#dreamshadow excerpt

It's been so long since I last did a tag game, so it seems fitting to return with my most fave of them :D I got tagged for this twice, with flower, fresh, laundry, letter by @desperatlytryingtowriteabook and blue, trust, lie, shiver by @wilde-writing, I'm gonna combine the two tags into one post :) Thank you for the tags! If you want to do it again, please consider yourselves tagged back :D

The latter snippets are from my newest wip, which is a trans fae/eldritch rapunzel short story retelling (so it only had 3 of the words xD). It might expand into a novella, so maybe it'll get an intro at some point.

Everything else I couldn't find there is from the completed 5th draft of Dream's Shadow, before I start on the 6th draft :) Gonna try to be more active in writeblr in general again, so if you wanna tag me for stuff it's fairly likely i'll actually respond to it properly again djfkd

flowers (ben pov / Dream's Shadow)

He forces his thoughts away from the attic, the monster, and his parents, and then he walks down the stairs to the calendar next to its doorway. Papa’s elegant scribble mingle with Mama’s symbolic scratches. Only Papa can really read them, but Ben’s gotten quite good at interpretation over the years. The margins are filled with Ava’s sketches of flowers and cats and dragons, and seeing the little hearts dotted around his own name at the top sends a painful ache through Ben's chest.

fresh (fiyare pov | Dream's Shadow)

She concentrates, and then light bursts out of her and she can feel the shackles loosen, falling off. She scrambles off the rack, hissing in pain. The wounds are far from healed; just enough to let her move, raw and fresh but no longer bleeding. She finds the fresh, aching pit in her memories. Does her best to ignore it… but it’s like a new gap in her teeth—she can’t stay away from prodding it. —A childhood friend, lost in all but name and concept— She tries to push it away, shudders. Despite the sacrifice, she isn’t even a quarter back to her proper health.

letter (elinor pov | Dream's Shadow)

The walk to the hospital is quite short. After all, the schooling area is close to the Core as well. I suspect this is where Ava broke into Level Eight, but not even that lightens my mood. Instead, I unfold and refold the letter one more time (the creases are almost worn through now) and try to push away the idiot fears my mind keeps conjuring. It makes no sense. None whatsoever.

trust (ava pov | Dream's Shadow) (for context, Socks is a little dragon)

“Apple?” Socks asks hopefully. I sigh, shaking my head. “I don’t have any apples today…” Socks mimics the sigh and sits down beside me. Distant enough to take off quickly if they have to, but close enough to show their trust. It’s the bestest feeling in the whole world.

blue (At The Edge, The Tower)

Up close, the tower is built from large, chunky rocks. There are wide gaps in between them, but there’s no door, no stairs, not even a measly ladder. The stones are black and slick, and when I touch them with a shaking hand, my fingertips go numb and blue-tinged. I draw them back in a hurry and stare upward and upward. I know he’s up there. There’s no way I can scale this tower.

lie (At The Edge, The Tower)

A barbed branch slaps against my arm, biting through skin. I grunt and tear myself free; it leaves behind a smear of metallic blood. In the human world I bleed red, but the shimmer doesn’t have to uphold the lie here. This is supposed to be home, but it is no home at all.

shiver (At The Edge, The Tower)

The First Language is something you feel rather than understand, and his song is about the creation of worlds, of oceans and skies and what lies beyond. I shiver, even as a part of me yearns. I stamp it out ruthlessly and carefully free myself from the shrub.

blue (At The Edge, The Tower)

Up close, the tower is built from large, chunky rocks. There are wide gaps in between them, but there’s no door, no stairs, not even a measly ladder. The stones are black and slick, and when I touch them with a shaking hand, my fingertips go numb and blue-tinged. I draw them back in a hurry and stare upward and upward. I know he’s up there. There’s no way I can scale this tower.

It's been A While™ since I last did a tag game! I'm gonna tag @ettawritesnstudies @corishadowfang @stories-by-rie @jacquesfindswritingandadvice @adayforducks @fatal-blow @lady-redshield-writes in hopes of the tags actually working and you being fine with being tagged (:

Your words are grey, scream, sky and pretty :D

Tagged by @adayforducks thank you! <3 I didn't even know ppl still used the spreadsheet, I'm so glad you did :D

She doesn’t know what this means for her future, but she knows that she isn’t lost, even if her name on the metal plate claims otherwise.

Incidentally, this is also the very last line of the wip cause I finished Dreams draft 5 tonight oops :D 3 days early aaa

tagging @corishadowfang @kittensartswriting @ettawritesnstudies @fatal-blow and anyone else who wants to!

