#fonofn

Hey everyone!

I've created a community Discord server to read, chat about, and discuss my original fantasy novel 'Force of Nature or Forced Nature?' ! It is open to everyone to join and enjoy!

There are links provided to read the book, a general chat for everyone, and an additional chat just for spoilers. All appropriate content warnings will be used!

Here is a link to a post explaining all about my book! https://syncron554.tumblr.com/post/619799776858341376/info-on-my-original-story-fonofn

Server Link: https://discord.gg/MEYQ6Fg4

(Reposting and pinning for easy access.)

Hello everyone! On March 15th, 2020, I started a large project to write my own original novel, and have been writing it for almost 3 months now (as of June 1st).

This project has been growing bigger nearly everyday, and I could really use some support and feedback.

My book is a YA fantasy action/adventure story following a group of six teenagers as their lives get uprooted and they have to learn to survive in an unfamiliar world without being able to trust anyone. The book goes over and dives into many deep topics such as semi-graphic to graphic violence, family issues, and mental illnesses.

It is titled 'Force of Nature or Forced Nature?', and currently stands at a total of 8 chapters (as of June 1st). It has been posted on Archive of Our Own, Tumblr, and recently on Wattpad, (although I recommend using Archive of Our Own, since it has the easiest interface, and it is my main priority in updating.)

I have recently been encouraged to publish my story, but I currently don't have the ability or the means to do so, nor am I sure that is the route I want to go down for personal reasons. But, I would love to share my writing with the world, find new readers, and receive a lot of feedback.

You can also find my writing on my specifically only for original writing accounts on Archive of Our Own, Tumblr, and Twitter.

Please go follow me on those resources or on here and read my story if you are interested! Or, if not, you can always shoot me an ask or send me a PM for more information.

If you have read my story and are at all interested in creating art or illustration for it, please, please send me a PM.

If you create any posts on my book, please tag it with #Force of Nature or Forced Nature or #fonofn, or tag me in it, so I can find it and like it!

(Please be respectful to my book and all the hard work I've put into it.)

(Warning: if you have any issues with the topics or themes presented in my story, please do not read it or skip any portions you find disturbing or triggering. My first priority is having you stay safe and healthy, so please don't push yourself. I do my best to add trigger and content warnings to each and every chapter, so feel free to let me know if you would like me to add one.)

(Also, if you have the time, please go follow one of my very good friends, Georgia Brown, on Twitter. She is in the middle of writing an amazing manuscript for her spectacular book, so please go support her and her writing.)

(Edit 9-11-20: She's now on Tumblr too! Please go follow @zoe-louvre and support her amazing novel The Hand of Andromeda and her new short story collection!!!)

Thank you!

Hello everyone, please go follow my new story Force of Nature or Forced Nature? and my new blog @awakenaiko !

Hey guys, I’m back again with chapter 6 of my original story, Force of Nature or Forced Nature? It is also available on Archive of Our Own.

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My sister tapped a finger on her chin, thinking of a good name to use. Finally, a lightbulb went off in her head and she grinned sweetly. "Oh, what about 'Abbie'? I think that's a good name, don't you?"

I smiled back at her, my eyes crinkling at the edges. "I think that's a great name." 

It suits her perfectly.

The brunette boy piped up next to her, snapping his fingers in satisfaction. "I like 'Alex'."

The blonde walked up behind him, closing off the small circle we had formed. "You can call me… 'Emma'. I think that's a good one."

Everyone turned to stare over at me next, awaiting my answer. I blinked blankly back at them, unsure what to say. I thought long and hard for a name that would suit me, before a thought popped in my head about an old tale I had heard once as a child. My lip twitched briefly as I finally settled on the perfect name. I coughed briefly to clear my throat, and answered. "'Kai.' You can call me 'Kai.'"

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew my life wouldn't be the same after today.

________________________________________________ 

  "I'm so...tired."

  I rolled my eyes to myself, shaking my head and ignoring her whining.

  We're all tired.

  The four of us had been walking for several hours already. After our very short acquaintance, we all voted to continue trekking through the forest, this time as a group. Sitting in one place certainly wasn't going to help us; but, then again, maybe trudging along non-stop without any sense of direction wasn't either.

