Monday, September 25, 2006
dA acount
On a side note, I'm almost finished with a story that I've been doing for a contest. Almost finished, in this instance, means probably before Christmas. Wheee!
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Music Shuffley Quiz!
Ok, this time I seriously haven't posted in forever. What's it been, a couple months? In fact, I'm not even gonna try and make up excuses this time. I'll write about that stuff later maybe. But now, it's time for....
MUSIC SHUFFLE QUIZ!
Indeed, it's a shuffle quiz! Let us begin!
1) Why are you taking this quiz?
Song: Things like you
Artist: Sanctus Real
Comment: Apparently because I'm sick and tired of being wrapped up in the things of this world. Um... How is this supposed to help?
2) Where will you meet your future husband/wife?
Song: Dreaming on Distant Shores
Artist: Unknown
Comment: On a beach, very far away... Either that, or in a dream.
3) Where will you hug your future husband/wife for the first time?
Song: Piano Concerto in F Andente - Adagio
Artist: Gershwin
Comment: At a piano concert, apparently.
4)What is your secret dream?
Song: Places
Artist: Falling up
Comment: To constantly need someone. Actually, pretty cool.
5)What song will they be playing at the morgue when they perform your autopsy?
Song: Ambience
Artist: Falling up
Comment: ...Is there ANY good answer to this one?
6)Who will throw a party after you die?
Song: Innocence again
Artist: Switchfoot
Comment: Apparently everyone because I've been given grace and am in heaven, but they're all wondering about who they want to be now that I'm gone.
7) What song describes you when you are so drunk you can't speak? (I've never been drunk! Hurrah!)
Song: Outgunned
Artist: Dennis McCarthy (Star Trek Generations soundtrack)
Comment: Spaceships! Whee! I love spaceships... and phasers. Lots and lots of phasers.
8)What will actually kill you?
Song: Heaven came down
Artist: David Crowder Band
Comment: Heaven falling down, but I get saved! Sweet!
9)Who will be your slave?
Song: Spirit of Rhythm
Artist: Cast in Bronze
Comment: A bunch of drummers. Pretty good ones too.
10) What will you look like at the age of 80?
Song: Keep on Shinin'
Artist: Third Day
Comment: Apparently I'll be a light for God in the world. SWEET!
11)Where will you meet your arch-enemy in life?
Song: Homes of Hyrule: Movement 3 - Goron City
Artist: Kevin Stephens
Comment: Given my prior experiences with video games, that's a pretty good possiblity.
12)What will happen to you tonight after you go to bed?
Song: Goin Home
Artist: Unknown
Comment: Sweet techo music will play, but hopefully I'm already home.
13)What is the meaning of your life?
Song: Breaking time
Artist: Nihon Tek
Comment: To be broken? Hmm... that might be bad. Or good. Either way.
14)What will be the meaning of your death?
Song: Stationary Stationary
Artist: Amberlin
Comment: To get two old friends to start communicating again.
15)What do you hate the most?
Song: Rubarb Pie
Artist: Five Iron Frenzy
Comment: Never tried it, actually. Isn't it made out of a poisonous vegetable?
16)What do you love the best?
Song: All your base
Artist: unknown
Comment: Badly translated video games ROCK.
17)What makes you feel like jumping out the window?
Song: Prisoner Exchange
Artist: Dennis McCarthy (Star Trek Generations soundtrack)
Comment: Mysterious prisoner transactions that may actually be ambushes... or at least that's what it sounds like.
18) What do you think about bananas?
Song: Who Needs Air?
Artist: The Classic Crime
Comment: Bananas don't need air. They need to realize who they truly are.
19)Where would you like to be now?
Song: Fight of the Ages
Artist: Unknown
Comment: On a great battlefield, fighting for the side of good!
20)Who would you like to have a tea party with?
Song: Ancient Hero
Artist: Darkesword
Comment: Link! Duh! Very duh! I'll totally throw a tea party if Link will come!
21)How would you describe your childhood?
Song: To be Forgotten is Worse than Death
Artist: Sefiros
Comment: Well, it did feel like that sometimes...
22)If you could do anything you want, what would it be?
