Shine (Poem)

Yup.

Definitely a poetry mood.

I must say, I really enjoy it. I rarely have any idea what I'm going to write about when I decide to write a poem. I just put my emotions down. Sometimes that means I write something really sad, or angry. Usually it's something spiritual, whether I'm mad about my life, feeling lost, or praising God.

I don't like explaining my poems, because often I can't. I don't know where the words come from, but it's like their inside all the time, and when I can't hammer the words into a story (like right now), I take a deep breath, open a blank document, and just write. I make a new line when I feel there should be one; same with the stanzas. I don't follow any rules or flow, and no, my poems rarely rhyme. Actually, I don't think I've EVER made one rhyme unless it was assigned by a teacher. Those ones always suck.

Well, enough about poetry, except to tell you that I'll probably write another one tonight, followed by a chap of W.i.t.c.h. (maybe, it depends if the words work with me).

Enjoy!


Unbowed
Unbroken
I’m afraid your attempts failed

I’ve screamed
I’ve cried
I wanted to walk away
From it all

But I didn’t

I’m still here
Standing tall
My sword is long
Bright
Shining
Thirsting
For you

The pain almost undoes me
The stench of fear clouds me
I panic
I balk
But I hold my ground

The ground falls away
And chasm beneath me
Its maw stretched
Ready to swallow me

I grasp the crumbling soil
Holding onto

What am I holding onto?

No future
Unacknowledged past
All talent
No strength

The whispers and lies
Circling like vultures
Scenting my blood
Hounding me
Waiting to strike

But then I remember
My name
My title
My future

Is it uncertain?

NO!

I know who I am
What I’ve done
And what I’m striving for

I’ll get there
Even if I don’t know the way
Or where I’m going exactly
Or who I’ll be with

I’ll get there
So step back
And watch me shine

Lost (Poem)

So I've been feeling down when I think about my writing, mostly because I can't write as much as I want to. When I try to write more than 1 chap in a week, well...you saw what happened. 2 weeks of not being about to write a THING! SOOO frustrating!!!!

*deep breath*

Anywho!

I've been thinking in poetry for the past few days, which meant a poem (or several) had to come out. So I wrote this bad boy! Not as depressing as Darkness, but kinda along those lines, if much happier.

Anywho, here it is!

(And here's where you can check it and several other things on Figment, a website by writers for writers!)
http://figment.com/users/153720-Lorien-L-O-Brien

 Lost and forgotten
These paths and streets
Winding
Twisting
Confusing me

I’m trying to find my way
And the light that guides me
It’s sometimes seems too bright
Too good to be true
But still I follow

I stumble
I fall
I’m laughed at
Scorned
Unwanted

A few love me
I wonder why
Then they fall and
I help them up
Then I know why

I feel so alone
Trapped
Confused
Lost

But I know
Not my way
Nor where I am
Where I’m going
Or what I’m going to become

But I know who I am
WHOSE I am
And I know my purpose

Sort of

I know my light
So I follow

W.i.t.c.h. The Full Story: Part I Chapter 7 - Taranee

WHOOPS!

Forgot to post this on here. Oopsie!

Chapter 7

Taranee - Earth

 

When they reached the Lins’ Restaurant, Hay Lin led them to a small, side door that led up to her family’s apartment above. Taranee couldn’t wait to get something to eat. Her growling stomach continued to remind her that lunch had ended several hours before. When they finally reached the quaint apartment, no one really wanted tea, so they settled for dragon fruit juice with their cookies. Taranee relaxed as they talked about which boys were cute and which teachers let late homework slide a little.

When half the almond cookies Hay Lin found and most of Will’s chocolate chip cookies were gone, a tiny, old woman came in and greeted Hay Lin, Cornelia and Irma warmly. It was Yan Lin, Hay Lin’s grandmother.

“And who are these two beauties?” She asked Hay Lin.

Both Taranee and Will blushed and gave their names.

“Welcome to our apartment,” the tiny woman said, taking the sixth chair. “You know, a few days ago I had the strangest dream that reminded me of a story I heard when I was your age.”

“Oh, Grandma, not a story,” Hay Lin said, turning pink.