We had all been hiking up a large hill together for at least the last half hour, blatantly trying our best to disregard our obvious pain and discomfort from walking around all morning.

It was clearly starting to weigh on everyone, especially Emma, who was wilting like a pretty flower under the hot touch of the sun.

"It feels like we've been walking around for forever already. I'm still not convinced we haven't just been walking in circles this entire time." She groaned lightly, sounding utterly exhausted.

  "So...did you guys really hear the voice too?" My sister asked curiously, naturally ignoring her outburst.

"Oh, you mean the ridiculously loud one in our heads going on and on about alternate dimensions and, what, demons? Yeah, I think so." Alex rolled his eyes sarcastically, continuing on ahead in front of the rest of our small group.

  "It- it said we could get our Dad back, but only if we could fix whatever it is it wants us to fix. Do you really think it was telling the truth?" My head snapped over to her, ready to scold her for being too open and trusting with strangers we've barely even known for a few hours, but the brunette boy spoke up again.

"I don't know, it all sounds pretty far-fetched to me, but I don't think it really gave us any other choice. We're kind of stuck here now." He shrugged nonchalantly, not even bothering to look back at us.

  Emma turned to look at me, leaning in closer to my ear and dropping her voice to an almost-whisper so the younger kids couldn't hear her. "I don't really think it's really sunk in yet for them. If that thing, whatever it was, was really telling us the truth… well, a couple of teenagers and some kids aren't exactly "savior" material." She paused, looking me dead in the eyes. Her soft features quickly took on a dark expression, her tone striking. 

"We're never going to make it out of here alive, are we?"

  I couldn't give her a direct answer, not really. I tried to fake a small chuckle, unsurely. "Don't say that. I mean, we were all dragged here for some kind of reason, right? They didn't just pick us for no reason. We have to make it out of here." I flashed her one of my most practiced fake smiles and turned my attention back to the path ahead of us.

She remained staring at me for a short while, seeming to look for something unknown in my expression. She must have found what she was looking for at some point, because she glanced away not long after that.

  We continued trudging forward for miles with no end in sight— even though we weren't quite sure where we were or even where we were going— and the beaming sun above our heads just got lower and lower in the sky. Without a single break or a scrap of food along the way, we were all way past tired; exhausted, even.

Glancing over to my left, I finally noticed that the blonde girl beside me was limping heavily in her black heels, placing way too much of her weight over on her right leg.

A quick search of her revealed a small rip in the left knee of her black leggings, revealing her bruised and skinned knee which was lightly bleeding down her leg. She was clearly trying to ignore the pain and keep moving, but from the sight of the pinched look on her pale, round face and her gritted teeth, it was clear that the long distance was quickly starting to wear on her resolve.

  Was that there the whole time?

  I grimaced at the sight of it, moving over closer to grab her arm and lay it across my shoulders before wrapping my free arm around her other side, taking some of the weight off of her injured leg.

She gasped and stared at me in shock for a split second, before giving me a genuine, grateful smile and continuing walking with my extra support.

  Eventually, the sky became streaked with beautiful hues of oranges and pinks as the sun slowly began its descent into the horizon. It was going to get dark soon, and we were nowhere closer to finding an exit out of the forest than we were this morning. I sighed, and we all unanimously agreed to stop and set up a makeshift camp for the night until we could try and continue searching in the morning. 

It was easy for the four of us to find enough firewood to start a fire for all of us to huddle around—for obvious reasons— but we were all beginning to feel the horrible, echoing pang of hunger in our guts without any food in sight.

My sister sat curled into my side, laying her head on my shoulder as I wrapped both my arms around her, trying to keep us both warm. Nothing but silence waded through the air around us, our current predicament heavy on everyone's minds.

  By the time the sky had fully faded into darkness, that was only illuminated by the bright light of the moon high in the sky, the pain of our hunger had finally become too much for us to handle. 

Deciding to leave the younger kids to stay warm and safe by the fire, Emma and I walked deeper out into the forest to search for anything edible we could find. We searched high and low through all the trees and shrubs, but found nothing but empty leaves and branches. It really did seem like all the life in this place was snuffed out. 

