[**Snowwhisper**]

Prompt Six :

"From deep in the forest you hear something that sounds like singing. You follow the sound to find a mysterious pool, and someone at the center. Are they malicious or benevolent? What do they want?
How does your hero make it through this encounter? "

The misshapen adventures of Nadia and Avery


Nadia growled as she wrapped her pillow around her head, the stupid singing had been going on for what seemed like hours. She was sick of it as she threw her pillow off of her and climbed to her feet, grumbling as she did so. As she looked around the tent, which they fixed using a spare cloak for rope, she saw that Avery wasn't awake. Tilting her head, she wondered how she could sleep through the haunting but annoying song that seemed to echo through the forest, though there seemed to be a pulling in her chest at the voice. She shook her head as she left the tent and followed the voice out of camp and into the forest.

As she followed she noticed that the voice became louder and louder as she followed. After what seemed like forever, which in turn was only a few mins, she noticed a glowing in the forest. Confused she followed it, seemly entranced by it. It seemed that the glowing and the singing went hand in hand as she drew closer and closer. Finally after that seemed like the tenth log she had to climb over, she stumbled across a pond. Well, it seemed to be a small pond except it was glowing and misty with a glowing figure of a female, though she couldn't make it out much. Ponds she knew didn't glow and they didn't have singing water figures in the middle of it. As that thought crossed her mind, she gasped before covering her mouth. But it was too late the figure noticed her and gasped as well before plunging back into the water, and bathing the forest back into darkness.

'Great.What a great idea to follow the strange water person's song.' Nadia thought, feeling incredibly stupid, as she now had to stumble through the forest blind back to camp, without getting lost.

[skywishes01]

day 7 prompt.

vii. the kalon in the lake
nisha, aria, amalie

“Do you hear that?” Aria’s question breaks the silence the team has been walking in for the past few hours.

Nisha glances at the new kalon – Amalie – who, for once, looks as confused as Nisha is feeling. Nisha still doesn’t completely trust her – they know nothing about who she is or where she really comes from. In fact, they know nothing about her, apart from the fact that she’s unfairly skilled in finding uses for plants. (I mean, who in the world has the right to know that poison ivy is actually edible?)

But in that moment, they both agree on something.

“I don’t hear anything.” Nisha says slowly. Amalie nods.

“Listen! Someone is singing!” Aria insists. They listen. Only the regular forest sounds of birdsong, rustling branches and critter-noises filled the air.

“Aria, there’s-“ Nisha is cut off by Aria’s shout.

“It’s coming from over there!” She points frantically to the left. Off the path. And suddenly, she darts off in that direction, crashing blindly through the foliage like a crazed animal.

Nisha and Amalie share a worried look, before running after her.

---

The three kalons stand in front of a lake. It’s huge, blue and glittering – how had the forest concealed it? Small, gentle waves roll against the shore, a tame dog lapping at feet. And if the lake wasn’t strange enough as it was, in the middle of the lake floated a creature: a strange, blue kalon, with only its top half emerging from the water. Nisha doesn’t want to know what its bottom half looks like.

“There!” Aria raises a shaking finger. “There it is!” Letting out a guttural yell, she attempts to rush forward into the water- but this time, Nisha and Amalie grab her arms before she can move.

The blue kalon smirks. Its gaze rakes over the three, a mischievous spark in its eyes. Its eyes practically glow when it sights Amalie.

“So you’re here.” Its voice is melodious and flowing, like wine.

Amalie doesn’t respond.

The kalon grins. “Well? Aren’t you going to ask me why you guys were called here?”

“Called here?” Nisha narrows her eyes.
The kalon laughs, sending shivers down their spines. “Not everyone can hear the song, you know. I choose who can.” Aria is still shuddering in her partner’s grips, and Nisha’s scowl intensifies.

“Then why us?” she practically growls.

“Now, now.” The kalon shakes its head. “Don’t be so rude.” Nisha opens her mouth to retort – but the kalon keeps speaking. “I have something to tell you.”

The three kalons are now silent – Amalie expressionless, Aria in no state to talk, and Nisha still foaming at the mouth.

The kalon appears to be pleased by what it has done to its audience. He speaks again.

“The witch has the crystal.” He announces dramatically. Then, in a flash, he disappears under the water.

Amalie pales. “The witch?”

Nisha turns to her. “You know what he’s talking about?”

Amalie is still staring out at the lake. “The witch…

“That is who I am running from.”

507 words.

