May "Grab bag" stories/poetry/art/etc....

This is thread to post your contributions to the May grab bag fun! Stories, poetry, artwork, whatever your talent to share.

The elements for May are....
New Beginnings
Metamorphosis
Blooming
A storm
Rain

Have fun everyone!

What... does 'metamorphosis' mean?

Transformation.

I'm in!

I might do something, if I can think of something.

I guess I need to write more often. Got carried away, sorry!



It was a hard change for Grubfinder, all this ‘work with the elves’ stuff his clan was doing now.  It seemed like it would have been quite easy to leave things be:  Trolls do their own thing underground, and Elves do above ground things…. It was pretty straight forward as far as he was concerned.

But now that they were working together, he found himself tripping over Elves on a daily basis.  Trolls worked smoothly, knowing which way to go in which tunnel, and at what time almost by instinct, so one could carry a load or pull a cart uninterrupted wherever you needed to go. Steady hard work was the best way to get stuff done, but these Elves…! Bouncing all over the tunnels, darting here and there… They can’t even pull a half load of ore!

Indeed, at this point, it seemed the Trolls were getting the bad end of the deal:  Elves were getting cut stone structures built for them, advanced tools, on top of labor.  What were the Trolls getting? Food?  A little stoneshaping here and there?  Even at that, Trolls were doing some of the hunting anyway, so that wasn’t even a real benefit.

Grubfinder reminded himself he needed to put in for a Prospector job one more time.   He craved the peace and quiet out in the far reaches of tunnels, away from the noisy activity of the inner hub.  If he could just get enough time to study his minerals, there might be a chance to pass the aptitude test.  It had taken him so long just to get a ore-hauling job for one of the miners, but his name had followed him anyway.

“Hey, Grub, You need to go see the king right away.” A messenger had popped out of a side tunnel.

“Sure thing, I’ll be there as soon as I drop this off.” Grubfinder nodded his head toward his cart.  The messenger hesitated a moment like he was going to add something, but shrugged and disappeared back into the darkness.

He finished his load, parked his cart, and headed off to see the king.  He wasn’t really sure what to think in the interim, his king wasn’t as cruel as the kings of old, but just about anything could happen, good or bad.  He tried to remember if he had crossed anyone lately.

He waited in line.  There was always a line.  The only thing disturbing was that there were two Elves in the line today, and they wouldn’t stop chattering about some meaningless thing.  Didn’t they have some way to talk from head to head without making such a racket?

There was little for a Troll to talk about in the line.  Rarely would two miners, or two prospectors, or two metalsmiths be in line at the same time, and there was little reason for one to talk to another outside of their trade.  Socializing could be done at far more social places, there was little point in disrespecting the king by disturbing his chambers with banter.

To his surprise, the two Elves and the Troll ahead of them all entered at the same time as a group.  He mused to himself how little he cared to hear what became of the trio, but it was rather unusual.  Two more ahead of him and one looked like another cart puller.  He shrugged to himself, figuring it wouldn’t change anything either way. At least the noise went away.

He found himself at the front of the line quite quickly, and wasn’t waiting much longer than that before he was sent in.

***

“What just happened?” he muttered to himself as he staggered toward the surface.  He’d thought the worst thing that might happen to him would have been to get his old job back. What could be worse than digging for grub-worms all day long? While there was a long list of rather undesirable jobs that were undeniably worse, most of those were given over to criminals, such as cleaning the dust-baths or feeding cave-slugs.

Grubfinder was considering what crime it might take to get one of those jobs. He’d almost rather handle filth and offal than this.

“Head up top, I’ve got an assignment for you.” The King had said. “There’s a drought up above and the Elves need help you’re particularly suited for.  They need grubs for food and for ‘cultivating crops’, as they put it. This will be a step up for you, as a representative of the Trolls!” The King smirked, half serious but knowing how little desire any Troll wanted to spend any time above ground.

Grubfinder had almost blurted out in protest before realizing this wasn’t just some supervisor giving him an order.  He bit his cheek, sighed, and shrugged internally to himself before slowly turning away.  “Hmmph, too bad you weren’t just a tad earlier, too. I gave a prospecting job to the one in front of you.” The king had said as he left.

