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SKJAM's Free Microfic Day--Winter Edition
Hi! It's time for me to do a little more writing exercise, so let's a free microfic day.
Name of Day: SKJAM!'s Free Microfic Day
Description of Service: Leave a prompt or prompts in the time window (below) and I will write at least one microfic. The themes this time will be winter, cold and snow; you don't need to include any of those words in your prompt though. No fanfic, this time.
Who is Eligible: Anyone who leaves a prompt on time.
Date/Time Window: December 17 and 18, 2011. It may take longer than that for me to get done, of course.
Tipping? Sure, why not? My Paypal addy is skjam at yahoo dot com. If I get $10 in donations, I'll write to up to two prompts per person. If the total reaches $25, I'll make an icon related to one of the microfics for each requester. Making me a tip banner will count as $5.
Examples: Here's a link to my last microfic day. http://skjam.livejournal.com/185720.html
Name of Day: SKJAM!'s Free Microfic Day
Description of Service: Leave a prompt or prompts in the time window (below) and I will write at least one microfic. The themes this time will be winter, cold and snow; you don't need to include any of those words in your prompt though. No fanfic, this time.
Who is Eligible: Anyone who leaves a prompt on time.
Date/Time Window: December 17 and 18, 2011. It may take longer than that for me to get done, of course.
Tipping? Sure, why not? My Paypal addy is skjam at yahoo dot com. If I get $10 in donations, I'll write to up to two prompts per person. If the total reaches $25, I'll make an icon related to one of the microfics for each requester. Making me a tip banner will count as $5.
Examples: Here's a link to my last microfic day. http://skjam.livejournal.com/185720.html
Prompts
A disabled starship slowly losing its heat and growing cold.
Warming
Becoming mythical was supposed to have saved them. All the magical creatures, moving into the Unreal, and pulling the magic up with them so that the humans couldn't follow them. Certainly it had stopped the humans directly hunting them down to extinction.
The populations of the shorter-lived beasts recovered quickly, once the humans were gone, or more properly, they had removed themselves from the human's version of the world. With only their natural predators, the balance of supernature was restored to the extent it could be.
But the wise ones had not reckoned with the humans' ability to affect the Unreal by affecting the real. Their cities grew, they covered their version of the Earth, dug in the mountains, chopped down the forests, spewed poison into air and sea. Each of these changes was mirrored in the Unreal, transforming territories once one thing into another.
Some of the magical creatures could adapt. They'd alwasy thrived in the human dwellings, sustaining themselves on the magic that civilization brought.
But the wild, free creatures saw their territory shrink or grow uncomfortable. And since they'd pulled up the magic to their realm, they could not go back to the human world to fix it, or avenge themselves on the foolish sons of Adam.
It had not mattered to Schneetochter much a few decades before, when she had mated with Kaltesohn. Then it was all the chill of his breath, and the fast beating of her hearts. And she had slept peacefully, the long dragon sleep.
But now awoken, with her eggs heavy within her, Schneetochter discovered that her territory, at the southern border of her people's comfortable range, was now almost entirely melted.
The snow elves told her it was something called "man-made climate change", or "global warming". The humans had actually managed to make the entire planet hotter!
As an adult, she could produce her own cold, surviving in the still chilly area. But her eggs required temperatures well below the freezing point of water, or they would melt in their shells.
Kaltesohn's territory lay far to the north, and should still be cold enough, but she was heavy now and it was nearly impossible for her to fly that far before the eggs would demand to be laid. And the nearer territories were all inhabited by female frost dragons already--they'd not share their precious ioe floes with an intruder.
Schneetochter sniffed the breeze. Would it be necessary to kill one of her distant cousins to insure the safe hatching of her young? She did not know, but she would do it if she must.
Re: Warming
no subject
snow on the beach
silvery strands of tinsel
First snow
Nels lived for winter; in the summer, living on the lake meant swimming lessons, and he was no good at swimming. The other boys teased him and near to drowned him with their "help."
But in winter, that was different. Grindstone Lake froze over, a good solid layer of ice. Strong enough to stand on, to skate on. Strong enough, even, to erect the ice house on, and bore holes for fishing. That's what Nels loved best.
The long quiet hours spent with his father in the ice house, waiting for fish. No nagging mother or chattering sisters, no other boys pushing and shoving and calling names. Just him and his strong father, breathing together, waiting in the cold.
Snow fell thickly on the beach now, a promise of long winter.
Re: First snow
no subject
In winter, we grow close at night; in summer, we are distant.
