Hey, not sure exactly when the due date is, but I'll try to get my submission in tomorrow.

Okay, I'm back. I'll check everyday. Please try to get your stories in, as they are coming really slowly.

Katie sat in a cage made of ice and twisted branches and watched her enemies who were standing and watching her back, cupped in frost and gold. Katie waited for her rescuer and looked up at the moon and looked at her enemies and waited.

Katie used to have a sword. She used to have two nicely curved knives. And matches. But her enemies were very flammable and also, strangely, were hurt when hit with swords and knives. So when her enemies got her they took away her matches and swords and knives.

Katie was quite an impatient little girl, but when it was very very important she could bear waiting. She could bear watching her enemies watch her, she could bear watching the moon for any signs.

Katie didn't just have swords and knives and matches.  That was where her enemies had made a mistake. A big mistake that would mean Katie escaping their hold and probably also stopping them forever in a way Caspian wouldn't like at all. Stupid Caspian didn't like Katie killing people, said human life was sacred. Katie said that if she didn't kill the bad guys than they would come back even stronger than they had been before.

Caspian wouldn't stop her this time; he was on the other side of the world.

Katie felt herself growing stronger as the moon came higher in the skies until finally she was ready.

She kept her poker face and watched her enemies. Barely twitching her fingers she sent a bolt of electricity from her to them. She smiled as they screamed and screamed.  She lifted her hands and pushed at the cage until it exploded.

Enemies dead, Katie ran from that place to Caspian.

And the moon smiled down on his pawn. 

oh crud i forgot the artemis part D:

When's the due date? I won't be able to get my submission in for a few days, but if you'd rather judge without mine, that's fine.

Sorry about the long post, Admins!

Dear Yui,

    You can’t trust anything on a blood moon. Not even the legends. Not even yourself.
    I mean, it does sound made up - people disappearing? Only when the moon turns red? Magic is spells, not that. They think.
    I’ve done research. When you’re near a meteorite during a blood moon, the rift opens. The problem is, nobody knows where the rift leads. Nobody thinks it exists.
    You were taken there on the second blood moon of the year. On the third, the rift is supposed to collapse. And you’d be in it, Yui! I can’t let that happen!
    I miss cuddling with you at bedtime and us playing games with my stuffies even though you’re sixteen. I miss your quill scritching on drawing paper and the pictures of your ‘favorite sibling”. Me! And I can only make myself rice and eggs, and I only have two eggs left.
    So I bought an illegal meteorite. I think rocks from the ground will work to get us out, so I grabbed some of those. I put everything in a magic-proof drawstring pouch.
    I’m going next blood moon.

-Kazue

Dear Yui,
    Everything went dark and I was flying up. It was weird - tendrils of dark swirling around me and engulfing me, and then a flash of orange. I hope I used all those words right.
    It’s dark here, except for this orangish glow. Only I can’t see the glow. Not all the way. Is it there? I’m… not sure?
    There isn’t a sky or anything. Just candles and ever-moving shadows and walls the texture of dry rice.
    I’m going to explore.

    Later now. The shadows on the floor are portals that take you to different rooms. It feels like the meteorite. Just a shorter trip.
    This whole thing’s weird.

-Kazue

Dear Yui,

    I’ve got a plan! I hate it here but I’m going to get out and save you!
    Each “up” is a little different. The walls or candles are different, or there’s something like a crown or a moon statue on the floor. But there’s always the orangish glow. Always. ALWAYS
    <scribbles>
    Anyway, four different portals are always moving across the floor. Sometimes I go through them to a room I remember. I’ve figured out that the 2nd portal from the floor - 2ff - makes something the opposite of what it was. So I’m going to find more patterns.

    And 1 from front - 1ff - makes it some sort of variation. I think. I’ll do more research.

-Kazue

Yui who I want NOW,

    I saw you huddled in a corner, staying away from portals, and I stepped on one, and you didn’t see me, and I started running and
    <scribbles>

    I saw your room. Candles as purple as a violet, smooth white walls, a shattered chandelier. I’ll find you. Or… as long as you haven’t moved.

-Kazue

Yui,

    I’m trapped.
    This room doesn’t have any portals. None. Just really tall red candles and smooth walls.
    And I’m trapped. I’ll never save Yui. I’m hungry. I didn’t bring any food. I
    <tear marks>

-Kazue

Yui,

    So the portals are on the ceiling.
    I can’t climb the walls cause they’re smooth. I threw my meteorite up, but it went through the portal without me and thudded. Hearing the thud without seeing what made it was weird.
    I jumped a lot, but I’m too short to reach. Standing on my bag didn’t make it easier.
    I tried making stairs with the candles. They just rolled around. And since I had to blow lots of them out, it was dark.
    I’m trapped.
    But hold on, candles have wicks! Maybe I can use those to make a rope! And there's a lot of them. Let’s go.

    That took a long time. And once I had the rope, I tied it to my bag and threw it up. It stayed and I climbed up. I’m out!
    Now to keep looking for you. 

