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tcstu · 4 years

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January’s Honorable Mentions

The truth is any of these entries could have won. They are all incredible. Sometimes I hate having to choose a winner. I love how unique each writer’s style is and how they each took a completely different take on this piece. If you like one of the entries below, please let the writer know. I am sure they would appreciate the feedback. :)

As a reminder, this month’s feature is a digital painting titled, “They are coming back to life” and it was created by Virginie Juteau @hydraart. If you’ve been following this contest for a while, you may notice that this is a returning artist. I know I recommend a lot of artists on this page, but Virginie Juteau’s work is so incredible, you really do need to check it out.

These entries are listed in the order they were received and do not reflect any system of ranking.

Submitted by: @evanthenerd83

“The Hope (And Death) Of A New World”

A year passed. The fires waned, then flickered out.

A decade. The fog was whipped away from the bosom of civilization.

Centuries fell like sand in an hourglass. Grass hid the skeletons of giants, and vines were woven into a carpet. Scabs that covered old wounds.

The world moved on. Life overthrew the tyranny of extinction, oppression. Bugs crawled. Serpents slithered.

And then, just as the apes crept from the mouths of steel caves, monkey-brains blinded by burning light, it happened.

The fog came.

The death came.

And this time, there would be no survivors.

Submitted by: @wemitodd

“Origins”

After waking to another quiet morning, Lou quickly wrapped their wrist and grabbed their long staff and broad hacking knife - necessities on Nowhere - as they ducked out of the little hovel they had claimed in the rocky plains.

Once outside, Lou was greeted by the sun’s warmth and blinded by its light. After their eyes adjusted, Lou could see the towering figure of the Elder stretched across miles and miles, motionless and silent. Up close, the Elder’s body looked like piled ash, as if one touch could make the beast crumble. Though, when Lou’s hand had touched the Elder, the creature felt warm and sturdy, hopefully, warmed from the sun. Lou liked to believe the creature was dead, mainly because they’d been stuck on Nowhere for a little over five years, and the beast hadn’t moved. If for any reason, it was still alive Lou didn’t want to know what it was capable of.

Remembering the reason they ventured out, Lou set off away from the Elder in search of food. Unfortunately for them, however, food was rarely in their plains. Food on Nowhere was hardly scarce, but it never made itself easy to be found. Recently, Lou hadn’t been lucky in their usual hunting spots, so they had to wander out farther than they would’ve liked.

It takes about an hour to get anywhere promising, but that’s usually par for the course on Nowhere. Everything is big and far apart and hot. Lou wiped their brow and sighed, almost missing the small tumble of rocks behind them.

Unlike them, nothing made noise on Nowhere.

Lou spun around, almost swinging their staff into the person sneaking behind them. As they jumped and their eyes went wide, Lou noted their clothes were similar to but where Lou kept up their hood, the stranger had long, pulled-back hair.

“Hello,” the stranger called, “Are you looking for food?”

Lou narrowed their eyes. They didn’t - couldn’t - speak, but they did hesitantly nod.

“Come with me.” The stranger started walking, and after a moment, Lou followed.

It took a while to get where they were going, but eventually, they got to a small cave opening and Lou again followed the stranger into the caves.

“It’s the easiest place to find anything.”

They pressed their hand against the wall as a guide, pressing into the dark. Lou followed carefully. The halls were long and dark but something felt… alive about them. “I usually hunt closer to the cave’s opening, but there’s been less activity there,” the stranger said.

It was when the sound of the ground became more metal than earth that Lou stopped, before even the stranger. They jumped as an alarm blared. A voice rang out in a language that Lou didn’t know. The earth rumbled and groaned, and above them, the ceiling shook. Horrifyingly, a leg smashed through the ceiling, a long grey leg. Lou was filled with terror as the stranger screamed. The Elder was awake.

Submitted by: @triggerman-gray

“The Cloudstrider Titans of Icarus VII”

The cloudstrider's spindly pseudopods make it seem frail, the tremors felt with every "step" say otherwise, the sea of mist below it whirling around each tendril as they are dragged through the gaseous mixture that rests above the ground. It's gait more of a groping crawl than a walk, it's abdomen filled with gas that keep it suspended in the sky, keeping it safe from the hypertrophic hellscape that exists below, but in danger of the shrieking winds that the legendary storms on Icarus VII can cause, knocking them over or dragging them miles away from their migration paths.

The death of a cloudstrider is a very important ecological event akin to a whale corpse collapsing to the sea floor on Earth or Europa, it's colossal size making predation on it impossible, at least by any creature observed by the colonists.

Sometime after more settlements were built on the planet, they discovered a subspecies that possess thicker hides and muscles that release high intensity pulses of electricity, scarred titans covered in wounds that would have felled their thinner skinned relatives. The lack of sightings would suggest their natural predator has been in steady decline or nearly extinct, as the only evidence of it's existence is battered cliffsides, toppled monoliths and century old wounds on ancient cloudstriders, yet still their herds are culled and their migrations left unfinished as they begin to reside near the nutrient rich runoff pumped out of settlements. Makes one wonder what will happen once the colonies become another hunting ground.

(Note: It seemed Google Forms deleted the line breaks on this last entry. I am hoping I did it justice and inserted the breaks where the author intended.)

#January's Honorable Mentions #honorable mentions #January contest #writing contest #ekphrastic fiction contest #ekphrastic fiction #writeblr #writing community

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