CLOSED (WINNERS ANNOUNCED): UR HOLLY DOG GIVEAWAY!

[Electric~Lime~Zebra]

Marking!

[RedGem3]

Here is my entry - I hope you like it! And thanks for this opportunity!

Tucked away in a small, misty, forest, a small pure white puppy was curled up beneath her mother’s warm body, fast asleep. The baying of the wolves in a nearby cluster of trees did not wake her. It was only the thudding of paws next to her that pulled her from her slumber, and she had no time to rub her eyes before she was grabbed by the scruff of her neck and torn from her mother’s arms. She tried to cry out but she was too shocked and sleepy; so she could only watch as a patched brown dog killed her mother in her sleep. The puppy was whisked away in the mouth of the strange dog, all the way to the other side of the woods. There, she was thrown onto a rough hessian sack and surrounded by dogs with the same markings as the first ones. So full of fright was the poor little white dog that she fainted, and didn’t remember any more than that.

This tribe of dogs were feared amongst all the residents of the forest, and came close to being as deadly as the wolves themselves. They had originally been planning to hold the puppy hostage, or kill her and eat her, but as soon as she opened her beautiful doe eyes their hearts melted.
“What is this?” growled the master of the pair of dogs who had been sent to fetch the puppy.
“Sir - you ordered us to do this,” said the dog who had carried the white puppy, confused. “Was this not what you wanted?”
“It’s not that,” smiled his leader. “Why did you have to choose such a beautiful young dog? I know I could not bear to hurt this poor little thing.” His statement was met with a chorus of agreement from the surrounding dogs, who were feeling the same but had been afraid to say anything. There then came a bark of “excuse me” as one of the more sensible mothers in the tribe pushed her way to the front.
“I’ll take her in,” she said boldly. “Ever since Heather died I’ve missed having a daughter of my own. And I can see that no harm will come to such an adorable puppy; you men aren’t so gruff as you pretend to be.”
The elders had never really had any control over this particular female dog, Carrie; she generally always got what she want, and mainly because she flustered everyone so much. So, as usual, the dogs pretended they were being generous, rather than admit they were powerless over someone. And so it came to be that the small white puppy, wrenched from her own world and thrown in to this, lived with the only person she’d ever remember to be her mother.

One sunny morning, three years later, the white puppy was almost at her full size and a vivacious young dog. She didn’t know that she was not truly a part of this tribe, and didn’t think that she had any other mother than the one she had now. No one felt like telling her; and so she lived a perfectly normal life in the patched dog tribe, unaware of the one she could have had. Her best friend was her new brother, Wil, and she was called Lessie by the everyone who knew her. A less well-known fact was that ‘Lessie’ came from ‘nameless’.
“Wil!” Lessie cried out, racing around the tree where her brother had been sleeping. “Come with me to the oak ring! Lily told me there was something amazing that we simply had to see.”
Lily was Wil and Lessie’s cousin, the daughter of Carrie’s sister, Trea. She often hung around the oak ring, a circle of oak trees in the middle of the woods, and yesterday Lily had told Lessie that there was a surprise for her and Wil in there. Lessie believed everything her older cousin said; she looked up to her immensely.

When the two siblings reached the oak ring, after much grumbling from Wil, they were met with a most peculiar sight. There was no sign of Lily, of course, but what they saw was much more wonderful. In the middle of the ring there stood a magnificent holly tree, so tall they couldn’t see the top, so beautiful that it took their breath away.
“Wow!” Lessie gasped in amazement. “How is that growing there? Where did it come from?”
“It wasn’t there before,” murmured Wil, just as awed as Lessie. “It couldn’t have grown so tall in such a short amount of time.”
Lessie softly padded up to the base and craned her neck to look up into the tree. She and Wil slowly pawed their way around it, sniffing and investigating, but unearthed nothing. As Lessie raised her muzzle to the sky again, two small holly leaves, complete with tiny berries, were shaken from the canopy. Wil watched their twirling descent with admiration, and laughed as they settled on Lessie’s back. Shaking herself with surprise, Lessie tried in vain to turn her head around to see what had happened. But no dog had ever been able to see anything of themselves but their paws, and Lessie had never been to a reflective surface like a stream or lake. In fact, Lessie had no real idea what she looked like.