The light of the campfire in the distance was getting farther and farther away from us as we searched more trees further away from the campsite. The blonde walking beside me was still limping lightly, but it had clearly improved significantly already. Soon, she pointed at something in the near distance. "Hey, look over there!" I turned to stare at the area she was pointing at, trying to see what she noticed. 

We had reached the apex of a small hill that dropped down into a deep, dark valley. Growing at the very edge of the hill, we could finally see a few small, spiky plants with what looked like pineapples attached to them. The blonde squealed in excitement, racing over to inspect the plants and I wasn't far behind her. The plants had several ripe, fresh pineapples attached to their stocks, ready to pick and take back with us. I beamed for the first time all day; this was more than enough food for all of us to eat.

Emma grinned cheerfully, picking a few of the pineapples from the plants before wincing at all the sharp thorns pricking her arms when she held them. "Be careful!" I hissed, laughing at her. She sent me a weak glare and stuck her tongue out at me before she turned her focus back to the plants, stepping closer to the edge of the hill.

  Suddenly, a large crack sounded from down below her feet, the ground shuddering and splintering, forming cracks in the mossy dirt and giving way to the gravity pulling down on it. The hill split in two, the edge of the mound collapsing down into the valley below and pulling Emma down with it.

She let out a piercing scream as she powerlessly disappeared beneath the ground level, an avalanche of dirt burying her head when the full force of the landslide swept over her.

  “Emma!”

  Not surprisingly at all, the edge of the hill didn’t just lead into a small valley below. No, the ‘valley’ wasn’t even a valley at all. The peak of the hill- the same one Emma was now plummeting down at over sixty-five kilometers per hour- didn’t drop into a clearing, but actually ended in a sharp, steep drop down to the edge of a cliff.

I quickly jumped into action: swinging my legs over the side of the now crumbled remains of the hill, and dropping into the slant, I started sliding down the side of the mountain. Emma was still violently struggling against the force of the wave, which only made her fall faster towards the edge of the cliff. The soil surrounding her spilled over the edge like sand falling through someone’s hands, kicking up a large cloud of dust and blinding her further. She collapsed under all the pressure and the force of the wave finally mercilessly shoved her light weight over the edge. In a last ditch effort, her right arm sprang out above her head and caught the edge with the very end of her fingers, using the last of her strength to hold herself up.

I pushed myself up to my feet, balancing cautiously on the nearly vertical drop, and rushed down to the edge of the cliff, dropping to my knees before her. The cliff overlooked a deep ravine, dropping straight down into a roaring riverbed filled with nothing but sharp, broken rocks poking up and out of the rapids.

  I winced instinctively. There’s no way either of us would survive a fall like that.

  I crawled closer to the edge to peer over the side of the cliff, finally catching sight of the other teen dangling off of it. Her arm was being pulled into a very unnatural angle, traces of purple forming around her shoulder, and her eyes were shut tightly– in either pain or fear– maybe both. Digging my fingers into the ground, I laid over the edge and reached my other arm down to her.

  “Just hold on, okay!” I shouted loudly, trying to yell over the noise of the continuing avalanche around us. I pushed myself even closer, until I was completely leaning over the edge. “Just grab my hand and don’t look down! I’ve got you, I promise.”

She squinted up at me with a pained, doubtful grimace etched into her normally smooth features, looking for any semblance of dishonesty peaking through my expression. With the best reassuring look I could muster up in our predicament, I faintly smiled down at her. She must have recognized the sincerity behind it, because her eyes softened, staring up into mine with warmth and – for the first time– trust. She grabbed on tightly to my outstretched hand with her free arm and my fingers finally closed securely around her wrist. I dug my feet into the ground and tugged her up and over the edge of the cliff with all the strength I had. She swung a leg over the side of the cliff, pushing herself up away from the edge, and collapsed on her side next to me as I laid back on the grass. Heaving air in shallow breaths, Emma turned to me with a look of disbelief shining behind her emerald gaze.

  “You-” She stuttered. “You just saved my life.”

  I huffed loudly, staring back at her with the same amount of perplexity. “Of course I did, I couldn’t just let you die, bampot.” I sat up slowly, batting the dirt residue off of my face, and smirked in her direction. “My sister would’ve tried to kill me in my sleep if I didn’t.”

She laughed breathlessly, flopping back onto her back in mirth, lightly holding her bruised shoulder.

