Fantasy Foretold Forum tHe WRiTiNg GAmE

New Game!

To complete this challenge, you must add between 50 & 200 words to the ongoing story. If you wish to play more than once, feel free (just don't respond to your own post). If there is ever a conflict where two individuals post at the same time, in response to the same section of the story, feel free to pick one and continue the story.

I'll start ;-D

Rialen heaved a great sigh. Jalycia could feel the dragon's impatience as if it were her own, his green scales shifting and sliding across his massive bulk as he repositioned himself in the grass. The soul-melding would take some getting used to, but the grandmeister seemed to think she was adjusting well. Still, the sickness would take weeks yet to fully play out. Her innards were in constant flux, and she found it almost impossible to keep food down for more than a few minutes.

Rialen was clearly ready to leave the vast courtyard at the Academy, eager to beat his wings high in the sun-dappled clouds above the Forigian Forest.

Soon, my friend. Very soon.

Rialen gently nudged her shoulder in response. She was fortunate to have melded so successfully; not all First-Years were as lucky. One boy had been made a meal of, the guilty dragon having been chained to a century of servitude to the Academy, his power stripped in a Void Ceremony. Jalycia could feel Rialen's mental cringe at the thought.

Along with this thought, Jalycia also felt a complete thought drift into her mind, something along the lines of "pubescent males do make the best snacks, though, so I understand completely why Gyra would risk his magic for it.  It is not everyday male under eighteen are assigned to the class that is Dracosynchronization as they have been found to be notably less likely to open their souls for the admittance of a dragon's--even if said dragon showed no sign of causing harm to him.''

Gyra, Jalycia thought, that must have been the name of the dragon from that incident. 

She had never thought of the incident--rumoured to have occurred a good decade ago--because of its level improbability given the protective muzzle dragons were all forced to wear to avoid mishaps such as the one mentioned.  Rialen's definitive thought of the fabled powerless dragon made Jalycia's stomach sink--or was that a result of the soulmelding?--since it meant that such a horrific accident had indeed taken place.  It wasn't until a few minutes later, when her meister advised she separate her soul from Rialen's (prolonged Dracosynchronization was said to result in indefinite imprisonment inside the dragon), that she shuddered at Rialen's wanting to eat a human.  She desperately hoped her senses weren't already being mildly altered by the Dracosynchronization, as nothing about eating a human being had aroused any form of disgust in her until now.

Jalycia thought of discussing the matter with Meister Hastallen, but he had already moved on to the next student.

Oh well, she decided, I'll talk about it with my sister.  She's been dracosynchronizing for years now.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Hastallen's droning monotone, doing more to lull her to sleep than to captivate her attention. He addressed all of the students gathered in the courtyard, several conversations tapering off as everyone caught on. "As the first week of the soulmeld comes to a close, it is imperative that all students maintain the synchronization for a full day (with sleep) by the end of the coming week. Recall that week four is the deadline for a full physical convalesence and, subsequently, a full-form affixment." Jalycia groaned under her breath.

The record for a full-form soulmeld was an impressive eight days without loss of sanity, though most found their personal limit to be closer to two or three days. Jalycia had thus far succeeded in four hours of lesser synchronization, a form whereby thoughts were shared without a literal melding of spirits into a single, two-part being. How she would ever achieve an entire day in full-form was beyond her.

"Lici, want to find a bit of fun tonight?" Kae'Ellen was Jalycia's only sister, not to mention her closest friend at the Academy, though she seemed to have a penchant for finding trouble.

"Kae, just because you've already managed a full-form sync with Calrissa doesn't mean everyone else can afford to just go around..." She was interrupted by the all-knowing stare of Meister Hastallen.

New Game!

The new game is from the mind of Gretchen Clarke. It's going to be similar to what we were doing, in that each poster should add 50-200 words to the ongoing story, except this time we'll be starting with Gretchen's prompt. Whoever wants to get it going, feel free to jump in there!

"The story centers on two children/teens altered by magic to become creatures of fantasy (dragons, elves, shapeshifters, fairies; [basically] anything BUT vampires and werewolves). One of the altered children/teens was a human boy and the other a human girl. The story would detail their meeting, how they cope with their new bodies, and their relationship (do they end up falling in love, or do they become bitter rivals that create two sides and go to war to settle their feud?)."

