The Last Leg of a Very Long Journey
by alanfreed

Comment:
... and the crowd was stunned into silence today when Mr. McCain hurled the baby he'd just kissed back into the crowd, while his wife Cindy waved bye-bye to it.

Why would he do such a thing? Some believed that the stresses of the campaign were just too much for the poor fellow.

Three Forms of Beauty.
by twotkyns

Comment:
It was an incredible capture, they all agreed. Stunning, beautiful, great use of color. Fantastic stop motion. They just had one question.

Why on earth would you just stand there and shoot this picture when you should have been trying your best to warn that poor girl that she was about to be hit by that car?

He didn't know. At the time, he said, instinct kicked in and he wanted the perfect shot. He was a photographer, dammit, not a good samaritan.

The trial was over in record time.

Lost in Thought
by robinssong

Comment:
Barry looked up and let his thoughts wander off to that place that thoughts like to wander off to at times. That place that is like rush hour in a giant city. Zooming here and there, getting tied up at times, going down back alleys in an attempt to shave off some time, or simply being snarled in a jam. You never knew what you were going to get when you let your thoughts go to that place.

Today Barry's thoughts just led him home, or to what he wondered home would have been like, had he been allowed to remain there. He barely remembered it, but what he did made him realize that it had to be better than this. He sighed, and his thoughts came tumbling back to him, and he jumped down to a lower branch (that wasn't a real branch at all), and then wandered into his pen. He curled up on his blanket and sighed again.

The Florida Manatee
by Marc923

Comment:
Pugsy tugged on his mother's arm. "Come on mom! They're going to start without us! Hurry!"

It was Pugsy's first day at school today, and he was anxious to get there. His best friend, Spotty, was going to be in his class, and he just couldn't wait! There'd be games, and snacks, and he wanted to meet his teacher, and why wouldn't his mother hurry UP?

He tugged her arm harder, pulling as hard as his tail could push, straining to be on their way.

Pugsy's mother smiled. She was happy to see her little boy so excited, but this was also a sad day for her. She'd gotten used to having him around all the time, and the equal parts wishing for free time again and not wanting her baby to leave her side fought within her. So she plodded on, being content to take it slowly and get there when they got there, before she watched her baby grow up before her very eyes and let him go off on his own. Even if only for a couple of hours.

Painting the Sky
by love

Comment:
The Maestro lifted the magic branch in a final majestic gesture, the organic bells upon it ringing clear and true. The sun fell at that moment, creating a wash of color that danced with the flowing tune, creating a rising gasp of awe through the gathered audience.

He'd done it again, a concert of the ages, a display of skill and talent and brilliance that matched the natural gifts of the earth with the genius of his mind and soul.

He took a bow to a standing ovation, and walked off the stage a legend.

Allegro
by Brin

Comment:
With a cracking of ice, and a shower of the accumulated snow, the beast crept up out of the stream. For millenia, it lay dormant in that land of snow and ice. Hiding, waiting for its time to come again.

Now, as it rose from its slumber, it had but one purpose. To feed.

In the little village of Reykvarjiki, the dawn of day had just begun, and children were wiping sleep from their eyes as they gathered in front of the fire to break their fasts, and the fishing boats were being prepared for another day of ice-breaking and the pursuit of livelihoods, and all went as it did every morning to the sound of voices and laughter and work and play.

By evening, the only sounds would be that of the cold wind howling through emptiness.

Florida Fall
by BeckyT

Comment:
The old crone peered desperately into her scrying ball. She'd been banished here, to these old woods, by that hateful little town. All she had tried to do was bring order to that gaggle of maggot infested peasants, but they had turned on her! They had accused her of sorcery and tossed her aside like so much trash!

Well, she would have her revenge, oh yes. They wanted sorcery did they? She would give them sorcery. They, all snuggled in their illusion of safety in those rotted old grass huts and wooden shacks. They all nestled cozily behind their spiked walls. She would show them what true sorcery was.

She peered desperately into her scrying ball, until finally she found what she was after. A quick flash of golden yellow amidst the grasses and trees pointed her to her goal. As the sun glinted off the hair of the beautiful girl child that then came into focus, laughing and playing in that field, the old crone smiled, and the air around her went dead, and any living thing within a hundred yards fell lifeless to the ground.

She would give them sorcery, and then they all would SUFFER.

The Guardian
by cptpoland

Comment:
Poor Sariel. While training to become the next Angel of Guardians, she had a few well known mishaps that almost caused her descension from the guild.

