Oracle of Life 1 part 1

Alrighty! Part one, up and running~ please give your reveiws on my work desu! This is a random idea i had and i've ben wanting to finish it for some time, so here's the first part! I know, it doesn't make much sense at first, but it will lather in part two. :elephant:

Oracle Of Life Chapter 1 part 1

Dream

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…………

…… "hee hah heei!"

………

………A soft, nearly inaudible hiccupping laugh broke through the whiteness, fading into the senses slowly as if it was uncertain of where it should be…

…The drunken laugh was joined tentatively by the sound crunching of feet landing on dirt and the cluck of chickens, all sounds echoing and oddly drawn out, giving them a hollow ring…

…The whiteness stayed uniform, but a crisp scent of pure warm air swept into existence, that distinct scent of air freshly exhaled from the great lung that was a forest... This scent was nostalgic, bringing a cozy sense of familiarity...

As if one by one all of the senses were returning in turn, the curious fingers of the air caressed flesh, burning plump cheeks, and something billowed around their legs, another nostalgic feeling to one who had spent their life in a dress…. But, the sense of touch they had was oddly detached, unreal, as if they were visiting someone else’s body briefly…

…They put down their foot, and the dirt crunched again, and a profound sense of clarity surfaced, and the whiteness began to shift like sand, going into visual focus with lazy slowness. Their foot wobbled as they shifted their weight onto it, their unsteady and weirdly short feeling legs threatening to tip over, and the whiteness shifted in cadence to their wobble, the shifting outlining their movements... …The whiteness began to fade slightly as it shifted, and they were looking down, bubbles of laughter bursting out of their throat… They were watching their chubby baby legs, practicing walking, and the warm wind curled around them again, their long dress-like shirt billowing around their knees, their tiny moccasin shoes disturbing the brown dirt below them…

Their vision, just like everything else they felt, was unreal and ghostly, the colors thin and pale while everything white shown with blinding brightness while still seeming translucent… They lifted their head, taking another tottering step forward, blubbering happily at the sight of ghostly chickens whom clucked and pecked at the dirt single mindedly, strutting across the ground with their funny cocky waggle, waving their long necks back and fourth… they didn’t look very much like the chickens they were used to, splotchy and streaked and spotted and smeared with rustic browns and red colors, not one the same, exotic looking…

…They put their arms back cooing and squirming with mirth, trying to walk like a chicken, jutting their head forward and lifting their knee high… they wind milled their arms, having trouble walking like that with the bizarre balance they were asking from their body……a echoing hollow voice laughed, distinctly feminine, and they stumbled, trying to look at the source of the voice… they somehow managed to stay upright, achieving amazing angles without tipping over, swaying as they faced the source of the voice…

…There were four people facing them, all insubstantial looking, their eyes veiled with whiteness, but their lips were curved into smiles that were all directed at them… three were men and one was a woman… all of them looked just as alien as the chickens, with dark skin that looked like tree bark and hair like raven feathers……One of the men, whom looked considerably old, chucked and murmured something in a bizarre language to the woman, who smiled and answered in the same foreign tongue, none of them once taking their eyes off them…

……"chiiikan!" They cooed, pointing at the chickens, shrieking with laughter as if it was the funniest thing in the world, then began to turn back to the chickens……out of nowhere, fast and heavy footsteps crushed the dirt, and they turned back, grinning from ear to ear, watching an adult, a middle aged man, stride towards them like a looming mountain…

…The adult crouched in front of them, catching their tiny shoulders that were bare from the too-big sleeves that had slid down…....the adult said something in an angry voice, their bizarre words gibberish to them…

… "chikan?" they asked, not understanding, staring at where the man’s eyes would be if it wasn’t for the whiteness blocking them……The adult’s hands suddenly constricted painfully around their small shoulders, their thick tree-trunk fingers digging into their soft baby flesh, and began to shake them, shake them so hard they thought their neck would break… roaring words they didn't understand like thunder...

***

Comments & reviews · 3
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User avatar
Sidd-chan
Comment

haha! I really appreciate you review, Nutty-samma, and I’m glad that you appreciate my reviews that I’ve done (I always try to post the most that I can in reviews to help the person as much as I possibly can and hate small reviews) And Thank you! I’ve been to YWS before, but I decided to come back and I appreciate your welcome! :elephant:

And, as for the ‘…’s, I put them there deliberately. I can see how it’s confusing as to why I put them there without Part Two to explain it, so I’ll explain it for you! I usually don’t put that many ellipsis, if at all.

This scene is actually a dream sequence (hence the name of the chapter), and the odd spacing in the beginning and the ellipsis are to show how the dream is fuzzy and unclear, and later parts will not be like this one. The reason I didn’t put in Part 2 which clears up that confusion is because it would have been WAY too long! This Dream is, also, not a normal one. As you noticed, I used ‘They’ and ‘Them’ quite a lot, and several sentences such as this one don’t entirely make sense:

As if one by one all of the senses were returning in turn, the curious fingers of the air caressed flesh, burning plump cheeks, and something billowed around their legs, another nostalgic feeling to one who had spent their life in a dress


I can’t say more than that without spoiling anything~ as for why the MC found the People and the Chickens alien looking, you’ll also figure that out later! But all of this will be cleared up in Part Two, so I’d love it if you’d keep up with my story!
(Oh, and i'll be Spacing out the Name OOL to be Oracle Of Life~)

User avatar
Nutty
Review
Nutty wrote a review · Sun Dec 13, 2009 10:20 am

Hey! Welcome to YWS! =D
I see you've already done reviews. Awesome. No, really. It's great to see. ^^
Okay, the first thing I must say about your charming story is- you don't need the ellipsis.They are the '...' things. ^^ From what I can see, they end almost every sentence and begin a lot of others. They are something I tend to stay away from, personally. Usually, they are not necessary, or there are better ways to produce the same effect.
In your story, I believe it is a simple task of replacing them with fullstops. All the ellipsis do is drag out your story, and they eventually become a little tiresome. There is a certain satisfaction in coming to a fullstop, you know you have reached the end of an idea or point, and are able to move on to the next. Ellipsis can leave you thinking about the sentence, but after seeing so many of them, the reader will become a little tired. ^^

Anyway! The story itself, while mildly confusing- I cannot quite figure out what the significance of the chickens are, or why they are foriegn- contains some charming details and descriptions. I love the way you portray drunkeness. You manage to get the personal profoundness and outward idioticy, and I found it believable without being blatent.

The ending was a little confusing, but then I think it was supposed to be. I am also not sure if there are one or more of "them", some points it is suggestively plural, others it seems to be only one. Maybe this will become clearer in the next part, so I will not quibble too much.

Really, I actually enjoyed reading this. Your descriptions are good and your pace is slow and even, but not boring or tiresome- which is great. The main thing I would suggest is please, take out all the "..."'s. Because they the only thing distracting me or putting me off.

Again, welcome to YWS. I really hope you stay and have fun- it's always great to welcome another writer =D

If you have any questions about my crit, the site or just questions in general, don't hesitate to PM me. I don't bite, much. ^^

-Nutty



Your hesitation suggests you are trying to protect my feelings. However, since I have none, I would prefer you to be honest. An artist's growth depends upon accurate feedback.
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