“Lessie, let me brush you off,” Wil smiled, loping over to lick the holly leaves off her back. But to his surprise, the leaves didn’t budge. Wil tried again, but the two miniature leaves and berries were lodged in. Wil backed away, staring fearfully at Lessie’s back. He had no idea what kind of sorcery was going on, but whatever it was, he was afraid of it.
“What is it?” Lessie asked in alarm. “What’s wrong?”
“The leaves... they’re stuck!” Wil stammered. “I can’t get them off!” Lessie smiled in relief that it was so trivial.
“Silly, there’s no need to be afraid,” she told Wil. “Let me try.” She shook herself vigorously, and when that didn’t work, tried to scratch the leaves of herself, but nothing worked. “Oh, no,” Lessie whimpered. “What happened? Will they be stuck there forever? Oh, Wil, help me!”
“I don’t know what to do!” Wil yelped in dismay. He turned and raced back to his dwelling and Lessie could do nothing but sob and follow.

Over the next few days, almost everyone in the whole population of the tribe tried to get the leaves off Lessie’s back. For once in her life, Carrie was helpless, and the elders had no idea what to do. After a week had passed, something peculiar was happening to the leaves. No one had noticed it, because they had been seeing the leaves for a week now, but they were growing larger. Wil, who had refused to do anything or even set eyes on the leaves, came into the room where Lessie was sitting, forlorn. He was the only one who noticed the difference, as he was gazing upon the leaves with fresh eyes. Just as he was about to tell Lessie this, the leaves moved.
“Lessie!” Wil cried in shock. “The leaves moved! What did you do?”
Lessie looked up. “What? They moved?”
“Yes! Oh, tell me what you did.”
“I didn’t do anything!” Lessie said. “I only shrugged my shoulders, like this -”
The leaves moved again. Wil raced to get Carrie and Mak, Lessie’s other brother. Once he had told them what had happened, Carrie eyed the leaves carefully and told Lessie to move her shoulders. She did, and the leaves moved.
“Raise your right leg,” Carrie instructed. The leaf on the right moved with Lessie’s leg. The same thing happened with the left. “I think I know who to go to,” Carrie said solemnly.

Burr, the oldest dog still living in the tribe, lived under a large stump on the outskirts of the forest. No one ever went to his house, and he never left it, so it was a strange thing when Carrie and her children turned up outside.
“What do you want?” Burr growled.
“We come to ask your advice,” Carrie said, bravely. “Lessie has-”
“I know,” Burr cut her off. “I suppose you’re going to ask whether it has anything to do with her being, well, different?”
As Carrie continued to talk, Lessie stepped back and whispered to Wil: “What does he mean, I’m different?”
Wil looked uncomfortable. “Well... I don’t think we’ve ever told you, but... you’re white.”
“What?” Lessie asked, bewildered. “But I thought just my paws were white... look, your paws are white, too, I-”
“No. You are, entirely, pure white.” Wil looked away as if he was ashamed.
“But,” Lessie whimpered. “But, why?”

Lessie was purposefully ignoring her so called family members. She wouldn’t accept that they had held information back about her for her own good. She knew that they were lying, and that she would never trust them again. As for the holly leaves, they were still growing each day. Lessie soon found that she could control them exactly, just as she had seen forest birds do, as they fluttered through the tree tops in the woods. Thinking of that made her eyes well up, because she remembered the days when she and Wil had chased those birds through the forest, happy and carefree.
Burr had told Carrie that there was nothing he could do.