I got tagged by @ettawritesnstudies​, thank you <333

My words are reality, fluffy, scream, and melt.

Reality

Time slows down to a crawl. I can't tell if it’s still today or already tomorrow. I'm drifting somewhere between reality and nightmare, but every time I drift off, I see nightmare-Ben’s broken face, or that white, leering thing… or, worse, I remember how he was nothing but an empty shell. As though he was sleeping, but someone had turned him into cold, dead stone.

Fluffy

“I just really want Ben to come back, you know?” I say after a moment of silence. Socks tilts their head, looks at me quizzically. Their eyes are big and black and smart, but not in a mean way. Comforting. They’re very pretty, too, like most featherdragons, with a very fluffy whitish belly, black face and throat, a reddish brown dotting them from the head to the tufted tail, which is striped black and white. And the black socks. I wonder if they’re using my sock in their nest, or if it’s inferior to the stolen ones. They did stop stealing more though. Haven’t heard Mama curse about it in a while.

“Ben back,” Socks echoes, sounding sad. Even their small, fluffy ears droop. Then they take a few careful steps forward and puff up a bit, sitting on the ground next to me. Apparently I’m not a threat today.

Scream

I tried again and again to be there for you, but you always pushed me away. And now that I’m hurt, dying, gone—now you finally realize? He wants to feel angry. He wants to feel hurt, to cry and scream, to rage at how unfair the world is, how blind everyone surrounding him was—until now. But now they know. Now they know. He just needs to find his way back.

Melt

His mind starts shutting down, turning numb from the onslaught of suppressed emotions forcing their way back inside. He remembers the whisper, the words. The Memories come next. Something inside him Knows that the Heavy Truths are at the bottom of the ocean behind his ice wall, and he hates it.  

Now that he’s calmed down—has started going numb, more like it—the melt water stream has slowed down again, turning back into a slow trickle. It’s still there, though. The longer it continues, the more I will remember… until I drown.

Something inside tells him that he should be panicking, but he only feels dazed.

I will drown because I won’t want to live anymore.

I’m tagging @corishadowfang @kittensartswriting @fatal-blow @ettawritesnstudies (yes i am tagging you back <3) if you want to! :)

Also anyone else who wants to! :) Just say I tagged you lsdfkjsd i don’t remember who does tag games xD

I got tagged in so many of these and I love them so much but this one is the newest so I’ll start here and then maybe over the course of the next few days...?

Got tagged by @timefirewrites to find love, terrible, nature and stars :D thanks for the tag <3

These are all from Dream’s Shadow Pt1

Love

I love watching featherdragons nibble sunflower seeds, they’re always ridiculously careful about it even when the seed is tiny for them, too. Socks is maybe the size of a magpie but they still make sure to remove the shell before eating the actual seed. I doubt it’s very efficient, but it’s a lot of fun to watch. It’s also great with all sorts of nuts, because sometimes the shells are so stubborn that Socks and Key have to work really hard to crack them, but they really like nuts, so watching them crow in excitement over their victory is awesome!

Terrible

“Ava?”

“Ben?” I don’t even think about it, I run through the underbrush, duck between two trees, and then—

There he is.

Except he’s just lying there, on the ground, looking half-dead and terrible. His light curly hair is a long tangle of dirt and branches, and there’s blood encrusted in it, too.

“Ben?” I whisper, and I don’t know what I dread more, him moving or him not moving.

His eyes snap open and they’re burning like the sun.

Nature

”You see that?” they ask, pointing forward with their free hand.

I do.

Less than a hundred feet away, the monsters are swarming the path. The drop on both sides is still deadly, but now it looks less supernatural in nature and more like an actual mountain ridge.

”Are you ready?” Azrae asks quietly. I don’t even know how to respond to that.

Stars

”Then let us walk,” Mikaën says, lazily twirling his fingers. The glowing light suddenly explodes into a thousand tiny ones, flitting away in all directions, becoming a thousand tiny stars on the firmament above them. The darkness seems huge, now, not as cramped and confining as before.

It’s strangely beautiful to watch someone else build a dream.

I didn’t reeeeally get tagged for this, I got tagged for @ettawritesnstudies‘s wip taglist, but I like this tag game far too much not to indulge, so >:D Especially when one of the words is monster, you have no idea how many monster mentions I have in that WIP XD

Words: Monster, Tea, Frail, Bright, Pen WIP: Dream’s Shadow

Monster

”Are all human children as stubborn as you?”, they finally say. I shrug. ”I wouldn’t know”, I say, ”I’m not some many-eyed monster thing that’s probably older than the entire world.” Which somehow makes them chuckle. ”Fair point.”

