Young Writers Society

Charlie Brown

I fingered the scarlet heart around my neck. I remember getting it a few weeks back, the sunny day, the strong smell of lilac on the summer breeze. I remember my mother making fresh plum jam, her sweet voice humming a tune with the small robin birds outside her window.

It was like any other, boring day. I had planned to go fishing that afternoon, nothing more boring then fishing! But I had lost the bet to my sister, and that is why I had get the fish for the rest of my life!

The path towards the fishing pond was just a few skipping stones. I guess that is why I manged to get their so fast every day. As usual I would sit down under the same tree, throwing the same line of rope into the smae cool blue water. Same old, same old!

What hadn't been the same though, was the glinting of metal under the rushing water. Stuck between the cracks of the cobbled stones. It was then that I sound the necklace and it was then that my life changed and it was then that I'm now here.

I look around the golden palace, you can't help but wish that the old same old same old would come back and stay with you forever.

Kamaria Samar:

I remember how I first found the band...and when. It was a lazy, wet Sunday afternoon and my I was up in the attic of our new home in America. I was looking through some boxes and things when I found this small, old, locked wooden chest. It had my mother's name carved into it.

Curious, I rummaged around until I found a key that fit the lock. Inside was the lapis lazuli pendant on a necklace. Smiling, I picked it up and then the world went black.

When I woke up, I was not in the attic anymore. I was in some dreamworld landscape full of strange things. Boy, did I freak out at first...

Devante (Add on to previous entry...never said how I got here.):

Just a few days after I had received it I ended up in this place. I had awoken in the middle of the night because I felt the cool breeze on my skin. I woke up in the middle of a strange place, boy did I freak out.

Serenade

Hush, little baby, don't say a word... Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird...

"My legend says that I was born of a lullaby. That once, when a prophecy was sang to sleep, I became who I am. The choirs in my head say that I am the power of that drowziness, and that my voice is the ethereal magic of guardian angels. My eyes, they say, reflect the beauty of the heavens, so cool and calm and fiery at the same time. And I'm deceptive and twisted, like bad dreams. And I'm cunning, like insomnia.

Needless to say, I'm not something worthy of close study, now am I, children?"

The kids, they shake their heads with empty eyes and chillbumps on their faces. "No, Miss Magic."

"Good, boys and girls..." And I walked by each one, kissing their foreheads and leaving a dark violet stain. One by one, they drifted off into an endless sleep, off to meet Orion by the lake. "If that mockingbird won't sing,"

"Serenade'll make us dreaming rings..." Soon, they were all asleep and safe inside my keep.

________________

I remember when I first found the necklace. I was starving and weak and wandering each passing shore in search of prey. I collapsed finally in a mesh of oak trees and tumbled down a steep slope until I began to tread water. I awoke, my face submerged in the purest crystaline water I'd ever seen. Like a madman I began drinking, but grew violently ill right afterwards. I fell onto the white sand, heaving and seething pain. It was then that I lost my recollection of how I came to be. But the woman... She explained all I needed.

Or, rather, I suppose she was a woman. I never saw her face, and she wore a dark blue robe as she approached me. Her hands cupped my face and lifted me from the shadows. She whispered something I didn't understand and placed a crescent-shaped pendant on my neck. Like sorcery, the pain and hunger began to ease from my nerves. I lifted my eyes to see the woman's face, but she was gone.

Shortly afterwards, I found the one thing I could never have on Dream's Shores-- Orion.

What're we supposed to start off on?

Serenade | Orion's Castle | Dawn

"Prophetess Galia told me this morning," Orion murmured, "that we have less than a week to complete our objectives."

"I am aware, master." I kept cool, making sure not to look him in the eye. My eyes stayed focused on the cobblestone beneath me. "The prophecies have been pulled into our world for however long the Dream Catcher wills it."

He hesitated, disregarding the willpower I credited to the Catcher. "Since they are here now, why not greet them?" He tossed something at my feet. I peered down, catching my first glimpse at the Shadow Shard. "Take this and see what they fear."

I nodded, phasing from his throneroom with the shard in-hand. As I left, I could hear his dark chuckling echoing in the hall.

______________________
"The Glade"

I kept to the trees, balancing myself anew each time my armor slipped in the dew-laden grass. Each place I stepped, each tree I touched, once filled with the glory of songbirds and nature, began to decay and darken under my touch. And, as soon as I was gone, they returned to their natural state.

Creeping into the clearing, I watched as seven young men and women ambled around, separated and ripe for the plucking. Gripping the shard, my body vanished in a purple haze, resurfacing under a black cloak that hid my face and body. Slowly, I entered the clearing where they all wandered. "Wanderers, I presume, are you lost?" My voice, so soft and sullen, came out much lighter than normal. No doubt the power of the shard.

