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She could feel the stress and frustrations of the last few days building and growing with each additional failed call.    In all reality, the job wasn't hard, but it seemed impossible with each passing minute of failure, hitting hard and strong.  she worked hard not to take her knife to the favorite spot it likes to go on her forearm, instead, working on taking deep and even breaths, drinking large amounts of water.  She cringes every time the manager walks by her chair, just waiting for the time he says "You have to go, you still aren't doing well enough."  Painfully, she sits still, bursting with energy, wanting to let it all out, but not knowing how it will go.  The knife sits in her pocket, calling her, pleading to be used to let out the energy bottled up inside.  Forcefully, she tries to think of something else, anything else, hoping beyond hope that the moment will pass, pleading with God to let this moment pass.  And slowly, minute by creeping minute, it does.  Then she goes home, the frustration kept in, and no one at home any the wiser as to what has been going on inside.  No one knowing about the struggle, the personal battle.  And still, the knife waits, calling in her pocket, longing to be used.

the fox

i pad over to the river and take a drink. its been a long day, and i'm now far from my pack. i stay alert, listening for the hunters i know are present. after i drink, i look back the way i came. my pack has forced me out, and so i must find another. winter is approaching, i can smell it in the air. the smell of fresh snow is strong. the geese overhead are flying south, and i long to go with them. with no pack, it will be a hard winter. i will have to look hard, for myself and my unborne pup. the pup. the reason i am forced out. the pup was not the alpha's therefore, it, and i with it, cannot stay. i travel onward, as far south as i can. i want to be able to stay as warm, and to find as much food as possible if i am to live this winter. the hunter's dogs follow me, silently. i smell them though, and make sure to stay as far downwind as i can. it eventually grows to be night. the dogs go home, and i am free to travel. and travel i do. i nearly fly over the ground, running as fast and as far as i can. i find an empty cave, and i stop and rest. i need to find food, but the dogs and hunters are back, so i must wait. and watch. the dogs come closer to where i am hiding, they seem to have caught my sent. i silently slip out of the cave and run like the silent winds. the dogs give chase. i run fast, but they are faster. they are fresh, and have had a decent meal recently. i am still tired from running all night, and have only eaten some grass, and that a few days ago. i am surrounded. they bark and the hunters come. i am caught. they place something around my mouth. surprisingly, they do not kill me, even though it is late fall, and the season for killing. instead, they cage me up, and take me with them. i am placed in some human contraption, in the dark. i can smell deer in with me as well, and the smell makes me go wild. i try to get at the deer, but the thing makes it so that i cannot get at it. i cannot bark. i will not be eating. we stay at the human camp for a few more days. each day, i hear the hunters go out, looking for something else. each day, i try and get get out of that thing so i may get at that deer, but each time, i fail. eventually, i give up, and try and conserve what energy i have for surviving in the cold and dark. the hunters must have eventually given up for we move after some days. i am taken out of the dark and into the bright sunlight. i am no longer in the forest, but surrounded by humans and noise and smells. two humans seem to be talking. they are gesturing towards me, and the deer a lot. the hunter leaves, and we are left with the other human. we are taken in another contraption, but not as far. we stop, and they lead the deer out while i remain, waiting, and still in the dark. a while later, we move again, this time for a lot longer time. eventually, we stop, and i am lead out. i am led into a building, where many humans live. it is warm in the house, and i smell delicious meat somewhere in the house. i try to yelp, but i still have the thing around my mouth, and cannot. i begine to have hope that maybe me and my pup will be able to survive. the man who brought me here leaves, and i am left with many humans looking at me. they talk, and eventually i am led back outside. the thing is taken off my mouth, and i try to run to the meat i smell. a man catches me, and i am forced back into the thing around my mouth and tied to a tree.