(Ava POV)

Tea

Half an hour later, she’s heated some water, prepared some tea, drank it all—but the thoughts haven’t stopped, the storm hasn’t left. Going back to bed isn’t an option. She’s tired, but not in a way that will allow her to sleep. Kiyera closes her eyes, breathes once, slowly, and makes up her mind. It’s warm-ish outside (by her standards), even though it’s night, and as bright as during the day. It takes her eyes a while to adjust after the near-perfect darkness inside. Tonight, she is going to go visit Tamoh’s grave.

(Kiyera POV)

Fail

”Dragon”, I grin when Papa approaches, looking worried. His gaze softens and a small smile plays around his lips. ”Well, even you have to fail from time to time”, he just says, and then he settles down a comfortable distance away, closing his eyes. And I remember Ben, and the dried blood at his temples, and stop laughing.

(Ava POV)

Bright

He tries to raise his face. It’s hard, to muster the energy. It has to come from somewhere, after all, and he feels empty. When he succeeds, he notices the sunshine for the first time. It’s bright, and golden, and beautiful, warming him from the inside. The ice fades away.

(Ben POV)

Pen

”Where are you going?”, Papa asks, peering at me tiredly. ”If I don’t move I’m going to fall asleep again”, I say. My eyes feel leaden and I stretch. It doesn’t help. ”And if I try to sleep, I see things. And if I do sleep, I have dreams. And if I just sit there, I think too much. And then I have to cry. I don’t want to cry. So I’m going to find some paper and a pen and write down her name and address.”

(Ava POV)

I’ll just tag my Dreams taglist, if you don’t mind... hah, it’s nice to have an entire book for a tag game >:3

Your words are sky, taste, blue, glow, soft

@warmbones | @wilde-writing | @thereisnothingwrongwithbeingmad | @authordai | @madmoonink | @lynnafred | @prismalicht | @sincerestaffect​ | @romenna | @zekethegm | @hypnocutiegypsy | @random-stuff-thrown-into-a-pot | @els-writes | @randooooooooooom | @asttralhell | @paper-shield-and-wooden-sword​ | @jellybeanwriter | @kittensartswriting | @purpleshadows1989 | @raiswanson | @ettawritesnstudies | @writingwordsanddrawingpictures | @albatris

Rules: Open your current WIP. Starting at the end, find the first sentence you find containing the conjunction: and | or | but | still | although / though | yet

I got tagged by @fynniana, thanks for this nice new tag game :D

My current wip has, like, half a chapter but, oh well xD Not so many spoilers, I guess ;D So this is for As Dreams Collide. 

And, But

I try to make no sound but then his footsteps come down until they’re right beside me, and when he scoops me off the ground and carries me gently back upstairs I’m sobbing again.

Or

Not intimidating or scary at all.

Still

I try to smile back but my face is still weird after all that crying and it probably looks pretty fake.

(Al)though

Now, though... now all I want is Ben getting healed.

Yet

Why haven’t they healed his head wound yet?

Thank you @emireviews​​ for tagging me! <3

Tagging the Dreams and Shadows crew and a few others (if you want to, of course) @merigreenleaf​ @sincerestaffect​ @romenna​ @fynniana​ @neglectedtales @madmooninc​ @random-stuff-thrown-into-a-pot​ @writin-maaagic​ @prismalicht​ @authordai​ @lynnafred​ @hypnocutiegypsy​ @zekethegm​ @beautifulimposter25​ @asttralhell​ @paper-shield-and-wooden-sword​ @jaimistoryteller

Ok, so this is a longer excerpt (~2K) and because of that it’s below the cut. So the few lines here are an excerpt of an excerpt! Because I realized I have never really uploaded a longer excerpt on here and this is only very vaguely spoilery and I like it. It’s still a first draft, though, so I’m sorry for language/... errors.  

From Kiyera’s POV, from somewhere near the middle of Dreams and Shadows. 

The door opens a slit wide and a brown eye peers through, suspiciously, at about hip-height. I smile and bend down a bit to see her better.

“Good morning”, I say seriously, “I saw your brother when I last came here and I need to talk to you. And your parents, of course.”

She stares at me impassively for a few moments, then something changes unexpectedly. “When?”, she asks, and there’s a strange hope and neediness in her voice, something I don’t really understand.

“You mean, when did I see him? A few days ago, when I last visited, I think”, I say, hoping that this answer is going to be all right.

Her face falls, and my heart breaks all over again.