Lately, I've been fresh out of solid ideas. 
They're always dancing on the edge my conscious thought, poking me, teasing. It's getting really annoying. Little wisps of thought that doesn't lead anything much at all.  I've been toying with the option of re-writing Secrets (mostly under the insistence of Nona), but I don't particularly feel like it. Okay, maybe I do, but not enough to actually sit down and do it. 
But, I want to write. 
There's Freeze, which is lots of fun, really, but its just not very... I don't know. The dark and creepy mystery 'what-the-heck-just-happened' isn't really working for me. Maybe I'll give Betrys a story, but then I'd have to steal Scar (or someone very much like him) from Lya, and that's just not very nice. Because Be wouldn't be Be without Scar. The mystorian just can't exist without a good impossible mystery. But I really, really like Be. I think she's the most me-like character I've ever made. And it was all on accident, too. 
I've started a drabble-thing. A Betrys from the past, but its not really working for me. Like I said before, Be isn't Be without Scar. Water isn't Water without Oil. 
Or maybe I'll make someone like her, start her in... A big city. The Trading Town, it's known fondly as. The crossroads between the capital and three other of the largest cities in the land. Home of the famous Great Market and the infamous Black Market. 
The girl is fairly normal. She goes to school and does her chores. She says her prayers and nighttime and helps other people when she can. She has a rabid curiosity, but it is satiated on her weekly visits to the Gimme (Great Market). She solves mini-mysteries, trying to figure out the ending of books before she finishes them.

That’s all until she sees two men dressed in black, haggling over a price vehemently in an alley.

My ears tickled. What was I missing? There was something here that I was not taking in. I turned slightly, looking over the colorful Market. It was fairly usual. I only got like this when there was something so extremely obvious that I was not seeing. I turned slightly. What had I heard? A man sighing aggressively. Yes, that was it.

My eyes caught a man in a nearby alley, seemingly talking to a wall. I stepped closer discretely, leaning toward the stall nearest the alley, pretending to be interested in a pearl. I edged toward the man. He was speaking louder, now, insistent. I slid my eyes away from the fine stone to look at him.

A shadow moved. I peered closer, squinting through the murkiness at the single figure that seemed to be talking to himself.

His volume rose steadily, though I still couldn’t tell what he was saying over the merchant yelling in my ear a foot away. Why not just break off the deal? I though to myself absently. If… whoever he was talking to refused to pay his price then what did it matter? But, then again, I reasoned, the man must be fairly mad to talk to himself that loudly. Even I kept it to a mere whisper.

The man waved his arms around, making his shadow look very amusing. Shadow. Wait, then what was that? The thing which my brain had automatically labeled as the man’s shadow was not his shadow at all, because his shadow was moving, and the other thing wasn’t.

He wasn’t talking to himself after all. There was another man. I couldn’t see him well. He faded into the wall with almost magical precision. I could make out his voice now, answering very quietly, like the buzz of a moth’s wings. My fingers prickled slightly.

Then the shadow-man disappeared, and the girl searches for him obsessively. I think I’ll call her Thora. I really like that name, but have wanted to wait to give it to someone special.

Wow, well, then. I have to go and do my homework and chores now. :P

Translation: I finally made on of these! It took a really long time, but I think I needed it, or my head might've exploded. I wanted a place to put all my ideas down like sticky notes, and this seems just the place, because I doubt anyone would really have the spite to come on here of all places, steal my ideas, write a book, and then publish it. And even if they did, I probably wouldn't care. I doubt many of these ideas will go anywhere anyway. 
By the way, I wrote most of this post (probably about three quarters) before it was all lost in one of those random-but-heartbreaking accidents of the internet, but I’m tough, so after a small funeral, I’ve decided to bring it back to life.

Back on topic: I need a place to put my ideas, because saving a word document for every little idea just seems like a waste of… word documents. And my ideas don’t flow well on paper, for some reason. Paper will do, obviously, I’m not that picky, and it’s especially useful for my spur-of-the-moment ideas that come just as I’m falling asleep so I can scribble it down in a sleepy frenzy so I can have it in the morning. Because if I don’t, they’ll be lost forever.

So, yeah! This is the place I’m going to use when I’m randomly struck by Inspiration (I think it deserves a capital letter) during the day. The nighttime strikes are reserved to the notebooks, because otherwise I’d have nothing to put in them. I’m not much of a write-in-a-notebook person. Mostly because I can’t write fast enough for the thoughts to flow well. Typing, on the other hand, I can do pretty quickly when the words are banging around in my head in a way that I can understand. I have a problem with incoherence of thought. Sure, they make sense when I’m thinking them, but later they make absolutely no sense at all.