One moonlight night, Lessie’s heart was so full of pain and sorrow that she ran off into the night, as far away as she could get from her familiar home so full of memeories from before - before this burden was bestowed on her. The leaves and berries were so large now that they were the size of her body, and Lessie herself had grown to her full size. In fact, the leaves had grown so much a part of her that she had found the right word for them - wings.
Lessie reached the holly tree where this had all started, and collapsed to the ground in despair. Tears leaked out of her eyes, and so when she heard an unearthly sound in the tree above her, she had to blink several times to clear her vision.
Something was gleaming above her, in the boughs of the tree, and as she watched, the light descended until it was just over her head. Then, out of its midst, a dog, pure white and looking so similar to Lessie that her heart ached again, emerged. Lessie was silent in awe as the dog reached out her paw and raised it - and as she did, Lessie’s wings fluttered open and started beating, until Lessie was raised to the dog’s height. Looking her in the eyes, Lessie suddenly knew who this dog was, and that she, Lessie, belonged with her entirely.
“Holly...” a whisper arose from the ghost of her mother, and circled around the dog who was once a small, white, puppy, stolen in the night; until she felt enveloped with it.
Finally at rest, Holly and her mother flew skywards, higher than the tallest tree, and vanished into the light.

RedGem3

[CC-chips108]

"Mummmmmmmmm!" Holly whined, as she got dirt on her once spotless white coat. "Why did I have to be born with grandma's albino genetics... it makes cleaning so much harder..." She was indeed the odd one out in her family. With her brothers and sisters brown fur and their original white patches, she felt she had nothing special about her at all.
"Holly, just because you don’t have patches or darker coloured fur does not mean that you aren’t special. Yes I know sweetie that it is difficult to clean the mud off your coat but you have to understand that you are unique and you mean the world to me and your father." Holly's Mum lovingly told her daughter.

'Here she goes again...' Holly thought, groaning to herself and her mother tried to embrace her in a loving hug. Holly denied and sulked off to her room, rubbing at the dirt spot attempting with all her might to get it off however the stubborn mark still stayed. "Why won’t you come off!!" She frustratedly yelled at the mark practically begging for it to go. Holly realised that the mark was not coming off without a fight and flopped in defeat on her mat. Holly peered outside her window and slumped on her window sill. "I just wish, I could be original for once..." A silvery tear dripped down her face and splashed onto her arm. A sudden wave of fatigue came over her and she felt her eye lids, slowly... closing.....

Golden rays of sunlight woke Holly up with a start. She sleepily opened her eyes peered to see if her mark came off. Surprisingly, it had but that wasn’t the thing that caught her eyes. Instead, she saw an elderly, angelic looking dog sitting on her desk chair in the corner of her room, watching her intently. The dog had gorgeous chestnut fur and brilliant brown eyes. "Good morning Holly!" The intruder giggled. Shocked, Holly let out a shocked yelp.
"How did you get in here!?" Holly screamed scrambling towards the wall. "Who are you??"
"Well silly, I am your fairy dogmother!" The beautiful dog, turned around and revealed gorgeous wings made of holly. "So I better bibbidy bobbidy get to work!"

With hearing this and seeing her fairy dogmother's gorgeous wings, Holly relaxed slightly and removed herself from the wall. "Holly, you made an official wish last night and I am here to deliver." Holly, to shocked to properly respond gave a nod of reassurance. "Well, the fairy dogmother council had a tough time deciding what they could do to to help you be unique or original as you put. The reason we had a hard time deciding was because we thought you were already unique, however we came to a decision." Holly's fairy dogmother sat down on the end of Holly's bed and gestured for Holly to sit next to her. "Listen Holly, I am dying. A fairy dogmother can only live for so long you know. Our rule is that when the end of our life is up, we have to give our most prized possessions away to one very lucky dog and we... I" she corrected herself, "have chosen you."

"For my entire life," The fairy dogmother continued, "I have always been blessed with gorgeous, beautiful wings. Now my life has come to a close, I would like you to have them. Use them well my darling." Holly's fairy dogmother stood up and edged closer to Holly.
"No, what are you doing??" Holly said alarmed. Her fairy dogmother smiled.
"What I have been waiting to do my entire life." She planted a kiss on Holly's forehead and the room lit up with red and green light. Holly and her dogmother floated in the air. Light started draining out of Holly's dogmother and Holly started taking in the light that was emitting from her fairy dogmother. Finally, all of the light was gone from the room and both dogs collapsed to the floor.