Song: Eagles
Artist: Third day
Comment: To soar on the wings of eagles and learn to fly? Pretty much.
23)Recent obsessions/problems?
Song: Rhapsody in Blue
Artist: Gershwin
Comment: Apparently I'm obsessed with jazz/classical songs with extremely complicated piano parts.
24)If they made a movie about you, what would be the title?
Song: Nintendo Forest Mix
Artist: Sound Junkie
Comment: I do spend a lot of time outdoors... not quite that much, though.
25)Where did the pigeons go?
Song: Combination Lock
Artist: Quinn Fox
Comment: They're hiding behind the locked door over there... How'd they get it open in the first place?
26)Are you a good stalker?
Song: Superpowers
Artist: Five Iron Frenzy
Comment: Apparently I have super stalking powers!
27)Who are you having for dinner tonight?
Song: Saturn
Artist: Skillet
Comment: Saturn? Wow, I'm gonna need a bigger table.
28)This Halloween, what will you dress up as?
Song: Masquerade
Artist: Andrew Lloyd Weber (Phantom of the Opera)
Comment: No idea, but it'll involve a mask. A cool mask.
29)Who is your fashon ideal?
Song: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Artist: John Williams
Comment: A tomb robbing history professor? Well, it's better than some things.
30)What would you like to keep in your pockets all the time?
Song: Things Running From Me
Artist: Cast In Bronze
Comment: Yeah, I'd like to keep them in my pockets, if I could catch them! QUIT RUNNING ALREADY!
31)If you won the lottery, what would you buy first?
Song: Tunnel
Artist: Third Day
Comment: I'd buy something to give you hope when times are hard. Oh, and a tunnel too, just because that would be fun.
32)Are we there yet?
Song: The music of the night
Artist: Andrew Lloyd Weber
Comment: No, and we won't be until you surrender to the music. Surrender to the music! Do it now!
33)Any hard feelings about this quiz?
Song: Laugh inside Out
Artist: Reliant K
Comment: I don't think I've communicated very much. Apparently, that's a problem with most of reality.
34) What are your thoughts about the people that made this quiz?
Song: Things like you
Artist: Sanctus Real
Comment: I should leave you all behind and actually get a life. ...Wait, didn't I already use this song?
Monday, August 14, 2006
Summer reading is done!
Plus, I'm pretty sure i'm starting to hallucinate. There's what appears to be a orange rubber band ball in the corner of my vision, and it's been there for a while now. What really bothers me is that it's moving like it's alive. Maybe it's an alien, come to Earth to steal my essay. You can't have it, alien! Write your own! This one's MINE!
Yeah... I'm gonna go sleep now.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Lesson for the day
On a try this again scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is Ow that hurt and 5 is totally fun, I'd give cd tasting a three. It isn't unpleasant, but it's not anything super fun either. Plus, it might ruin the cd.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Story Sharing
What happens is I start running out of ideas for the story, then I get stuck on ideas I already had, then I just lose the will to keep writing it. I might write another story based on the story, but that one generally dies faster than the first one did. But a while back, I figured out how to prevent this.
I have to let other people read my stories. Not just for constructive critisism, though that is appreciated, and not just for suggestions either. I have to let people read it for the sake of having them read it. If I just keep the story to myself, I'm the only one that knows about the characters, I'm the only one that cares about them. And that's not how stories are meant to be. Stories are meant to be shared, the whole point of writing is for someone to read it. So if I keep a story to myself, it dies without fail.
Recently, I've found some confirmation of this theory. I'm writing a story for a contest, you see, and all the people I generally let read my stories are either writing for the contest or judging. Either way, I can't let them read it. They read this blog too, so I can't put it here. Anyway, I've been doing pretty well so far. I'm on page twenty. (out of a twenty five limit. I'd better hurry up and finish.) However, it's been getting harder and harder to keep writing it. It's not that I don't know what I'm going to do, it's just that I can't work up the willpower to do it. I need someone reading it so I can write it. It's kinda annoying...
Anyway, I'd better get back to writing it. It's due tonight... I am SO dead.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Whitewater Rafting!
