The Storyteller's Challenge 8 - Adventures in the forest

So, I wrote an introduction post, then decided to take a break and organize my ideas by reading a few handy writing guides. I was so busy reading about writing that I actually forgot to get the writing done. That, until I stumbled upon these two particular paragraphs: "distractions" and "time management". And realized it was 7pm. [facepalm] Based on my own adventures with my cousins and sister. I had to resist the temptation to name the characters after them, but ultimately decided to go on some common Italian names. Enjoy!

Pretty. Wish I could say that when I break my neck on that fallen tree.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" a small boy asked, his tone of voice bordering on a cry.
"Yup."
"But it looks dangerous."
"Come on, Fra! Didn't you want an adventure?" a much taller girl turned around to face the boy, her hazel eyes gleaming with a challenge. A second girl, slightly smaller than the first, appeared from behind a tree.
"Don't even try. You know Francesco, he always whines about something."
"That's not true!" Francesco whined.
Martina raised an eyebrow and threw a sarcastic look at the boy, while Giorgia chuckled lightly and ruffled her cousin's hair.
"Giorgia, I'm falling!"
Giorgia spun around and shot out a hand to a small blonde, who was sliding down the hill's slope. She caught her arm and pulled her up, but the ground beneath their feet crumbled and they both tumbled down. The elder girl finally managed to grab a fistful of grass and slow their descent, until they were both sitting still, breathing heavily.
"Are you okay?" Martina asked, making her way to the duo. Giorgia brushed off some leaves from her shorts and helped the small girl do the same.
"Yeah. Come on, I saw the valley. Be very careful where you put your feet, though. The terrain is frail." Martina rolled her eyes at the obvious statement.
"How about we let Fiona go first, like we do with the younger scouts?"
"How about Fiona falls again and you're not there to stop her if she goes first?"
Giorgia chuckled and ignored her sister's comeback in favour of leading the way.
"Here we are! We can just run down now!" she said, the words fading in the wind as she sprinted down the last bit of hill and to the valley.
"Come on Marty, you can do it!"
"I'd prefer not to break my neck, thank you very much." the other replied while carefully holding to a tree and lowering a foot. Francesco, having reached the girls, gave up on caution and sprinted down, somehow tripping on a root and rolling his way down the slope, laughing with glee all the way. Fiona had magically teleported down and was already picking flowers, no one knew or bothered to question how. By the time Martina finished her cautious descent, the blonde was starting to arrange a flower crown.
"So where are we having our adventure?" Francesco asked, hopping impatiently. Giorgia pointed to a forest at a few hundred meters' distance.
"There! There is a beautiful river and a lot of trees, and lots of flowers to pick and space to run. There's even a road so we won't get lost! Then..." she paused for dramatic effect, slouching down and curling her fingers "There are the monsters of the forest!"
Francesco's eyes shone. "Monsters"
"Yes! In this forest there are trolls. They look like trees, so be careful, or they may want to eat you! In fact..." she picked up a fallen branch and waved it around as if it were a sword "The only way to know a troll from a tree is when it moves! And when it moves it's to kill you! So find a weapon to defend yourself and fight the monsters!"
Without being told twice, Francesco ran off, only to come seconds later armed with a few small stones. Martina opened her mouth to protest, but Giorgia preceded her.
"Be careful not to hit anyone, Francy!"
"Giorgia... are there really monsters there? I don't wanna go..." Fiona tried to complain, but her brother ran over to her and dropped to a knee.
"I'll protect you from the monsters, my princess!"" he claimed, puffing out his small chest.
"Are you even old enough to be a knight?" Martina asked, watching amused as the boy scrambled back to his feet.
"Of course I am! I'm eight, you know, I'm a grown-up now! And I'm older than Fiona, so I have to protect her!"
"Giorgia is fourteen, she's older than you."
"But Giorgia's a girl! She can't be a knight!" the little boy paused, considering something.
"She's more like an awesome ninja! Ninjas can be girls! Giorgia is like a ninja and Fiona is the princess, so you are... another ninja maybe?"
"No! Martina is a pirate!!" Fiona exclaimed, giggling.
Silence reigned in the forest's edge, a ninja, a princess and a knight waiting for the girl's response.
"Aargh! Run, or I'll kill ye with my hook!" Fiona and Francesco screamed and dashed inside the forest, while Giorgia and her younger sister exchanged an amused look.
"Hey! Wait for us!"

