Creating Worlds Writing Camp - The Final Project

Hi everyone!:)
My final project for CWWC is here!:) I used 26 prompts, I am going to put them throughout the story as I write it so you know where they come into play.;) I changed the gender of the pictures a lot, so  keep that in mind.;)

 

I stood in front of my wall of jars, each one a whole entire different world inside. I tapped my chin thoughtfully and grabbed the one on the bottom, the one that looked like an island. I laid it in front of the large mirror and opened the cap. Taking a couple of steps back I examined my work.

"It'll work. I know it will. I am a Ferryman after all," I said, turning to face my customer.

Ferrymen were magical creatures who guarded the portals in the mirrors, I was gifted as a young child with the gift. My customer glanced at me.

I didn't know who it was, but they wore a huge cloak that encased them. A quiver and bow decorated their back.

"With this portal and mirror combination, you can just go missing. As you want," I told him. I squirmed. "If you don't mind me asking, why do you want to leave?"

His head moved toward me. "If I tell you, can this be my fee for the transportation?"

I nodded. Their story was a common fee I asked of them.

He unearthed a box from his cloak and handed it to me. On its side read, Bad Memories. Do not open.

"This will tell you everything. I will be leaving now." He jumped into the mirror and I watched as he disappeared. I cracked open the box and saw a ton of papers. Sighing, I picked up the one on the top and started reading. This was going to take a while.

They're all gone now. It's just me now. Kasey, Penelope, Gracie, they're gone.

I remember how they would look up at me from the stairs as I would leave for warrior training.

 I failed them. I was supposed to defeat the Clynths, the massive lizard like monsters that terrorized our city.

I wanted to tell them, the world's not safe anymore, but I thought about how they needed a hero. I thought I would be that hero for them. I was wrong. I underestimated the Clynths.

They were cunning, brave, relentless, but worst of all they were hunting us all, destroying each person they found. I remember when I came home from warrior training and found our house in shambles.

I screamed out for my sisters, like they would hear. I scrambled through the debris, searching for them. My hand brushed up against someone's arm and I tore away the rubble. There was Gracie.

I hugged her to my chest and I felt like the world vanished.

"I can't help you," I whispered to her. I cried in anger at the Clynths as I remembered my sisters, so happy and full of life.

When they would play in the ocean, acting as if there was nothing wrong. Overwhelming emotions pushed at me and I screamed.

As I took another look at the debris, I knew it would haunt me forever.

It seems that not all haunted places are houses, but memories. 

I pulled Gracie out of the rubble and buried her, placing a stone over the make shift grave. I grabbed a nearby stick and wrote in the dirt.

Here lies a girl who was not of this world. 

It was true. All of my sisters were not of this world, they were kinder, sweeter than this cruel world should have ever known.

A tear slipped down my face.

And I had failed them.

Passing the grave, I grabbed a torch and set out for the border, knowing that what I had wanted to do was over, pointless without my sisters.

Nobody crossed the border, not if they wanted to live. What was outside the border was uncharted territory. No one knew what was out there.

I didn't care. I had to get away, start fresh if that was possible. I had to find a Ferryman. The Ferrymen were legends, they would help me. I crossed the border and tore through the forest encompassing the town.

I slipped on the wet ground and fell into the river, my lantern breaking and the pieces were carried away by the current. I wanted to stay there, but I was on a mission. I rose, dusting myself off and kept walking in my wet cloak. As night fell, my eyes spot a sign.

"Here be Faeries," I read out loud. Faeries. Another legend. I passed the sign, my eyes peeled for a Faery. The moon rose and a fire caught my attention.

A Faery girl danced in a bare area of the forest and I walked up to her.

"Are you a Faery?" I asked her.

She gasped, whizzing to face me.

"You know who I am?" she said and I nodded.

"I saw the sign. Do you know where I can find a Ferrymen?"

She shook her head, then nodded.

"I don't, but I know who does. Ferrymen are our close friends and Marissa will know where a Ferryman is."

I followed her as she led me to Marissa.

We came to a waterfall and I looked up, seeing a Faery reading to a dragon.

"Marissa!" The Faery called to her. Marissa floated down to the ground and smiled at me.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"I want a Ferryman. I want to disappear to another world," I answered. 

"I know where you can find a Ferryman."

I skimmed the next few pages, they were all explaining how the man got here. I read the first page again, where he lost his sisters and my heart went out to him. He had gone through a huge loss.