I smiled tiredly, offering her a hand up to her feet, and after she took it, I helped guide her all the way back up to the hill. She paused for a short minute, glancing over her shoulder at the ravine behind us, before turning back to face me. She frowned briefly, giving the slightest of nods at me before speaking. “Thank you, for...that.”

Hey guys, I’m back again with chapter 5 of my original story, Force of Nature or Forced Nature? It is also available on Archive of Our Own.

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"Do not worry. The Shadows are only truly dangerous to you if they can find leverage over you. 

No matter what happens during your journey, you should never reveal any information aloud to anyone at any point, including your names."

"Well, that's just great! How are we supposed to do that?!" I guffawed abhorrently.

"I'm afraid that is all I can tell you for now. Good luck on your journey." The voice slowly faded away into a whisper. 

"What? No, come back!" My sister begged frantically, ripping herself from my arms and running around the clearing trying to find the faded voice. "Hello? You can't just leave!"

I sighed heavily, somehow feeling thoroughly weary and utterly terrified all at once.

"I guess we're on our own now."

________________________________________________

It was too hot. The bright sun was beaming down on the forest trees without a cloud in sight. The trees were only absorbing the heat, making the air around us humid and almost unbearably thick.

My sister and I sat in the clearing in utter silence for a long time even after the voice had disappeared from our thoughts, wiped away from our minds almost like we had only ever imagined it in the first place.

The grass blanketing the clearing was much cooler in comparison than the rest of the forest, at least giving us some relief from the stifling weather.

My sister sobbed into my shoulder, still holding onto me with such a grip like her life depended on it.

  Maybe it did.

  I ran my hand up and down her back, my free hand running through her smooth, thick hair as I tried to soothe her. She had fallen silent a long time ago, but she still refused to move from her complacent position underneath my chin. I don't know which was harder for me to do- push down my tears or suppress another irate sigh from being audible- both sounded equally appealing to me at the moment.

  But I couldn't do either.

  I sighed internally instead, lightly patting my little sister on the back once more before standing up and plastering a grin across my face. I turned around with a quick huff and reached a hand out for her to take.

"Come on. The sooner we get moving, the sooner we can get out of this weird place." She took my hand and pulled herself up, unsuccessfully trying to wipe away her tears and pretend they weren't there.

She crossed her arms around her chest, tightly tucking in her hands in a self-hug. "Where are we going?" As I followed her line of sight, I realized every direction out of the clearing around us looked nearly identical.

I bit my lip painfully, my eye subtly twitching in my irritation.

  Would it kill anyone to just place a big, obvious flashing sign with an arrow sometime? Of course not.

  I sighed, facepalming for a brief moment. I rolled my eyes, gently placing one of my hands on her back and pushing her ahead of me so I could easily watch out for her. "Let's go this way for now." She huffed at me, clenching her small fists at her sides and pouting until I nudged her forward again.

The forest got denser and denser with thick trees as we walked deeper into the forest. The weather was even more unbearable without the opening of the trees above us in the clearing, but somehow, the heat almost felt good on my skin.

I wasn't sweating like I normally would be on a hot summer day back at home. I knew it was hot in the forest, but the feeling of the sunlight on my skin and the humidity around us started to feel amazing, almost like taking a hot shower on a cold night.

I looked over to my sister, finally realizing that her clothes had also changed since we arrived here. Her favorite pair of baby pink pajamas had somehow turned into a black hoodie and satin skirt laid neatly over a pair of dark purple leggings, with a pair of low-heeled black boots to top it off.

  She has to be burning up, that sweatshirt must feel stifling.

  "Aren't you getting too hot in that hoodie?" I grabbed her hand before she could go too far, but she only shook her head at me.

"No, I feel fine." She shrugged her hand out of my grasp and continued forward into the forest. "Can we get out of here now? This place is starting to give me the creeps." She whined adorably.

All of a sudden, I felt a sharp tingling pain in my hand. When I looked down, my fingers had turned bright red and started twinging like I had just stuck my hand in a cup of freezing water. Her hand had felt like ice in my grasp.

  We continued walking for a few more hours, pressing on further despite how tired we were getting. At this point, my feet were agonizingly aching with each step I took. 