Holly opened her eyes and looked over to her fairy dogmother who was now translucent, and was fading away at rapid speeds. "Use... them... well..." with a poof of light, her fairy dogmother was gone. Holly solomly looked to the ground. Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed gorgeous wings of pure green and red. Her heart fluttered with joy and inturn, her beautiful Holly wings fluttered too. She smiled with joy. Finally she was unique. Finally she was different! Now, she was truely Holly.



The end

[~Kokichi~]

How Holly got her wings

Holly as a young pup loved to explore and her parents loved her very much she had a sister, Tiger(Hint hint) they loved each other very much but one day poor holly and tiger got stuck in a ravine. the hill began to crumble as soon as she turned to tiger she saw she got crushed by a rock she shouted at the loss of not just her sister but her friend. she dragged the body to her parents and they cried very much. few years later holly was on a tree jumping from branch to branch and until she got until the Great birch the biggest tree in the forest and then she looked down she backed away then saw she was falling...... she lost consciousness her parents somehow heard her cries of pain and came they came, cried, and prayed for somehow she got revived a white wolf with big green wing came down she said to them "Her heart is pure, my heart is pure, these wing will make sure she never falls again." and she turned to light and went to the wolf on the floor. Holly then rose above and she started to grow the wings then fell back to the floor and awoke with her new power.

[amanda77]

Holly had trained her whole life for this day. She had passed countless tests,endured long hours, and searched snow mounds until her paws hurt. Today was the big day,her first real search and rescue mission. She had been called to find a small child who had wondered away from it's family and got lost in the mountains. Holly knew there wasn't much time. It was snowing hard and temperatures were dropping. She caught the scent and was running hard to find the child. She ran and ran . She ran until she felt she would collapse. Her paws were frozen and snow matted in her fur weighed her down,she felt as if she was going to fail. Her pace slowed and the harder the wind blew the more confused she got. Finally she caught the child scent once more and it was stronger than ever. She saw the child and with renewed determination she ran to her. Holly wrapped her warm body around the near frozen child and began to bellow signaling her handler. She hoped they would find them both in time. It was getting colder to Holly and she was getting weaker as time passed. Iknow they are coming to save us she thought as she closed her eyes.
Hollies handler found them a some time later. He began to scream at the rescue team to come get the child to safety. He looked at his faithful dog Holly and knew she had given her life to save this child. Holly had became an angel to forever guard the lost souls of the Alps.

Hope you enjoy my story of how she got her wings.
(More time passed then what I wrote but didn't want the story too long)

[GotFrenchBulldogs]

MARK

[galactia]

'M-mother..?' Jasper's voice was quiet and broken, his heart hammering in his chest. He was sniffing
desperately at the body which lay lifeless in front of him, her once silk white coat now matted and
stained crimson red. A tear formed in the corner of Jasper's eye and rolled over his muzzle as he
nudged her weakly. He knew he'd lost her. But, as he began to stumble away, a familiar voice croaked
his name.

Jasper stopped in his path, ears pricked. 'Mother?' He turned and bounded back to her, bewildered to
see she was alive. She stared at him deeply, though her eyes were no longer warm and soft like they
used to be. Instead, they were dull and clouded, like a beautiful flower that had wilted away.
'Jasper, m-my darling.' Her voice was fractured, yet peaceful, as she spoke. 'I-I am so sorry it had to
end this way.''
Jasper nuzzled into her chest. 'No.. no!' He barked. 'Mother, what will I do when you are gone? Please
do not leave me!' His breath came in ragged, shallow gasps.
'Shhh, shhh, my darling.' His mother said as she licked the dirt off his pearly, white coat. 'All you have
to do is spread your wings.' She stared into his eyes. 'Until then, you will have no idea how far you can
fly.'
So many questions flooded into Jasper's head, but he knew there was no time for all of them. 'W-what
wings?' He panted.
'Well, that is for you to find out.' She was smiling, but not with her eyes. They were glossy and full of
anguish. 'Goodbye, m-my darling. I love you.' She said faintly before closing her eyes forever.
Jasper rested his head against her chest, listening as her heartbeat faded away. 'Goodbye. I will never
forget you.'

