Unceasing, we shall guard the Tower,
Wherein the gems of fiction flower,
And Mistress of the Dreams may rest
Amidst the planets, aliens, and quests
So snippets rich, in this nocturnal hour
May grow forth from that enchanted bower.
Sleeping Beauty : an Old Tale Revised -- and slightly tarnished
by Jihane Billacois
Once upon a Time there lived in a Fair City (Fair -- if you didn't look where you were walking, but, trust me, I don't advise it... ask David... no, on second thought, it *was* quite clean, when he came, with the rain and all that What? My point? Oh, yes... hm, back on track :)
Once upon a Time, there lived in a Fair Paris a young woman afflicted with a disease the locals called "elle se noit dans un verre d'eau!" which, roughly translated, means: "she can drown herself in a glass of water". These, of course, were only mean and ugly rumors, because the Damoiselle never drank water unless it had been steamed and then passed, drop by drop, through a magic grounded bean... .... please, don't ask what it did to be grounded for all its existence; 'tis another, long tale, and first, I need to ask its parents for permission, before telling it to anyone! ...
The potion thus obtained was highly potent, and helped the Damoiselle struggle along the City's Rush and the spell of Everyday Struggle this particular world put upon anyone lucky enough to be born into it... one had to appreciate the World's treasures.
You may wonder why -- else, wander a paragraph beneath :)
The Curse, or so the Tale of Creation, Recreation and Work Woes goes, the Curse was a mean to put the World's Treasures into perspective. Perspective is that very special Magic enabling one's eyes to see in three dimensions, to see wholly, therefore the holy parts of the world around. It is known to be Nature's Gift, but some rare Humans can gift it to the Human Race too: the Writers, Painters and Farscape & B5 screenwriters.
So it came to pass that in a Fair City, a Damoiselle fared quite under the Curse and her Courses, for she had a magic potion going by the name of Ko--Fa (the Gift of Faeries)... but history became story, story stories, and the Faeries forgotten, it was shorten to "coffee". The Damoiselle went from past to present and future using that magic potion to stay awake and the Perspective Authors and Nature gifted her to stay wondering.
So you can see that her eyes were open, and looking out. Sadly, she needed the first magic for the second to be effective too.
Until, one spring day, something turned sour. 'Twas her stomach and a greater curse than that of Everyday Struggle (which, once you allowed Perspective to set in, is no Curse, just a Spell)... So the worst Curse ever, that of a Sour Stomach: She could drink coffee no more!
After a day of staggering, drawing on her last reserve of strength and sniffing the black powder, she crashed upon her bed. When she woke up, the next, gloomy day, she staggered to the potion maker. Then, while she listened to the grmblygul music the potion maker made, and sniffed the air for the potion's smell, her stomach heaved once more. The single ray of sunshine touching her windows had been a trick of the electric light.
She turned the coffee maker off.
Staggered to the nearest thing: the floor.
And never woke up.
She dreamt. Of what, no one knows, for the logic of dreams is unreachable from an opened-eyes, waken-up state And while she dreamt unfathomable dreams...
... the billions of tiny maintenance creatures making up her body used every strength she had left, and battled -- against the worst enemy: weakness, -- battled the most courageous fight, until each and every one of them, in a war never to be recorded nor praised, even though 'tis the only kind of war out of which a true winner comes, until they all defeated the stomach ache.
Then, and only then, the faded, burnt out and stale odour of Coffee touched the Damoiselle's nostrils again -- under that faded, burnt out and stale odour, there lay the promise of rebirth and happiness, awareness of the World's Wonders, Curiosity's Fire and Friendship's Laughter...
But the first mug she drank, the Damoiselle drank for all the maintenance workers, who, once more, had fought her battle and won, and prayed for those who went beyond, thinking that, once, and only once, her maintenance creatures would fail her too. But then, and only then, she'd go where Creatures and Creators were as one -- and there, finally, she'd drink coffee again, or for the very first time, with all those who went before her, and catch up.