Nimra staggered out of the darkness and into the light.  It felt as if she'd been in the cave for days, but there was no way to be sure.  Her eyes blinked rapidly to adjust, and all four legs wobbled uncertainly.  Four.  Four legs.  Four legs?!

Can I post in response to my own prompt?

I have no actual authority, but I don't see why not.  I posted something for the 'e' challenge and started it, too.

Her hair, hovering just above the river in small, black circles, was the same as it had been for the majority of her life.  Her eyes hadn't changed drastically, remaining soft, oceanic blues, and, for the most part, her entire face was the same it had been the night before.  It even maintained the slight green tinge she'd acquired last night following her Mom's questionably gelatinous excuse for dinner. 

She remembered poking at the stuff--was it pasta?  jiggling flour-and-water that was supposed to be pasta?--and then, not wanting to hurt her incredibly emotionally delicate mother, shoveling the...food?...into her mouth as quickly as her psyche would allow and her esophagus could physically admit.  She also remembered experiencing a sort of uncomfortable gag as she shoved the hopefully nutritious half-blob down her throat, a reflex she was not accustomed to given her adaptation to the usual horror that was her mother's cooking.  There was something especially--unnaturally--sickening about this batch of death her mom had whipped up, something that made her queasy and sent her to bed with the sensation one felt while vomiting, but without the actual act of vomiting.  And when she awoke the next day?

Well, that's what she was trying to get a grasp on now. 

Nimra glanced down at her han--err--paws, then back into the very her reflection of the river.  Paws.  Face.  Paws.  Face.  She continued this bobblehead-esque motion for an astonishing ten minutes, giving her mind time enough to fully register the shock of what she was, stepping back from the river so that she could see her full body.  Was it her body?  She wondered, as the golden fur and long, fan-like canine's tail curled itself between her hind legs. 

The wave of untreatable nausea she'd felt approximately twelve hours earlier returned once more, the green pallor tinting her nearly brown complexion ever more.  She closed her eyes, heaving over into the river but feeling only the dry, disappointing pain of having absolutely nothing come up.  Multiple, stabbing pinpricks radiated up her neck, into her cheeks, around her eyes and nose, and melding with and into her hair.  When the wave past,  Nimra slowly opened her eyes, trembling over the river water and pawing at the ground as the head of a gold-feathered bird--perhaps an eagle?--stared back at her. 

(Nimra still has her paws, if you didn't catch that...I was going for a Griffin)

Haha cool!  I had a manticore in my head, but I wanted to give someone else the final say.

Maybe when this game is done we can make it into a collab book? I could start another thread and make it dedicated to the project, and anyone who wanted to help could say so in that thread. Then we could PM each other backand forth with chapters and edits and such. The we could pick someone to post the book, and the first 'chapter' would give credit to everybody that helped. Whatcha guys think? Is it a good idea?

That sounds really really cool! It would be a collective work and I think that would make writing more fun for each of us writer as well as exercising our writing ability. I would love to help! 

Nimra froze and blinked at the reflection that blinked back at her. She was so overcome with shock that her new body became as still and cold as stone. Her mind was blank and then suddenly a mixture of emotions so raw and powerful exploded in her that she felt herself lift off the ground with massive brown and gold tinge wings. Her paws scratched at the air as she lifted herself higher and let out a massive screech of what was meant to be a cry of anguish. 

Woops, sorry.  I didn't even know what a manticore was until just now.  They look monstrous.

No apology necessary!  Like I said, I wanted to throw a couple features out there and see where someone else took it.  I knew that lion's paws and a tail gave a few options, so it was exciting to see what the group came up with.  

Um... yeah?!  Totally in for that!

The thread is up! It's called "Gretchen's Collaborative Book Project"!

New Game!

So the new game is as follows: Write a fantasy-esque poem, the kind of elegant poem you might see as the lead in to a prologue. These tend to be prophetic, wisdomatic, ominous, and/or generally oozing with mythical lore.