Update

Hey all, here's another update for everyone.

-Caitlin will be posting stuff really soon! I'm not the only one on here. No. That's creepy.
-There's new pages, as you might have already noticed. Join the contests.
-There's a new continuing novel page! Black Feather has been added. It'll probably only continue if you guys enjoy it.

Thanks! That's it.

Dark

        They say that a single candle can overcome the darkness. A single light can chase away the night that swamps all. 

        It's a truthful statement. But for me, I wish that there was a light. I'm a single shadow, wandering through the wallowed out dark path. No light has come to me yet. I see the endless possibilities, but it's impossible for me to approach them. I'll be like a gust of wind, destroying my own savior. It'll be pointless, hopeless. 

        I guess I'll just wait here until my light comes.

        I'm losing hope. 

I Like Ferrets by Cynthia

I Like Ferrets

Once upon a time, there was a carnivorous purple butterfly. He liked ferrets. They were his favorite food.

The butterfly flapped around the world, eating ferrets and turnips. Why? I don’t know. Ask the butterfly. If you want to risk your life to ask a butterfly why he likes turnips, go ahead. You were asking about ferrets? Why didn’t you say so?

While flying around Paris, the butterfly fell madly in love with a ferret he saw on the Eiffel Tower. Because he couldn’t be within ten feet of a ferret without having the urge to eat it, the butterfly was sad.

Now, the ferret’s name was Flibbertigibbet, which means:

a frivolous, flighty, or excessively talkative person.

Anyway, Flibbertigibbet was also smitten with the butterfly. She - I told you the butterfly was male, didn’t I? - climbed up the Eiffel Tower to say hello to the butterfly. She said something in Ferretish. I don’t speak Ferretish, so I can’t tell you what she said. However, I do speak purple-carnivorous-butterflyish, so I can tell you what the butterfly said. No questions.

Flibbertigibbet: asdfuhalskdjfhalskdjfh.

Butterfly: No, Flibbertigibbet, I will eat you.

(The butterfly could understand Flibbertigibbet, of course, because purple carnivorous butterflies are omnilingual. I have no idea how that happened, but that’s the way the world works.)

Flibbertigibbit: awww.

Butterfly: I know, it’s sad.

Flibbertigibbet: qwieurahsdjkfkamsnmd. uqerjhjwe asfhaskjfqoweri andsfjks cl jsfhksdkjfkhj?

Butterfly: Me? A vegetarian? But… I’m carnivorous! It says so in my species name!

(How a butterfly knows about binomial nomenclature beats me. For the curious: Riodinidae carnivorae.)

Flibbertigibbet: KJSDFJHKAJCNMLOOSJDHFKSFLLLLL!!!!!!!

Butterfly: But I’m carnivorous!

Flibbertigibbet: WUKJDFFXNCMK!

Butterfly: Oh, right, I forgot about the turnips.

Flibbertigibbet: jjjj.

Butterfly: All right, I’ll be vegetarian.

Flibbertigibbet: jjjj.

And so the butterfly became vegetarian and married the ferret. (Anything is possible when it comes to interspecies marriage. Interspecies breeding, however, is a different matter.) They lived happily ever after, at least until the butterfly died. Being a butterfly, it had a life expectancy of approximately two years.

Moral: Carnivores can become vegetarian. And love is really the most powerful driving force on Earth (closely followed by inertia and fear, but we aren’t talking about that right now).

A Bond Like the Sky

While it may shine

or blow

or send down snow

we are in this together

It may hail

 or rain

or acid it contains

we are in this together

It may storm 

or thunder 

or shake us under

we are in this together

It may sleet 

or fog

or be thick smog

we are in this together 

We hold hands 

and go

and take it slow

in whatever weather. 

Edgar Allen Poe by Pollen

Edgar Allan Poe. The king of depressing literary works. Or so I call him. Many years ago, I read The Raven. Recited it out loud to my reflection in the mirror. A perfect, dramatic, interpretation of the poem and yet, no one was there to witness it. I was alone. Like the man in The Raven with no one but a bird of bad omens for company, I was alone. No one would listen to me. I was alone.

You see, loneliness is something that creeps up on you. You don’t notice it at first within the first day, but it settles on you, it festers in you, and by the time you notice that you have no one, it is already too late.

A Boat, a Man, and a Laugh

The lilt of the wind seems to tip everyone ever so slightly off their feet. I walk along the bridge, huddling in the scraps of cloth that are left on my back. They’re precious, I don’t want to lose them. We’re on a bridge, peering down at clear ocean water down below. On the right the bridge peters down into stairs- the entrance to the sandy beach. A boat, with an active propeller, chugs forward in the water, going towards the open sea.

We are all busy at first- the malaria outbreak was disastrous. Through the crowd is the firing of information. Malaria had spread to almost every single species of mosquito, and people were dying left and right. As we learn where food, water, and shelter was, we are distracted from things that are right in front of our face.

A scream shocks us back to our senses. A young child with olive skin and thick hair is clutching onto the back of the boat. She grips it hard and faces down, but we all realize that she is going to be cut into pieces by the propeller as soon as she gets tired.

Thymine looks at me, nudges me in the stomach. Why doesn’t she just let go?

It’s probably because it’s her boat. She doesn’t want to lose it. I’m wondering why she’s holding on to it like that in the first place.

Some rush off into the sand in hopes of helping her. Thymine is one of them. I just stand here, watching the scene.

The boat rocks dangerously due to the girl’s struggles. I would say she’s about fifteen. She doesn’t look stupid, but it must have taken a lot of idiocy to get into that position.

Suddenly a man appears. He has scruffy hair, obviously not washed in days. He clambers onto the boat from the front and reaches out to help the girl. The people who jumped in earlier to help her swim back to the shore, satisfied that she had help.

I have my suspicions, though. Thymine is back on the bridge by now, since they didn’t make it too far into the water, and is shaking out her long locks. I hand her my cloak and shirt, much to her surprise. She’s about to say something, but it’s too late to change my mind. My feet dig hard into the bridge, and I run as fast as I can. Diving into the cool water, the eyes sting from the salt. The boat is puttering away, so I have to slowly close the gap.

I knew that something bad was going to happen as soon as the man set foot in the boat. He has the smirk on his face and the girl almost lets a scream out in horror. She can’t let go, otherwise her feet will be in shreds, and the man was going to make the situation worse.

He gently lifts her hands off the boat, and careens her to the side in a gently sliding motion. I hover in the water for a small moment, relieved that she’s safe. She screams once more, shaking in horror. We’re all confused until the man laughs and cranks the boat into full speed, off into the great blue sea.

I swim after him, even though the girl says its a lost cause. I know it’s not. Right ahead is a net of seaweed. As soon as I resurface, the boat is tangled and I can almost touch the edge. The slimy plants wreathe my legs, but I soon pull up onto the boat as silently as I can. The man curses as he leans over, trying to work the seaweed out of the propeller. I grab the back of his shirt and toss him over my shoulder, into the salty water.

The man is furious, but has become tangled in the seaweed. Quickly I reverse the propeller and go back towards the shore. The girl waves her arms in the air to make her easier to spot, and soon as I get close enough I grab her hand. It’s smooth and warm, despite it having soaked in the chilly water for some time. She finds a seat in the boat, dripping with the ocean water. Her hair has soaked into a single lock, shining in the light.

She laughs, despite the situation. A tinkling, warm, sweet sound.

The best reward for anything I had ever done.