Lost
by elsapo

Comment:
The frantic cries of a mother suffering a pain that should never have to be felt. The calls of the countless volunteers that comb the woods. The outpouring of grief and condolence, hope and faith and support. The desperate pleas on the 11 o'clock news. We just want our daughter back.

These are the things of nightmare. These are the forbidden and hushed thoughts of our deepest fears. These are the things that we hope so desperately will only ever be someone else's pain.

We do not try and think about the moments when that innocence and carefree childhood comes crashing to a sudden and often disastrous halt. We do not try and think what it must be like for the child that is taken, or stumbles off alone, to whatever horrors for them await. We only wish for their return and safety. We only wish for that happy ending, and we do our best to close our minds to the pain and suffering and the unknown.

Yet there sits that bicycle, or perhaps a shoe, or a dropped doll. There sits that last reminder of the child that we may, god forbid, never see again.

And it knows.

Icy Gaze
by LalliSig

Comment:
He stood frozen to the spot, quite literally, as the gaze of the Ice Queen penetrated his core. He'd heard the legends, listened to the warnings, but had been caught quite unprepared in the end. What he hadn't counted on was her sheer beauty and charm. It was so cliche, the sturdy warrior, enraptured by the beautiful but evil sorceress, that it was simply embarrassing. He knew better, he didn't consider himself the stereotypical mindless male, but here he was, ice forming and creeping up his legs, threatening to wrap him entire.

With frost already forming on his lips, he managed a weak smile. So this is how it ends then, trapped by femininity because of an instinct undenied. His mind screamed at him to fight, but his body simply wouldn't resist. So the ice continued to form, and soon she would have a new decoration in her crystal chamber.

Here's to... Good food. Good friends. Good fun.
by Lydia

Comment:
Hey wait, this doesn't look like The Kegâ„¢!

Autumn Arrival
by ShaneBlake

Comment:
He lay there, and scratched his ear, and pondered for awhile. He did not really know, yet, that life could be cruel and unfair. He did not know yet, that his remarkable birth among the forest peoples would be talked about for generations to come. He did not know yet that for all the love and attention that was given to him as he grew, that he would one day discover a most unfortunate reality.

He did not know yet, that most human males would be very much different from him, that a curse of being forest born would haunt him for all his adult days.

He did not know.

Yet.

Maternity in Black and White
by MilesW

Comment:
She kissed his head gently, and hummed a gentle lullabye. He was her pride and joy, her precious little one. He had been a gift that she would cherish always.

She lay him down among the leaves, soft and inviting, and backed away, the lullabye catching in her throat, her eyes beginning to glisten.

For the rest of her days, she would remember him. Love him. For the rest of her days she would never forget the joy he had given her.

He was her pride and joy, her precious little one, and as the rest of them joined her Lullabye they said goodbye in their way, and sent his memory on another journey with the song of a Mother's Love to guide him.

Seed pods
by train

Comment:
It was with enormous pride and joy that Mr. and Mrs. Peapod, joined by Grandmother Hess, lifted up their brand new baby to the world.

As the sun shone down, and the legumes and berries cheered, a new age was ushered unto the garden.

Tiny Dancer
by BigSmiles

Comment:
They thought it was so funny. Oh, so funny. They pointed, and laughed, and said how cute it was. How adorable. How PRECIOUS.

To Peter, however, there was but one thought.

Revenge.

Beach Art
by wildiris

Comment:
It started slowly.

At first, it was as if it were not happening at all. So subtle and slowly did they form. Little marks in the sand, etching themselves out over the course of days. So minutely that it was beyond observation, but etched they were. If the waves obscured them, they appeared again without pause. If a foot scattered them, they regrew, but quicker now.

Then, as if they had reached a sort of breaking point, the etching began to accelerate. They came faster now, sketching across the beachfront as an artist worked his easel, appearing across the sand in patterns like the vegetation of the sea. They etched, and advanced, until one of the main branches suddenly parted a parcel of sand, revealing there an object, white and glistening, some sort of stone.

Then, without a sound, the etchings departed. The sand filled in and the waves splashed in and wiped them out.

The stone remained. Moments later, with a crack that echoed for miles around, a sound that should not have been possible from this tiny thing, a fissure appeared in the smooth casing. A fissure that bled an unholy light.

It was a gift from the sea, and it had opened, and what lay inside was the ruin of us all.

Endeavour
by gzupruk

Comment:
It came down from the black of night in a blaze of light, leaving a trail that burned itself into the eyes of any that happened to witness it. It blazed down and the impact shattered the very reality and obliterated everything near.

It came down out of the darkness of the sky and changed everything. It destroyed hopes and dreams. It caused chaos and panic. It ushered in the dawning of another, darker, god-forsaken age.

It was pain and suffering and torment, and it was not alone.

Dressed Herself
by good_ham

Comment:
Sofie was a willful child. Now, this isn't a surprise in itself, as willful children are a dime a dozen on most days, in most places, throughout the history of childhood, but Sofie was a little different.

Sofie had a gift.

On this day, as she strolled smug and confident, dressed in her favorite outfit that her mom almost didn't let her wear (and she certainly knew how to get people to change their minds now, didn't she?), the adults around her walked stiffly, anxiously, fearfully.

Sofie had a gift, and when your world is suddenly thrust into a monochrome existence due to the temper of a child that has been told no when wishing to wear an outlandish outfit, well, you end up letting that child wear that outfit.

So she strolled along, a brilliant mass of color in a black and white world of her making, and she decided then that she was having Ice Cream for dinner tonight, oh yes, and Pete forbid the one to try and stop her, because...

Sofie had a gift.