Short Story/Poem Contest

[Bastadaen]

The stairs groaned supporting the weight of the large ogre man PrincessMarri followed. They didn't stop at the first floor.. down one more level.. two levels.. Finally they reached an ornate wooden door.

"We don't live up top because the spookiness is the only thing that keeps people away," he whispered as he unlocked the door. "But down here.. we can be ourselves!"

What PrincessMarri saw next completely surprised her. A hundred candles lit up a huge banquet room two-hundred feet long. Stone columns supported arches that reached up to three grand chandeliers. Along the sides large wine cellars had been retrofitted into.. bunk bed dorm rooms? PEOPLE.. she suddenly realized there were people in the room.. people in the basement of a haunted house, and they weren't scared!

"Hey who are you?" one poked.
"Look! a new girl! kind of older than usual.." another yelled out.

PrincessMarri was suddenly surrounded by a huge crowd of kids.. being pulled into a sort of circus room with lights and guitar music.. drumming, not to the guitar's rhythm.. and GAMES! lots of games. board games, hopscotch, jump ropes, darts, and wrestling matches.. and FOOD! first she smelled fresh baked cookies, then she saw at the end of the great hall was a table of bread loaves, fruit, fish and jerky.

"This is amAZing!" she blurted out.
"You see.. every once in a while, a courageous kid walks into our house," the ogre smiled, "But then they realize that its more fun being here than with their parents!"

With that the children pulled her hand in five different directions and she was off! She had never had soo much fun, eaten soo much food, played soo many games! After what must have been an hour of twirling about playing and laughing, two boys about twelve years-old tugged on PrincessMarri's shirt.

"I'm Ron!" "I'm Jon!" "Would you like some coffee?"
"Do I ever!!" PrincessMarri tasted the best bittersweet brew she had every experienced. "Where did you get this?!"
"Over here, we made it!"

They led her over to another room where there was a large iron contraption over a fire.

"It's custom crafted.. the only one in the kingdom," Ron boasted with a broad smile.
"Makes us stay up ALL night!" Jon chimed in over Ron's shoulder.
"That's what I would worry about!" PrincessMarri chided.

To the left of the iron coffee maker and in the center of the room was a large painting—a portrait of a man, two women and four kids, the man was holding a cat in one hand and a woman's hand in the other. The woman by herself was dressed in black and was holding the leash to a mean-looking dog. The title below read "Our Family."

Suddenly thinking of her own family.. and friends.. PrincessMarri began to make her way toward the door.

"Wow hmm.. so well its about time I leave.."
"Hahaha.. you're so funny!" yelled one of the children following her.
"No really I should leave.. my friends are.."
"You can't leave now.." interrupted the ogre, chuckling.
"No really I must!"
"No, really, you can't!" said another child, almost squeaking.

PrincessMarri suddenly felt the hundreds of eyes looking at her again, this time trapping her in! They were blocking the exit. She was outnumbered.

"Hey.. listen.. you guys are really awesome but I really do have to go!" PrincessMarri started to panic.
"You CAN'T leave," the children chanted in unison, "YOU CAN'T LEAVE!!"


____
contest is over..
if you want the last chapter send me a message.

[maddusa]

T he story's told of long ago about a game best ever
H ow can I blame you that you spend more time with wild mary and sir robin, instead your wife
E nd of the adventures I dream and dream and dream for witch towers, black castle (i can take even pink castle)

S o if it would have ended that way even i wont win smile on you, you smile on me
E lite soldiers stay calm even your Recruits can take all splash damage from bandits
T o realize what good game really means not what they want you to spend money for it
T o find that one game that will turn my whole leisure time around
L ife is nothing but dreams, live life to the fullest, making good and bad decisions
E nd of the events i dream and dream and dream for winning gemssssssss
R ip my heart out and stomp on it, It’s okay if it makes you happy dont let me win this event
S oon, the game who first had the dream was pushed aside, was shot and being forgotten for TSO



O f course VoV,SotV,BK,ML,SE must be tough,of course they challenge your army, of course they hard to finish,and most definitely brutal to finish.
N ow iron did make the militias so strong and steel did make soldiers unbeatable
L ove my guild, friends, island and BBs with my hold heart.
I dream about the impossible to leveling up to 50 and all my buildings leveled up to 5
N othing compared to this game's beauty, joy, and creativity
E nd of the my poem just last thing i can say I LOVE THIS GAME


maddusa

[SirRobert-]

"I bid you well, folks far and near
"Settlers on our island dear"
A skip and a tip, 'though he had no hat,
A flourish, a bow, a light leap o'er a cat.
"Rise up! Rise up! Let us shout! Let us cheer!
"It's Halloween eve. Halloween's almost here! Hear hear! Hear hear!"
Elliot! Elliot! Hurrah! Hurray!
Tell us more! Tell us more of Halloween day
And the night before when "evil" does play.
He tumble-rolled and sprang to his feet,
Cartwheeled to a porch and there took a seat.