Another note to self: Forget first note, you lost them already.
I'd better explain that. See, I was whitewater rafting with my girl scout troop. Perfectly normal activity; we do it every year. However, this year the water was way higher than it usually is, so it was a bit more exciting. We had just passed one of the big rapids when we saw the boat my brother was in (he's not in my girl scout troop, by the way, but he was there) stuck on a really big rock.
My natural tendancy would be to avoid the rock, but apparently we had to rescue the other boat. And by rescue, I mean run into as fast as possible and hope not to get stuck ourselves.
Guess what?
It didn't work!
Our boat not only got stuck on the rock, it highsided (think wheelie, but sideways) so we all had to climb to the high side (name explained!) in hopes of the boat going back into the river and us not falling out. The boat didn't go back into the river, but instead filled with water and sank. I almost made it into the other boat (which was still stuck on the rock, and only got pushed further up by our rescue attempt) but failed miserably.
So I fell in the water, and my glasses got sucked off by the current while I was actually under our mostly-sunken boat. I noticed they were gone, but I couldn't look for them because of one very important reason: breathing. So I swam towards the light, also known as the surface. Then I sat in the water until I could swim ashore, and waited with my friend Sara (who also fell out of the boat) for the boat to come and get us. I still had my paddle, though. She didn't.
So our guide came in our now-unsunken boat, and we were the only ones not in the other boat
so I got to help paddle the thing until we could pull it ashore somewhere and everyone else could get back in.
I was pretty much blind for the rest of the trip though. I think I saw a unicorn, but no one else saw it, so I'm probably wrong.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
White Butterflies
“Mama, what's this?”
The white haired woman looked down at her child, taking her eyes off of the shining silver necklace she was making, and smiled. In his cupped hands rested a tiny butterfly, as white as the downy feathers that still covered his wings. She bent down, her own golden wings spreading out on the dusty wood floor behind her, and carefully examined the miniature insect that rested in her son's hand.
“What do you think it is, Micheal?”
He thought for a minute, his brow wrinkling as he stared down at the butterfly. Finally, he looked up.
“I think it's a grown up feather!”
She laughed a little. “A grown up feather?”
He nodded. “Yeah! All of my feathers are baby feathers, but when they fall off they grow up and then they look like this!” His blue eyes sparkled. “Right?”
“Not quite,” she said with a smile. “This is a butterfly.”
“A butter-fly?” He sounded just as confused as he looked. “It isn't butter!”
She laughed. “No, it's not.”
“And butter doesn't fly anyway!”
“Right again! But this is still a butterfly, even if the name doesn't make sense.” She shooed him out of the little wooden house. “Now go find a flower to put it on.”
He looked back at her. “Why?”
“Because butterfly food comes from flowers. That one's probably hungry.”
“Do flowers taste good?”
“Butterflies like them.”
“Hmm...” Micheal thought about this for a minute, then wandered off towards the meadow. His mother stood in the doorway, watching him, until he disappeared behind a tree, and she turned back to her work.
Five minutes later, Micheal was back.
“Mama,” he said with a grimace, “Flowers taste bad.”
A/N: Yep, another one not even remotely related to continuity. But, I felt like writing it, so here you go!
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Doukutsu Boss Yell
This isn't a normal yell. For example, try saying it out loud. "Aiiigh." Sounds dumb, doesn't it? I mean, I could understand if he said "Augh" or "Aaaaah!", "Argh" or even "Aiii!" because those are all noises that humans make. But he's trying to roll them all together! It's like a frustrated screaming pirate ninja all in one!
So, not only is he deciding to make this noise, he's deciding this while his body is dissolving into a bizzare red smoke after a little amnesiatic robot's been throwing knives at him repeatedly for the past three minutes or so. I don't think that's something he came up with right then and there. No way he could do that under that kind of pressure. He must have planned it beforehand, though I have no idea why.
That brings up an interesting point. If I ever die at the hands of an amnesiatic robot after becoming evil and using massive amounts of deadly chemicals on myself, what do I want to scream? Not something cliche, like "I'll get you yet," and I'm certainly not going to mention a little dog too, as funny as that may be. Maybe something enigmatic about "You fool, you know not what you do," and then things start blowing up.