Jasper stumbled through the undergrowth, prickles finding their way beneath his fur. With no hunting
experience, he was hungry and weak. A strange scent lingered in his nose, that of a small animal, but
it was a blur among the earthy forest aroma. He sad down in hopelessness, prepared to give up, when
a small bird fluttered into sight.


wip c:

sorry, i went on holiday and didn't get the chance to finish this. it was fun anyway, though! i think i still might
finish it, just as a personal project..! XD

anyway, I've read through several stories and they're all really nice! good luck to all! and thank you for
hosting, Kendyy! c:

[crucifying.]

Silent steps turned to exasperated running as he pressed on through the trench of snow that only seemed to get deeper. His eyes shut, bliss sweeping over him as he laid against a tree for a moment of rest. The long, colorless fur on his chest dancing around as it rose and fell, desperately trying to catch his breath. His adrenaline was wearing off now, it being replaced with sheer fatigue. His eyes fluttered open, examining his surroundings in the thick brush of the forest. The golden sun reflected off the unpigmented snow, shadows flittering playfully around the trees, it was like a playground for the imagination. Baxter let out a soft breath as he pulled himself back to his feet, making his way through to the edge of the woods. His paws stung with exhaustion, wanting somewhere to bed down for the night, but his body insisted he pushed on. The sky was a cotton candy pink, colors washed over it like a watercolor painting. His eyes remained momentarily fixated on it before he stared down at a large body of water just below him. Cautiously, he started down the rocky hill, ears flopping as he jumped from rock to rock. His paw grazed the brink of the water, the frigid temperature forcing him to pull it back. Mauve, azure and rose colors littered the water in a picturesque way, confusion settling in the pit of his stomach. He placed a paw into the water, stepping further and further in, before he finally slipped below the surface, his entire body numb from the icy water. The same colors from the surface danced across his fur, his eyes shutting tight as bubbles floated to the top of the water. His lungs burned from lack of oxygen, but as he opened his amber eyes, it was like he was in some sort of parallel dimension. He pulled himself back to the surface, gasping for air as he walked back onto the cold, but comforting grass. His mind was racing with thoughts, trying to piece together what was beneath the water. What he'd seen. Perhaps he was in some sort of parallel dimension, but the thought seemed extraordinary so he shook it off quickly, giving himself a moment before going back under the deep, inquisitive water. Baxter left his eyes open, the colors surrounding him reminding him of space, a milky way of creation. He swam through the water, a small box resting on a dull rock near the bottom. As quickly as the water let him, he got to the box, taking it between his teeth and returning back to the surface, shaking off the brisk water and setting the box down. He nudged it open with his nose, squinting at the words inscribed on the inside of the box, a bright light flooding his vision as he stumbled back. It felt like lightning was coursing through his veins and he plopped down on the ground, laying on the cold snow as if to ease the burn. Though, the light faded as quickly as it came, and he blinked a few times, unsure of what events had occurred. Suddenly, the water lost its spacey glow, and he stood slowly, looking over the edge. Large, green holly berry wings were the first thing he'd noticed.

[Prinzzy]

Holly's wings:
Holly ran about the house trying to think what he should for the holidays. he had known everyone had great Christmas plans for the up-coming party but he was stumped. ''what can i do to be special'..? he though to him self.
that's when it had struck him. he could dress up as a holly plant or well mils toe. this would be great, he had an amazing idea but then he realized... he had no holly. he ran outside looking up and down for holly but he could find none. as he sulked outside a weird lady wearing a pink and red robe approached him. ''who are you'' he said as she approached him.
''i have heard your looking for holly , well i have some for a price" she said in a calm tone.
"ill do anything'' he said ignoring his words...
"okay young pup , now what you do is you place the holly c-" but she wasn't able to finish before the young pup ran off.

''I finally have it" he placed it on his back before realizing that the holly had turned into wings.
he paused and was worried but was grateful that he had been taught a lesson about listening first.

from then on all of the holly dogs family would be born with holly leaves.

