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Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 4:36 pm
Well, this is my story in progress. I know it isn't very good, so please post suggestions for improvemnet. I have written a lot more in my notebooks at home.
Chapter One
Cries of “monster” and “demon” followed the young girl as she ran through the village, her short brown hair fanning out behind her, a small white bag swinging at her side. Behind her, all the village’s able men followed, brandishing their farming tools as weapons. The man in the lead spurred on the men like a military sergeant a long, sharp hoe in his hands. She looked back, tears streaming from her eyes, at the men pursuing her. Quite suddenly, the girl tripped over a large rock she probably would’ve seen had she had been looking ahead. The villager’s eyes gleamed with malice, thinking they finally had the chance to kill the girl. One man raised his grass-cutting scythes in anticipation, but stopped at the sound of a voice yelling out “STOP!” Ahead of them, a teenage boy, no older than 16, stood defiantly; a large, yellow dog at his side. The girl looked up, her pupil less, yellow eyes taking in the sight of the stranger. He wore pants and black boots, his long, gray hair lank against his back. On each cheek were two blue marks.
“What are you doing to that girl?” he yelled at the village men.
The lead man glared at the boy for a moment, then noticed the blue marks on the boy’s face. “It’s another demon! Get him!”
Taking advantage of the short distraction, the girl scrambled to her feet and continued running.
“Follow me if you do not wish to die,” she called as she ran past the strange boy.
“Wait! Where are we going?” the boy asked as they ran for the forest that bordered the small village,
“Just follow.” She said while she swiftly wove through the trees, easily losing the villagers and almost losing the boy.
Finally, she stopped and leaned against a large tree, the boy next to her. Panting, the boy held out his hand. “I guess I should think next time before I do that. Thanks. My name’s Luke, and this is Buddy.” He gestured at the large dog sitting next to him.
The girl did not accept his hand. “My name is Kira.” She replied in a rough voice.
“If you don’t mind me asking, why were the villagers chasing you?”
Kira laughed harshly, “Didn’t you hear the villagers? I’m a demon.”
“You don’t look like a demon to me.”
Carefully, Kira untied the sash of her kimono and let it slide off her shoulders. Underneath, she wore a short red shirt and red skirt with high slits on both sides. Then, a pair of deep red, leathery wings unfolded from behind her back. Looking down, Luke saw a scaly tail curl around her legs and over her talon feet.
“Well,” said Kira mockingly, “What do you think now?”
“That,” he said breathlessly, “is so AWESOME!”
Kira looked at him, surprised, then smiled, showing off her pointed eyeteeth.
Luke looked over at the thick woods surrounding them. “Do you live around here?”
Kira pointed straight up, “We’re right under my house. I can take you up there if you want. Get on my back.”
“Sweet,” Luke obliged and climbed onto her back. He worried for a moment that he would be too heavy for Kira, but she was obviously stronger than she looked. She picked up Buddy, then leaped straight up into the air, using her wings for extra lift. With a thunk, they hit the tree and Kira began to climb, digging her talons into the soft bark. As she climbed, a large treehouse came into view, nestled in the crook of two branches. Other thick branches of the massive tree supported the corners of the small house. Kira stepped onto the branch in front of the door and dropped her passengers.
Luke ducked under the thick blanket that served as a door and found himself in a small, dark room. From the fading sunlight that filtered in through cracks in the walls, he could see the there was no fruntiture, only a pile of blankets to show where the bed was and a large, roughly hewn stone bowl sitting in the middle of the floor. Kira and Buddy came in right after Luke. Kira opened her mouth a shot a ball of flame at the bowl. It’s contents ignited, bathing the room with a warm, flickering light. Kira sat down next to the fire, and Luke followed. Buddy plodded over and decided to sit across from them.
“Can you tell me why you look the way you do?” Luke asked tentatively.
Kira stood up and spread her wings out to their full span of 24 feet, “Can’t you tell, I’m a dragon.”
“Really?” Luke said excitedly, “I’ve never met a dragon before. Can you show me your full form?”
Kira sighed, “Okay, I’m not a full-blooded dragon, I’m only a half-breed,” She blushed a deep crimson, “When my parents died, I fled here, but all of the villages have chased me out.”
“I know what you mean,” Luke said knowledgably, “I’ve had the same problem,”
Kira looked at him, confused, “You have?”
“Well, yeah. Not a whole lot of people want a werewolf hanging around.”
“You’re a werewolf?” asked Kira, astonished.