Or maybe I'll just go with "Aiiigh." It certainly caught my attention... And yet, because I was inspired by this almost-final form of this almost-final boss, it still wouldn't be original. I'll have to give this some thought. Suggestions are appreciated!
Friday, June 30, 2006
Rum!
“Hmm... and that should go there, and I certainly can't leave without that. Oh, and that needs to come too. Goodness, I don't remember needing so much the last time I left town.”
Jacques looked up from his packing to the empty walls of his house. Dust blanketed every surface, with the occasional random sketching denting the brown powder. A single window cast its silhouetted light across the floor, which was covered in all manner of junk, from cast-off pen tips to ink spills to crumpled up maps that didn't work right, and of course the occasional insect corpse. In the corner rested a messy pile of twigs and map bits that might have been a nest of mice, or perhaps chipmunks, but Jacques didn't particularly care unless they started eating his maps.
The table was slightly better than the floor, in that it didn't have mice living on it. Most of the time, anyway. Scattered across the table lay pens of every shape and size. Some rolled across and off the table at the slightest bump, and others wouldn't move if the table had been attacked by a madman with an axe, thanks to the thick black ink that glued them there. The only thing that seemed remotely cared for were the maps, carefully rolled up in leather cases until he took them to a seller.
The only other pieces of furniture, besides the chair, he owned rested in a corner. A bed that he never bothered to make, and a tall wardrobe that he'd inherited from some relative or another. Normally, the latter was filled with his few clothes and a great deal of random souvenirs, but at the moment it's contents sprawled across the floor as he stuffed them into the far-too-small pack.
All in all, the room screamed but one word: bachelor.
Jacques took a swig from the bottle he'd borrowed, meaning stole, from Marie when he left to pack and stared down at the overfull canvas bag. His eyes wandered from one thing to the other, from the thirteen semi-usable pens that he'd managed to pry from his desk to a brick that he wasn't quite sure why he had in the first place. He thought for a moment. Ah yes, he'd gotten it from an irate bartender who'd thrown it at his head.
“That wasn't really fair of him,” Jacques mused. “His prices were outrageous. How was I to know that I couldn't pay?” He took another drink, then shook his head and smiled. “Ah, well. He missed anyway.” Momentarily, he wondered why he'd put it in his pack. “Self defense!” He smiled, took a long swig from the bottle, and stuffed in a drinking glass on top of the brick.
“Jacques? You ready to go?” Marie's voice sounded from outside the door, snapping him out of his rum-happy daze.
“Um... just a minute!” he said, stuffing most of the mess under the bed.
“Well, can I come in and help you pack?”
“Er, no. I'm...” He considered several things to say. He couldn't say he was naked, he had no reason to be naked, and he wasn't. He couldn't make the excuse of not being there either, she knew better then that. Finally, his semi-drunken brain kicked in and came up with what was quite possibly his worst excuse ever. “I'm on fire.”
“You're what?” The door started opening. He pushed it shut again and shoved the table against it. His brain started working overtime, but still wasn't working quite hard enough for common sense to start functioning.
“Yeah, I'm on fire. Burning. Little accident with a candle. It's very hot.” He gathered a good portion of the mess up and shoved it into the wardrobe, but the door wouldn't shut. He started slamming it while still talking. “It's not that pleasant, you know, being on fire. There's a few downsides, though you really wouldn't think it. Like... the smoke! The smoke smells really bad, and you tend to catch other things on fire while you're trying to put yourself out.” He stepped back from the wardrobe, and, satisfied that it would stay shut, started trying to close his pack. A crunch followed by a tinkling noise told him that perhaps the drinking glass was not the best thing to put next to the brick. “I mean, sure, you're warm and all, but...”
“Jacques, I'm coming in there, whether you like it or not.” The table started inching across the floor as the door opened. He glanced around, doing one final check to see if the room was clean enough. Something caught his eye. The rum! He couldn't let her catch him with the rum. Jacques scooped up the bottle off the floor and glanced around for somewhere to put it. Just as he spotted the perfect place, the door opened all the way, and Marie stepped into the room.
