Awesome Competitions! Write a Story; Win Some Pets!!

[Woogwoo Wren]

Not entirely sure what happened here. XD oh look at that. I can write 1,000 words of a random story that makes no sense, but I can't even write 500 of my camp story. -_-

I have seen a lot of things in my life – lives if you think that way. I don’t remember much of before, I didn’t think much then. I just remember standing tall and proud in the forest, looking over the small animals that made me their home.
And I remember the shame I felt when I was cut down. The horror I felt as my beautiful branches struck the ground and the birds flew away from me in fear.
I suppose I don’t remember much because the great tree I used to be is more than I am now. Because I was cut to pieces, formed into single planks. I remember the first thing I felt – truly. I hadn’t ever really felt anything before that, but when I emerged a plank, I felt so alive. So much more awake than I did as a tree.
I waited for a long time before I came to where I am now, a single, insignificant plank in a fence. And yet it is home. I can watch the forest beyond me, small animals darting through it, people walking their dogs, children laughing. I can watch the small yard behind me, people coming and going, children growing into adults.
There is always something to watch.

Recently, it’s been the cat. I know, it’s strange, but in all the years I’ve been a plank in a fence here, I’ve never seen a cat. My neighbourhood is predominantly dog. And trust me, dogs are annoying. The amount of dogs that have walked passed me and – oh, never mind. You get the idea.
This cat, however intrigues me. It’s grey, mottled like the sunlight through the trees – I think I heard someone call it a tabby. And it’s so small.
The children are so careful with it, chasing it, playing with it, waving balls and string for it to chase.
But, as all things do – I’ve seen it happen so often – it grows up. Soon it doesn’t want to play with the children, it sleeps in the sun. It’s a lot less interesting now.
Then one day it leaps on top of me.
This may not seem a big thing to you, but I haven’t been touched deliberately for a long time – unless you count the dogs, or a few bugs chasing up and down me.

But this, this is different. I can feel the soft paws on my rough wood, its tail lashing back and forth. It seems agitated, I wish I could talk to it.
“They left. Left me. Left. Why? I didn’t leave them. I wanted to, few times. But they left me. Left. Left me. Do they not love me? Left. How do I eat?”
I can understand cat – it’s not so different to squirrel. And I spent a lot of my life as a tree listening to squirrels chase each other up and down me. I picked up the language.
It was then I notice something I hadn’t before – I haven’t been looking into the yard much lately, the outside world is so much more exciting. The house was empty.
I feel a brief moment of sadness but it passes quickly. I’ve seen so many families pass through that house. The cat however, doesn’t share my feelings.
“Can’t hunt. Can’t sleep. Can’t look after myself.” The cat digs its claws into my wood – it is shaking.
I wish I could help it, but I don’t know what to do. I can’t speak to it – I’m a piece of wood! What am I supposed to do?
Then I realize I can do something. I can speak to my brothers around me. They were cut from the same tree – we can pass a message down the line of the fence. Maybe somewhere there’s someone or something that can help this poor cat.
So, I reach out and make contact with the plank beside me. It seems surprised to feel me, but it acknowledges me.
“I have not spoken to a brother for many years,” it says.

“No. But I need your help. This poor creature above me has been abandoned, and has no way of surviving.”

There is a long moment of silence, before the plank beside me responds.

“I don’t see what I can do to help, but I will if I can.”

“Pass the word,” I say simply. And the word is passed. I turn to the plank on the other side of me and repeat the process.
And then I wait. The cat stalks along the fence, stepping on me and my brothers around me. It leaps down a few times, and I’m worried it will leave before help comes.

But soon, my brother beside me makes contact.

“Help is coming,” it says simple.

And soon help comes. A cat, leaping across the fences. It is white, but much thinner than the tabby cat that rests on top of me. It seems more fit and feral.

“Hello,” it says, pausing before the tabby. The tabby frowns, stepping forward.
“Who are you?” it asks. The white turns its head onto one side.

“A friend. I heard you had been abandoned.”

“How?” the tabby asks. To be perfectly honest, I want to know as well. The white laughs.

“It’s rather silly really, a dog told me – he said he hadn’t been able to mark his territory until he came all the way down here and saw you! I don’t know why, it was like the fence was forcing him here!” It laughs again and ducks its head.

“Well. Can – can you help me? I don’t know how to hunt, don’t know how to sleep outside, don’t know how to live without my family, don’t know –” the tabby was stalking up and down the fence, lashing its tail.
“Hey, calm down, okay,” the white said, holding up a paw. “I can teach you. I was abandoned as well.”

“Really?” the tabby asks, and the white nods. It leaps off the fence and smiles up at the tabby.

“Come on. We can start now.”

The tabby hesitates and casts a glance back at its house, then it takes a deep breath and jumps, landing on all fours on the ground. The white licks its ear and bounds into the woods. After another slight hesitation, the tabby follows. I can tell it won’t be coming back – it will find a home in the woods.

A sense of satisfaction fills me – I caused that. I wish them well, wherever they go.