“Hush, xaio Hay,” Yan Lin said to her granddaughter. “I think you will all find this tale more than entertaining.

“In the universe, there are many worlds,” she began. “Some are evil, some are good, and some, like our own, are a mix. One world that is mixed is Kandrokar, home to Meridian. Long ago, the king and queen of Meridian were evil, while most of their people and their youngest child were not.

“Seeing the people’s suffering, the youngest prince prayed that someone with heart and courage would come to end the people’s suffering and put a stop to his parents’ evil. His prayer was heard, and here on Earth five young girls were chosen to become Guardians of Light and protectors of the innocent.

“Together, the prince and the Guardians managed to defeat the evil king and queen, but when they did, the prince had changed. Prince Phobos used evil magic to make himself immortal, and a powerful sorcerer, one too strong for the Guardians to defeat. So they placed a powerful veil over the world, a shield to keep his darkness from spreading to other worlds, including our own.

“But the shield did nothing more than buy the Guardians time. Eventually they passed away, and new Guardians took their place. All the while, Phobos was waiting, biding his time and building his strength. And there he remains still, waiting for the veil to weaken enough to come to our world, and bring it into his thrall.”

While Yan had talked, Taranee had seen everything in her mind, almost like a movie. She’d seen the different worlds, and the sorrow of the people trapped on Meridian. Prince Phobos looked very handsome to her, but somehow that only made him scarier. And she imagined the Guardians, fighting for the people, pouring every ounce of their strength into the veil that protected their world.

What’s wrong with me? Taranee chided herself. It’s just a story! There’s no such thing as Meridian or Guardians. Right?

“What sort of powers did the Guardians have, Grandma?” Hay Lin asked. “I bet their outfits were like super cool and stuff!”

“I bet they were beautiful!” Cornelia said.

“Yeah, ‘cause that’s important when you’re beating the crap out of crazy monsters,” Irma said dryly.

“Their outfits were super cool,” Yan assured them. “And they were quite beautiful, even during battle. As for their powers, one controlled air,” she said, looking at Hay Lin, then Taranee, “and another fire. A third had earth, the fourth used water.” She’d been looking at Cornelia, then Irma. She turned her ancient eyes to Will, who hadn’t moved during the story. “The fifth and leader had the power of Quintessence.”

“Quinn-what?” Taranee asked.

“Quintessence,” Yan Lin repeated. “The power to use the Heart of Kandrokar, the source of the Guardians’ power. Only the leader could use it.”

After a long moment, Yan rose again. “Well, didn’t I tell you it would be entertaining?”

“Thanks for the story Mrs. Lin,” Will said, placing her half-eaten cookie back on her plate. “It was…different.”

Yan smiled at them all. “Will any of you be joining us for dinner?”

They all said they had made other plans, which wasn’t true. Taranee hadn’t, and the others had talked about staying. But Taranee couldn’t get the story out of her mind, couldn’t stop imagining a tall guardian with long, braided, blue hair, wielding the power of fire like it was nothing.

No, she wasn’t staying for dinner.

Stop it, she told herself as she boarded the bus. There’s no such thing as a Guardian of Light.

But while her mind kept telling her that, her heart longed to have the power of fire. She wanted to be a Guardian. Whether it was real or not, she really did.

W.i.t.c.h. The Full Story: Part II The War Resumes Chapter 1 - Kaleb

WOW! That took FOREVER! I had to do quite a few background things, and lots of things have been getting in the way (like no internet). But I'M BACK with a NEW chap!!!

And it's not super short (currently working with LA Knight to get part 1 chapter 7 a little bit longer) so ENJOY!!!

Part II

The War Resumes

Chapter 1

Kaleb

Meridian

 

While most of Kaleb’s pain from the fall into the oubliette faded as he fell asleep, the pain in his right arm only intensified, pulling him back to the dark world that he’d spend the rest of his life in. The hole really was dark, but it wasn’t pitch black as he’d originally thought. In the dungeon above there were torches, though none were at the oubliette’s maw. The faint glow bounced off the opening above him, just enough so Kaleb could tell the floor from the wall, and a rock from the floor.