"Yeah, pretty much," He pulled back his long hair and tied it tightly with a red band. Now his ears were visible. They were gray and doglike. When he pulled off his boots, she could see his feet were actually paws. He shifted the waistband of his shorts, freeing his bushy tail. "See."
Kira laughed, then got up and looked outside. "It's getting dark. Do you need a place to spend the night?"
"Are you offering? I don't have anyplace to go."
"Well then, you and Buddy will just have to spend the night here."
"Thanks," Luke pulled a rolled-up bedmat out of his large pack and layed it out on the floor oppisate Kira's bed.
Kira smiled and blew out the fire. Luke could here her crawl into her bed. then he rolled over and fell asleep.
Pictures of characters: Kira http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z277/exdraghunt/pictures002-1.jpg
Luke http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z277/exdraghunt/pictures001-1.jpg Feel free to post comments and critiques!
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Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 2:10 pm
OMG eek awesomeness!!! xd I'll have to read through again to critique but thats my first impression! heart
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Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:01 am
I hate to say so, but it does seem really cliché... it's good and everything, I just have to wonder how many times that scenario has been used. The whole 'angry mob chasing out the demon girl' thing I mean. Besides that, it's fine. Like the whole demon/werewolf relation. I am confused though... what time period type is this supposed to be? Since it's farmers using scythes and hoes and such, I assume it's supposed to be traditional fantasy time period, but then the boy uses words like 'awesome' and 'sweet', which kinda throw off the setting.
Anyway, good descriptions in there. Good grammar and spelling as far as I can tell. Good job.
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:35 pm
SandRider_727 I hate to say so, but it does seem really cliché... it's good and everything, I just have to wonder how many times that scenario has been used. The whole 'angry mob chasing out the demon girl' thing I mean. Besides that, it's fine. Like the whole demon/werewolf relation. I am confused though... what time period type is this supposed to be? Since it's farmers using scythes and hoes and such, I assume it's supposed to be traditional fantasy time period, but then the boy uses words like 'awesome' and 'sweet', which kinda throw off the setting. Anyway, good descriptions in there. Good grammar and spelling as far as I can tell. Good job. Actually, I'm working on a new beginning where Kira leaves in anger and meets up with Luke later, I just haven't done it yet. sweatdrop The time period is supposed to be medival kind of times. I watch a lot of anime, so I guess I ended up with a kinda Japanese feel.
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 5:07 pm
Well, this is part two of chapter one. I hope you like it.
Kira opened her eyes as sunlight came streaming in through the many tiny holes in the walls of her aboreal house. Glancing across the room, she saw that Luke and Buddy were still asleep. Silently, she got up and walked outside, stepping right off the edge of the porch. Spreading her wings, she flew off in search of breakfast. Luke got up and looked around. The room was blotchily lit by sunlight, creating bright spots and deep shadows. He looked over at Kira's bed and saw that it was empty. Luke tried to get up, but found that Buddy was asleep on his feet. He kicked his legs, to no avail.
"Get up you lazy tub of lard."
Buddy lazily opend one eye, then rolled over and continued to snore loudly. Luke got up and walked out the door, sheilding his eyes against the onslaught of sunlight. With a light thump, Kira landed in front of him. She had a dead deer over her shoulder.
"Come on down," she said cheerily, "I've got breakfast. I also made a ladder for you to get down." She gestured at the trunk of the tree. It had notches cut into it with vines running down either side.
Luke gulped, "I can climb down, but you have to take Buddy." He turned to face the door. "Buddy! Food!" he called into the house. That did it. Buddy came barrelling out the door and crashed into Kira. She grabbed him and gracefully fell off the porch, opening her wings to spiral slowly to the ground, leaving Luke to deal with the problem of climbing down. Luke looked down at the ground over twenty feet below. He hated heights. Carefully, he put his paw into the first notch and held onto the vines for dear life as he slowly descended. When he finally reached the ground, Kira had already started a fire and was busy cutting the deer meat into strips. Luke helped by impaling the meat on sticks and positioning the sticks so the meat could hang over the fire and cook.
Kira walked over to the gutted carcass and picked it up. "You watch the fire while I get rid of this carcess, okay."
Luke nodded and turned back to the fire. there he sat, hungerily watching the meat cook until Kira returned.
Kira came back and walked over to inspect the meat. "I think it's done." she handed Luke a strip of meat, then grabbed one for herself and and tossed one to Buddy. the rest was left to turn into jerky for later snacking. Luke and Kira sat next to each other, busily eating the well-cooked meat.