[paperfoldingrabbit]

I'm not much of a writer but I gave it my all! I think I did okay

It was a beautiful day, spring had just begun and many new families in the forest were up and about. The grey tabby watched all the commotion atop a wooden picket fence. There was the mother duck leading her ducklings to the pond. There was the family of rabbits happily hopping along on the search of nuts and berries. There was the mother doe with her yearling hiding sheepishly behind her as they went to get a drink of water.

It made the tabby happy to see this. She longed for a family of her own but she was getting on in years so unfortunately it probably never happen. The tabby thought to herself, what was it about spring that was so magical? It made the animals fall in love, it made the once empty bare trees become full again. Spring brought hope.

It was as if Mother Nature warmly kissed the earth as to melt the snow. Spring reminded the tabby that everything passes. Winter snow would turn to April showers, night would turn to day and suffering would turn to perseverance. The forest would be alive again. She would no longer have to feel alone.

The sun began to set on the warm spring day, the once blue was sky was now orange and pink. The tabby watched as the the sun sunk behind the horizon until it was completely out of a view. The forest was now settled down and the animals began to go back into their dwellings so they could sleep. The tabby's eyelids began to grow heavy, she curled up on the grass and she to went to sleep knowing that she would be okay.

[Ranger of the North]

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[Ranger of the North]

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[CJClaire]

Okay, wow, this went in a different direction than I meant it to, but I wrote it anyway, so I'd figure I'd give it a go.

The beast sat on the fence, watching silently, it’s tail swinging back and forth viciously. It didn’t move other than that. It only sat, waiting.

The appearance of a creature in his yard wasn’t all that odd, and to be perfectly honest, Derek had seen an animal waiting on that exact spot more than once. Other people in the neighborhood told him that it was a bad omen, to have cats and crows and mice sitting on the fence, looking in, but Derek never saw it as much of a problem. They weren’t doing him any harm, so why did it matter, really? Besides, the animals never entered his yard. They just sat on the fence, and looked in at his front porch as if there was something exceptionally fascinating about it.

Derek didn’t think much of the animals. In fact, he hardly noticed them anymore, unless one of his neighbors cared to point it out. They usually didn’t, as everyone else skirted around his house if there was an animal perched on the fence. Most opted to walk in the middle of the street or cross to walk on the sidewalk on the other side, rather than walk past Derek’s gate, which the animals seemingly kept watch over. Even so, the creatures never made any movement even when Derek left or returned home, and thus they became almost invisible to the eye that was accustomed to seeing them.

The animals had been there for months, appearing for the first time only a few weeks after Derek had moved into the neighborhood, and they had been there since. Perched on the fence, mesmerized by an invisible something that loomed at the front of his house. But nothing had happened yet, and despite everyone else telling him that the animals meant bad things, he couldn’t help but feel as though they were protecting him.

It was years later that Derek would learn that he had been right. The presence of an animal on his fence had become so quotidian that he didn’t even notice what animal it was anymore. He didn’t notice it at all, for a long time. Until one day, he returned home, and his fence was empty. Nothing perched on the side, nothing waiting and staring. Nothing at all.
He felt uneasy.

Rightfully so, he discovered, because as he crossed the fence line and made his way towards the house, he felt the air growing colder, and thicker. The light seemed to darken until it was like night. It took more effort to push and get to his front door, and when he got there, it felt as though he had walked a mile.

A huge, bellowing, shadow wrapped around his stairwell, and filled the upper floor with dense, black smoke. It looked as though it was trying to make its way down the stairs, moving like sludge, viscous liquid rolling down the staircase. Even though it was attempting to fill the rest of his house, Derek realized quickly why it couldn’t. A small creature stood in front of the stairs, a beast that didn’t really resemble any animal in particular, but Derek could tell that it was his creature. The one that protected him. And it was doing just that, hissing, flapping its wings and emitting a strange glow.

The creature didn’t look at Derek as it screeched, the sound making his ears ring and the walls of his house shake. The creature shrieked and the sludge melted into nothing, shadows receding back to the corners of the house and into the attic. The air thinned, and warmed, and suddenly it was early evening again, rather than the middle of the night. Derek blinked, taking it in, somewhat shocked. The creature looked up at Derek for only a moment, before nodding its head and padding past the man out of the house, and leaping back onto the fence, appearing like a cat once again. It fell still as ever, almost as if it had never left it’s spot at all, and returned to its eternal watch on the house, protecting it from the darkness that always threatened to swallow it.

[Ranger of the North]

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[Ranger of the North]

Hem. So it looks like the competition ended yesterday, but I forgot (oops) XD
Any last-minute entries? c:

[echoleaf1]

Is the competition still open? Or will there be another one?

[Ranger of the North]

Is the competition still open? Or will there be another one?

*dies of shame*
I really should have judged this ages ago; I'll do it as soon as I can, and then I'll put a new one up c:



I'M SO SORRY, GUYS!! D:

[Ranger of the North]

First place:


Second place:


Third place:



Thank you for putting-up with my horrible judging-time-ness, guys!... *scratches head ruefully* <3
I'll update the front page, send the pets, and put up a new competition as soon as I can, but it's pretty late so I might not end up getting to that 'til tomorrow. c:
Congrats! >^.^<

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