I’ll be posting my old ideas gradually. This will be an ultimate test of my memory, for most of the stuff I wrote down was thrown out during the Big Clean I went through last month. Some people didn’t like the fact that I wanted to file everything away carefully, zenning my room. But here’s the thing: My room is a nine by nine foot square and everything was getting much cluttered. Anyway! All of the scraps of scribble I dubbed ‘worthy’ were transferred to my computer, which was all ready clogged with various whatnot from schoolwork to fifty pages of gobbledygook which I will have to rewrite severely if I want to show it to anyone. So, I’ll post the old story ideas mixed in with the new ones, and, of course, just random things that I wanted to type about.

Warning: This is very, very long, and it will probably be the only one of this length. You really shouldn’t read it if you have anything at all better to do.

I’m going to start with one of the first stories I can think of actually starting (turning slyly into afore mentioned mass of gobbledygook) called Secrets. I don’t know why it was called that, it’s really not a very creative title. Maybe, if I get around to re-writing it, I’ll give it a better name.

This story grew from three specific (and completely different) things, I think. First and foremost, was that this story was once another. At school (this was in sixth grade) we had to write a one page essay a week. We would get the prompt on Monday, and it would be expected on Friday. Well, one of those weeks, I got this crazy idea (I wasn’t used to them at this point in my life. They didn’t come very often, and when they did, they were more or less heavily based on a book I had just finished) to write more than one page. I had written a story two years earlier for a similar assignment, and decided to continue, second generation style. The self-induced exercise resulted in six pages of a badly hand-written story, that I continued each week, twisting the assigned prompt to fit it. The story came to a bad end. My teacher assigned ‘Write about a time you and your family still laugh about’, and let me tell you, there was absolutely no way I could fit the story to that prompt, so I gave up and make up some fake occurrence to please my teacher.

Second of all, this story was based heavily on Tamora Pierce’s Immortals Quartet. You remember me telling you about not being able to have any ideas on my own at the time? Yeah, this one was no exception. I loved the books (they were the first of Mrs. Pierce’s that I had encountered at the time. As soon as I finished them, I was off to the library to borrow the rest of them.)  so much that I based a story off of them. Or, to put it plainly, when I come across a story/world I love, I’m filled with a sense of… longing? I’m not sure if that’s the right word, but it makes the most sense to me. I wish I had a world or story as good as that, but at the time I didn’t know how to adapt it to fit my own style. Also, I hadn’t exercised my creative muscle too much yet. I’d always liked writing, but I wasn’t old enough (I was ten) to know… yeah, I’ve pretty much said this all before. So I based my two main characters, or, at least my main male character, on her characters. The relationship between the two has vivid similarities that cannot be ignored.

Thirdly, this story was planned (when I actually got around to writing it at home and not at school) to be a little thing about a girl who couldn’t tie her shoes. (Yes, this is when I start talking about the actual story and not what it came from) It soon morphed when I figured out the reason for the problem was because she lived in a society that was misogynistic to the extreme. No one taught girls anything, hence the inability to do a simple thing at fourteen years old.  Nobody particularly liked this girl. For one, she voiced her disagreement with the sexism (the other girls didn’t like it either, but they didn’t say anything). Also, she was quite clever, which was quite vexing to the higher-up males of the town.

However the girl, Cara, did have one friend (for those anal-retentive folks, yes, I said no one liked her. This is true, however. Her friend is quite in love with her, not that she knew it at the time) her teacher, Swath, was the only one who really understood her (the telepathic connection helped a bit, though). Cara thinks that she and her teacher are connected because he is her Mastrr and she his Aprentis (Yes, I misspelled them correctly) which is quite common. It’s not the case with this in particular, but more of that later. Swath instructs Cara in her gift, which is Animagic. Both she and Swath can change into any animal at will, among other things. The energy that channels her Animagic is called Vivos (creative, huh?).

There are two antagonists in this point in the story: Chapkr, a particularly mean boy of sixteen (I think); and Cerberus (also a completely authentic and original name), the principal of the town’s school. All men in the town are misogynistic, but these two are particularly—you get the idea.

Anyway, through the antics of said three headed dog, Cara performs the impossible, she changes her human form. What she doesn’t know is that was actually her original human form… More of that will also be later.

Since now Cara has to pretend to be someone else, she gives Swath the task of naming her, but just as she does, a strange thing happens. A female voice comes from his mouth. Apparently, the spirit inhabiting his body is the goddess of good, Opallii. She states quite firmly that Cara’s name is Topazia. She then gives Topazia an important task (that was abandoned in later chapters for a better idea/plot twist) Swath soon regains his body, almost instantly nicknaming her Toz.