And he could also tell that something short and smelly was standing right next to him. As whatever it was realized Kaleb could see it, it ran at him and grabbed at his clothes. Kaleb attempted to throw it back with his right arm, and ended up dizzy as stars exploded across his vision. The creature squalled and tried to run off, but Kaleb managed to grasp it before it could escape.

“AH! MERCY! MERCY!!” Whatever he held shook in fear

“What the—?”

“Please, Blunk not steal! Blunk trade! Rat for bread! Good deal, yes?”

Kaleb tossed Blunk away from him. “Ugh, you’re that smuggler!”

“Businessman!” Blunk corrected. Blunk was a Passling, short, green, toad-like creatures who managed to find the tiniest holes in the Veil that shielded Kandrokar from the rest of the universe. While only the Guardians could pass through the Veil at will, Passlings could smell the tiny holes that appeared every once in a while that they’d squeeze through. The rebels could really use that skill, if the Passlings managed to bring anything back other than the trash and junk they tried to trade or sell. Blunk must’ve gotten on the wrong side of Phobos himself to end up in the oubliette.

Kaleb glared at the little ball of black that moved around easily over the broken ground. He knew where…Blunk, was, mostly from the smell. How something could stink so much and still be alive was beyond him.

“I don’t have any bread,” Kaleb told him.

“Lies! I smell. Yummy, yummy bread! But traded for rat; good deal!”

Blunk began eating the bread he’d found in Kaleb’s jacket. Kaleb shook his head.

“Go ahead,” Kaleb said. “I’ve worked too hard for freedom to perish in a hole with a talking pickle!”

“Pickle, heh heh—HEY!”

“I’m getting out of here,” Kaleb said to himself, ignoring Blunk’s muttering.

“Too high, never make it.”

Kaleb scoffed and began climbing. “Have you ever even tri—”

His right foot slipped and he tumbled down to the floor, right on top of a skeleton. Horrified and embarrassed, Kaleb scrambled back, trying not to groan at his arm’s pain.

“Thirty-seven-hundred times,” Blunk replied, then spat something out. “Ow! Nasty, hard bread!”

Kaleb froze, staring in the dim light at what Blunk had spat onto the ground. It was a key. Kaleb had been chained to the walls of the oubliette before being dropped down. The man Kaleb had landed on still wore his chains, but perhaps with free hands…

He tried over and over, each fall making the ache in his arm worse and worse. The fifth or so time, Kaleb landed on it. An electric shock of pain raced through him, pulling him down into the black abyss of unconsciousness.

 

 

He could hear the screaming, smell the smoke.

“Run, Kaleb!” His father roared at him while his older brother Karn used his scythe to block a Quelthar guardsman. “Run to the forest, quick now!”

Kaleb ran. At nine, he could barely shoot a bow, least of all fight the fifty or so guards raiding his family’s small farm. They’d barely survived on their own food, selling just enough to buy what they couldn’t grow or hunt. Why the guards were there, Kaleb didn’t know. So he ran deep into the woods, crouching among an old tree’s roots until the noises in the distance stopped. But he was too frightened, too afraid of the silence to venture back out into the night, so he spent the night in that hole with the spiders and worms until dawn’s light awakened him.

He crept out of his hiding spot that always served him when he played hide-and-seek with his older brother during a lazy spring day. Half crawling across the cool ground, Kaleb hesitated when he reached open ground. Steeling himself to run again, Kaleb sprinting into the fields across from his house. At first he wasn’t sure what he was seeing, but as he drew closer, he saw, and he froze.

His house was gone. Gone. Only blackened boards stood, leaning against the remnants of his life. And there, on the tree beside their home, hanging beside the very swing his father had crafted for him and his brother and his baby sister, were the bodies of his mother and brother.

Kaleb fell to the ground and screamed.

 

 

He was ten now, and months in the woods had hardened him. Now he’d reached a village he didn’t know, one very different from the mostly human one his father had often visited. This village was smaller, with walls about it guarded by eagle-eyed Quelthar, Guldons, Humans, and even a Lurden. The only way Kaleb had managed to get in was by sliding inside a covered wagon full of potatoes and other, thin, lank vegetables.