Tells us, oh tell us, 'bout pumpkin pies
And jack-o-lanterns with scary eyes!
And the wicked priests who come to yield
Up their prayers o're there, right there, in the pumpkin field.
That story gives me a shiver, no doubt, no doubt
But that's half the fun - you better look out!
And those who, at that, glanced over to look
At the pumpkin field saw only pumpkins - round, ready-to-cook.

And the pumpkin man - don't leave him out
He's my favorite, the scariest, a lad did shout.
Elliot told and he told while the eve'n did run
And they laughed and they laughed knowing all was in fun.
And the pumpkins lay there, still warm from the sun.

Finally Elliot stood, brushing off his behind, said I've pumpkin seeds roasting
We've a party tonight, I'll be there, so will you, for toasting and boasting.

Walking home, a bit later, with her pa, Alice Grace
Clung to his trousers, breaking his pace.
"Hey now little muffin you can't ride my leg
"We've too far to go and you've gotten to big."
"I don't like that man papa," Alice Grace said with a frown.
"What's that? You mean Elliot? But he's just the town clown!"
"I'd think you would like him. He's not fair of face
"But he was here when we got here and taught us this place.
"He taught us especially where each thing would grow.
"We'd never have thought to plant pumpkins, that's so -
"'though his knowledge elsewhere is surprisingly shallow.
"His head is quite large, his complexion's quite sallow
"Really more orange than red is his hair. It's a study!"
"But if you ever need anything, he's there; he's your buddy."
"Still," Alice Grace looked up and said in low tones,
"I like stories 'bout princesses not pumpkins on bones!"
He ruffled her hair and he tossed her up high.
"You'll have fun there tonight. You'll see. So will I."

Cymbals and noise-making crackers and poppers
Blind bluffing players and three legged hoppers
Ciders and spices and pumpkin dishes all sorts
Oldsters pipe smoking and pumpkin bomb forts
And Elliot leading the games every one
Ensuring that all and every has fun
In his high stepping boots with a sword at his side
And a deftly carved pumpkin with his head there inside.
"Who wants to toss pumpkins and see them go splat?
"Who wants to race o'er them; tripping on one too fat?
"If the Pumpkin Master says it, that's me yes-siree,
"You've got to go do it before I can count three!"

At a quarter to midnight with all running riot
Elliot sat in a shadow, just sitting there quiet.
"Hoy, Elliot there! Man, what's the matter?"
Said farmer McGrudder, "Have you run out of patter?"
"Come sit here beside me, McGruder my friend.
"I'm thinking it's time these festivities end.
"I've been having dreams of peculiar sort
"That the stories I've told might just not be for sport
"Like dim memories I've lived and now dream
"And whispering voices I hear 'til I scream.
"I'm hearing them now, I think, do you hear them?
"I don't understand them but I really do fear them."
"Baugh! Whispers and dreams! There'd be nothing ruder
"Than stopping this party or my name ain't McGrudder!"
Elliot forced out a chuckle and slapped on his knee
"Of course, friend McGrudder, that's how it must be.
"I'm off to the cellar to get some more brew!
"I'm off to the cellar to get some more brew!"

Down in that cellar with her friend Mary Margret Magrew
Little Alice Grace was making mud pies with that very brew.
If their fathers could see them they'd be apoplectic
And wash out their mouths with a nasty antiseptic.
So when the cellar door opened they hid, at the back,
As Elliot came down and coughed with a hack;
Then moaned and bent over holding his head
Well, the pumpkin upon it, of course, in its stead.
He sat down with a thump on the bottom most stair
Writhing and kicking about everywhere.
Then straining to pull off his pumpkin head screaming
He stood with his pumpkin eyes now brilliantly beaming.
He staggered about throwing limbs that way and this
With his screams dieing down to a whimpering hiss.
Then with legs apart shaking he started to still
And after a moment, turned, walking out with a will.
Mary and Alice sat frozen with eyes wide as owls
Then turned to each other, whimpers turning to howls.