The two decide to leave Tangville (I finally remembered the name of the town!), but are then presented with the problem that Swath is known fairly well just about every town from there to the capital, Mon (named after the evil dictator, Monuronne). I think now would be a good time to also add that I was reading (or had just finished) Eragon, and so it sort of stemmed from that also. So, naturally, being the omnipotent girl that she is, Toz changes Swath’s human form, also. He later names himself Ammord’k Paolaskin, and gives Toz the last name of Keldmarin.

They get sidetracked with Cerberus and Chapkr first, but they get out pretty easily, running across the Nihil’mori (which I’m fairly sure started as the Nor’tamn, in any case it’s a huge desert in the middle of the continent, known as the desert of the damned), and while resting, they get captured. By none other than Cerberus. They get out, but Ammo is poisoned. Toz also finds that the king’s men were guarding the place where they were being held. Which was odd, since she hadn’t broken any laws.

Fortunately, it seems they have been transported almost all the way to their destination, Eryl (big woods, said to hold a secret community, Du Weldenvarden much?). They’re knocked out and transported into the heart of the community. Toz wakes up in the academy, and is greeted by a few surprises. For one, when walking down the hall to greet the people who have housed her, she sees herself and Ammo’s picture up on the wall. Remember how what I said about it being her original form? Yeah. She runs back to Ammo’s room and makes him explain everything. In his words:

“Fifteen years ago, we were both here. You were maybe ten, and I was thirteen. We zipped through the program*, faster than anyone had recorded before. We both passed our test within three years with the highest possible marks. We were higher than our normal teachers, and almost higher than the Great Leader**. We were assigned, after he taught us everything he knew, to teach each other. We became very powerful. Even Monuronne feared us.

That’s when it fell apart. The damned king sent his entire armed force, maybe one million men against the Eryllians***, killing three-fourths of the population. By that time, we were positive that it was us he was after, and we changed our human appearance; making you younger, and keeping me the same. We changed our names.

You were so frightened. I knew I would live to regret it, but I agreed to take your memories from you, and create new ones. We fled; you thought that we were leaving because it was on fire. We crossed the Nihil’mori, and the heat of that made you pass out. You never remembered fleeing Eryl. All you remembered was being brought up by the Snooers^. I wiped that sorry couple’s memory and left you with them. I moved in near you.

I assume that when Cerberus recognized you from the pictures posted everywhere once we went missing from Eryl, and he informed Monuronne at once.”

*The program Ammo is referring to is the magic academy where they are residing at the present moment.

**One of the most powerful people on the continent.

***The public knows Eryl to be a community, but there is actually a very large population.

(By the way, this is where everything got deleted) Toz’s memories come back slowly, as well as her full power. During this time, she stages a battle with Liad, her old childhood enemy/bully, and finds out that he was the on that betrayed the Eryllians to Monuronne, because he was Liad’s teacher. Liad could use Obsidimist, as a pose to Animagic and Natufyr, Obsidimist was evil and forbidden in Eryl.

Toz beats him, but it takes a lot out of her. She sleeps for a long time, and her memories continue to come. She and Ammo easily establish themselves as the best people there. Soon, Toz finds the King’s Mark on the back of her hand. Ammo describes it as a death sentence on your skin, and it appears to be directly from the King, instead of just carried from on of his students. They suspect that it was transferred during Toz’s fight with Liad.

Soon after, I ended Part One. There was a ‘happened in between’ bit that I wrote in the form of Toz’s journal. Her condition slowly deteriorates, as an effect of the King getting closer. The less distance between them, the weaker Toz gets. All the remaining Eryllians pack their things and head south, where there is an organization which is also dedicated to the defiance of Monuronne. They plan to then head east to the next continent over, Adil, and then to Solaria for help.

Toz figures out that Ammo is keeping something from her, something important, but he is held by an unbreakable vow that he did not make, so there’s really nothing he can do. He hates himself for not telling her, though.

Part two is told from a new character’s point of view. Her name is Caelyn, and she lives in Adil with her six friends. They are Youso, or a type of elemental magic-user native to Adil. Her six friends all have a different element: Dark, light, fire, water, earth, and wind (Day, Keaira, Pyralis, Misu, Terah, and Makani respectively). Caelyn knows she is a Youso, but she does not have an element. They are very poor, and are running low on food.

Then! Who shows up? None other than Toz and Ammo, searching for help in their quest! Caelyn and her friends decide to help them, and, in return, they agree to help her locate her parents (Youso magic runs in family, but since Caelyn doesn’t know her parents, she doesn’t know what her element is).

