[stan.]

Heidi


Female


One


"If this kalon could go back in time and change anything, what would it be?"

Fur and feathers flew off into the breeze as animals rushed out of their homes, scrapping their bodies against whatever and anything they found on their path.

The dry wind also carried smoke and ashes across the darkened sky, opaquing the light from above. Stars and moon paled in front of bright orange flames, and leaves on fire rained down, severed from their branches, as some sort of fiery snowflakes. Or at least, that's what they looked like in her eyes.

Even Heidi, and a group of mostly older folks, were distancing themselves from the ablaze woods. Yet, the burnt dust catches up with them, getting into their lungs as if the forest claimed some sort of revenge on them. On the ones that caused this.

But that was just a feeling. Nature wasn't capable of thinking, of acting on what happened to it, nor of knowing and recognizing.

Or so thought a blue kalon. As more and more smoke came after them, doubts on that statement began to appear.



The smoke brought rain, for days and days. Grey and black skies, adorned with the blackened treetops and bark. Some would fall off, finally cracking under the added weight of the water.

Even as they were soaked and cold, the group of travellers abstained themselves from setting up another campfire. The logs around them were too wet and burned to be usable to set a fire anyways.

During those days, Heidi's mind didn't wandered off to forget about what she had been supposed to do.

"Go back and make sure the campfire is off, Heidi."

It should've been so easy. Just kick some dirt into it if some coal was still alit. Now, instead, she kicked herself mentally for not inspecting it better. For not blowing into it, or moving the outer wood to check if the core was still burning, or for not throwing rocks and ground at it, no matter how it looked.

But of course, the rest of the group didn't blamed her. She just didn't saw it.

"You're just a child," they would tell her.

"Trees always grow back," they insisted.

That scent of burning coal remained on her for months, perhaps on her mind more than in reality. Or maybe it did got so much into her lungs.

Regardless, she never forgot such carelessness. That were the reasons they said "better safe than sorry."



[None, replacing with writing extra]



She had to remind herself of washing her paws.

Hours of walking over any surface, would get something sticking on them, and Heidi hated having to handle things with dirty paws, only getting the dirt over other things.

Of course, she often forgot to do so until she already was holding something. Sometimes the blonde would drop what she was holding and forget to pick it up.

Heidi even forgot to keep track of the days.

And Heidi really hated forgetting.

She'd stomp and hiss, throwing a really childish tantrum. Sometimes until she was in the verge of tears.

Always mad for something she couldn't control very well.

[dimi.]

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[dimi.]

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[petrify]

Name: videl

Gender: male

How many kalons do you own?: 32

Prompt:
"If this kalon could go back in time and change anything, what would it be?"

the sound of glass shattering and his mother screaming.

the feeling of fear and a cold sweat going throughout his body as he quickly rounded the corner, slipping on the cold hardwood floors.

the sight in front of him stopped him dead in his tracks; a raggedy man standing behind his mother, his teeth sunk into her shoulder.

videl let out the breath he didn't know he was holding, taking in a deep breath as he ran forward and shouted for the intruder to let go of his mother.

the smell of blood was strong as he ran to the aid of his mom, who looked to be going into complete shock.

he had pushed the man back, and looked deep into his eyes.

the man's eyes were empty. no emotion whatsoever. videl felt another cold sweat go through his body, and the hair on his arms and the back of his neck stood to attention.

quickly sweeping his mother into his arms - thank god he had been recently going to the gym - he made his way up the stairs to their home and into his room, laying her on his bed.

blood quickly seeped into his pure white sheets, and he ran to grab some of his shirts, pressing it into the deep bite.

she was pale, her head rolling back and forth as she stared blankly up at the ceiling.

grabbing her hands, she felt clammy, and he put her hands to where the shirts were covering her wound, telling her to hold it tightly. he had forgotten to lock the door.

when he turned, the door flew open, and the man was back. along with some company.

videl took a surprised step backwards, considering running past them. but his mother.

swinging, he hit the man from earlier straight in the temple, knocking him backwards and earning a snarl from him. pushing the other two with all of his might, all of them were out the door. slamming it, he locked it and turned back to his mother.

her hands had slid, laying limp beside her.

he murmured her name, telling her to stay with him as he pressed the shirts into her neck with one hand, the other going to his phone and dialing the paramedics.

he was confused when the line went silent, feeling the tears begin to well up in his eyes. what was he to do?

hearing a groan, he looked down to see his mother stirring. he felt relief wash over him, until he saw her blank eyes. he called out a soft "mom?" before she lunged, growling like a hungry wolf as she snapped at him.

he had seen this in the movies before. he just never thought it would actually happen, especially to him.