The village may have been small, but it was packed with all the races of Kandrokar, some from far across the seas away from Meridian. Kaleb saw a few he didn’t recognize at all. But he did his best not to stare, and focused on chewing the yellow celery and tiny purple carrots he’d taken. He’d lived off roots, berries and mushrooms in the forest, as well as a few animals he’d managed to trap. What he really missed, though, was a full meal; soup with gloriously soft bread and a cup of milk with a fresh pie for dessert. He could see his mother smiling at him as he attempted to eat as much as his father and brother…

Stop it! He snapped as himself, refusing to acknowledge the tears in his eyes. Enough. They’re gone, thanks to the King’s guardsmen…

Then Kaleb looked up and saw an old Quelthar woman slowly walking the market on her cane, a basket on her arm with fresh bread in it. His father and mother had taught him to never steal, that it was wrong, but his father was gone and his mother was dead. So he shoved their voices from his mind, started to run and grabbed the bread as he raced by. He ignored his guilt, his fear, and the woman’s cries as he sped through the busy market and headed down first one alley, then another. Eventually he came to an older, abandoned building. The door was locked, but it was nothing for him to climb up the wall and through a window with broken shutters. It was only a small gap, but Kaleb had become so skinny that it was easy.

The outside may have appeared to be a closed, broken-down building, but the inside was stacked with crates and barrels. Kaleb wandered a bit, looking for a good spot to sit down and enjoy his bread…

He turned a corner and froze, completely shocked. There, against the wall were dozens of spears, staves, halberds and pikes. Weapons were illegal, everyone knew that. No serf or commoner could bear them without express permission from the king. Sure, guardsmen could bear a bow or sword, but there were only about a dozen or so per village. But this, this was an armory. This was dangerous.

I’ve got to get out of here!

Kaleb spun to head for his window—

And smacked into a tall, male Quelthar’s chest.

He tried to run away, but the man held him fast. Kaleb tried to fight him but a sharp shake put an end to that.

“Well, looks like I found Miss Dorla’s thief, eh, boy?”

Kaleb didn’t fight when they took the bread he hadn’t tasted away, along with his vegetables.

“And Farmer Larlin too?”

He only hung his head as the man’s grip tightened enough to bruise, and didn’t struggle as the man dragged him out to a larger room where the old woman, Miss Dorla, was speaking with several other Quelthar and a few Guldons.

“Is this the boy, Dorla?” The man forced Kaleb to look up at her as she took her bread back.

“Yes, he is,” the woman snapped. She wagged a finger in his face. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself, young man. How dare you steal from me, or anyone else in this village! What would your mother say?”

Kaleb refused to think of the answer to that. If he did, then he’d cry. They were going to beat him anyway, at least the hunters who’d caught him before had beaten him, so he refused to cry at all. Only made the beating worse. His father had taught him to take his punishments like a man—he’d also taught him to never steal, but that was a mute point when you were starving—and that’s what he was going to do.

When Kaleb didn’t appear apologetic, the Quelthar shook him again. “Where’s your mother anyway, boy?”

“Dead.” He didn’t mean to say it, but he did. He stared at the lady’s shoes, refusing to show them the tears that had sprung into his eyes as the image of her body popped into his head again.

“What of your father, then, or siblings?” The woman’s voice had lost its sharpness, but somehow it only made things worse.

“Gone and dead.”

There was an uncomfortable silence that Kaleb couldn’t bear. But he didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything.

The man walked him over to stool and Kaleb’s heart began to drum. Whenever his father had led him to a stool it meant he was going to be on his father’s lap while being whipped. But this time the man pushed him onto it instead of taking it. Kaleb couldn’t help staring as the man knelt before him.

“Son, what’s your name?”

“Kaleb, son of Lei.” He was stunned. He wasn’t getting a beating. But they always beat him when they caught him, with either a strap or switch, every time.

“Lei of Gordahn?” The man asked, looking surprised.

“I think so…yes, that’s the town we sold our stuff at.”

Everyone in the room moved, and began muttering.