Homesteader
It is the hardest, I think, in the summer. I am off in the fields, or the forest, or on another homestead, always working to make a better life for us. She is always near the house, also working. We see each other only when it is time for food or sleep. Always tired, I say barely a word, and I can feel a distance growing between us.
A distance of miles and hours and things left unsaid; things will be better in a few years, I tell her, but patience is a virtue not to be over-tested.
The winter comes with short days and long nights; the work in the fields stops, and we have saved enough food that I do not need to hunt much. Now I work near the house too, and though I am tired, there is time to talk.
We talk as we did when we were newlywed, of past and future and the present. And in the long dark, we do that which is proper between man and wife.
Perhaps this year we will be blessed with a child. Gretchen needs someone to talk to in the summer.
Re: Homesteader
no subject
Everything sparkles
Peaceful night
A yard-guardian built of snow
Imnanna returns...
Qilly smiled as she did so often. Imnanna never knew how to take it, as the mage's eyelids were always lowered, making it impossible to truly read her expressions. How Qilly even saw was a mystery to Imnanna.
"I admit the weather is unpleasant here," admitted Qilly. "I moved south as soon I could, you know. But our mission is urgent, and there are compensations."
An pulled aside the leather hanging that served as an entrance to the yurt as she entered. The dwarf stomped snow off her boots. "Must have switched from sleet sometime after we fell asleep. Clouds have cleared, though, and the sun should be up in a minute or two."
"Can you be ready in three minutes, then, Imnanna? There's something I want to show you." Qilly was pulling on her outer layer of cold weather gear and getting into her sealskin boots.
"Uh, sure, Qilly." Imnanna wondered what her friend was up to. They weren't going to be summoned to the chief's hut for hours.
Imnanna quickly got as ready as she could for the outdoors, then followed Qilly out of the yurt.
She had to squeeze her eyes shut for a moment. The sun had just risen; why was there so much light?
Then Imnanna opened her eyes again and looked around. What in the evening had been a drab collection of brown and gray domes in a sea of mud surrounded by dead trees was now a glittering landscape of white.
And not just white, but glints of all the colors of light, refracted from icicles and the snow's icy crust. "It's beautiful," she gasped. "Everything sparkles."
Qilly laughed. "This is the face of my motherland when she puts on her makeup!"
Re: Imnanna returns...
no subject
The daughter of the Ice King and the Winter Queen.
In and Out
"What's there for me?"
"Sledding and skiing and skating and snowball fights and good fresh air!"
Simon shrugged. "you know I don't like any of those things. Especially this so-called fresh air idea."
"Nevertheless," pouted Barb, "we are going outside and enjoying the clear weather."
Outside, Simon mostly hugged himself and jumped in place to keep from freezing while Barb dashed about trying various sports. Their house was right next to a good sledding hill, so it didn't involve too much walking for him.
She even convinced him to take one sled trip, which ended up with him going headfirst into a drift, getting cold snow inside his collar.
None too soon, the sun set and Barb finally agreed to go inside.
"Now here's something I like about winter," said Simon as he sat by the fire, hot cocoa in hand. "Getting out of the cold."
Re: In and Out
no subject
Beings living on snowflakes a la Whoville who have their own ways of protecting themselves from harm.
Cold anthropomorphized wants to go on a date.
Since I already have them in the Northlands...
After a quick look around showed they weren't interrupting anything's sleep, An asked, "What do we do now? We found the raiders, but they've noticed us too, our reinforcements are on the other end of the valley, and the raiders outnumber us four to one."
Qillly picked up some snow from the mouth of the cave and muttered, "Still packable, good, good." She straightened. "I think I can do something to even the odds a bit, with your help."
A few minutes later, the three had constructed a crude simulacrum of a bear from snow, with jet eyes courtesy of one of Imnanna's necklaces, icicles for teeth and sharp shards of flint from the cave floor as claws.
"I get the idea," said Imnanna, "but don't golems take forever to enchant?"
Qilly smiled. "I have a shortcut." She pulled a small blue vial from her pack. "My grandmother's recipe...haven't used it in a while."
The mage uncorked the bottle with her teeth and poured the blue liquid along what would have been a spine for a real bear. It soaked in a moment, then spread out like blood in veins. Abruptly, the snow bear shook itself and roared, looking far more like a real bear than a crude statue.
"Just in time, too," said An. "The raiders have spotted our trail. You know, when next we go off on one of these missions, let's do it in the Taglug mines, so I can show off my special tricks."
Re: Since I already have them in the Northlands...
Re: Since I already have them in the Northlands...