Leaves

"mom! i'm home! and guess what!? you know that pile of leaves you left outside? i jumped in it! it was so fun!" she said, as she came running into the room.
"i'm glad you enjoyed it. do you want to go out and play in them more? i'll even come with?"
"yeah!"
i turned off my computer, and we went outside. it was a beautiful day. not to hot, not to cold. just warm enough that we could be comfortable with short sleeves, and no jacket or sweater. suddenly, my mind began to race. why was i doing this? she had homework, i needed to start dinner. more importantly, we were both getting over bad colds, and it was sure to get cold out here. why hadnt we worn jackets?
"common mom! lets go!" she said, practicly dragging me out of the house.
she started to rake up the leaves, and we jumped in them. she did it again. we fought with the leaves, having "confetti" wars. we chased each other, and tried to get leaves all over each other. we burried each other.
suddenly, nothing else mattered. it was just me and her. and the leaves. we played for hours. never tiring, not noticing that the sun was going down. all that mattered was us. me and her. we were actually doing something, and it wasnt me telling her that she needed to do this, or go do that, or eat your dinner, there wont be any food 'til breakfast. all that mattered was that we were having fun...together.
eventually, after many times of pretending to be a bear, hibernating in the leaves, and being leaf monsters jumping out to attack each other, and chasing each other around the yard for hours, the leaves were in the garden, and there was nothing else to do, but to go inside, and to remember. it was rare the days like this, and i hoped that she would remember this, above everything else.

Matsuko's Writings

as i tread through the forest, there isnt a sound. it is very quiet. the snow adds to the quiet, but it is too quiet. no birds singing in the trees overhead. i stop, watch, and listen. i dont hear a sound. not even the far off barking of the dogs in camp. in the fading light, it is hard to be sure, but i think i see anoyher person, crouching behind a bush. i wistle like a bluejay. he wistles back. i approach.
"the wolf has been by" i comment, noticing the paw prints in the snow. the wolf has been threatening our camp for a couple of days, and has been scaring off the game. we need the game if we are going to live over the winter.
"yes, very recently. that is why the birds have stopped their song."
we both adjust our quivers, get a firmer grip on our bows, and walk on a bit further.
"you were supposed to go after it. you should have left."
on we push, tracking the tracks, following his every move.
"i could have left" he said finally "but i would have missed my mark. i cannot see in this light. only you can see in this dim light."
we come upon a small cave. it was the wolf den, for there were a multitude of tracks around the opening. we could not tell if it was there, or if it had once again left. we peek inside. the wolf is still there. i nock my arrow, and take aim. suddenly, a pup comes into view. i lower my arrow, and step back.
"we cannot kill it. we will have to move camp. this wolf is a mother."
"so kill it and its pups."
"no. we cannot. it would be wrong. an adult, yes, we can shoot them, and even use the meat. the pups, we cannot kill. they do not have as fair of a chance, and, although we could eat them, and they would be most tender, it would be wrong. like killing one of the puppies from your dog."
he sees the fire in my eyes, and knows he has lost. we go back to camp, and then to home. we will be hungry this winter.

yet another story

Why we have snow
by matsuko

the great dragon decided it was time to move. he had been living in the same house for over 1000 years, and was starting to get tired of the scenery. so he packed up everything. his earth-shaking smoothie maker, his furniture, everything that he had in his house. he then moved to a new house that was about halfway across the sky. as he was moving all of his boxes and furniture and everyhting, he saw a sign for a dust/leaf/snow blower and thought that maybe it would be good to have one. "who knows, there might be a lot of trees where i'm going, and get lots of snow in the winters. i dont want to be spending my whole days raking leaves and shoveling snow!" unfortunately, the Great Dragon was too busy at the time to buy one. he forgot about the dust/leaf/snow blower for a long time, never passing the store. it was a lot closer to his old home than his new one. it changed seasons, and was no longer summer, but suddenly was fall. the great dragon's new home did indeed have a lot of trees, and, since he didnt remember to go get the leaf blower, was spending a lot of time raking up the leaves. a lot more than he would have liked to have. he decieded to try blowing them into a pile with his lungs. sadly, as he was trying so hard, he ended up setting the leaves all on fire. "i wish i hadnt done that. i had wanted to use those leaves for compost, and help my new garden grow next summer." so, he had to come up with a new idea. he tried to use his tail, instead of a rake, but that just scattered them more, and make it take a lot longer. so, he just settled with raking up the leaves. then winter came. he tried to blow and make fire and melt away the snow from his sidewalks, but it just turned into ice, and was more of a hazard. he tried making it all into snowdragons and snowunicorns and the like, but he ran out of room in his yard for them all. eventually, he just settled for shoveling his snow, like all of his neighbours. one day, he decided to go back and visit some of his old neighbours, and see how they were doing. as he was headed home, he passed the store selling the dust/leaf/snow blowers. "ah ha! just what i needed all this time. if only i had remembered, then i wouldnt have broken my arm when there was ice on my walks, or wasted all of those wonderful composting leaves. i'll have to get one, and try it out!" so get one he did. next time it snowed, he started up that snow blower. and what a wonderful job it did! he had his walks clean and free of snow and ice within 15 minutes. one thing he didnt notice was that it created quite the wind down on earth. come the next snow storm, the great dragon was prepared. this snow storm was HUGE! it dropped about two feet of snow. the great dragon was ready for it. he took out his snow blower, and started to clear his walks. this time, it took a LOT longer. he stopped to rest, and looked down to earth, to see what was going on there. he noticed that it was really really really windy, and it looked like it was snowing there too! "well, what a coincidence" he thought. i wouldnt have thought it would be snowing there, especially since it isnt snowing here any more. as he kept watching, it suddenly stopped snowing. "odd. snow doesnt just suddenly start, and suddenly stop like that. not down there. well, i had best get meself back to work. i still have more of my own sidewalks and driveway to worry about." as he got back to work, he kept an eye out on what was happening down on earth. he noticed that as he was using his snow blower, it suddenly started to snow on earth. "maybe i should stop. i dont like to give the people my snow. they have never had any, and wont know what to do with it all. but what can i do with all of my snow? i guess i'll just keep on making snowdragons and sometimes snow unicorns. maybe i'll only use the snowblower when i'm going to have company. i know that wont happen much, so it will only inconvinence the people on earth every once in a while. that would be good" so, every once in a while, the great dragon gets a gues to his house in the winter. some years, he gets more guests, and so we get more snow, but on other years, he gets hardly any visitors at all, and we dont get much snow at all.