The surface door opened and blinding moonlight poured in on Grubfinder.  The full moons cast two double shadows of him and the doorkeeper on the wall behind him, he noted as he glanced back one last time. Who knows when he would see another nice tunnel again.

The final steps outside were almost painful as he moved forward.  The warm breeze of the summer night brushed at the dirt on his face and he winced, having never felt such an odd thing.  Air should not be felt!  The tunnels underground stayed a nice even temperature all year long, and the air moved only enough to keep it from getting stagnant. The only place one could find any drafts were near the main flue of the forge-room, where the heat caused an updraft, pulling air in from all the other tunnels for fresh air to come in.

The breeze licked at him as his feet explored the unfamiliar stone outside the door. As the door slammed shut, it sent a jolt though Grubfinder as though he’d been struck by a hammer.  In the seeming silence afterward, he noticed the noise.  Bugs and animals sang to each other, crying out to be heard over each other, the breeze rustling leaves, footsteps of something off in the distance… no one had mentioned the sheer level of nonsensical noise that emanated from every point of the surface!

A familiar BOOM rolled off in the distance, like a great machine hammer used for crushing ore.  It seemed that things would not be completely uncivilized up here if there were processing works around.  He felt his body tense when he didn’t hear another thud of the hammer. He waited for minutes on end, but there was no other sound other than the endless chorus of the forest around him.  

A water-powered ore-crusher would raise a large brightmetal encrusted boulder, drop it on a charge of ore, and slowly raise it again while another charge of ore was shoveled into the hopper. It would repeat this all day long, the dull booming thud of the hammer pulsing on and on as long as someone brought in ore to crush.  The crusher would usually be placed far off from the main areas, near the current mining efforts where the noise was muffled by the ground.  Up here, he assumed it was louder a lot farther away with nothing much but these flimsy trees to block it, but there should be more than one ‘boom’.

He realized he had been standing outside the door quite a long time, still reeling from the exposure. Nothing was right. Too hot, too cold, too noisy, not enough of the right noise… it was just plain too much.  He should have done something to get a criminal job… insult the King, or punch a guard…. But it was too late.  That door would not open for him unless he was summoned or it was a dire emergency, and he couldn’t make either happen.

He then remembered there were some rather large beasts that prowled the night looking for a snack, and tried to remember which way to get to the stone-works, which he figured would be safe and hard to miss. Looking around, he chose a direction and headed down what appeared to be a pathway in the forest floor.  It was thick enough with vegetation on each side he almost imagined he was still underground, but the noise, which flared up as he moved, destroyed the illusion.

He felt the presence of a stone wall before he could see it. The bright moons had dipped below the horizon and the sun would be coming up soon… The sun! Blast it all if that wouldn’t be worse than the twice cursed moonlight!  He heard the chatter of Elves nearby and sought them out.  Upon finding them, he introduced himself.  Apparently, they had known he was there for quite some time. How they had heard a Troll in all this unnerving clamor was beyond him.

The Elves were kind, after a fashion, having dealt before with Trolls that were not used to the surface.  They lead him to food and to a room with a solid door he could close to help his eyes adjust in the approaching daylight.  They pointed out he was going to have a better time of it, as a storm was coming in and would block out the sun as it rose.

This was little comfort for him, though. He could close his eyes to the sun, but he had been near the cold, damp air of the waterworks down below before.  The dampness could chill to the bone and make the dirt and sand cling to a body, which was misery in and of itself, but to throw sunlight on top of it, and then to have to dig for grubs in middle of all this, with the world screaming at you?  He’d heard the phrase ‘who do I have to kill…’ before, but hadn’t really understood the entirety of the phrase.  He found himself rocking in the corner of his room with his fingers stuffed in his ears, humming to drown out the sounds and calm himself.  Before this, he had thought humming to be a waste of time, and didn’t see the point, but it was nearly instinctive at this point.

A hand touched his shoulder and he jerked away, wondering what new affront it could be. A female Elf (or so he believed, it was hard to tell the genders apart on the wiry creatures) spoke with soothing words, seeming to understand the confusion he was in.  The only Elves he had been in contact with much were the bouncy chatterboxes that went ‘exploring’ the Troll tunnels, mucking things up and acting recklessly.  This female was a lot more graceful and careful, calmly trying to rid him of the shock he was going through.