"This is really good!" Luke exclaimed after eating the first bite.
Kira sniggered. "Never had deer meat before?"
"No, and I don't know why, it's really good.”
They leaned back against the tree, chewing in silence.
"Luke?" Kira said softly as they ate their deer meat.
"Yes?"
"What happened to your parents? Are they dead?" she asked.
Luke gave her a stern look. “My mom was killed by humans. My dad, well, I don’t know what happened to him.” He looked away, tears forming in the corners of his eyes.
Kira looked down in sympathy, "My parents were killed by dragon hunters.
“I’m sorry,”
Kira looked up, "Luke, are you leaving?"
"Yeah, I probably will."
"I want to come with you"
Luke looked at her, surprised, "You don't want to come with me. I never where I'm going to sleep, I'm broke, and I don't even know where I'm going."
"I don't care," Kira said defiantly, "I've got no reason to stay here. Besides, I've never really traveled before.
"Fine, I'm not stopping you. Come if you want."
"I'll go dismantle my house. You can put put the fire."
Luke was throwing dirt on the fire when there was a loud crash from above. He looked up, but the tree house was gone. Not a trace of it remained. Kira glided down, a side pack slung over one shoulder. She handed Luke his pack.
"Let's go" she said cheerfully as they walked off into the forest.
Soon, the small clearing was far behind them.
Shadows were cast across the forest as the sun set. Luke sighed and dropped his pack.
"This looks like as good a place to sleep," he said.
"I'll go prepare a place to sleep," Kira dumped her pack nest to Luke's, then opened it and tossed a few strips of jerky to Luke and Buddy. then she took off, flying through the trees as Luke quickly followed on the ground.
Kira found the perfect tree, a twisted old maple. She landed on the ground and began gathering thick branches to make a platform high in the branches. Luke walked up as Kira was hanging a water proof sheet over the platform.
"We can sleep up here," she called down to Luke.
She swooped down and grabbed Buddy, then flew back up to the platform and set him down. Luke climbed up himself, leaping from brach to branch. When he got to the platform, Kira had put down her new deerskin and was rolling out her bedmat over it. Luke put his bedmat on the deerskin next to Kira's. They sat on the edge of the platform, their legs dangling over the side as they watched the sun set over the treetops. Then it dipped below the distant mountains, abruptly plunging the forest into darkness.
"Well," said Kira as she climbed into her bed, "Tomorrow's another day."
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Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 3:35 pm
seems to be moving at a decent pace. opening is slow and you should try to use more active sentences to involve your audience more.
you need to work on a few editing issues (the difference between plurals, possessives [possessive's], and plural possessives [plurals' possessive]; making sure you have quotes at both ends of dialogue; spelling, etc.).
have you mapped out where you plan to take the story? so far you haven't given us any idea of what the plot is going to be.
ladyjewell Writing Stronger* Stress the most important idea in the sentence clearly. * Don't use unnecessary words. Example (for both): "Because there were updrafts, the flight was bumpy." reads better, is clearer, and takes less time to read (and comprehend) like this: "Updrafts made the flight bumpy."* Use the active voice whenever possible (it will make everything sound more immediate). A quick cheat for this is 'who' + "does' + 'what'. Also, if you have used the word is in front of your verb, it's probably not an active sentence.* Shorter sentences are usually better. (I tend to get wordy myself, but after a while, you lose people. Like now. LOL)
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Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 6:53 pm
Thanks. I haven't really thought out the plot yet. sweatdrop It's kinda been emerging as i go along. I should probably sit down and think some more, then go back and rewrite what I've done.
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Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 9:34 pm
exdraghunt Thanks. I haven't really thought out the plot yet. sweatdrop It's kinda been emerging as i go along. I should probably sit down and think some more, then go back and rewrite what I've done. I was gonna say something about that... it seems that there's no central conflict. Just find a major conflict and work the story around it. Every story needs a plot. More action! >: D
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Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 5:09 pm
SandRider_727 exdraghunt Thanks. I haven't really thought out the plot yet. sweatdrop It's kinda been emerging as i go along. I should probably sit down and think some more, then go back and rewrite what I've done. I was gonna say something about that... it seems that there's no central conflict. Just find a major conflict and work the story around it. Every story needs a plot. More action! >: D Well, there is a central conflict. but it isn't introduced for another couple chapters. there's a huga war starting between dragons and humans, but nobody really knows who started it.
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