creativity (or not)

emiko and rachael were wandering through the forest, and suddenly, they came upon a geezbot (similar to a tigre, just that its a whole lot bigger, and not nearly as nice). not knowing what it was, they advanced upon it, thinking that it would make a nice meal. trying to sneak upon it was quite the task. the geezbot heard them from about 20 feet away, and pretended not to, so as to better catch them, should they continue "so, do we shoot, or do we.. uhh... fence... it?" asked emiko."like i would know. your the one that knows about animals, not me." answered rachael. "welll, i've never had to deal with tigres, have you?" "no, but, i would guess they are like cougars, and you've delt with them" "cougars never get that big, now do they?" "umm.. i dont know. lets shoot it. you have a bow and arrow, so you get to try it." so, emiko tried to shoot the geezbot, not being to successful. "darn it all, i've never had that good of aim." "just hope that you havent woken it up," said rachael "cause i'm not especially in the mood for a chase" "well, i guess we'll see. but my guess is that it hasnt heard, otherwise, it would have given chase by now. i would think" the geezbot, wanting to see just how far they would go before they realized that it really was awake, still just laid there, listening to their stupidity, and wondering if they would be worth chasing at all, or if it should just play dead. it deicded that, just for fun, it would give them another couple of yards, then suddenly it would give chase, and the people wouldnt know what hit them. "lets see just how much fun we can have with them today. its been a while since i've properly chased anything, so lets have some fun today" thought the geezbot. so, rachael and emiko advanced, and were just about to start charging it when the geezbot "woke up," it chased them through the forest for quite a while, giving them quite the running. rachael and emiko eventually realized that it couldnt chase both of them, so that they would meet up later, about where they first met up, if they could find it. if not, make a good trail, and rachael would stay in one spot, so as for emiko to find her later. "just dont get eaten rachael! i want to see you later!" "same goes for you emiko! no getting eaten!"and with that they separated, to see which of them the geezbot gave chase to.
The geeebot, unexpectedly, chased emiko, even though both rachael and emiko had planned for the geezbot to chase rachael. so, it chased emiko, giving everyone a bit of a surprise. "you keep it going after you, and somehow, stop it, and then i'll come and finish it off!" rachael yelled. "how am i suppsoed to do that?" wondered emiko, not having the slightest clue about what a tigre, let alone a geezbot would do to slow down. "well.... i guess i could let it eat me, i would just have to make sure that i was small enough to go down in one gulp. and... lets see here, ah yes, i do indeed still have the letherman that i stole from erk before he got all gushy with sarala. good, it will help significantly when needing to get out, cause i dont think that rachael has anything. we never got around to sparing, and even if we had, we left the swords back where we met up with the geezbot, running in fright. hm... guess we'll see if this works then, shant we?"so, with those thoughts all going through her head, emiko became the smallest ball of person that was manageable for a 20 year old girl. no, not all that small, but then, the geezbot didnt particularly care, cause he was big enough it didnt matter anyhow. eat up emiko the geezbot did. it thought that she was a delicious meal. "now lets just hope that this leatherman will be strong enough to get me out, and that somehow, i can kill this thing from inside. and that rachael will be able to find something to help me get out after its dead. on second thought, lets just get this thing dead first, and then we will worry about the rest of it later."emiko started to explore the inside of the geezbot, and looked for a way to pierce the heart, and make sure that the geezbot ended up dead immediately. meanwhile, back at the ranch, rachael was searching around the forest for something, anything that would be able to help emiko. not knowing exactly what it was that emiko was going to do to stop the geezbot, she needed most anything to help her out. "so what i need," she pondered "is something that can work for most any job. how about... ah ha!" and with that, she picked up her implement of destruction. "now to find emiko and the geezbot, and help get it stopped."rachael went looking, and came upon the geezbot, apparantly just getting done with a meal of some sort. "where's emiko?" she wondered. "she should be around here somewhere, shouldnt she? wait... do i see... movement inside of that thing? umm... EMIKO!!! WHERE ARE YOU?!?!?!?!?!"the geezbot, being to preoccupied with the strange sensations and sounds comming from its stomach, didnt notice rachael yelling at it, or, more like at its stomach. "i must have eaten something bad," thought the geezbot, "either that, or i havent been hunting recently enough, or done enough running like that and so i ate too soon after doing all that running. wow, this feels.... blah. i think i'll take a nap, and see if it will help to feel better. i do hope it does." so, the geezbot laid down, and took a nap, completly unsuspecting of the impeding danger that was upon it. "RACHAEL!!!! is that you out there that i hear?!" "EMIKO!!!! where are you? i dont see you anywhere, and what do you mean by 'out there'?" "i'm inside the geezbot. i'm looking for a way to stab its heart from the inside, so that it wont suspect anything, and then we'll have a meal. how's that sound. in about, oh, five minutes, if i dont say anything, come and cut open the stomach of the geezbot, and get me out. i dont know if this thing is going to try and digest or not, so, just in case..."about three minutes later, emiko found a way to stab the heart of the geezbot from the inside, and did so. "meal time!" "okay rachael, i'm going to need your help in getting out of this thing. i've got erk's leatherman, so, i'll start to cut him from the inside, and you start to cut him from the outside, maybe we'll meet, and everything will turn out okay." so rachael, with her handy dandy stick that she had picked up, started to try and cut emiko out, whilst emiko cut herself out with erk's leatherman. in a couple more minutes, emiko was out, and they cut off the geezbot's head, and were ready to cook dinner. "yes! time for a meal. i think we deserve it, dont you emiko?"