[XxMystic]

How Lena (Holly dog) got her wings.

EDIT: I was going through the stories and noticed someone named the Holly dog Lana. Which is very similar to mine that was pure coincidence, but can change mine of needed.

Light flickerd across the river that was full of current, it almost looked as if there were fire flies swimming in the water. The moon was bright and full, and the night air was clean with a little bit of wind. A solid black dog walked along this river grumbling complaints, and rude remarks. How he hated it here. The crickets were loud, the wolves were nonstop, the owls faint "Hoos" were enough to want this dog put pinecones deep into his ears. Vincent was a grumpy dog with little to no enjoyment in his day to day routines.
The woodland creatures knew to stay away from him. All but one. Lena was a beautiful sandy colored dog with fur as soft as her heart, which was always in the right place. She brought joy wherever she went, and Lena always did her best to share her light in the darkest of places. However, Vincent really challenged her skills. For years Lena tried to bring just a small smile to Vincents face. It had always failed, and this made her heart crush so much that she began to fade herself. She spent countless nights wondering what it was that must have hurt this dark stranger. Lena got a few smiles eventually, and even some light laughs from the gloomy dog. Little did anyone know that Vincent was growing very fond of Lena. He would return to his den happy without letting anyone see. Vincent became ashamed of himself for how he let himself grow into this miserable dog. Be finally was begining to feel happy because of this one beautiful dog. He had a hard time showing he was happy though and Lena thought she was still failing.
Lenas once beautiful coat started becoming dim and dull. The woodland creatures noticed this as well. Seeing her fade off made them angry with the dog as dark as tar, and so they began their plot. The woodland creatures followed the black dog home one day. The deer cornered him with their fine pointed antlers, the owls talons grabbed at him, the bobcats bit at him, and the other small woodland creatures went at him as well. Lena had been sleeping when she felt the sudden urge to wake up. Something so strong was pulling her awake, that she was immediately on her feet and running. Lena had no idea where she was going, but her feet and heart carried her along until she arrived on the horrific scene. The woodland creatures had Vincent cornered at the edge of the river that was now raging just like the animals.
Lena cried for them to stop, but they were so focused on their plot that Lenas cries were no louder than the hum of silence. Just before Vincent was pushed over Lena ran into Vincent knocking him out of the way. Vincent, now in shock, realized what had just happened. The river pulled Lena under, it's grasp tightening around her and unwilling to let go. The woodland creatures searched and searched for her, but she was no where to be seen. Vincent blamed himself for the loss of Lena there was no way be would ever be happy again without this light in his world.
The woodland creatures searched for days with no sign of their light. The days grew gloomier and dark. Vincent never stopped his search. Not even for food or sleep. His efforts paid off as he made his way down the rocky edge of the waterfall. He saw a gray dull figure laying on the steep bank. Vincent knew it was Lena but she looked so much different. So dull. He called out and she lifted her head up. Vincents heart leapt for joy. Joy? What a feeling he was not used to. The bank was too step to crawl down, he would get stuck with her. Vincent grabbed onto a holly tree branch and tore it off. He reached down just far enough for Lena to grab onto it with her teeth and pulled her up. Vincent apologized, poured his heart out to her, and let her know the true changes she made in him.
With each word her coat began to get silky again and returned to her normal sandy color. It didn't stop there though. In fact, it didn't stop until her coat was solid white. The branch that Vincent has pulled levitated in the air and split in two. One for each side of her shoulders. The branches turned into wings which signified the beginning of Vincent and Lenas love. The wings also symbolized her rising out of the steep river bank with the help of a once gloomy dog. Vincent couldn't be happier. They spent a lifetime full of happiness and love. Even though a 100 years had passed, their spirits still envelope that forest and bring joy, peace, and happiness to all of the forests inhabitants.

I hope this wasn't too long for you! I enjoyed this a lot! Thank you for doing this wonderful nest giveaway and thank you so much for the oppurtunity of winning the UR Holly! You are so kind!