Arthur’s Comments (group member since Oct 25, 2008)

Arthur’s comments from the Short Story Contests group.

10. A Figure in Gold

Hera had carried a small statue made from gold in a purse. It was a mother joined to a baby and with a rainbow over their heads. No doubt a trade value that could be melted down into raw material then used for making jewelry. They entered one of the village market places, she managed to sell the statue for her goods. Sashay found she liked something and changed into more suitable clothing. She took good boots. Also she kept the cape Hera gave her when they left the temple. She found a broach and attached it making it a hooded cape over her bodice. She found it hot walking all day. She believe having it in a hood would help her travel longer in this heat, and the smell of the cloak fabric reminded her of Spiro, an ancient material no longer used by magicians and was impossible to find anywhere anymore.

A limping man came was walking from a local tavern obviously drunk with his wine, walking the same as others in the market. He then stopped to stare from a near pole next to the door used for roping a lash for donkeys.

Standing there staring at arrivals until he lost his patience was familiar. He hated the attention visitors always got from the merchants and beggars, always being grabbed onto or pulled. Only these three gave generous with their money, and another reason for Ledman to try and break up the greedy crowd and help the visitors was they were going in the wrong direction.

Ledman watched that the sun was going down but then he pulled out his lantern and lit it from a hip sack. He drew closer and walked to them. This was the way if you wanted to get them away. They only wanted your money now and don’t care how they get it, he mumbled thinking.

“You can’t blame them, you gave them money.” Ledman said sadly admitting to a truth, that beggars in a market were hard to get rid of.

“Well they can have it,” Hera said to Ledman.

“Oh no. Please don’t say that; and don’t give them charity, no. None of that. They are heathens. They will work to get it, you watch. Come. Follow me to my place, I have nice food and a nice room you may share with and it will be free, just for visitors.” Ledman said.

“Where?” Asked Football.

Ledman pointed to an old door on a shack built next to a churchyard. There was a light from a burning candle coming to life in the window now.

9. A Cave near The Black Sea

The three angels disappeared to only reappear and not very far off but in another place to greet the boss of crime, war and famine. And lest evil and punishment. A patient creature evil became, made of fabrics of heaven and now cast to be among the people of Earth in their likeness and for years observing things since it’s creation of man. He stood looming a song impatiently on his playing golden harp. A beautiful thing it was, it had a figure of a woman’s torso carved in it. He pulled the string tempting to let it hum a tune as the three angels enter and interrupt him. He rose suddenly sleekly softly.

“You learned something?” Satan asks.

“No lord. There are but three traveling from the temple to seek something. We think they bring a message from God to you. Is this right? Should they be brought and left to you?” One asked.

“No. Why should God seek mortals to make a difference unless he has some great task the rest of Earth must witness? No, I believe he wouldn’t try talking to me now unless he needed me again, maybe he will. Maybe I am needed, but he wouldn’t send them looking for me.” He thought for a moment to his own vanity and decided that he could help God if God helped him. “Did they hint that I was sought after?” Satan questioned.

“No lord, they proved secretive.” One replied.

“And you can’t break them?” he asked.

“No. One seemed weak, the one called Football, but they were protecting him with their wizardry.”

“I see. Well I may send you to follow them if they adventure far. Don’t go far!” he said to the three angels pointing to a bench in a corner implying they sit. Sitting they flared a dark light over their faces and waited on Satan.

8. The Demon Angels

They camped slept that night and woke by sunrise. They were unsure why they were walking so much. The walking was getting to Sashay, and Sashay’s boots were making her feet sore.

Hera hadn’t changed very much. Football had talked with her more and more.

Three angels ascended on them and tried to speak. Everything they said came out lies.

“We know God asked you to find Satan, but he is now back with God. God has changed his will and wants you three to stop looking now.”

Hera shrugged and continued to walk. Sashay held onto Football as they attempted to ignore the three angels.

“You don’t believe?” One finally questioned.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Hera answered.

“Then it’s your own fault if you meet with trouble, God protects his flock only when he leads, only those who disobey be destroyed.” The angel said, and then they each disappeared.