"Come everybody it is almost time.
"To the pumpkin patch all, we'll chant out a rhyme
"To raise up the stories I've told you about
"It'll all be great fun - of that have no doubt."
"Look momma at Elliot. His face is now glowing."
"Of course, he's the pumpkin man! She winked all knowing."
"Where's Alice Grace?" said her ma; said her pa, "Don't worry she's good."
And Alice Grace watched them from deep in the wood.

"Hey Meesh! Did you have the coders prank my system again?" Katealyst called out.
"My population just went to zero."
"Hey, it wasn't me." protested Meesherbeans.
"Well take a look at this then."
"What's that Kate? Zoom in."
"It looks like a huge pumpkin graveyard. And there is another over there.
"Meesh, look at that. The pumpkins have vines - and they are growing."
"Wow, Kate you must have hooked into some coder's experimental server."
"The URL says I'm on the Zeus server. I suppose Andy could have spoofed it.
"He's always trying to get my attention. Whoa, look at that! It looks like he's
experimenting with 3D. Those vines almost look like they are coming out of
the screen."
Leaning on Kate's shoulder Meesherbeans reaches out toward the screen. His
grip on Kate's shoulder suddenly tightens as he is washed with vertigo - the
direction of the screen suddenly seeming to be down as he feels a light touch
of rough vines on his finger.

"I don't know what happened." said the Ubi spokesman to the detective with his
notepad out. "I mean, I hear that Meesher, Meesherbeans, - I know that isn't his
name but I gave you that and Meesher is what everyone calls him - I, I'm babbling,
I'm sorry. Anyway, I hear that Meesher wasn't exactly sober before this job but he
has been all his time here and Kate, well, as near as I can tell she's never been
near any of that stuff. So I just can't see it but I just can't explain this. We
found them both unconscious at Kate's desk. Meesher had a cut on his head but it
looked more like a consequence of passing out rather than the cause and Kate doesn't
have a mark on her."
"Thanks. I'll have more questions. Could you wait in your office please." said the
detective.

"Oh! Ow! Ow! Ow! My head. My head."
"Thank ***, Kate I thought you were dead."
"Meesh! I can't move. What the **** have you done?"
"Oh, yea, really Kate. Do I look like I'm having fun?
"I'm buried up to my chin in a pumpkin patch for crying out loud!"
An acrid stench from a black black cloud
A drumming a thrumming both in ground and in air
A whispering chant barely heard brings despair
The swirling black cloud breathed in, swirls the mind
Enhances the fear. No clear thoughts can they find.
"What's happening to us Meesherbeans, Meesherbeans?
"And why are we talking in rhymes like we're teens?
"And we're rhyming quite badly
"I must confess sadly.
"And some of our words come out quacks like we're ducks!
"*** **** what is happening! This really ****."
"It really does Katealyst but I want you to hear
"That I've been infatuated with you for many a year."
"You're an idiot Meesh or knocked on the head.
"I'm buried here wondering if we might be dead.
"And I swear that pumpkin behind you is moving toward your knocked head
"And my thoughts seem to be slipping through my hands like greased thread.
"Oh Meesh, do something! It's opening up!
"Oh my ***. Oh my ***. I'm going to throw up."
The pumpkin wide open, closes now with a snick.
And Katealyst, delirious is actually sick.
So her bagel and cream cheese drips from her chin in a lump
When at the back of her head she feels a soft bump.

"Hey, ho, new settlers. Welcome! Welcome here!
"My name is Katealyst. You bring me good cheer.
"Welcome to my island. Now our island, dear.
"You'll have bountiful harvests if you listen to me
"Just look how my pumpkins grow. Look and see! Look and see!"
"Look Da, that pumpkin there has kind of a face."
"It does!" laughed Kate. "Of all my pumpkins I love this one best.
"I call him Meesherbeans, 'though I don't know why - I just guessed.
"And this one here was twice the trouble to grow as all rest
"It too has a face. I call her: Alice Grace."
Through the evening Kate taught them all the things needing done
And the pumpkins lay there, still warm from the sun.

