes around, just incinerating things left and right. Showoff, I think to myself.

Not that I don’t’ have something special, too. It’s my turn, and I flip over, diving silently over the starboard side dragon. He doesn’t even see me coming. I angle toward his neck, driving my shoulder into his. Usually, I break something. Whoops; that came out weird. I mean, I usually break them. But he had tougher hide than most, and resisted any real damage. But the force of the impact upset his balance, and he tumbled out of the air for several seconds, before slowly leveling out. Good, it looks like I at least bruised him. The one remaining dragon turns his blue tail and dives out of the action, hopelessly outnumbered. Stoern is just left hovering there, a disappointed look on his angled face.

Aw, come on, guys! Could you not go and get every one every time?! Kiternyae comes out of nowhere and cracks her tail like a whip across his chest.

Ow! What was that for?

We’ll give you a shot when you start following orders! Ouch. As squadron leader, she can be aggressive. Now Stoern looks more scared than anything. He wordlessly drops back into position, as do the rest of us.

Kiternyae, we should be making some progress with him by now, don’t you think? She sighs.

You’d think so… but what can you do?

Hmm. Yeah, I guess. It’s kind of worrying that he just goes off on his own all the time. One day, you’ll just not be there, and he’s going to get wounded or killed.

Hey, Spirion? Skyaerz opened his mind to me.

Yes?

You’re looking kind of stressed. You want to head back? I hadn’t even realized it, but I had sunk my claws into the pads of my feet, and droplets of blood were trailing behind me. Oops, I thought.

No, I’m fine. Probably. Well, not really. But we should keep going.

You’re sure?

Of the latter.

Several exhausting hours of flying, fighting, and general stress later, our little group of four rejoined the main platoon for the short flight back home. I felt like I was going to pass out at any moment, barely able to keep my wings moving. Kiternyae was in no better shape, head and tail drooping slightly. Skyaerz hardly functioning either, but at least he is still alert for danger. Stoern, on the other hand, who’s seen little to no action, is still being his disobedient self, veering off course every once in a while to either tangle with the younger dragons or to try and attack stranded enemy ones on the ground. By this point I’ve told Skyaerz to take care of it. He was right; I’m in no condition to do this kind of work.

I’m in squadron three, out of ten such four-dragon squads. That makes up our entire platoon of forty. Sometimes, several platoons go into battle, but this time it was only the one. We had set up a temporary camp, about a hundred-and-fifty miles from our main battalion, rather close to the opposing side’s territory. “Close†as in a few minutes by air. That’s why we are constantly fighting, to maintain our position. Although lately; we’ve had a few casualties. Thankfully, these were not in our squadron, or Kiternyae and I might be even more stressed about Stoern’s disobedience.

Finally, we land at camp. I manage to keep my footing, hind legs touching down first. Kiternyae, on the other hand, practically plows face-first into the soil, leaving several feet of broken dirt behind her. She groans in discomfort, but doesn’t stand up. I attempt to go over and help, but Areiak, a black dragon from squad one, gets there first. In my semi-conscious state, it’s better for both of us. Areiak is much more able at the moment, unlike us, who really need to rest for a while. And at that moment, my weakening legs collapse and I slump down to the ground, out cold.

My eyes open under the darkened night sky, and are immediately blinded by our fire pit just inches away. An afterimage is burned into my retina, and I have to blink several times to clear it. I lift my head and see the rest of our squad around the fire, but they are all asleep. Seeing nothing amiss, I shortly succumb to sleep once more.

Spirion! I am instantly alert and my head jerks upward, my skull making contact with Kiternyae’s jaw. She yelps and recoils, accidentally stepping on our central fire pit and extinguishing it.

What was that for?! I exclaim, and groan with pain as my head starts throbbing.

I could say the same to you!

You’re the one who woke me up.

Still… She opens her mouth and then snaps it shut. Good, it’s not broken.

What’s the big emergency?

Oh, sorry. Stoern’s disappeared. I literally stagger backward with this news.

What? When?

No one knows. In fact, we are the only two who have any idea. Well, that makes sense. We are, currently, the only dragons at camp awake. A plan begins forming in my mind.

Get Skyaerz up. We’re going after him.

Yeah, great, go into enemy territory in the middle of the night. But she does as I request, though being careful about where she puts her head this time. Skyaerz opens his eyes after a few seconds.

What’s going on? Why is it still dark?

Stoern’s gone, and for the second question, the sun’s not up yet. It takes him a moment to comprehend this. Then he jumps to his feet in alarm.

Where’d he go?

We have no idea. But we are going to have to track him.

Ah, come on! Not at this hour! Skyaerz is one of the best trackers in our platoon, so we were going to need him for my plan.

Yes. Now get up and get ready! By the look on his face I can tell he doesn’t like it. He lets out a sizable amount of breath as he sighs.

Fine. At least we got a few hours of sleep.

[Starwhip]

Stupid random double post...

Edited February 10, 2014 by Starwhip