He stared at her blankly, holding the rum in one hand. He made a vague attempt to hide it behind his back. Behind him, the wardrobe opened and everything fell onto the floor with a resounding thump. Marie gave him a look.
Somewhere, in a very small part of his mind that he didn't usually listen to but usually turned out to be right, it registered that he was as good as dead.
“Well,” she said slowly, looking around the room judgmentally, “you don't look on fire to me.”
“Um...”
“No, no, don't bother explaining. I don't want to know.” Her eyes wandered to his hand. “Where'd you get that rum? It looks suspiciously like the bottle that went missing just after you left.”
“Um...” His brain churned furiously, trying to think of an excuse. “It was in a tree. The squirrels gave it to me as a thank you gift for... um... chasing away that dog that wanders around here sometimes.” He wasn't doing so well with excuses today. “They told me to keep it.”
“The squirrels talked to you?” Marie gave him another look, this time one that he fully believed could be used to start fires.
“Yep. They were talking squirrels, with a whole civilization in the big oak tree over by the tailor's shop. They have water that comes from inside their houses, and devices that make it daytime at night, and even something that lets them communicate with other squirrel civilizations all across the land without hardly lifting a finger! Maybe they were the ones that took the rum from the tavern. It wouldn't be too hard for them, you know.”
She put her head in one hand. “Jacques... You're either drunk or insane. Maybe both. I'll come back later.” She moved towards the door. A the last minute, she turned around, looked him straight in the eye, and said, “And you're still in trouble for taking that rum.”
Friday, June 16, 2006
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Romance is HARD!
Even though I haven't posted any stories in a while, I am still writing them. In fact, I've got about seven stories ready to post, but I can't because I can't figure out how to get from here to there. So just be patient. I'll figure this out eventually.
One thing that I might not figure out anytime soon is this one romance scene. I've been banging my head on it for a little more than a week now, and I've learned a few things about my writing. Such as: I have a very hard time talking about how people feel. It works better for me to tell how they show how they feel, but for romance, that just doesn't work. It's all... emotion-y. That may not be so hard for some people, but for me, its like a brick wall with a moonlit glade painted on it and I keep trying to walk into the glade and it seems like it should be so simple, but I can't because it's really a wall.
Oh well. I wrote in some violence, so that should make up for the stupid romance scene. Maybe I should just kill them both now, Romeo and Juliet style. Except that whole stupid play was a romance scene... Nevermind.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Justice League returns in all it's unruined by horrible plot twists glory!
Anyway, not only is it airing on tv again, the first episode that they showed was In Darkest Night, which was the first episode of Justice League I ever saw! Major deja vu! The only thing missing they could have done cooler would have been if I'd seen it on May 12, my Justice-versery! (The day I first saw it. And first became obsessed.)
I'd forgotten a lot of the really really great stuff in the show, actually. that's what happens when you don't see it for over a year... Like the background music? Wow. I'd totally forgotten it. And the space shots? They actually look like space. Think that's amazing? Look at any other cartoon. I totally don't know how I've been watching other cartoons all this time... JUSTICE ROCKS!
Ok, I just realized that I sound kinda like Sarah when she's hyper.
Calming down now.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Friday, June 02, 2006
Sunset (Poem)
The sun has set in clouds asunder
The moon regrets to rise from slumber
And the peak’s a shade of umber
I will never soon forget.
Golden eagles swoop and soar
High above the valley floor
Rising upwards more and more
Far beyond the treetop's net
Reds and yellows cross the skies
And seem to dance before my eyes
Above the birds with trilling cries
Who themselves these skies have met.
The final beams of brilliant light
That come before the starry night
Color clouds like children’s kites
And now at last the sun has set
The internet and you. And me. Me reeeeally bored.
Things I did while waiting for the internet to go back up
Held a sing-your-own-disco dance-a-thon.