She sang to him and wrapped him in furred leathers, turning them inside out to help him control his body temperature.  Apparently she was a healer, and as the stark light blasted in through the cracks in the door, she did something to his eyes that helped them adjust better.  She did little else to comfort him, but it was enough to help him face his new world.

He cracked open the door slowly. A steady downpour drenched everything outside, the cold of the storm saturating the air and cut at his face like a knife.  He knew it wouldn’t be long before this room would be cold too, and he pushed the door shut.  He would not catch his death in that today!

As he pushed the door shut and leaned against it, a loud BOOM thudded outside. It was much louder than the one he heard earlier, and louder than a ore-crusher should be.  That size of a crusher should be felt underground!

He noticed the Elf’s eyes studying him. He asked “Is there someone working out in this? What was that loud noise?”

She smiled and replied, “It’s part of the storm. Skyfire lights up, and makes that loud noise.  It’s usually harmless, but no, there’s no one out there working. It’s possible the Skyfire will strike the ground, and rarely will it hit the upper parts of the stone wall.  No one has gotten hurt yet, but we won’t take chances.”

He wondered how long it would last, this ‘storm’.  The Elf had laid out some sleeping furs for him, and he decided it didn’t sound there was anything else he could do at this point.  He laid down and covered up with the furs, which were much softer than any he had seen down below, and immediately began to drift off into sleep.  The last thing he noticed as he fell asleep was that the female elf had laid down with him, against his backside, and the comfort of the extra warmth won out over the alarming contact, and he drifted away.

***

Panic took Grubfinder as he couldn’t figure out where he was. Animal skins covered him in a stone room, with blinding light streaming through a square in one wall.

Then he remembered.  The Elf had left, and he was alone.  He went to the door and cracked it open again. The forest outside the door was covered in flowers in more colors than he had seen in gemstones, and while they didn’t sparkle by themselves, the raindrops almost made them look like gems.  The stone walls and the thought of imagined treasure helped him open the door the rest of the way.

His eyes were slits as he peered out at the sunny scene around him.  Whatever  the Elf had done to his eyes had helped, he guessed, as the moonlight last night hurt worse than this, but it was still too bright. He sought out dark areas around him to look at, as the ground and the sky were far too bright to even glance at.

He stumbled around the worksite, noting the walls had been erected around a section of forest, keeping a piece of nature inside.  This would be a bad thing down the road, as nature had a tendency to tear down whatever was ‘made’.  Even a purely stone cavern underground would eventually be ruined from the slightest trickle of water, trickling away, drop by drop, until the cavern filled with mineral deposits or wore away into an underground river.

There wasn’t much other than a wall, though. What was the wall for?  He’d been told at some point, but he had dismissed it as quickly as he had the name of the Elf that had helped him, though in the case of the Elf, he was now feeling it was proper manners to thank her, and kicked himself for not asking to hear it repeated.  Probably couldn’t pronounce it anyway.

He wandered around, not finding anyone, trying to figure out who to talk to about getting to work. It was disappointing to be doing the trade that gained him his namesake, but work was honorable, and if it needed done, he would find grubs for these half starved children.  If they all turned out like the one who had visited him earlier, it might not be as horrible as it seemed.

Hammer, that's great ... but there's definitely missing the last part. You 've hit the maximum letter count, I bet!

Sorry, didn't copy and paste right, it was only a few words. Thanks for letting me know!

This is wonderful! The way you write about Grubfinder makes me wanna adopt him >_>

Ah, exceptional work Trollhammer...I liked the interactions with the mysterious elf, the shock old Grub felt already having a dislike to the elves was touched on nicely...

Thanks for the kind encouragement, it means more than you know! Might keep Grub around.

Cant wait to see what else gets posted. I overheard someone doing some planning on something I have been waiting years to see more of.

Lovely story! I like Grubfinder very much!

I think "in the old days" we wouldn't start a thread until the first of the month... so that we really have until the last day of the old month to post or creativities.