Hera turned to her train, “Whatever they wanted, they left and they warned us. We know what type of mischievous angels those were. We only don’t know what is coming.”

thanks Olivia, yes I'll try and finish

6. Past the Sand Plains and Dunes

“See the moon at these times? They shone so wonderful this time of year.” Hera said. She led the group to the Plains, and they looked for water but found none. The moon was full and big in the night and the air was blue but there was no water.

7. The Dunes

“The safest way through the Sand Plains is to avoid directly walking great distances against storms. There it is easy to lose your sense of direction and become lost. I don’t like the Plains much even myself.” Hera said.

Sashay tried understanding what it was like as a Sunbeam. A creature not ethereal in chemistry. But Hera could read magic, use it and change her shape to cloud. Hera had many gifts and she was making herself ready to use them against Luceille or even Satan when the time came.

Luceille wasn’t here on Earth. It was unlikely god would cast a second demon to the Earth no matter the penalty of treason against the angels and heaven. Luceille was not likely aware they were attempting to thwart his latest plans. And Satan may learn of it. But once they put a stop to Luceille then he would have to even pay the price. And God’s anger can’t consume himself.

In time they had reached dunes that had forests and water. The three reached water and set camp in one patch of forest near a river and Football caught fish. He managed to stagger around looking for enough herbs and roots he liked to cook the fish in a pot into a stew. They all ate heartily that day.

4. In the Temple

Football enters the temple to find a lonely woman standing there. She bends her head. They have met somewhere before or in another time. She looks up at him, trapping his curiousness into a lock. Her lock. He doesn’t sway from the fright he should, but bites his tongue. She is beautiful. Not like Sashay at all but very beautiful.

5. The Sunbeam

The woman that lived at the foot of a mountain in a temple at the foot of the swamp was no other than a Sunbeam. They were women who at one time lived in clouds who had survived from long ago and now find rest in places sometimes on Earth. She knows things about nature, her tribe have always been a part of the cloud, some were giant women and some small and beautiful like Hera, who had been come down to the Earth, she was very beautiful.

Hera had drawn a little curtsy with her dress, in the temple her dress appeared a simple smock of pink with soft blue ribbon sashaying her shoulder. She wore a tight marbling ash-graying garland woven and placed on her head. Her cold staring black eyes outshone her modest skin pale color. Her blondness was like lightning and burning as the scepter she held. Her scepter had many flowers woven and feathers from a peacock on one end; a sign of prosperity.

“This is her who called for me.” The priestess Sashay answered for Football. He stood unfashionably glaring open mouthed at the woman of the temple. Shoots of sunbeam escaped the woman when she moved toward them in greeting.

“Welcome, huntress – priestess – and wizard, I need your help. You are highly recommended to me.”

“Oh?” Sashay asked not in the least impressed. She had never had a successful adventure yet, not one she was totally proud of herself. Even though if this woman knew Sashay and called her to seek this temple, then it was okay. Now she wanted to know what adventure she was going to. First she would have to strike a bargain and set the price, then she would move on as she always did. Eventually others will have heard of her and she could set her price.

“Yes. Only it is a mission.” Hera stated. “One God has appointed either of us to complete. Let’s be on our way now.” Hera pointed to the door of her temple which merely led back outside.

“We leave now?” Football asked.

“We leave now. There is no time for anything else, I will explain as we go to the Sand Planes. There are no secrets between us. Now come.” Hera made as fact her statements questioning the two to follow.

“First we bargain, and then I decide.” Sashay said. She gave a false glare to Hera.

She wasn’t the first adventurer to be duped by wealthy pushers who didn’t give the earnings afterward, there was need of guarantees.

Hera pulled from her sleeve a magical scroll the angel had left with her.

“This explains what is to be done and what we will earn.” Hera pointed to the scroll.

After Sashay read it she still was unsure what to believe. Any of it could be true. Any of it not. The angel descended once again from the gates of heaven before Hera and this time Football and Sashay were present. It wasn’t a mirage Hera had had earlier, it was an ethereal creature of the dominion of God.

After much derision the three set out on foot together towards the Sand Planes.