"Look, look Martina, it's floating!"
"Of course, it's surface is bigger than it's wei--" Giorgia elbowed her sister in the side "I mean, it's a boat after all, of course it floats."
"Marty, I made one too!" Fiona announced, showing up with a small boat made from two leaves impaled with a stick. Martina examined it, adjusted its "sails" and lay it on the rivulet of water, the four of them watching the miniature vehicle float away.
"Maybe a river nymph will see it and like it, and give us her magic powers." Giorgia interrupted the thoughtful silence.
"River nymph?" Fiona queried.
"Yes! River nymphs are very beautiful, so Francy will have to watch out and avoid falling in love with them. But come to think of it, they're not as beautiful as you, puppy, so he should be safe. Anyway, if we please the river nymphs they'll give us their magic powers to fight the trolls."
"I don't need the powers! And I won't fall in love with them, I'm not that old!" Francesco protested, before turning around. "Look! That troll is moving!"
Fiona screamed and hugged her brother, while he extracted a few stones from his pocket and started throwing them in the general directions of a random group of trees.
Giorgia picked up her staff-sword and lunged at the trees, hitting one of them repeatedly while yelling something about "Friggerboying troll dandeleds", while Martina sighed and decided to sit this one out.
After an acrobatic dive (and a few scrapes and bruises) on Giorgia's part and a perfect hit on a spider net by Francesco, Fiona let go of her brother.
"Guys, you killed it! Thank you, Fra!" she kissed the boy on the cheek, then went on to do the same to Giorgia. "Thank you too, master ninja! You are now my personal guard. But Francesco is still my first guard, so you'll be the second. You don't have to be offended, it's just that Francy came first."
"I'm honored to be your guard, my princess." Giorgia bowed slightly, using the motion to pick Fiona up and spin her in the air.
"Look! Another troll!" Francesco ran off to fight the invisible monster and Fiona jumped from Giorgia's arms to follow after him. The ninja seemed to consider following them, before leaving the cousins to play their own game and squatting down near her sister.
"Won't you help us in our mission?"
"Pirates pillage and kill. I'm supposed to attack the princess, not defend her from trolls."
"You can be a good pirate, you know."
"I'm not too keen on the thought of running around yelling made-up insults and waving a decaying tree branch probably filled with worms at inexistent monsters."
"But you did that when you were younger. And you found it funny."
"I'm not a child anymore, Giorgia!" the younger sister complained with a small pout.
"You're eleven, right? Adolescence begins at thirteen. Adulthood at eighteen. You're still a kid, and you can play with us."
"I'd feel ridiculous."
"So what's the problem? You'd have fun. There are no adults around. Look at me, I do stupid things and have fun! Do I look like a give a friggerboying graft about others' opinion? Besides, a ninja and a knight are cool, but we need a pirate. We can't do it without a pirate, it would be like Sharknado without the sharks."
Martina winced at the mention of the movie, but smiled slightly. "Promise not to tell mom and dad?"
"Of course! Scout's Honor!"
"Then you have your shark pirate." she started running towards their cousins, then suddenly turned around.
"And I get to loot the corpse!"

AN: Wow. That eneded up VERY different from what I had planned out. I had planned the four getting lost in the forest, no real message, and an overall boring stories with no ninjas and knights and pirates. Trust me, it's much better for all of us that Francy decided he didn't give a friggerboying graft about my plot and made up his own. By the way... I'd have fun to see my American readers try and figure out the correct pronounciation of the names! 

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For those who don't know me yet, hello! I'm a crazy teenage writer, inventor of the Storyteller's Challenge and overall a geek. English is my third language, so I'd love you eternally if you pointed out my grammar mistakes. As an aspiring author, I'm always up for constructive criticism. A big hug and may the Force be with you!

The Storyteller's Challenge n. 6 - Dangers (not) lurking beneath the sea

Inspiration is BAAACKKKK! Yay! This one is just a funny story, forget that sad stuff I did until now. And tomorrow's the last day! After that, I'll be having a post where I sum up the week, tell you about other writers who accepted the Storyteller's Challenge, what I learned from this experience, etcetera. Be sure to be here on Monday!

Do I look like an artist to you? No? Then I clearly don't own this image. 