---

three months later, and here he is, wondering how everything had gone so wrong. he's with another group of survivors. there's seven of them in total, and they had found each other just a few days into the apocalypse; which videl was very glad for.

they're sitting on top of a small building, nigh-fall upon them and food cooking on top of a small fire in the middle of them when one of them pops the question.

"if you could go back in time and change anything, what would it be?"

videl instantly snickered, shaking his head a bit. wasn't that question a bit obvious? he let the others answer before him, though.

most of them just said how they regretted not doing something before everything happened, to videl's surprise. you think they would've looked at the bigger picture here. but, to be fair, he wouldn't have met any of these wonderful people without all these terrible things happening to him.

"what about you, videl?" the initial person asked, looking to him as they stirred the food in the pot.

he kept eye-contact with them for a few moments before his gaze looked at the cold concrete beneath him. clearing his throat after a long silence, he looked up.

"i would've put myself downstairs when my mother was being attacked by one of those things and saved her."

"you wouldn't have just stopped all of this instead?"

he slowly shook his head,

"i wouldn't have met my best friends without the apocalypse. it just would've been easier with my mother here. she was my rock. she would've made everything alright."

[733/1500 words]

Optional Art: n/a

Writing Extra:
"where is that coming from?! and how?!"

an alarm was going off in the mall the group was trying to raid, the noise almost ear-deafening. there was no power in this place so how in the hell was the fire alarm going off? the things would be there any minute now, considering all the damn noise.

"i have no idea, but we gotta get out of here, like, yesterday!" the male videl was with shouted back, the man starting a jogging pace. videl, of course, followed beside him.

everybody had split off into small groups to search the whole place more thoroughly, but videl was cursing himself for agreeing with the stupid plan. staying together was safer; when you separated, only bad things happened.

just as videl was about to say something, he heard the screeching from those... things.

"dammit! we don't have any time to find the others!" he shouted, his pace beginning to pick up to a sprint. the bags of food he had were slowing him down, and he considered dropping it. it wouldn't do him any good if he died at the hands of those monsters trying to run away.

"damn it to hell!" he exclaimed as he began dropping some of the bags he was carrying, putting the one he didn't drop around his neck. it felt lighter, and he was able to run faster. his friend beside him did the same.

after a few fearful minutes of running, videl spotted the exit. he ran faster, somehow, and reached the door. he turned as he began to open the door, a relieved smile on his face.

"we made it o-"

where... where the hell was his friend?

fear began to settle in as he let the door close, beginning to run back in.

"guys?!" he shouted, goosebumps going throughout his body as he frantically looked around. his head snapped to the right of him as he heard a screech, one of the things jumping at him.

shouting in surprise, he turned towards the exit and ran for his life, swinging open the door and letting it slam behind him. he ran until he couldn't.

collapsing in some knee-high grass, he could already feel the bugs biting at him, but it was better than those... zombies biting him. breathing heavily from running his lungs to their capacity, he stared at the mall, which was barely visible at this point. bringing his knees to his chest, he laid his forehead on top of them and hoped for his friends to find him.

they never did.

[428/500 words]

[dimi.]

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[witchcrafting]

marking

[.clarity]

Name:
Gender: male
How many kalons do you own?: 0
Prompt:
Optional Art:
Writing Extra:

mark/wip

[dimi.]

Two Day Warning!
This competition is going to end on June 1st at 10:00 PM CST. No extensions have been requested as of right now, so this competition is very unlikely to receive an extension at all. Please get your forms completed. Thank you! For the rest of this comp, I am going to be permitting extras if it'll help you better develop the character. I prefer writing over art.

[chunkypeanutbutter]

moving to my stories page !