The footsteps fall into silence. An echo crosses as the winds pull up on the fences. A burglar alarm drones in the background somewhere. The night charms leaving things behind with easy concern for them. Many sleep in the distance. The alarm drones on without stop. A door sways back and forth. A cat stops to look up at the swaying of it. It's only thought is to muse and it scurries that much quicker away.

3. The Swamp

“Come.” Said a woman to a boy lipped, but fairly tall and stood very stoutly. His trudging right behind her, her beckoning of her voice was to prove where to go in this swamp.
“Sashay there is no way you are going to go far in this much muck. Let’s camp outside these swamps, I don’t like this.” The large man’s voice voraciously boomed as he let down his gentle boots, his axe and lumpy bag to a wet ground. “Hear me priestess, wizard-grand dame, me Football, go no further!” he exclaimed.

“By the winds, are yer dafter?” exclaimed the priestess. She had turned for the briefest of moments. Her beauty merely had an effect on the rest of the swamp. It shone on its parts revealing that she stood in the mists of ruins of land guiltily. Her dress was made of unusual fabric only a queen could afford. There was no straps, because it was cut across her and held snugly against her chest. Her slim shoulders therefore protruded. Her mouth there after twitched and then was set agape as she waited on the dwarf to pick up his gear he had trodden with. Sashay the priestess held on one arm her great pecking bird. Their faces still froze with hatred for the place she has just left. Doom for that castle and all those who would remain. She was lucky to escape.

“We have no purpose to leave priestess. There was no one coming, yer was just wrong. All sorts of misshapen things come and goes, those just does. Yer was just rungzy, let’s go back.” The dwarf named Football decided for once the priestess could have been wrong because it remained far to quiet in the distance to mean anything.

“No, I dare not.” Sashay said.

“Why not?” He pleaded in a deeply but immature throaty squawk.

“Because,” She said.

Three days had past since they came to the castle. One reason or another Sashay felt indifferent to the people there. As if it had been a mistake to come.

“Because I’ve been called away,” she added. “Never mind those crones back at Castle Surebrock, we’re just not going back, no way.” Sashay said pulling her dress along as she began to head into the swamp. “this is the shortest way. Let’s get there before dawn, I’ll hate being in the sun in this dress.”

“Dawn? Sashay, I need sleep. I need to get rest, you only have that dress?”

“Yes, yes, yes. But it’s all your own fault for drinking with the other gentlemen in the castle, I told you not too.”

“True, but I said I’ll try one, then it was just another.”

“Then after a few you didn’t know any longer?”

“That’s right.”

Sashay prompted Football to quicken his senses.

They strode for hours.

“You didn’t answer me Sashay. You only have the one dress?”

“It doesn’t matter, we are here.” Sashay said pointing to a temple down at the side of a mountain. They had escaped the swamps and were happy to have found a temple.

Title: God and His Winds
Author: Arthur
Words: x
Notes: running a little slow with this story, but will have it going up to finish soon.

1 : God at the Gates

The cosmos has gotten boring again.

The cosmos was once a place of many people and much adventure; yet much confusion. God brought all of that to an end.

God yawns. He stretches to his full height. He’s looking at Peter. With peculiarity he calls on one of the angels.

“Football!” God exclaims to an angel, meaning ‘did you just see that?’. With an aside God snickers; God says “seize that!” in an awful and mundane sort of sense.

It isn’t nice tricking God. God who’s no fool easily sees that something is amiss and going to go wrong and takes the initiative. With Luceille there has been much trouble. Luceille has been a dark angel from the beginning and is the cousin of Satan the original liar. God stood there in God’s gates watching the flock come of people up to the gates to be let in to heaven. God had made his usual smile to greet them but God still sensed the trouble. Peter stood waiting on God to open the Gate and allow Peter and the heaven’s angels to greet the troubled people and their pasts past the Gate and into giving them life in heaven. Peter stood and waited on God. God decided to hold up and stood and waited.

Clouds appeared and separated above God’s head. In frustration God choose not to open the gate immediately. Instead God sent out a group of angels to direct the oncoming flow of spirits and to divert them until God’s feeling of the trouble coming subsided, and to inspect the flock for infiltrators, one never can be too sure.