Philip slowly opened his eyes. He thought he heard something. In something much shorter than a second, the sound of moving water and a laughter ringing completely woke him up, which, combined with a cheerful young face appearing in his field of vision, almost gave him a heart attack. Luckily, he was used to it.
"Good morning, Philip!"
The dolphin squealed in protest.
"Oh, come on, don't be such a drama queen!"
More squealing.
"Tch! Fine, my fault, sorry! Now, come on, let's go to the graveyard!" Kiemi grabbed Philip's tail and started swimming towards what was a real graveyard of sunken ships. Broken masts lay on the ground, fallen under the pressure of the ocean. Fish swam in in the holes that time had inflicted upon the sails, and algae grew on the abandoned decks.
All in all, the whole vision was that of a playground, to Kiemi's eyes.
She giggled, excited, and sprinted towards a caravel which was broken in half, with Philip following her and desperately wishing he had a saner friend. Those were sunken ships. Full of lurking dangers, only waiting for the right moment to strike you. Like nails. And splinters!
Kiemi, though, obviously couldn't care less about those horrible traps that awaited her in those infernal sunken labyrinths, and launched herself toward a hole in the deck, screaming excitedly when she came out from the opposite side of the ship.
Philip squealed loudly.
"Philip, it's not dangerous! Look!" She did it again, making the dolphin squeal even louder.
"Come see for yourself, you wimp!" She grabbed the dolphin's tail again and dragged him towards the hole.
When nothing happened, the dolphin relaxed. No splinters. What a relief!
At first sceptical, when he found himself chasing Kiemi in the sail holes, Philip had to admit he was having fun and maybe - just maybe - it was not that dangerous after all. Sure there was always the possibility that another mast would break down and squish them under its weight, or at least leave them starving because they were trapped under a sail which got stuck in a coral nearby, burying them alive...
but it shouldn't happen, right?
A mast breaking down, though, was the last of Kiemi's thoughts at the moment. Screaming shrilly, she entered in one of the cabins, and Philip followed her, worried she might get lost, or get eaten by a kraken, or get a splinter in her tail.
Kiemi was nowhere to be found.
He was right! Oh, no, Kiemi! Was she kidnapped by a shark? Did the roof collapse and trap her under a pile of rubble?!
Philip was squaling frantically as he swam through that infernal chamber. Kiemi was far more important than his life, he would risk it to find her, and would finally make her understand why it was so dangerous coming in these places.
He shivered.
There was a shadow towering over him.
He turned around to face it, and, as sound travels much faster in water than it does in air, a soft giggle came to his ears before he could see Kiemi sticking out her tongue at him.
"Scared ya! Scared ya, didn't I! Nyah, nyah!"
What follows has been censored from most books.
If you asked the right fish, though, for the right amount of worms, he could reveal that it involved a dolphin with a sword in his beak and a splinter in his tail chasing a young mermaid.

I actually had a lot of fun writing this. Not exactly a genius on humor, but I do hope it made someone chuckle. Tell me what you think and SEE YOU TOMORROW FOR THE LAST STORY!!
Woo-hoo! 10 posts, and barely wrote for a couple of weeks. Isn't this Storyteller's Challenge just amazing?
P.S: Those of you who didn't check my previous post "Praising an artist and poems put to music!!!", check it out! Do it! Why are you still reading this stuff?! It doesn't even make any sense! I'm just blabbering! And you're still reading, aren't you?! Well, STOP! AND CHECK IT OUT!!

The Storyteller's Challenge n. 2 - Town of the Beginning and the End

I really enjoyed wrting this story, and it's a pity it had to be so short. Anyway, meet Tonino and Josè as they explore the Town of the Beginning and the End (and no, it's not Loguetown)

This image, again, does not belong to me. Should its owner want it removed, please say so. It was too beautiful not to use!

"Are we there yet?"

"Almost."
"I'm tired, my feet hurt..."

"There! It's over there!" Tonino pointed at a rocky cliff, and started running towards the precipice, followed by a stumbling Josè. 

"Wait, Tonino! Wa- Woah..."
The five-year-old kid widened his dark eyes at the sight before him. 

"This is Asura! Town of the Beginning and the End!"

"Look at this, Tonino! It's so pretty! It's all red and blue and yellow!" Josè screamed excitedly showing a parrot at his brother.

Tonino raised his eyes from the chalk drawing he was making on the floor. 

"He says hi!" The older brother dropped the chalk in his hands.

"You understand him?" 

"Yeah! He says his name's Kali! Hi! I'm Josè and this is my big brother, Tonino!!" Kali squawked loudly and opened his wings at Tonino, who waved, still bewildered. He grabbed his brother's wrist and started dragging him towards a high building, no different than the other sand-colored ones, except for its entrance, which was closed by a heavy double door.
"Open it!" The younger brother looked hesitantly at the solid stone, then pushed it with all his strength, but the heavy door didn't move an inch. Tonino frowned as he softly pushed it with his fingertips. The door slid aside, revealing a shadowed, desert hall. He nodded and waved at the empty room. 

"Tonino, who is it?"

"It's the spirits." The older boy explained as if it was the most natural thing in the world. 

"Ooh! I can't see them, though!"

"I know you can't. Only I can see them." he frowned again. "But I can't speak to Kali."
Said bird squawked outside the hall. 