[✧ 花chéngzhǔ.]

xx

Day Seven Prompt is now over! Day Eight is up!
❝ This is a lot of stuff for one guy to get though on his own, y'know?
At least you all are entertaining. ❞

Day Five Winners
Art Prompt -- Kyo. [1st] // KatLóve [2nd] // Akame-chan [3rd]
Writing Prompt -- waterfront [1st] // G1 Sunstreaker [2nd] // Colour54 [3rd]

Please be patient with me while I update the bank!

[Sanara]

Prompt Eight
Featuring :: Zachary, Vanyel, Dunkin

[eltonn]

Tʜᴇ sᴇᴄᴏɴᴅ ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟ ᴍᴜsᴛ ʙᴇ ᴄʟᴏsᴇ!



Gale and Mike take a nap while Adelaide tries to find the gem... of course, she gets into a bit of trouble with a minotaur along the way!

[Takk]

Tʜᴇ sᴇᴄᴏɴᴅ ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟ ᴍᴜsᴛ ʙᴇ ᴄʟᴏsᴇ!

The party had been wandering for two days through the forest now, fighting off strange forest monsters and hunting for eatable fruit. Allariia's magic had kept them safe for most of the trip, offering witch light instead of fire and bending the will of nature rather than cutting it away. They wanted to find the crystal and leave the forest the same otherwise.
Returning to the fairy pool they'd seen the night before, they checked the water before deciding it was clean and filling their flasks once more with life giving water. The fair folk had gone now to sleep during the day, but their song still haunted their minds as they walked around the pool. Ixion holds up a paw, flicking at ear and freezing in place.
Ico and Allariia stop moving as well, ears up and alert for what the so called leader had heard. A shadow moved through the water toward Ixion, but he remained still and calm. A head rose from the water, long golden hair and pale blue eyes looked back at the black and grey kalon. It was a fairy queen of sorts, but not the same dwarf fairies they'd seen the night before.
"What is it you seek?" Her voice was echoed, as if they were standing in a castle dungeon. While no walls were in the area, it felt like they were trapped in. Ixion looked at his party as they calmly stepped beside him, knowing the creators were tricksters and loved a good game. Best for them to stick together...
"We seek the crystal of this land to purge evil. Many are dying, disappearing and turning into something they are not." Explains Allariia, knowing she couldn't trust Ico's smooth words here and Ixion was waiting for any questionable movement. The fairy queen rose further out of the water, showing off a aqua dress that matched her light blue eyes. Jewelry tangled around her hair, neck, arms and waste of various rose gold design. It was mostly ivy themed, but a particular piece in her wrist was an odd choice.
"Is that so? I happen to know where you might thing object... If you can answer my riddle, I'll lend it to you. Pitiful mortal being try so hard to change what is already in motion, but I'd love to watch you try." She says, folding her fingers together. The three exchange a glance, Ixion nods in agreement waiting to hear her hopefully simple question. "I follow you wherever you go, the more you take of me, the more you leave behind. What am I?"
Ico blinked, jumping forward and nearly pushing Ixion aside before the kalon grabs his arm firmly. "Jumping to conclusions already? You didn't ask what she'd do if we failed, i can't let you kill us all." He says sternly, but Ico returned a hard stare before turning to the queen.
"Footsteps." The speckled kalon replies, picturing the pawsteps he left behind in the sandy desert. The moon and starlight casting shadows over his trail, it had to be the answer. The queen looked a bit surprised, likely expecting a more hesitant answer from someone who lived in the village. Only Ico was not raised in the village, he'd seen more than the other.
"Very well, you are correct. Now, as for the crystal..."

[Lepid]

Prompt 8

Featuring: Azrael + Hera

The two heroes walked through the dense forest with Hera taking the lead. Ever since she had taken that mysterious “perfume” the skunk had made her put on, she claimed that she could “see” everything. The trees moved out of their way for her, animals of all sorts were suddenly around them the entire time. Hera seemed to be in her element here, that was for sure. Hera made lots of loops and sharp turns, wading through bushes and climbing rocks. Azrael soon realized that it was getting harder and harder to keep up with his partner. “Hey Hera, slow down!” He called out to her. It seemed like the woman couldn’t hear him though, and made another turn. Azrael also took the turn and saw that his partner had vanished into thin air. Azrael was left alone in the dark forest. The dark angel grew very tense, the muscles bunching up. He jumped at every noise that was made and he was convinced that there was something watching him. To make things worse, he couldn’t find his partner that he was heavily relying on. The duo made a great pair and could get through anything together. With her gone, he felt very vulnerable and spooked. After an hour of yelling for Hera and walking through the forest, he got sick of it. “Forget this.” He growled and climbed the tallest tree around. He finally took flight above the forest and looked down at it with a bizarre look on his face.