-Kazue

Yui,

    A few hours later, the rift was dying. Everything was crumbling, glow weakening, portals shrinking . I didn’t have much time.
    1ff. Purple candles. 1ff again. Smooth walls. I saw a chandelier. It was your room!
    And you weren’t there. I dodged a boulder and kept moving.
    1ff. Invisible walls. 2ff. Black walls.
    No sister.
    But I had heard the thud of the rock. Maybe sounds can travel through the portals and I could use it to find you! I started yelling. I didn’t hear anything back.
    So I kept moving around. Nothing. The floor was crumpling to pieces, the glow shining through. I had to watch my step. I didn’t know how much longer I had, just that I couldn’t go home without you.
  Then I thought about the glow.
    The glow touches all the rooms. The glow was still there. It had to be the answer. I leapt into it.
    I was the glow.
    I could see all the rooms. It was like I was above them, but not quite, because they were all around me.
    I saw you.
    I dove to your room, and you yelped the instant I appeared. You stepped back. The floor fell away.
    I ran to you and grabbed on right as you fell. We were falling, in the glow, watching it start flickering.
    I pulled out the rocks and pulled open the drawstrings. Everything went dark. Then light. Sunlight.
    We were home.

-Kazue

Dear Diary,

    Yui made salmon onigiri. She taught me how to make pancakes, just in case she got sucked up again.
    We’re going to carry rocks now. Always.
    The rooms did have patterns, in case we got lost. But patterns don’t really mean you can trust something. Not all the way. Not enough. And definitely not on a blood moon.

-Kazue 

top!

Haven't been on here in a hot minute but I felt compelled to check and who am I to turn down a contest?

I hope poetry's okay?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

her light is a dancing glint on night time countertops

whiteness bounding from granite to the irises of passerby

she is silent but her words are thundering

freedom echos throughout her shine

breathes filled with fresh honey crisp air

she sits alone

surrounded by all the galaxy

she casts spells through her gaze

wrapping her finger around me

a siren's voice; infinite eyes 

enchanting beams of her extended arms 

take my hands 

I dance in her light

loose beneath her

my limbs act on their own accord

I bathe in the presence

my worries drowned

from tides she throws in

the same tides she uses for destruction

horrid nightmares turned reality

pull me in

they are light

strung around my heart, I am summoned to her

she exhales 

I inhale

my body tingles with familiar feellings of home

running fingers through fairy lights of contallations 

the little dipper is much bigger in person

warmth fills me

warmth is me

she pulls me in 

feet touching fantasy white sand

the forbidden ocean without a sea

a forbidden women destined to the night

to the unforgiving dark with other the stars 

and me 

Okay! Here are the results. It was really hard to decide, and also I only went top 2 because I can't decide the order after that. All of the entries were wonderful and I wish I could give them all 1st place, but I have to pick one so: 

Honarable Mentions(Not in any order!)

larryboy: This story was great! I loved the descriptions and how we learn a lot about the charactar early on. Its also written really well, and everything just flows.  The only thing is that it would be nice if we could have a bit more of an explanatioin as to who Caspian is and what he's doing, but it was great! 

Spellbound: This was a great story, I think it was easy to understand yet still written well. It would be good if it was a bit longer, like if there was more of a climax or more action, but that is just my prefrences. Overall, great!

Blackfooted Bobcat: This was written wonderfully! The descriptions and, yet again, the way the story flows is beautiful! It was pretty confusing, though, so it would nice if there was a bit more explanation or backstory, or in a different format then the journal entries.. Or maybe that makes sense to everyone else and it's just me. But again, your story was overall great!

2nd Place:

Rainbow Riot: This story was wonderful. It was like a song, with rythym and highs and lows, tense parts and slow parts and sad parts. I wish we could have seen valerie more in the begining of the story, or had some more development with her, but again the story was beatiful! 

1st place!!

Annabeth C: This peom was so much better than anything I could have ever written! It was written in verse, and yet it had an abstract yet solid story line. And it captures the theme/prompt perfectly! I don't know how you can make such good poetry!   

I hope it's okay that I picked a poem for first place- because its the only poem. Thank you to everyone who submitted!!  Good job, y'all are great writers.

Sorry for being so late Drivers ed started and uh, ah. 

But I'd be happen to judge!

The theme for this next compition is: The forrest ---- I'm thinking August 1st is a good deadline? let me know if we should extend it though :) 

The Forest is a dangerous place.

You don't need legends to know that. Just looking at the bright colours and strange shapes of the leaves and vines, twining around trees and other plants' stalks, as if trying to strangle them, tells you more than any simple warning could.

You feel there's more to those large, poison-soaked leaves, too. They're meant to hide something. You can hear it every time you turn away, in each time you step closer; curious at what lies within, but knowing you're too afraid to venture any deeper than the thick grasses at the entrance.

They know it too. They're laughing at you, mocking you behind their petty disguises, only to flit away; just a fleeing shadow left for your eyes every time you strike out at the canopy with a stick.

And yet their chatter betrays them. You know they're there, thinking they'll be so secure forever. Hidden from the world because of their weakness and cowardice. Repulsive. 

You'll show them.

Everyone in the village tells you to mind your own business, to leave them alone. But by the gods, you'll show them.

Yes, you'll show them.

That's why you don't flinch when the stick falls from your hand. It's why your face remains calm when angry orange bleeds into the sky, stealing, or perhaps only reclaiming, the clear purple's throne. It's why something deep inside dances as the stars change from white, to red, to black, obscured by thick grey clouds pouring up. It's why a soft laugh pours from your lips when you see the tongues of flame lick at the heavens, forest ablaze.

Yes, that'll teach them.