Checked to see if internet was up
Wrote poetry
Wrote blog post
Checked to see if internet was up
Washed my lava lamp
Did sit ups
Checked to see if internet was up
Ate dinner
Did dishes
Checked to see if internet was up
Organized desktop items
Decided I didn't like the new arrangement and changed it back
Read old word documents
Checked to see if internet was up
Practiced voice acting
Did voice acting into audacity
Listened to voice acting
Deleted voice acting
Checked to see if internet was up
Wondered if an empty tissue box could work as a hat
Hit computer monitor with an inflatable microphone
Hit self with inflatable microphone
Held drumming jam session with inflatable microphone
Checked to see if internet was up
Wrote this list
Checked to see if internet was up
So, I was kinda bored. But voice acting is fun. I'm just really bad at guys voices.
Finals!
Finally over! Yay! No more chronic algebra overdose! Summary of finals:
History: Pretty easy, but I still hate essays.
Speech: It went better than I expected, but it would've been nice if I'd been able to make my visual aid big enough to see.
Algebra: Non calculator portion: easy. Like pie, only easier, and less edible. Calculator portion: Beware the madness of the Bruce! Agh! My brain hurt SO BAD!
Band: What final?
Bible: Easy. I didn't even need my notes. That's good, because I lost my notes.
French: Easy, but the guy behind me wouldn't shut up! He was talking the whole time, reading the test aloud, making commentary, and generally being so annoying that I wanted to remove his vital organs with my fists. Unfortunatley, that probably would have made me fail (and go to prison), so he lived. I'm not sure if he passed, though.
Study Hall: Yay for no final!
and finally:
Biology: Yay for finals that aren't mindlessly easy! Still really easy, but I enjoyed it. I like knowing the big words. The majority of photosynthesis takes place in the palisade mesophyll!
Anyway, Finals are over, summer has begun, and I'm probably gonna get a job this year. I hope I do, anyway. You can never tell with jobs. But, I heard that the place I'm applying to is really shorthanded, so they'll probably accept me.
Oh, and yes, I am still writing, but continuity is temporarily lost. I'm working on the rest of the story, but the obvious follow up to the last continuity related story that I posted just isn't happening. How come it takes Anna thirty seconds to think of a message for Micheal, but it takes me like three months? Oh well.
Anyhoo, today I got into a conversation with some random person using a friends account. We're pretty sure it was a member of her family, but we don't know which one. It wasn't just me, there was a couple other friends in the chat too. Anyway, we scared them pretty bad. And then I sent a voice clip of me laughing, which made it worse. They were pretty fun to talk to though, I just wish I knew who it was.
Quote!
"A halo has but a foot to fall before it becomes a noose." - Someone
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Quote!
-Askaninja.com
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
The sink is missing...
First, I've mangaged to break the fire alarm; on Easter, no less. Word of advice: don't play with static. And if you do play with static, don't use a metal object to play with it. And if by some bizzare circumstance you wind up doing this, whatever you do, don't use two metal objects at the same time. And especially don't cross them. It doesn't hurt any less, and the fuse blows and breaks the fire alarm. I have no idea how the screws in that light switch were connected to the fuse, but they were. So the fire alarm broke. Not my fault. It was the fuse.
Second, the band trip happened. We went to California. I'll probably post more on this when I feel like it. Oh, and I bought a stupid hat. I've always wanted to do that.
Third, the sink is missing. It really bothers me. Don't ask me why, it's just something about having a gaping hole with pipes in it where the sink that had been there since forever once was creeps me out a bit. Apparently we're supposed to get a new sink in there because the old one was cracked, but then my dad didn't have time to finish it before he went to Louisiana, and now we have no sink. I found it's shattered remains in the garden. Creepy.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Flight Feathers
“Mama, mama, where are we going today?”
The woman smiled down at her child, who looked up at her expectantly. His white hair matched her own, along with the smiling blue eyes. She took the tiny hand offered to her, and responded in an excited whisper.
“The overlook, Micheal. We're going to fly!”
He wrinkled his brow. “But mama, I don't know how to fly.”
His mother stooped down and picked up one of the fuzzy white feathers off the grass around their little home as they walked. “I'll teach you. We'll fly together.”
“Where will we go then?”
“I don't know, Micheal, where do you want to go?”
“The river!”