“Lei’s dead, though,” Miss Dorla said, her tone sharp again.

Kaleb looked at the ground, and this time a tear escaped. A warm hand rubbed his head.

“You’re his second boy, aren’t you?”

He could only nod. The tears wouldn’t stop. After months and months of cold and hunger and fear, this was too much. He’d rather they whipped him and sent him off. The memories of his father and his love broke down all the walls he’d made in the woods, killing his first rabbits, gathering food to cook, being sick when it didn’t go right. He’d starved and stolen, broken promises to his father and mother and brother over and over again when he’d been so hungry and reached that first village. He’d begged, and instead of receiving any kindness, everything he’d owned, even his boots, had been taken from him. Everything he’d taught became hollow, their voices and memories no longer a comfort, only a constant haunting that brought that last night and morning to his mind over and over.

And now, when he thought he’d be hungry and beaten and broken again, this man placed his hand on Kaleb’s head like his father had done every single day. It was too much.

When Kaleb began to sob, Dorla pulled him into her arms and held him as he cried. She told the Quelthar, Aldurin, that he was not to harm the boy, and instead gave him the bread he’d taken, and few other things besides. After he ate a few bites, Aldurin put his hand on his head again and said softly, “I knew your father, Kaleb. And I’m not letting his son starve or steal again. Tonight, you’re staying with me.”

That man was Aldurin, Aldarn’s father, the current leader of the rebellion.

Another Quick Update!

Sorry for not posting guys! My hand's doing wonderfully, though you may know carpal tunnel can only be cured by surgery, so it's only become dormant and isn't gone for good (dang it).

But things have been crazy with my laptop. It was acting super slow so I dropped back from Windows 7 and went to the Windows the laptop was built for, Windows XP. And now the computer says there's nothing there other than the motherboard and hard drive. Which, to quote my brother, "Which means your SCREWED!"

Thanks David.

Anywho, I'm not sure how long it'll take to go back to Windows 7, then install everything again. Le sigh.

BUT! I will have SOMETHING up this week! Not sure what yet, though.

Please bear with me as I struggle to get my computer revived (again)

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UPDATE

Okay, so if  you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you know that I'm wearing a brace on my right arm because I tried to hand sew, then type up 3 chaps in one week. So my lovely lovely carpal tunnel returned with a vengence, and it's been over a week that I've had to wear this stinky stupid brace. So my hand's shot.

Another disaster is that when my laptop went down, my trained Dragon went with it. While I reload Dragon, training it has been a nightmare. It's deleted documents, locked up and shut down multiple times, and on top of it all, my mic finally kicked the bucket.

So I need a new mic, then to train up Dragon enough for it to work, and THEN I can finish my chapters and post my August Favorites.

Sorry! I guess I need to be less productive, so my stupid wrist can keep up.

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My Week(s) in Pics ~8/10 - 8/22~

Hey ya'll!

Sorry I haven't done one of these in forever. I haven't been taking pictures because I've been battling an infection, and I've been to the doc twice about it. I haven't done much of anything, honestly. I've seen my girls (it's not contagious) but we've mostly wrote, which you've seen on here.

But enough about illness, time for PICTURES!!!

 

Doc's pupt me on a sugar-free no white flour diet. Now, I hate diets. I can't follow them to save my life, and honestly I don't care. Diets cause serious depression, and I really don't need that. Luckily, they have things like sugar-free ice cream! This is so yummy! Ate it all in one night.

 

 

This whole grain, very low cereal is a LIFE SAVER! Seriously, this is my go-to in the morning, because the milk is hydrating, I'm more full and I can last from noon till dinner without eating too much!

 

 

These pomegranates are from our yard! Can't wait to eat one!!!

 

 

Another amazing, sugar-free ice cream.

Seriously, love this stuff!

 

 

Dillards is having a clearance sale!!! Found this super cute dotted capris for just over $10. I love sales. I afford stuff! ^^

 

 

These were also about $10. Love the purple earrings and the blinged-out heart bangle is adorable!

 

You gonna check out your Dillard's clearance or found some healthy snacks? Let me know what you pick up!!!

 

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