One of the girls turned my way, shivering in the morning's chill. She spoke, her voice quaking as her muscles. "Who are you?"

I stepped forward, watching their faces as they all turned to me. They were entrnaced. "My name is Lady Serenade," I hummed, "and this is my home." Spreading a pale, almost blue hand from under my cloak, I motioned at the surrounding forest. "You are all my visitors, of course, and I trust you all have your gifts?" I retrieved my crescent-shaped silver charm from my cloak and watched as respective items on their bodies all glimmered in response. "Good, good."

Stowing the charm, I motioned for them to follow me, waiting for their conjectures to dwindle first. Behind me, I heard the seldom "Are you sure?" and "No, I don't know her." But my voice was like a hypnotic wave to them, and they followed like marionettes on strings. Once deeper into the forest, I stopped, gathering them all into a huddle. "Now, visitors, you seem so weak and tired..."

The shard in my hand began to glow.

"Why don't you all just...sleep?"

I reached out to touch one of the girls with drowzy eyes, but recoiled as a shining arrow blazed between my hand and the girl, shattering the shard on a nearby tree. I snarled, jerking my head towards the archer responsible for the assault.

But there was no time.

Without a second thought, I grabbed the closest of the visitors and held her writhing body under my cloak. "Nightmares!" The broken pieces of the shard illuminated and vanished, making way for a flash of dark light behind me. I leaped back, taking the girl with me as the crowd of monsters advanced. "Enjoy, prophecies." Seizing the girl, I dashed into the forest without a second glance, phasing through the trees as a ghost.

Until a plan was devised against whoever it was protecting the prophecies, this girl would have to suffice.

After watching Serenade phase out of the throne room, I took my seat in the marble throne and sighed. being here for the first time in centuries was almost unnerving as so much had changed. To help ease my tensions, I needed some good news.

"Kaden!" I yelled.

A small man appeared in front of me. His eyes fell toward the floor. I could see his eyes tracing the cobblestone edges.

"Yes, m'lord...?" He asked in a quiet, muffled tone. I stood up and walked to him. My black cloak bustling behind me.

"It has been nearly a week since I arrived back here. Yet, the fortress is in disrepair, the armory is nearly empty, and my forces are gone. Tell me, have you any good news regarding these matters?" I asked, leaning in towards the back of his head.

He cringed at how close I was to his ears.

"No m'lord. Everyone thought you were dead. They went to the different corners of the Dream. Everyone is gone, sire," he replied, his voice shaking. I could feel rage growing in my mind. As I was about too speak a sound almost like an explosion echoed through the chamber. Serenade was standing there but she was not alone.

"Ah, Serenade. How was your relatively short and seemingly prosperous journey?" I asked, eyeing the girl who was standing there, shaking.

Serenade | Orion's Court | Dawn

Grabbing a knot of my cloak and swinging it over my shoulder, I let the trembling girl go free. She stood there on her own for a long moment before collapsing. I grinned and turned my attention to Orion.

"They're all here, Lord Orion." I shook my head, tossing the remainder of the Shard at his feet. "But they're protected."

Orion's old adviser, Kaden, hobbled off the side, expecting a ravenous outrage from his King. I half-expected the same thing, but he just stood there, pensive in his thought. My red eyes fell back down to the girl. "It seems my brother, Dromme, has taken a new role in your absence in preventing any misdeeds in the Dream."

I moved a pale hand to my neck, feeling the pendant warm with energy. "The Catcher in the lake grows ready."

I knelt, grabbing the girl again. "They'll appear in your watchglass in The Glade." Hauling the girl's weight along with me, I phased from the throneroom once more, to the dungeon.

"Hmmm..this could be a chance for revenge. Not that I'm petty, but, I don't like to lose," I said to myself.

"M'lord?" Kaden wondered.

"Nothing, you have no need to concern yourself with such matters yet," I sat in my throne again, "First order of business, this fortress needs to be rebuilt. I don't care how you do it, just get it done."

"Yes, sire." Kaden slinked off into the shadows and was gone. I ran a hand through my hair. I summoned my crystal, Foresight, to my hand. It glowed blue and then red as my hands caressed it.

"Tell me...is it true?" The crystal began turning out some images of young men and women in The Glade. They looked suprised, worried. Presumably at the loss of their friend. They each had in their possesion an item that allows travel between this world and theirs.

"It is true..." I said to myself. Thoughts of centuries ago began flooding my mind. The Prophecies had imprisoned me. I was to be eternally asleep. They succeeded..until now.