Anyway, I finished my short story yesterday too, so why the heck not post it already.
Please excuse my writing, I am a bit rusty... but I think it turned out okay.

Birth of a tree(shaper)
"Redlance dear, you are not listening!  A seed takes time to grow after it is planted!"
Dark. Dry. Warm. No water. Grow? Growing is difficult. Slow. Wait. Water will come, if I wait. Daystar gives enough light and warmth, but no water means no growing.
Then... A probing feeling. Green feeling, inexperienced but persevering. It feels like light and darkness and dry and rain and storms all at the same time. Not good but good too... Nudging, stimulating... I tentatively grow thin roots, looking for water. Yes! The green feeling works like light and makes every drop of water work like eights upon eights of drops.
"You cannot make it sprout simply by staring..."
Grow... Grow towards the Daystar. Push... Light! As soon as possible I extend leaves to catch the light of the Daystar, so I can grow even more.
"...at ... it!"
The green feeling stops. I turn towards the Daystar to start my life.


*edited to add the sentence about the storm I had included last minute but somehow wasn't coming along when I posted.*

Id do a "thumbs up" emoticon but my phone wont scroll down. You dont seem rusty to me! Great job!

awww, thanks!

I like to do odd/unusual angles on known events, or random glimpses of "day in the life"

Now that's a really interesting POV! *bows* Excellent, fae

faeriegirl wrote:

I think "in the old days" we wouldn't start a thread until the first of the month... so that we really have until the last day of the old month to post or creativities.

faeriegirl, did you think this was for the month of April, hun? If so, no worries! Because this is for the entire month of May. I just started it at the end of April to give people more time to think and write since we haven't done these in so long!

And I LOVED your piece!! Writing form the little plant's perspective!! That was absolutely creative!

Trollhammer, I hope you'll keep Grub around! I'd love to read more about his interactions with the elves he's so grumpy about and more of the one who seems to be reaching out to him!

love!

Kindredsoul wrote:

faeriegirl wrote:

I think "in the old days" we wouldn't start a thread until the first of the month... so that we really have until the last day of the old month to post or creativities.

faeriegirl, did you think this was for the month of April, hun? If so, no worries!  Because this is for the entire month of May. I just started it at the end of April to give people more time to think and write since we haven't done these in so long!

And I LOVED your piece!! Writing form the little plant's perspective!! That was absolutely creative!

Oh I knew it was May alright! I totally agree with opening it up a bit early so we have more time, but I did want to point out that it's supposed to be monthly so we shouldn't start early every month XD
Thanks!

Spark of Life

“But are you sure it will work?”

“No. I still have to try. There are so few of us left, especially after we lost young Crescent.”

“Why me?”

“Because, beloved, I know how much you have always wanted a cub of your own, and how – even though you were happy for us – your inner emotions were in turmoil, like a great storm, when I recognized someone else.”

“Besides; I told him it should be you.”

“In that case, lifemates, let’s do whatever we can to bring a new cub into this family.”

That day the Holt was as if transformed; magic of life spread throughout the Fathertree, making everyone giddy and quite eager to fall into the furs with whoever their hearts, bodies and minds desired. This was something new; something no Wolfrider could ever remember had been done before; attempting to force Recognition to happen, rather than waiting for it to happen on its own.

Yes?

Yes. I can already feel this new life blooming inside me.

Everybody, it worked!

That kind of summarizes my feelings. Awesome!

She felt a softer self inside a harder self, like a caterpillar in a coccoon. Like a blossom from a twig. Only it wasn't springthaw, and the silent native trees seemed unaffected.

The feeling was so intense at times, she thought she would split her bark in response. Would there be a metamorphosis? Would she be released, as something light and fragile, and spiral upward, above the forest canopy?

The feeling came from far away. Somebody was sending. Not like us. Somebody without roots, without bark, without branches.

A storm broke. Rain washed down upon her, upon Ash and Alder, Oak and Birch. Upon the last of the Treefolk, bred of Timmain.

They swayed in unison, as if a wind blew them in the direction of the feeling.

Awesome!!!

Beautiful story.

I just can't wait to see the other Elves' faces when the tree people show up. Timmain was once shown shape-shifting into a tree, and I think there was a discussion about it on the Scroll of Colors.