“What is this crap?!” He yelled angrily. The forest was a maze! It made sense to him now. They had been wandering for days, the creatures distracted them, urging them to stay for as long as they could. Heck, they even ran into a librarian that had gotten lost. Suddenly Azrael grew very worried for Hera. What if the perfume actually had her under the evil forest’s spell? He shook his head and decided to go to the center of the forest and find the crystal. Hopefully with it nearby, he could snap her out of it in time to save her before it claims another soul. The dark angel swooped down but razor-sharp thorns surrounded it, as if it were a thick shield. Azrael narrowed his two sets of eyeballs as he took his staff out and cut into the many branches of thorns. He made a hole just big enough to get himself in and sharply dived. Just as he landed, the branches grew back. “Great.” He grumbled and then looked around. There was a meadow that glowed a bright neon green. Azrael hesitated before walking into it and trying to find the crystal that seemed to blend in everywhere. It was oddly peaceful here as well. He could only hear the sounds of chirping in the distance. For a split second he forgot about his mission. All he wanted to do was lay his head down in the meadow and let it caress him. The sounds of a weeping woman suddenly brought him back into focus though. He went over to the noise but saw nothing and looked confused. “Who’s there?” The noise stopped and Azrael looked around, very tense and scared that he had just disturbed something that wished to be at peace. A big gust of wind suddenly blew in, along with a soft whisper. Azrael, startled, was knocked against a rock on the ground. He groaned as he rubbed his blurry eyes. When they shifted into focus, the angel was confronted with a skeleton. Azrael blinked and stared at it. He suddenly was overwhelmed with pity for the lost soul that was crying. The air grew very cold around him and every hair stood up on him. He slowly stood up and looked around until he saw a faint figure in the middle of the meadow. Silently he walked up to the figure who pointed to the ground and then vanished. Azrael assumed that the ghost was there to help him escape this horrible forest and save Hera from the same fate that the ghost had suffered. He kneeled down and started furiously digging the ground with his bare hands until he hit something very hard. He slowly pulled it out of the ground and brushed the dirt off of it. “The crystal…” he breathed in, lost in its beauty before he heard a loud crunching noise. “Hera?” he said immediately. Surly enough, his partner walked into view and was still humming. He was right about her being in a trance. Her eyes showed no emotion or soul in them whatsoever. Azrael slowly went up to his friend and showed her the crystal. “Look… I found the-“ before he could even finish, Hera blinked and started asking him a thousand questions about what she had missed, how she got to the meadow, where he had been, how he found the crystal, etc etc.

Azrael shook his head. “I’ll tell you on the way out of this maze.” He grumbled as he used his staff to burn another hole into the dark thorns and then picked up Hera and flew off into the night, all the while telling her about how she let a skunk trick her into almost being lost in the woods forever.
(882)

[cocoa]

Prompt 8

Sen had been the one laden with responibility of carrying the wind crystal in his bag. It was surprisingly light - less than a pound - but to Sen, it felt like fifty, carrying the weight of an entire country's fate.

Ulyana led the way, a jumble of maps and notes hanging from her hip, a compass held in front of her. He could clearly see the rune stamped onto her back, glowing faintly. All of them had it, a gift from Sen's singing friends of the forest. Ragiel walked close by, at their other flank, dagger drawn and walking in a manner, low to the ground, that would let him spring to action immediately. If Sen had more offensive and defensive potions on his tool belt than usual, then it only attested to the danger of the forest. They had been attacked by monsters and beasts enough to warrant the extra precaution.

But they were close - Sen knew it. He could feel the oppressive atmosphere lifting, too slowly to remove the sharp edge from his movements, but enough to quicken his step, nearly breaking formation.

It was then that they came to what seemed to be the end of the forest, and Ulyana pulled out a smaller paper, and Sen came up from behind to see a riddle scrawled on top. Sen was bad at those things, and left Ulyana to it until she cracked the code. "There we go," she whispered before continuing, keeping her voice low, "this path leads to the highest point of the forest. It is technically the foothills of the volcano, but it is still inside the forest. This riddle says there are many obstacles we will have to overcome, and the only key past them is to feel the forest."

Sen was mildy irritated at the vague hint. Ragiel spoke up. "Feel the forest? That sounds like something a centaur would say. Anyway... I'd rather not feel this forest, it's so evil." He hissed out the last word with all the connotation that their group was more than aware of.