"He says only I can. Why can't you?"

"They say I shouldn't ask it."

Josè shrugged. Let's play outside! I saw a triangle building, we can climb it! Let's see if we're faster than Kali!" The bird squawked again. "Oh, you are? Then help us up!" Another squawk, followed by an amused laugh and Josè running away, followed by his brother. 

"Josè, Tonino! Where were you? Have you got any idea of how was I worried!"

"Sorry, mom." Tonino muttered. 

"Josè, don't tell it to mommy, okay?"

"Aww, but why not? I want her to see Kali and Luni!" Josè pointed at a white snake, his new friend. 

"Just don't!"

"Mommy, we were in Asura!" The younger boy grabbed his mother's skirt and pulled it. Tonino stopped breathing. Why didn't he never listen? His mother didn't seem angry, though.

"Oh, yes? What is it?"

"It's the Town of the Beginning and the End! There are lots of pretty things, and there was this bird named Kali and a snake called Luni and they were friends, and we played tag all day, then hide-and-seek, but I never found them because they cheated! Kali flied and Luni hided in small holes! Then we climbed a giant triangle and I played with Kali and Luni some more, while Tonino talked with spirits! I can't talk with them, but he can! But he can't understand Kali and Luni." 

Tonino held his breath, but released it when their mother laughed and gently patted him on the head. 

"Is that so? Sounds like you had a lot of fun. But tell me before playing outside next time, okay?" Josè smiled and promised running off in his room to draw Asura at his best. 

"Tonino, where do you play? It isn't anywhere dangerous, is it?"

"No, mom! And I take care of Josè!"

"Of course you do, you're such a good big brother. But be careful yourself, alright?"

Tonino rolled his eyes: "Mom, I'm eight! I'm not a child anymore." The only thing he received in response was another delighted laughter and a pat, then he ran off to their room, exactly like his younger brother. 

"Josè! Josè, wake up!"

The younger brother rubbed his eyes, sleepy. 

"Mmh, I'm tired, it's still dark."

"Just come! I have to show you a thing!" The brother replied with another "mmmhhh", and the older one sighed. 

"It's Asura! We have to go there!" Josè instantly threw aside his covers, fully awake. 

"Really! Now?!" He shouted. 

"Shhh, you'll wake mom!" Tonino put a finger to his lips, while putting on a small jacket with the other hand. 

"Mom said to tell her first." Josè protested, but kept his voice low. 

"Mom wouldn't let us go out now! But I have to show you something, it's important!"

Josè didn't say anything, and hesitantly followed his older brother as he jumped out of the low window.

They quickly made their way through the desert terrain until they arrived at the cliff. 

Tonino stopped and sitted on the edge, and Josè imitated him. 

"What is there? I can't even see Asura from here, aren't we going in?"

Tonino was looking at the sky absent-mindedly. "You would find nothing there."

"What?" Josè was about to cry. "There are Kali and Luni!"

"No, they aren't. It has ended."

"What?" Tonino just motioned at the sky. For a while nothing happened. 

Then Josè let out a scream of excitement, pointing at a beam of light coming from a cloud. 

"It's so pretty! It's a big moon!" 

Pretty indeed, thought Tonino. The sky itself was a giant rainbow, blue clouds over their heads contrasting with the ones below, that had assumed the same orange shade of the sandy terrain. An abnormally large moon was peeking from above the city's ruins. A storm of birds flew over their heads, and Tonino's smile faded.

The ground shook violently. Josè almost fell over, but the older brother grabbed him by his shirt. 

He watched with a solemn expression as the city was enveloped in the ground, slowly. 

"No! Kali, Luni! What's happening, Tonino? Why is Asura going away?"

Tonino didn't answer, instead nervously biting his lip. Josè jumped down the cliff, followed by his older brother. 

"What happened, Tonino?"

"It ended. The Town of Beginning and the End, remember?"

"Wha- but!"

"It's somewhere else, now. In another part of the world." 

Josè's face lighted up, unexpectedly. 

"Really, is that so? Then it's okay!"

Tonino watched curiously his younger brother, who picked a fallen tree branch and waved it as a sword. 

"I'll grow up and travel the whole world! Then I'll find Asura again and play with Kali and Luni! They'll wait for me, right?"

Tonino laughed. "Then I'll come with you! Asura always begins somewhere else! We'll find it everytime!" 

That didn't end as expected. Well, I knew Asura would disappear, but not that Tonino and Josè would decide to follow it. And I thought Kali was going to die (being it the City of the End), but then be reborn the next day (the Beginning), but I ended up cutting that scene, becuase it's supposed to be a short story! Anyway, tell me what you think of it (and point out typos)! :)