Word Dreams
by Ruth Stuart
Word dreams flung into the void
Drifting through the darkness
Until sensing the presence
Of another dreamer.
They meet and merge
Coalescing into something
Far greater than simple dreams.
Spinning faster and faster
Creating a universe
A gravity well
An irresistable attraction
A place where minds meet
And share their word dreams.
Another from our youngest contributor!
Crisis
by Robbie H.
My friends and I are a small group of elite military soldiers. This is just one of our stories.
It began with a transmission from hyper space. A race of small, furry, blue aliens wanted to come to Earth to make peace. They looked very cute so the planet's governments agreed. They landed their spaceships in different cities around the world. But, as they emerged, it turned out that they lied. They were really giant, furry, blue monster aliens!
They immediately captured our world leaders: Mike Harris, George Dubya, Vladimir Putin, and Bill Gates. Then they ate all of our weapons (and the World Trade Centre). The armies knew they couldn't do anything directly, so they sent us in secret.
Our mission was to get into the main alien facility, capture the head alien, and then kick them all off our planet. All we had to fight with were Nerf products. Why Nerf? We have to keep this a family rated story.
We'd made it into the underground facility with no trouble. We'd been given all the access codes by the left over world leaders. But the aliens were soon alerted to our presence when Zack accidentally bumped into a strolling alien. The alien turned out to be the head alien. So we grabbed him and ran.
With the aliens chasing us, we ran down a long corridor, over to the tram just in time to find it locked in the storage locker.
"Get a security officer," said James.
I shot a few ball grenades at an alien. "Got him!" I said.
A security officer and Jack soon returned, but with slime all over them.
James eyed Jack.
"How was I supposed to know Sector G was the slime facility?" asked Jack. "I've only been here one hour!"
The security officer walked over to the storage locker, opened it, and pulled out the tram. I walked into the tram's control booth, turned on the power, lifted the toll stick, and hopped back on the tram. We went forward and accidentally ran into an alien ambush. We got out ball-zookas and made the aliens retreat. We shot our ball-zookas at a headcrab, alien grunt, five human grunts and an evil security guard. We rode down to the elevator, jumped out of the tram, jumped into the elevator and pressed the button for the ground level.
"I still don't know why I had to get the officer," said Jack.
"You forget that you always play the odds," I replied.
The doors flung open and we raced for the jeep. I hopped into the driver's seat, Jack got the front seat, and James and Zack hopped into the back seats with the head alien between them. I started the jeep and we took off. We crashed through the door and drove onto the road.
"Hey!" said Jack as we pulled into a nearby alley. "You said I could drive!"
"I lied. So sue me," I said. "Be quiet, I want to throw the aliens off course."
This turned out to be easy because the aliens had never learned how to drive Earth vehicles. We drove quickly to NASA headquarters. When we got there we threw the head alien into a rocket, and shot him into hyper space. All the other aliens scrambled into their spaceships to chase after him. Our planet was safe.
We celebrated by going back to military base camp to watch Survivor II and eat cheese pizza.
So it came to pass that in a Fair City, a Damoiselle fared quite under the Curse and her Courses, for she had a magic potion going by the name of Ko--Fa (the Gift of Faeries)... but history became story, story stories, and the Faeries forgotten, it was shorten to "coffee". The Damoiselle went from past to present and future using that magic potion to stay awake and the Perspective Authors and Nature gifted her to stay wondering.
It began with a transmission from hyper space. A race of small, furry, blue aliens wanted to come to Earth to make peace. They looked very cute so the planet's governments agreed. They landed their spaceships in different cities around the world. But, as they emerged, it turned out that they lied. They were really giant, furry, blue monster aliens!
This turned out to be easy because the aliens had never learned how to drive Earth vehicles. We drove quickly to NASA headquarters. When we got there we threw the head alien into a rocket, and shot him into hyper space. All the other aliens scrambled into their spaceships to chase after him. Our planet was safe.