I went up to my roof and gazed at the stars, inhaling deeply. The air was more fresh up here, the moon shone brighter and I felt free from whatever ailed me. This time it was one of my clients. Never had I felt worse for one of them.

Bright blue butterflies flew around me, and I laughed. The butterflies were beautiful, the finest pets I could have. I wished I could change the man's past, but that wasn't his fate. It wasn't meant to be. I continued to stare into the night sky, trusting in the fact that life was going somewhere with him and it would make him better than before. Sighing, I fell onto the roof and closed my eyes. Everything was going to be okay.

***

I hope you liked the story! Wow, that was a lot of prompts!XD I wish I could have used them all, but I really don't think that shoving prompts into my story that can't work would be the best.;D

-Emma-

P.S. Everyone, you can not make me join the Light Side. I AM LOYAL TO THE DARK SIDE!!!XD I AM A SITH, FEAR ME!!!!XD

Creating Worlds Writing Camp - Project Eight

Hi everyone!:)

Here are the prompts I used-

 

 

Our world's not safe anymore, but I longed for the times when I could leave the house without worrying, without drawing my coat closer to my chest as I passed a stranger. At night, I'd go to the roof of my house and lean over the edge and inhale deeply. The air was more fresh up there, the moon and stars seemed to shine brighter than before, and I felt free. I thought about the past, when I was truly free, the days where I would go down to the ocean with Krista and play in the water. The air seemed to hold a glittery quality there. But now things were different. Krista had disappeared and just the memory of her made me want to cry. I knew I wanted to make a difference, to change the situation. I wanted to change from the hunted, to the hunters. Before the Nameless appeared, we were happy and free to go wherever we wanted. Then the Nameless, the white ghostly monsters, showed up on the hunt for fairies, for us. They were cunning, brave, brutal, relentless, merciless... That's why we were hiding.

I stared out at the stars, the way the light just ended. The night sky reminded me of my aunt's collection of jars on her living room wall. I never knew what they were for, but they held what looked like little galaxies inside. If only those little galaxies could help our situation, if only I could find my aunt again. I took another glance at the sky and I felt a swelling in my chest, a subconscious decision I had just made.

I wasn't going to sit around anymore. I needed a hero. We all did. Someone needed to step up and become that hero, and that person was me. I climbed down the roof and to the streets, lighting a torch from my hand, one of the many powers I had as a fairy, and walked to the border of our haven. No one strayed past it. The Nameless were out there. If they did, they never came back.

Be a hero, be a hero, be a hero, I repeated to myself. I had to defeat the Nameless, I had to free my friends. I had to find Krista.

Mustering my courage, I stepped across the border.

***

I know it's kind of short, but isn't that a nice change?;) Thanks for reading, I hope you liked the story!:)

-Emma-



Creating Worlds Writing Camp - Project Six + #7 Story for AAWC + Lilah's Drawing Request

Hi everyone!:)

First up in this post is my sixth CWWC project/seventh project for AAWC. I included the prompt "silence", but I didn't use the mascot. Sorry.:(
I used fifteen prompts for CWWC!:)
 

I changed this to Here Be Ferrymen. If this doesn't count, that's fine.;) 

 

 

Alyssa sat in her hut, reading a book about the Ferrymen. The Ferrymen were the guardians of the other world's portals, mirrors. Only specific mirrors would take you to other worlds, and Alyssa had been searching for either a Ferryman or a portal mirror to take her away from the world that despised her for forever. For some unknown reason, everyone in the town hated her, which forced her into solitude. She didn't have any passion, friends, or spark to her dismal life. She was desperate to leave. She knew she had to find a Ferryman. They were her only hope of a happy life. She grabbed her bow, pulling it over her head. She draped her quiver of arrows onto her back and took a step toward the door. She needed a hero, to save her from this terrible life. She had had enough of waiting. She was going to be that hero. She threw open her door and slipped through the shady parts of the village, closing in on the border of the town. No one ever crossed the border and came back. She kept telling herself that she had nothing to lose, but she stalled as she waited behind a hut. All Alyssa had to do was cross the graveyard and past the border. Then she would search for the Ferrymen that she KNEW were out there. All of the books said that there was at least one Ferryman in the forest, past the border. That's why no one ever found a Ferryman. They didn't want to cross the border. They had lives in the village. But not Alyssa. She gripped the lantern in her hand. It was the middle of the day, but that didn't mean that it wouldn't get dark in the forest. She pressed herself up against the wall of the hut, squeezing her eyes shut. Taking a deep breath, she slipped out from behind the hut and raced across the cemetery, not daring to look back until she reached the border. She screeched to a halt at the edge of the forest, the edge of the border, the edge of a new world. She strained her eyes to stay focused on the border ahead, even though they begged to look back. She reached out her foot and leaped across the border. She couldn't tell that she dissolved from the sight of any villagers in the town. Alyssa felt a new emotion wash over her in the forest. Triumph. Happiness. She sprinted through the woods, on her hunt for a Ferryman. After the daylight faded, she started to feel hopeless. Her new found joy was rapidly being squashed by the fact that she hadn't seen any glimpse or hint that the Ferrymen were near. She felt her breath being squeezed out of her as the hope left her completely. Suddenly, she began to fall onto her lantern as a root caught at her foot. The lantern shattered and her dark cloak put out the small flame. The clumsy fall brought her over the edge with her feelings. She sobbed into the forest ground, not caring to get off of the glass. Alyssa craned her neck upwards and called out for the Ferrymen in the silence, like they would hear, like they would care about the black sheep of a whole village. 

