brought to you by Lythea
SENTINELS NEWS #7898
Date: 2/8/2006 at 23:29
From: Lyrical Lythea Lashyr-Windsong
To : Everyone
Subj: A year 414 contest! (Hopefully sans posting errors)
Hello guys!
I am feeling inspired, and a bit bored with bashing. Maybe some of you will be as well, and if so, this contest is for you! Anyone at all may enter, so don't be shy. I'm going to give you a list of words and phrases, and then I want you to write a short story that uses each of them at least once at some point in the telling. The story should be between 300 and 800 words long, though if you feel particularly driven, I'll accept longer ones. Just send the story to me in a letter, signed with your name. I'll judge them based on creativity - I'll attempt to be kind and not count grammar and spelling too heavily. You have a year from today! Any questions or problems just ask, but I hope this is straight-forward enough. Prizes will be in credits. Should I have said that first to get your attention? Probably! Credits credits credits!
The words and phrases you should use are:
Sentinel,
Eleusis,
Lady Kastalia,
forest,
badgers,
the blueberry dance,
I swear, if I see just one more fish...
when all of a sudden, an elephant thundered past, dragging...
Who would do such a thing?...
Does this make me look fat?
They don't need to be used in that order, certainly, but I think I've given you a little theme to run with how you like. Extra credit for using your friends as characters and embarrassing them. Enjoy!
- Lythea.
PS. Don't disrespect Lady Kastalia, that's instant negative points. Tee hee.
Penned by my hand on the 15th of Sarapin, in the year 414 AF.
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SENTINELS NEWS #7945
Date: 2/20/2006 at 11:18
From: Lyrical Lythea Lashyr-Windsong
To : Everyone
Subj: Blueberries and badgers!
Hello, Sents!
My year 414 contest has ended (Sentinels news 7898, for the short of attention-span), and I have winners to embarrass!
Before I do, though, I just have to say how wonderful all the entries were. It was VERY difficult to pick the winners, and the judges all disagreed except in the case of first place. After the subsequent fistfights, though, the majority came to an agreement. (Boy, does Athy have a mean right hook.)
Entaro came in third, with a hilarious and frightening story that had him dressed up like a muffin and dancing through the streets of Eleusis. I'd have liked to place him higher, but the stories were supposed to be fiction... *sigh* Even so, his fantastic effort wins him 3 credits. Great job!
Second is Aldarin, whose story was a bit more serious than most entries, but incredibly imaginative. We were very impressed with his writing and creativity. The grooks back home would be proud. He wins 5 credits for his outstanding work.
That just leaves our winner! Congratulations to Hasun, who, despite (or perhaps because of) being horribly abused in his own story, will be going home with ten credits and the honour of you all enjoying his writing below! I'll let it speak for itself.
Honourable mentions to Augustus, who made the judges laugh and cheer with the visual of me being dragged through elephant poo and laughed at by Lady Kastalia, and Tsunim, whose story was rather insane and who, by popular demand, will be receiving the pair of water-walking clown shoes donated by Laceus for the contest. Tow also deserves a mention for actually using the directions I mis-posted into my original news item due to being a complete nutter. Which is not to leave out the amusing stories submitted by Renella, Silvary and Alakardaiel. Everyone did great, and as soon as I decide where to put it, I'll happily leave the journal I saved the stories in somewhere that you can all enjoy them. They deserve to be read and shared. Every last one. I'll definitely do this again, thanks for the wonderful response.
Thanks also to Gork, Athy and Neuroi who helped me judge, and Sleffie who was our impartial non-villager, non-sentinel judge. I mean it when I say it wasn't an easy decision. I couldn't have picked on my own.
And finally... Hasun's story, for everyone to admire!
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Not Good Badger Weather
By Hasun Wildsong
'Twas a beautiful and sunny day in the village of ELEUSIS and that meant that one thing was certainly afoot... plotting. The beating sun had wreaked havoc on the poor brains of the BADGERS of the nearby East Ithmia FOREST, bringing their ingenious minds to bear on the task of upsetting the plans of their friendly SENTINEL companions. THE BLUEBERRY DANCE, one of Cubmom Tow's famous whimsical dance numbers had been planned for that very evening, but the badgers had other plans...
Eilonwy Ardashyr sat merrily upon the Zaphar fishing away the day, blatantly unaware of the plotting nearby else she wouldn't be partaking in such a filthy and ridiculous habit with a ludicrously large pile of fish sitting next to her, while Hasun, slightly damp rolled around on the banks, clearly uncomfortable. "I SWEAR," He said, "IF I SEE JUST ONE MORE FISH I am going to eat your third born son for brunch!"