Ulyana leveled Ragiel with an understanding gaze. "Yes, but I'm asking you to feel the forest you grew up with as a child. That we all grew up with. Do you know why it is us that have the power to retrieve the crystal, and why we succeeded with the wind crystal?" She paused, and when no one answered, she continued. Sen had a feeling he knew what she was about to say. "It is because we love Kalonkari, our home, for what it is. No matter our previous, perhaps less than noble professions, we are three perfectly average kalons with some skill, maybe, but also love and enough bitter nostalgia to want to see, to feel the forest we all knew again."

It was something they all could agree with, no matter how it sounded. So they stepped through the throned passage, wearing their memories like a loved suit of battle armor.

They made their way through this part of the forest easier than they thought they would, until they saw a prowling tainted lion. From were Sen stood, he could see the moment the memory spell broke when Ragiel saw the forest and fear for what it was now.

The lion turned to them, bared its teeth and growled, low in its throat. Sen ripped out a potent surface poison and hurled it at the beast, lodging broken shards of glass in the lion's skin as the poison began to sizzle, burning away fur and soon, skin.

They ran, Sen's memory spell broken too in the brief altercation. Ulyana grabbed on to him, hugged him, told him to think of the forest of his past, and when the memory spell was reestaished, they both huddled around Ragiel to comfort him. It took half an hour to help him return the spell, in which they nearly triggered several dangers of the forest passage. For Sen, it was one of the most fearful waits of his life in waiting for Ragiel to get better.

He did, and they made it to the rest of the way, were rain splattered, their bodies finally above the canopy of the forest, and wind blew harshly. The crystal sat at the top, discarded and half lodged in the dirt, as if it had fallen from the sky, discarded again.

"It's the same as the wind crystal, in the opposite spot you expect it to be," Sen muttered, eyes wide at the sight of the sparkling, dark green gem - it seemed to be splattered with purple gunk: the corruption. By now, their wind crystal had been cleaned with contact to their untainted furs.

Ulyana hummed, while Ragiel said nothing, merely staring wide-eyed over the forest in mild wonder. Memories, it must be.

"The crystal originally was at the center of the forest, buried at the center of the grand tree. But said tree was cut down. We will have to find new homes for all of these crystals, I fear," Ulyana explained.

Ragiel turned back to them to speak, quieter than normal. "When I made that bet, I don't know what i expected. Not to be half way to saving Kalonkari at the least."

Sen snorted, a bit of an uncharacteristic motion for him. "Not half way. Longer than that. I hope we do well, though." The last part was said quietly.

Ulyana smiled brightly, leaning down to remove the crystal. She briefly dusted it off before handing it to Ragiel. "I think you deserve this. You've been through more than us to get this." Vulerneably, Ragiel accepted the crystal and slipped it away into his bag with a muffled thanks.

"I believe this means it is time to leave this forest," Ulyana said with more life in her voice than had become usual in the forest.

"I'm glad," seemed to be a sentiment shared by all of them.

[Vanillasaur]

Prompt Eight
Feat. Arian, Cieran, and Ikena

...in which Arian is proud of himself for finding it, Ikena is happy to be able to rest his feet, and Cieran, being the tallest(with the longest arms), is trying to reach the darn thing

[dolly]

As the sun began to awaken so did the three. This trip had accustomed short nights, they didn't need the time but neither group had much interest in staying together for longer than they needed to. Might as well get it done quickly and sleep in once they got home was pretty much their game plan for the trip. The three slowly rolled out of where they had spent the night, slowly awakening. Well awake enough to walk straight and think at normal thought level.
Apollyon was first to begin their search for the second crystal. The tree dweller of course gets the special treatment due to his owl being a dream deity. Easy slumber, sweet dreams, and soft awakening for him. For Rossa and Roxanne, not so much so. Though not always easy to sleep little and still function well, the two of them have had practice with it from their double life days. By day, dancers in the public eye. By night, queens of a secret kingdom.
Never the less it was working time. They all forced themselves up and about to find the crystal. If last time was any indication, they'll give off some sort of attraction on the fourth day or so. Unless they managed to sleep through an entire day or delerious from lack of sleep, that was today.
Apollyon jumped from branch to branch, scanning the ground below for the crystal. Though he couldn't use his wings to fly, they helped him glide from branch to branch. His hair and long fur though, no doubt did not help one bit from getting stuck to every other branch he decided to leap to.
In the corner of his eye he spotted something. It glimmered in the sun, dancing against the dark green brush. He approached it with cation, this was a land filled with danger. You need to be on high alert at all times. As he came closer he realized it was nothing more than a few assorted fruits. Food is food. So sad he couldn't seem to find it but at least their was breakfast this morning.