She slowly staggered back onto her feet, dusting away the broken glass on her cape. She had been plunged into utter darkness, into utter silence. She stumbled farther into the forest, her senses being completely confused. Giving up for the night, Alyssa fell onto the ground and crawled to a tree. She stared out into the depths of the darkness. A tiny orange flame appeared from behind a far away tree and she gasped as a silhouette of a girl appeared.

"Ferryman..." Alyssa whispered, pushing her hands into the ground. She felt the grainy texture of wood in the ground and tore her gaze away from the flame to unearth whatever she had felt. She squinted her eyes at the board of wood and slowly read the white, painted words.

"Here be the Ferryman."

Alyssa jumped up and sprinted after the Ferryman, her legs pumping so quickly that she soon caught up to her. She slipped behind a tree as the Ferryman entered a small and empty flat of land untouched by trees or bushes. Alyssa watched her for a second then came out from her hiding place and up to the girl. The Ferryman looked at her.

"Who are you?" Alyssa asked her.

"You know who I am," the Ferryman replied. 

"A Ferryman," she guessed.

The girl nodded. "You come to ask me to take you away from this world. Don't you?"

This time it was Alyssa who nodded. "Yes."

"I'm sorry. But I can't take you to another world."

"Why not?" Alyssa asked, her voice breaking. She couldn't have come here for nothing. 

"For us Ferrymen, the world's not safe anymore. We are being hunted by The Olyprates. Tall, white creatures that are out for revenge against the Ferrymen, ever since we let an army go into their world. We were oblivious. The army destroyed almost all of the Olyprates, except for three, and those three are cunning, brave, brutal, relentless, and now they're hunting each Ferryman down to destroy us and get their revenge. I can not help you if I can not even help my fellow Ferrymen."

Alyssa stared in shock. "Please, Ferryman. I need to leave this world. I'm sorry for you, but you might be my only chance to leave this cruel world!"

The girl shook her head.

"I don't even have a mirror to take you somewhere."

"We do."

Alyssa and the Ferryman turned to face three little girls coming out from the forest. They were plain and ordinary, but in their eyes held confidence.

"Fellow Ferrymen!" the Ferryman cried. "You have a mirror?"

"Yes," the girls responded at the same time. "We heard everything. Just because we are being hunted by the Olyprates does not mean that we don't want to help others who wish to escape to other worlds. We will let you use our mirror."

Alyssa gasped as a smile broke out on her face. "Really?"

They nodded, bringing out a mirror from one of their backpacks. It was small but soon began to grow into a full length mirror.

"Wait, but will you Ferrymen be okay?" Alyssa questioned. The Ferrymen exchanged glances.

"That will be up to fate," the first Ferryman decided. The others nodded. "Go now."

The mirror began to glow blue around us and small blue butterflies burst out from the world in the mirror. They flew around them, and Alyssa cupped her hands together as one butterfly flew onto them. Such beautiful butterflies could only come from a beautiful world. A world where all of her bad memories here would disappear.

"Thank you so much," Alyssa told the Ferrymen and jumped into the mirror. She was ready for a new life. If only she knew that this wasn't the last time she would meet a Ferryman.

***

I hope you liked the story!
Now for Lilah's drawing request!  She asked for Harry Potter characters.:)

 

 

Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. (I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce Hermione.XD) I made them cartoon-y instead of realistic, I think they're cute.;)

Lilah, I hope you like the drawings.:)

-Emma-