"Now, now," chided Eilonwy, "LADY KASTALIA has blessed us with this plentiful bounty of fish, we should enjoy the fruits of our labour and... wait! Fruits of MY labour! All you've done all day is complain about how close you've had to get to the river!" Fruits?! I could deal with fruits! All we have are these miserable fish. Potential deliciousness lost in a miserable cage of tiny bones buried beneath disgustingly crystal clear waters. Oh suck it up Hasun. Hey! Aren't we supposed to be helping Tow set up by now?
And they were supposed to be, so off they went and found Tow smushing blueberries all over his body. "Where have you two been?!" He exclaimed, obviously flustered by their lateness. "Some nutter ordered sileris berries instead of blueberries and I've had a hell of a morning trying to get my hands on enough of these delicious blueberries!"
"Aha!" said Hasun, "Blueberries! Now that is what I am talking about, I'll get those barrels up into the trees for you Tow." And with a not-so elegant swinging/falling motion Hasun fumbled his way up into the trees with a couple of barrels of blueberries on his back for the grand finale. "Now." Said Tow, looking rather sheepish, "DOES THIS MAKE ME LOOK FAT?"
Up in the trees Hasun heard Eilonwy's hysterical laughter at a very blue Tow down below as he struggled with ropes, pulleys, levers and other fangdangled contraptions designed for a stupendous rain of blueberries to finish off the dance. As he finished off a particularly complicated double left square backwards reefing knot with a half double yard twist, he heard another less maniacal sound. A strange gnawing sound akin to a horde of rabid lemmings digging into a single corn cob. Puzzled by this, he shored up the line and slinked along the branch, slipping on crushed blueberries along the way to where the bough met the trunk. As he pushed his way through the leaves he stumbled upon a feverish ball of badgers gnashing their way through the branch. "Oi!" he bellowed, "What are you doing to the tree you silly badgers!" Within a moment a large portion of the ball had relocated itself to swarming around his head and then the branch he was standing on relocated itself to the ground with him atop it.
WHUNK! A large branch carrying a bewildered Hasun slammed into the ground right in front of Tow's face. "What are you doing Hasun? You'll ruin the show!"
It wasn't me! It was the badgers!
Eilonwy looked about sceptically. "I don't see any badgers" she said. "They were in the trees!" Tow and Eilonwy just looked at each other, then up to the heavens and sighed. "Seriously! The badgers are plotting something. I'll prove it!" And with that Hasun stomped off angrily leaving two very confused Sentinels with all the work.
Hasun now had drive and a purpose. He was going to get to the bottom of this. He heard a noise of rustling in the bushes and using every mote of his serpentine stealth skulked up silently towards it. He cocked his arm back and with a flick of his wrist sent the tip of his whip flying into the undergrowth. It wound its way around something large and heavy, so he attempted to yank the culprit out. What he found at the end of his whip was a rather large and irate elephant which had been resting in the shade of the forest. It blasted Hasun off his feet with a mighty trumpet then snaked a thick trunk around his ankle.
Lythea and Orik were merrily stacking crates of blueberries for the grand performance when they heard a strange thundering sound. "What is that?" asked Orik innocently.
"Surely not a lightning strike?" said Lythea, a touch of worry in her voice. Lythea threw her arms wide and called upon the spirit of an eagle to investigate the situation and hoisted Orik up into the skies with her WHEN ALL OF A SUDDEN, AN ELEPHANT THUNDERED PAST, DRAGGING Hasun through the muck and flattening all the carefully stacked crates. Lythea descended moments later unceremoniously dumping Orik on his posterior.
"I didn't see any smoke up th.. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CRATES!"
"Oh no!" Orik exclaimed, clearly flustered, "WHO WOULD DO SUCH A THING?"
"Quick, I think we need to go talk to Tow." Orik agreed and shortly they were off.
Hasun was feeling beautifully mucky and back to his usual self, although a little crestfallen as he hadn't caught the badgers red-handed as he sidled up to Tow, Eilonwy, Orik and Lythea in heated discussion. "What's going on?" he asked innocently enough. "Someone crushed all the blueberries!" screamed Tow, "Hey. Wait a minute, what's that on your shirt?" Oh, I got dragged through some crates of blueberries, but it wasn't my fault, see, I was looking for the badg-
Hasun never finished his sentence as his angry housemates descended upon him. They trussed him up and dragged him to the river for a good three hour scrubbing session as he wailed and wailed.
Hasun sat underneath a large oak, or more accurately was tied to it, as the curtains opened for the beginning of Tow's much anticipated blueberry dance. The congregated forestals fell silent in awe at the sight of an almost completely blue Tow. Just as the first few chords were being struck, badgers started raining from the treetops and the crowd burst into panic as they tried to fend off their furry companions.
Hours later Hasun called out softly to the now abandoned clearing. Clearly they believed him about the badgers now, but they seemed to have forgotten where they left him.
Penned by my hand on the 15th of Mayan, in the year 414 AF.