Creating Worlds Writing Camp - Project Four

Hi everyone!:)

I used six prompts this round-

 

 

I kind of changed this a bit in the wording.:)

 

 

 

 

I forced a metal bar across my window, my hands rough from all of the preparation. The preparation for the Hythens. The towering white insect-like giants that stalked one or a couple of people every year. No one knew who it would be hunted each time, and whoever it was always disappeared. My hands shook as I nailed boards across another window.

By midnight, they would be storming across the town, destroying it and everyone with it. They would come from the forest and that would be when the earthquakes would start. I glanced at the moon. An hour until midnight.

Somebody knocked on the door. I jumped. Slipping toward the door, I peeked through the peephole.

Danika. I sighed and swung the door open.

"Danika! Go home! It's an hour to midnight!"

"I thought you would want a good seat to see the Hythens?" she replied.

"Are you insane?"

"No, are you? Don't you think that staying here is more likely to get us killed?"

I paused, shaking my head. "No!"

"But you know I love seeing the Hythens!" Danika pouted. "And I can't go without someone else."

"I'm not going, Dani!" I shouted. I had no idea why she liked seeing those terrible creatures. They brought so much destruction.

"Fine. I'll go alone."

"You can't go alone."

"Then come with me," she pleaded. I stared at her, grimacing.

"Fine," I muttered. "I can't believe you."

"I'm gonna go ask Kennedy to come with us, too!" I shook my head as I grabbed a cape, tying it around my neck.

I followed her to Kennedy's house, knowing what a terrible decision I was making, but I couldn't say no to her. Apparently, Kennedy couldn't either.

We all slipped out to the woods, our hearts pounding in our chests.

"We shouldn't be here," I said. It was barely midnight.

"They aren't as bad as you say!" Danika rolled the warning away and I sighed. She just didn't know.

"It's midnight," Kennedy whispered and I looked up at the moon. He was right.

The thundering started and we were shaken off the fallen trunk we sat on. A bitter, frigid wind whistled through the trees and my dirty blonde hair was whipped around my face.

"We need to go!" I begged.

"Too late," Kennedy grunted. I stared up at the sky and saw the monsters. They rose above the pine trees, crunching the tops of it with their long, white nails. Pausing, one of them stared down at us, it's opalescent eye locking onto us. I shuddered as I somehow knew what it was thinking.

We were the hunted. They turned towards us and, shaking, I grabbed my friends' cloaks, pulling them away from the Hythens.

"They're after us!" I shouted as we bolted through the forest and towards the town. We ran past the graveyard, and I looked behind us. They were closing in. We sprinted into an alley, gasping in air.

"They're cunning, they're brave, they're brutal, they're relentless..." Kennedy wheezed. "And they're hunting us!"

"What do we do? We can't lead them into the town!"

"It's too late, we already are!" Danika peeked beyond the alleyway and saw the beasts approaching.

"What do we do?" Kennedy asked us.

I stared down at the muddy cement as rain fell to the ground. We needed a hero. The town needed a hero. So that's what we were going to become.

"We need to leave the town. We can't stay here or else everyone could die. You remember last year," I whispered, my face growing stony. My parents had both been killed in the chaos. Danika stared at me with concern in her blue eyes. 

"You're right, you know. We should leave."

We grasped hands and ran towards the monsters, surprising them, then veered to the left, back to the forest. They took the bait. We ran until we couldn't breathe. We couldn't hear the Hythens, but we knew they were on our trails. My mind was dizzy with adrenaline and lack of air and bright blue dots swam across my vision. I was stunned to see that Danika and Kennedy saw the dots, too as they flittered around Danika's red hair and Kennedy's brown. 

They were butterflies! 

Forming a trail, they flew into a huge wall of foliage. We all looked at one another. I sneaked through the trail and to the wall, pushing aside vines. It lead to a whole other side of the forest. I nodded for the others to follow and they did. Stapled to a tree trunk, a sign read HERE BE FAIRIES.

"Fairies?" I asked. "How? Wait, what?"

"They could help us." Kennedy suggested. A fairy flew toward us with a sword in hand. We scrambled away. Fairies? They didn't exist...they were just legends!

"Who are you? What is your business here?" the fairy asked, her green eyes suspicious.

"A trail of blue dots led us here," Danika answered, stepping toward her.

"So, you are the ones the Hythens are after this time?" she questioned as she looked down her nose at us.

"Yeah," Kennedy agreed.

"What do you know about the Hythens?" I questioned.

"They're from our world. They come each year to yours to take someone or a few someones back here...as a peace offering to their enemy."

"Their enemy?" I asked.

"They are more powerful than the Hythens, so they are frightened of it. It's an annual offering so that their enemies don't destroy them."

"How do we escape?" Danika piped in.

The fairy considered this. "You will have to speak to the queen. She will help you. If you can be helped."

We exchanged a look as the fairy flew away, guiding us to the queen. My heart raced.

If you can be helped?

That didn't sound good.

***

I hope you liked the story!:D GO TEAM DRAGONS! WE CAN DO THIS!!!:)

-Emma-