“Alright, we can go to the river.” She smiled again. They walked in a happy silence for a while, while she contemplated the feather in her hand. Innocence, in the form of a firstfeather. The downy fluff covered the wings until a child became old enough to fly, and then fell to make way for the new feathers. The flight feathers.
“Mama, how are we going to fly?”
“It's easy. You already know how.”
“But mama, I don't. I don't know how to fly.”
“Yes you do. You know it in here.” She pointed to her chest.
“In my shirt?”
“No, dear, in your heart. That's where flight comes from.”
The little boy giggled. “Mama, you talk funny sometimes.”
She laughed with him, just a little.
Soon, the overlook loomed before them, tall, rocky and steep, but easy to climb from the other side. To her, it seemed monstrous, waiting for blood, and a pang of doubt surged through her veins. Was Michal really ready to fly?
Micheal seemed to share the same doubts, though not as strongly as his mothers. “But what if my wings don't work right?”
“Then I'll catch you.” She spoke against her own doubts, her own fears, fighting to keep her voice calm against the rising urge to protect her child from danger, including this danger of falling.
“But what if your wings don't work right?”
She tried to laugh. “Micheal, my wings work fine.”
“Prove it,” he said defiantly. His diminutive form, boldly standing with his hands on his hips and his wings spread out behind him, the way that she acted sometimes, made his mother smile, despite her fears.
“Alright,” she said with the same defiance. “I will. Watch me.”
She jumped up to the top of the overlook, far higher than any human could, feeling the rush of air around her. Upon the top, she looked down to the ground far below, and for a moment she remembered her own first flight.
A calm spring day, much like this one, with her parents flying over her, and her looking down and wondering what it would be like to fall. The fear that she felt, the overwhelming urge to back away from the edge almost caused her to turn and run, but she couldn't. She had to fly. Simply jump from the edge and let her wings catch her. How long did she stand there, staring at the ground below, as her parents waited patiently for her to jump? It felt like an eternity.
One thing she learned from that first flight. Once you jump, there's no turning back. You have to fly.
A cool breeze brought her back to the present. She still had to fly, but now, she was not afraid. She calmly pulled the thin cloth from atop her wings, letting it drift to the ground far below, feeling the sun warming her, and watching the light refract from each golden flight feather. Almost unthinking, she leapt into the sky.
The wind lifted her immediately. She soared high above the overlook, getting higher and higher, her joy growing with every passing moment. Then she swooped low, almost touching the ground with her wingtip, as she shouted to her son. “See? My wings work! Flying is easy!”
Micheal needed no second urging. He ran to the top of the hill, eager to jump. But then he paused for a moment. He stared down, just as she remembered doing, wondering if he really could fly. Then, he jumped, and time seemed to stand still. She watched him tumble in the air for a second, and she started to swoop down to catch him, but then he spread his wings. The golden flight feathers flashed as the last of the downy firstfeathers blew away.
“Mama, look! I'm flying!”
“I knew you could do it, Micheal!”
They wheeled in the sky as Micheal quickly learned the basics of flight, flapping, turning, and finally landing. Once they were back atop the hill, she kneeled down to his eye level.
“You did great! Better than great!” She hugged him, and he hugged her, with a smile that seemed bigger than the sky. “Well,” she said proudly. “Do you want to go to the river now?”
“Mama,” he said, looking up at her with his smiling blue eyes reflecting the sky, “Can't we stay and fly a little longer?”
“Of course we can.” They leapt together from the overlook. She smiled as a thought occurred to her. Once you have flight feathers, you can't turn back. And in all honesty, she wouldn't want it any other way.
A/N: Yes, this is set in the same world as my other stories; no, it's not in the same plot line. It might come up later, but it's not technically in the series. Yet.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Wasting Paper.
"Wasting paper on the youth retreat!"
"Wasting paper in study hall!"
"Wasting paper after tennis practice!"
"Wasting paper during biology class!"
And so on, until I sorted out the extremely bad ones, wrote stupid comments all over them (The shirt of no return! "Mmm, pillow!") and threw them away. So now I'm gonna reload my blue notebook with fresh paper and draw more things! (Aka WASTE MORE PAPER!)