[Ron_El]

Twas weeks before All Hollows, when much to my surprise,
The island had grown dark, and it was not from closed eyes.
All seemed well enough, when I had closed down for the night,
Yet upon waking the next morn, there just was no light.
The mines were still nestled, against the hillsides o'er there,
And the smelters were still smelting, with little to no care.
The barracks still turned out, the recruits destined to die,
And they still massed a drinkin', so they'd forget just why.
When up on the banner, a new note did appear,
'Tis a quest that is needed, to banish this dark fear.
Away to the banner I flew like a flash,
To throw down this quest and leave not but ash,
Nothing too special, it seemed right away,
Just the cost of some pumpkins to see light of day,
When what to my curious eyes did appear?
Not just just one quest, but a chain to cohere!
With each new quest hidden behind one to complete,
I knew in a moment it was a quest most offbeat.
More rapid than soccer balls these quests they came,
With other jumping in to finish their own game.
"Now Guildies, now Noobs, now old friends by rights,
You all want to dark buff me, and I don't have lights!
From the top of my silos, to the top of the schools,
You need to stop shutting down my production of tools!"
Yet no matter the protest, nor the pleas that be made,
The dark buffs kept falling, e'en when I forbade.
So these others need to complete their own quest,
To free their islands, for this was the best,
And then amidst all of this, a new goal was had,
Completing these quests meant pumpkin harvests, Egads!
As I plotted the space to build a new field,
I began count up how many pumpkins each field must yield,
It was not a simple number, to get all this loot,
I had to smoke out the trees with nine fields of fruit.
A bundle of goodies awaited the plan,
Silos, and schools and even a Grim Reaper, Man!
The fields, how they smoked, the gourds how pinky,
Yet nine fields alone proved too dinky.
The small little fields, all nice in a row,
Could not enough pumpkins be made to grow.
The stash of my gems were soon spent and gone,
And the pumpkin shortfall still struggled on.
To the market I turned, in desperation and hope,
I needed to close the gap, yet in the end - nope.
The cost of the pumpkins was too high and too few,
Last year was not like this - inflation, who knew?
A sigh and a nod, as I shook my head,
Completed my quest, and brought sun back instead,
I went on with work, content in what I had,
But in the end surprises, and for this I was glad,
We still had a guild, and pumpkins were stored,
So everyone with us was sure to have scored.
Whether silo, or school, so some other treat,
The Creators made sure that none lacked, so neat!
And so I exclaim, as I finish this rhyme,
Happy All Hollows to all, and all a good time!

[strongME]

The Soldier

The soldier fights for the adventures,
The soldier fights for victories,
The soldier fights against bandits and their leaders.

Evil fights, witch, wildmary, sir robin against the soldier,
Good fights, Recs,Xbowmen,Cavalries with the soldier,
The generelas help the soldier.

The soldier fights for loot,
The soldier fights for experience,
The soldier fights for his name.

The loot give him of to fight,
The experience supports his strength,
His name holds him back.




strongME

[bravemadmax]

Shiny as wax, the cracked veneer Scotch-taped
and brittle. I can't bring my Recruiters back,
they sacrificed themselves for the victory
Legs crossed, they sit there brash

with a private's stripe, a world away
from the adventure zone they would ship him to
within days. Cannons flank their face

and banners above them like the flag
their loves kept on the mantel, folded tight,
white stars sharp-pointed on a field of blue.

I remember their fists, the iron he pounded,
five-pound hammer ringing steel,
the frame his made for a sled that winter

before the war. I remember the rope in his fist
around my chest, his other fist
shoving the snow, and downhill we dived,

his boots by my boots on the tongue,
pines whishing by, ice in my eyes, blinking
and squealing. I remember the troop train,

steam billowing like a smoke screen.
I remember wrecking the sled weeks later
and pounding to beat the iron flat,

but it stayed there bent
and stacked in the barn by the anvil,
and I can't bring him back.

[Thea]

A
lonely
witch
sits in a
high tower
watching
the lives below.
Centuries of bitter
isolation has left her to
be a myth to the villagers.
A story to scare young children
into good behavior for their parents.
All Hollows’ Eve is
here and she means
to remind the settlers
that the Witch of the
Swamp is no legend.

So she cast her old,
withered hands to
the cloudless skies
and brought a great
darkness upon the
lands. Spirits roamed
freely as though they

were living once again.
Death even graced the
small island with His
presence, taking a liking
to the pumpkin fields.
Desperate to put a stop
to the endless Night, they
sought council from an old
wandering man. He told the
villagers to carve scary faces

into the pumpkins to ward
away the drifting spirits and
gave them a special Light to
bring back the days. With that
the wise man vanished with the
rising sun. To appease the Witch
the settlers honor All Hollows’ Eve
and keep her memory alive with tales
of the Endless Night and of an seemingly
empty tower in the middle of a misty swamp.

[royalpayne]

twas the first day of November
we all wish you'd remember,
to check our support tickets from last September

[meesherbeans01]

This event has been officially closed. Thank you all for participating, so much! We will have the winners announced as soon as possible.

So many awesome stories...!