They have to run fairly quickly, as the king is getting even closer. The group of Toz, Ammo, and their friends, and Caelyn and her friends split into four and go into the mountains. Caelyn’s power, channeled through the ring on her finger and coming from the moon, slowly blooms, but before she can use it to help Toz go through a dreamless sleep (she’s been having problems with nightmares), Liad appears in the cave (Caelyn and Ammo had been sleeping, so they didn’t know how he got there). Liad indicates that Toz had befriended one of royal blood to Caelyn, but more of that later. When Caelyn tries to help, Liad throws her off the edge of the cliff, and she is rendered unconscious. She wakes up in a strange place:

“I heard voices over me as I came to. The voices were strange, almost mystical and seemed very well educated.

“What is it?” He was the questioning one, perhaps a child.

“How am I supposed to know? I only found it yesterday. I haven’t done any research on it.” Maybe this one was the child’s father?

“Do you think it could be Caiilyna?” A female voice definitely. Caiilyna sounded sort of like my name, but it was said in a different tongue, and for all I knew, it could have meant ‘human’.

“It might be, but until it wakes up, we can’t question it.” The male was speaking again. I struggled to move, but I managed to say one word.

“Water,” i whispered raggedly. I allowed my sore eyes to flutter open. I was right, there was a child, a man, and a woman, but their features were to perfect to be human, and broad, feathery wings were planted between their shoulders. The wing colors were different, and the same, and, and, they were too much for my mind to wrap around. I tried to sit up, and failed.”

Apparently, this is Caelyn’s family, and her mother sends her son—Caelyn’s little brother—down to the human world with her so she can grow her wings. She develops a telepathic connection with her little brother, Roni.

This is where I stopped writing, I think, so the rest of it is just jumbled up in my head from two years ago.

Caelyn’s wings begin to grow as they make their way slowly to the capital of Adil. During this time (I think) they meet Nemuu, Nema, and Nemyu, who are also winged people (and close siblings), who were curious and came down to see what was happening. They also decide to help Toz and Ammo. Caelyn discretely falls in love with Nemuu, but doesn’t say anything.

Eventually, they meet up with the others at the capital, but have a slight run-in with the authorities. Apparently, a group with eighteen people in it is slightly suspicious. When they get into deep questioning, Caelyn, Roni, and the ‘Nem’s have to escape before they are discovered.

Caelyn begins to feel closer to her people that to her friends who have been there for most of her life. Misu, her most volatile friend, gets jealous and leaves, causing Caelyn to break away and go after him, much to the disapproval of the others.

The rest of this is fairly blurry. I didn’t think ahead too far while writing this.

Basically, part three is told by Analicia, a girl living in Solaria. She’s being sent off to monastery to learn how to become one with her inner self, or something. I don’t really remember anything else except she makes another friend, a girl who’s dressed up as a boy so she can be treated equally at the place (sort of like a magic boarding school).

And then there’s a part four, which I don’t remember at all. I remember I wrote the last scene or two, but I think I may have deleted it on accident.

What I know: Ammo eventually betrays them in part four, but it wasn’t his fault. Ammo was Liad’s brother, and his mind was being controlled. Through his betrayal, everyone and everything was left in ruins. But after he had broken free (and gone to apologize profusely to Toz) Monuronne made a copycat of Toz, named Jade.  I remember by this time Caelyn and Nemuu had gotten together, and Analicia and her friend (Who’s name I think was Faye) had ‘found themselves’ and were crossing the land, persuading people to help Toz.

Anyway, the copycat was meant to kill her, but it didn’t because of some fatal flaw. I don’t remember what it was, though.

They don’t kill Monuronne and Liad in the end, because that would just be sinking to their level. Monuronne is sent up to where Caelyn’s people live, to keep him in check. Liad goes to Solaria to work in a temple much like the one Ana and Faye went to. Fellenor, on the other hand, was killed by his son, Ammo, once he breaks free of the mental hold. Cerberus dies of a fatal heart attack, and Chapkr becomes a wandering criminal after the war is won. Jade goes with Toz, learning how to be human.

At first, Toz is elected queen, but she refuses the roll. She gives it to Analicia and Faye jointly. Then she, and most of her friends (including Ammo) go back to Eryl for a quiet life. At least for now.

So! Yeah, that was Secrets. It was much longer than my others, mostly because I had written quite a bit of it. None of them will be nearly as long as this one. For those of you who made it all the way through, congratulations! You can go and do something much more enjoyable now!