The most famous of these was the unfortunate Railway Disaster of '08. Why she thought that an umbrella was an apt defense against an on-rushing diesel locomotive, heaven knew.

Her failure there, however, was to become a motivating force. In the centuries to follow, she became the greatest Angel of Guardians that heaven ever knew, and she never lost another soul again.

Icarus
by WalesP

Comment:
Like many young men, he felt he had something to prove. In his case, because of the imprisonment of he and his father, and the battles it took to free themselves from a fate worse than death (The tales of the Minotaur were gruesome indeed), poor Icarus was cursed with the desire to prove more than most.

He was a proud young man, and wanted to do right by his father. He fought hard, and bravely, but time and again found himself saved by his father's sword, instead of his own. Time and again his youth and impetuousness got him admonishment, instead of praise.

So it was, on the day of his birth, 18 summers later, when he was given a godly gift, a pair of bronzed wings, that he decided he would show his father his true worth. He would fly to the sun and bring his father back a gift from Helios himself. Though he had been warned about misusing the power of his gift, Icarus was still that impetuous boy, and slow to learn. Pleasing his father had consumed him, and he heeded no warnings.

With only that thought in mind, he launched into the air, seeking out Helios and the gift that would restore his father's faith in him, but Helios was not a giving god. What Icarus never considered was that Helios would see this young man's flight as a challenge to his authority over the heavens, and when he saw the winged boy approach him, he never gave him the chance to plead his case, to ask for his gift. Helios instead took him as a threat, or perhaps he simply meant to teach him the ultimate lesson. Calling upon the power of the sun that he commanded, Helios sent a ball of fire towards Icarus, which consumed him and scorched his wings to slag.

With a cry of pain and betrayal, Icarus found that his power of flight had abandoned him, and he tumbled towards the earth. It was the final act for the boy that would heed no advice, that allowed the need for acceptance to consume him.

Harmonic Downpour
by CorySmith

Comment:
It was a night, much like this one. Dark, stormy. A real bastard of a night.

I was standing alone, in that downpour, having just changed the tire on my car. The thing had blown on me at 90 miles an hour on the freeway, and I'd barely stopped from flipping off the edge. My nerves were shot, and the weather hadn't helped much. Thankfully, the act of putting on the spare had calmed me some, and I was just about to put the jack back in the trunk when she appeared.

Like an apparition, she came from out of the rain. A shadow at first, it was coming down that heavily, but then popping into existence in the glare of my headlights. I thought at first she was a hitchhiker, drawn to my car on the side of the road, wishing to solicit a ride. That thought was quickly put aside however, as I noticed her walk toward me. So confidently, that sly grin upon her face. I began to smile myself, and was about to greet her when I stopped. Something wasn't right, and suddenly every instinct I had was telling me to just get in the car and lock the door. Indeed, I was about to, but had run out of time.

Without a word, she sauntered up to me and enveloped me in her arms. I could only stand there, unmoving, as her touch was cold as ice and I knew she wasn't human. Not like you or me. Then her head leaned in and she whispered in my ear, a sound that was both from her throat yet also in my head as if it had come from all around me.

"Come with me," she said, "Come join us all."

With another sly look, and a half-a-grin, she backed up a step and gestured off the road. Through the rain, into the muddy wastes of the ditch, I could see a light gathering strength. An unnatural blue glow that seemed to penetrate, touch my very soul. I stared at that light and watched as this being, this woman that was not a woman, walked toward the light and gestured me on, and as god is my witness I actually began to move towards her. Towards that light.

Perhaps it was by the grace of that same god that that semi-truck suddenly appeared out of nowhere that night. Its lights suddenly burst through the rain and illuminated us. With a shriek that split my ears, the apparition that was this woman suddenly burst into a frozen mist that was quickly swallowed in the murk, and she was gone. The rig blasted its horn twice and then shot past me with only inches to spare. How I kept my feet in the riptide of wind that followed, I'll never know, but keep them I did. Had I fallen then, I believe that whatever was waiting out there, in the darkness, would have taken me anyway, angry at the interruption, but I did not fall.

For a couple of seconds more I stared off the side of the freeway, at the light that was still there, but it had faded, and with a sudden realization of terror and relief, I was knocked out of my reverie and bolted for my car.

Never in my life had I been so scared as I was that night, and I swear what I tell you is true. The night of that downpour. The night I was nearly taken by a modern day siren, the night I nearly lost myself to the evil on Freeway 101.