Minutes only passed and his feeling didn’t grow immediately. One of God’s favorite angels came and went filled with news and a revelation.

That angel traveled down to a temple on the Earth bringing the message for one of the trusted ones.

The chosen one or eleutherian was in the temple and had been in a heavy dream when the angel arrived.


2. The Eleutherian

The angel appeared before the woman in the temple. It ascended until it was before the woman. The woman was working and when she finally realized to look up she was looking in at a great pair of wings. The angel waved its wings down at her. Extending them, the angels sometimes used this as a way to communicate, they point out their wings until fully extended and the feathers looked like wisps of light. It was kind of an offering to the people who saw the angels. People rarely saw a being in an ethereal presence like that of beings of God’s many angels.

The angel unfurled a magical scroll and waved his hand for the woman to come see what God had said had come to pass.

Christy wrote: "I suggest sun stroke."

or maybe just the word: stroke. I can imagine using it sometime topic-wise. Using it may apply to the many types - thanks Christy

These are stories that are ALWAYS less than 75 - 100 words. Today's topic is Footsteps.

You may write your story to be a really short self story, personal mystery or experience. It can be anything

old motto ... 'early to bed, early to rise'

***This contest is closed***

Very nice story people!! Go vote in the featured poll for your favorite story this week!!

Youth stories always reflect the culture that affects our youth. When I'm older I will study all about culture and all kinds of things that are diverse in the universe. And when I finally grow to be old I will share my knowledge even with those reluctant.

Davis swoops in taking another WIN! Congrats Davis, and thanks to everyone else still for their stories.

The new contest is already posted. Be sure to check out this weeks stories or show off your story.

These are stories that are ALWAYS less than 75 - 100 words. Today's topic is Private.

You may write your story to be a really short self story, personal mystery or experience. It can be anything

Instructions:
Please do not use a story previously used on goodreads. After the week's contest, you are welcome to put it on your profile writings, but please refrain from using stories you have already put on there.

You have until Saturday afternoon to post a story on here. Please post it directly onto this topic, rather than posting a link. Also, please do not discuss stories on here. You must go to Weekly Short Story Contest Discussion for that. This will avoid any clutter and confusion, so that people can simply come on here and read the story, without having to read comments on the story.

This week's Topic is Frostbite. If anyone has any objections to this topic, please go to the Objections post. The rules are pretty loose. You could write about frostbit, frostbitten, frostbiting, frostbites, pretty much anything. Just have the word in the story.

Weekly stories must be at least 500 words long to 2,500 words long. (if the whole story won't fit in one post, divide it into two)

Good luck!

Arthur [acting for Clare:]

P.S. PLEASE say if you would like to have your story on Short Story Galore, if you win. This way it wouldn't take me ages to get your consent afterwards. This includes adding a link to your stories. If you want to have your story on the Short Story Galore, but not the link, just say so.

You have until Sunday afternoon to post a poem on here before the Topic changes. Please post it directly onto this topic, rather than posting a link. You're welcome to discuss poems on here also.

This week's Topic is Crazed. If anyone has any objections to this topic, please go to the Poetry Topic Objections post.


Poems can be as long and short as you want them to be. This is not a contest, it's just for fun and to show off our own poetry.

The royal loyalty marched onto the field, which in the battle the lieutenant had given his order, but earlier he said they were on holiday. Five hundred stood proud, shot at became no concern. Joining them strong, even the sergeant helped and they held their line against the invaders. The invading camped on the borders enthralled to cross the rivers in an attack. Seeking to find solace beating down on the defenders at their weakest moments. At some point they began to embark across. They began by singing in march a merry tune about a man with a hat that had feathers.

strike, strike strike. the union had petitioned against unfair labor wages. the army stood in and chained the government buildings sending all the poor officials each home without pay. the world corrupted and then eventually cracked in half from the weight of unemployment. weeds ate sidewalks, trees blew in the wind. stores were burnt to the ground after being robbed penniless. "it's hectic!" screamed one of them still on strike.