So far, this entire quest of ours was utterly pointless. We weren't even sure what we were really looking for. The only thing we could really do now was just endlessly search for something to help us or guide us somewhere else that we were never going to find. The scenery around us barely changed at all. We hadn't even come across anything other than more trees, and occasionally a few hills dividing the forest into higher and lower levels.

I sighed, trying to swallow down my cynical thoughts and continued the hike up the hills ahead of us.

  This definitely isn't the time or place to be cynical. I need to be strong right now, for the both of us.

  My wrists still felt as if they were on fire, still just as raw and throbbing from the rope burns I had suffered as before, even as I rubbed at them. That only seemed to make the pain worse, the friction from my gloves rubbing against the sensitive skin only managing to re-irritate it. They started to bleed once again, small red droplets beading from the wounds and running down my wrist until they dropped down into the grass below me.

My sister looked over in concern, glancing uneasily at the red streaks dripping down my hands. I waved her off easily, trying to pull down my rolled up sleeves over my hands to hide them from view. I ruffled her chestnut bangs and grinned as she tried to bat my hands away. "It's okay, I'm fin-"

A shrill cry suddenly echoed in this distance, sounding only a few meters away from us.

  "What was that?!" I turned to look at my sister beside me, as she jumped and grabbed onto my arm in a death grip, cowering into my side. 

A group of bushes directly to the right of us began trembling suspiciously and whispers could be heard emitting from it.

"There it is again!" I yanked her entirely behind me, making sure she was pressed tightly against my back, her fingers clutched in my shirt, as I quickly backed away from the brushes.

  A new, unexpected voice spoke up in the distance, getting louder as it got closer, "See, that's exactly why I told you to wait for me. Maybe if you had actually listened-" A different, younger voice interrupted the first.

"How was I supposed to know there was a hill there?" The voice whined loudly, clearly trying to nurse some type of injury.

The first voice spoke up again in it's smooth, light German accent, this time rising in volume. "Don't interrupt me! I'm just trying to keep you safe. We don't even know where we are right now, what if you had gotten mauled by a bear or something?! I told you to stay next to me, and you didn't listen, and look what happened! You can't just go running off just because you feel like it, A-"

  "Hello? Who's there?" I asked warily, raising my voice and keeping a good distance from the bushes.

The owners of the voices finally peeked out of the bushes, heading in our direction. A head of long, golden blonde hair popped out from behind one of the trees before us, walking carefully through the thorn bushes as a much shorter and younger brunette boy followed closely behind her, still rubbing at a blossoming bruise on his elbow.

  "Who the hell are you, exactly?" A pair of bright green eyes blinked suspiciously at me, pausing several feet away and refusing to move an inch closer, placing her manicured hand to push the boy back towards the bushes, further away from me.

She was dressed almost oddly, wearing a tied white blouse over her fitted lilac t-shirt. Faded denim shorts sat just above her mix-matched length black mesh leggings, and black heels that seemed far too uncomfortable for walking graced her feet.

Almost in an opposite nature, the young boy she was shielding behind her wore a simple black hoodie unzipped over a warm cotton grey sweater, accented by his casual black jeans and white and purple converse.

  "I'm-" I quickly caught myself before I finished, blinking hard. I tried another approach instead, "Look, I could ask you the same thing!" I retorted. "What are you doing here?"

  "How the hell should I know?" She retorted, an irritated snarl curling her lips up. "Maybe you should ask whoever thought it was a good idea to just drop us in the middle of nowhere. I don't know, just an idea!" Sarcasm was dripping from her tone like a deadly acid just waiting to snap at someone.

  I shifted uncomfortably and glanced away, unable to handle the strength of her glare burning back at me. "Well, it's not like I know why we're here either." I bit back at her with the same viciousness. I was never one to back down from a fight, even ones I didn't start or had any business getting involved with. My dad always told me I was too much of a hothead.

  I guess old habits die hard.

  I nibbled on my bottom lip, turning back to her emerald gaze with even more fire burning behind my hazel one. "We didn't come here looking for any trouble, we don't even want to be here, period. So, why don't you just leave us alone?"

Fury blazed in her eyes. "You-"

"Woah, woah, wait!" The little brunette boy beside the girl shouted, pushing her hand off of his chest and walking between the two of us, trying to quell the tensions rising off of us.

"What is wrong with you guys?! Didn't you hear the voice?" When we stared at him blankly, blinking in confusion, he rolled his eyes and huffed loudly. "You know, the creepy, bodiless one; tried to scare us to death when it started talking in our heads; kind of hard to forget?"

He shook his head, getting back to his point. "The voice said we were going to meet four other people who we would be our friends! We aren't supposed to be biting each other's heads off! We're supposed to be helping each other."

"He's right!" My sister piped up, wrestling out of my tight grip to peer from around me. "We heard about that too." She looked up at me, silently pleading for me to let the issue go. I grunted in response and looked away.

She knows I can't refute her puppy dog eyes. I frowned.

When I finally looked back up at the blonde, She was glancing over at the boy in front of us before looking down at the ground in shame, kicking the dirt around in her embarrassment at being so spiteful.

After a long moment of silence, she spoke up in a much kinder tone. "I guess they're right. If we want to get out of this stupid forest, we need to be working together, not arguing. I'm sorry."

I sighed quietly, stroking the top of my sister's hair. "Look, I'm sorry too. It's just… It's been a long few hours."

She nodded, clearing her throat.

"Well, now that that's over with, I guess we should introduce ourselves." Looking up at me for permission first, my sister walked over to the brunette boy, and extended a hand between them with a watery smile gracing her freckled face. "Nice to meet you, I'm-"

I cut her off immediately, wrapping my hand around her mouth and shaking my head. "What are you doing?" I whispered loudly next to her ear. 

She pushed me away, pursing her lips irately. She hated admitting I was right, although I normally was. "Well, we have to call each other something!" She whisper-yelled back to me.

The blonde girl piped up, clearly eavesdropping on our not-at-all quiet conversation. "What if we used fake names? That way we could call each other something, without any problems." 

I pondered it for a moment, before nodding. It was the best alternative at the moment, and at least it would make things slightly easier.

  "Any ideas?"

  My sister tapped a finger on her chin, thinking of a good name to use. Finally, a lightbulb went off in her head and she grinned sweetly. "Oh, what about 'Abbie'? I think that's a good name, don't you?"

I smiled back at her, my eyes crinkling at the edges. "I think that's a great name."

It suits her perfectly.

The brunette boy piped up next to her, snapping his fingers in satisfaction. "I like 'Alex'."

The blonde walked up behind him, closing off the small circle we had formed. "You can call me… 'Emma'. I think that's a good one."

  Everyone turned to stare over at me next, awaiting my answer. I blinked blankly back at them, unsure what to say. I thought long and hard for a name that would suit me, before a thought popped in my head about an old tale I had heard once as a child. My lip twitched briefly as I finally settled on the perfect name. I coughed briefly to clear my throat, and answered. "'Kai.' You can call me 'Kai.'"

Hey guys! I decided to upload my original story onto Tumblr as well as on Ao3, but I was limited while trying to post it on my phone, so let’s see if posting it on computer works!

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  "Who the hell are you, and what the hell do you want?" I asked, trying- and failing miserably - not to yell, instinctively wrapping my arms around my sister to protect her.

"There is no need to worry. I do not exist outside of your minds. I am only a voice made to guide you."

"What do you mean, 'guide' us?" This day was just getting weirder and weirder.

"You were correct, you are both very far from your home. But, you were not brought here by mistake, nor are you lost. You were both brought here for a reason."

A silence so thick it could be cut with a knife permeated through the clearing.

"I believe it is time for me to welcome you to the Downlands."

__________________________________________ 

  "The… what?"

  "This may come as a shock, but the world that you reside in, as you know it, is not the only one in existence."

Stiff looks of shell shock crossed over our faces.

  There's no way that could be true.

  "There exists another dimension, a mirror dimension of Earth, that exists just beside your world: the Downlands."

  My sister sputtered, "I don't understand! How does this place exist? Why were we brought here?"

I stayed silent and still, just trying to process what exactly was happening.

  "The Downlands is in terrible danger, and so are you. You were brought here, to help. This world is very much alive, even more so than your own. I was created by it and it has made the decision to bring you here. 

You are here, because you were chosen to save the world."