Why We Have Earthquakes

note: this was written before the other great dragon story, and gave me the idea for the other one. this one was a creative writing assignment in my 12th grade humanities class for SLCC.



The Great Dragon really loved to eat smoothies. He would eat them all day long, for every meal, and for snacks. He ate them almost non-stop. The only problem was that he didn’t like having to be away from home so much to eat them. The only place that the Great Dragon could get them was at the local smoothie shop named “Heavenly Smoothies: The best place to get smoothies above the ground.” Besides being away from home so much, the Great Dragon was running out of money to buy them, and the maker was running out of supplies. The Great Dragon decided to buy himself a smoothie maker.
The Great Dragon went to Floor Mart* to get himself a smoothie maker. While at Floor Mart, the Great Dragon had a hard time finding a smoothie maker, so he asked for help. None of the employees had heard of a smoothie maker, but instead suggested buying a blender and, while he was at it, he could buy his own ingredients for his smoothies, then he could decide what flavour to make. He liked this idea, so the Great Dragon bought everything he would need to make a perfect smoothie, plus a few extra things. When the Great Dragon got home, he made himself the best smoothie that could ever be made. The only problem was, when ever the Great Dragon had a smoothie, it made the earth shake from all of the ice that had to be crushed up. He wasn’t sure what he should do.
The great dragon thought that maybe he could try eating all of the ingredients all together as one big mouthful without crushing everything up in the blender. He tried it, and found that it tasted almost as good as it did when he mixed it up in the blender. That is how the Great Dragon now eats his smoothies, and he can eat them in the comforts of home, while spending less money on the ingredients, than on an already made smoothie.
However, sometimes he just cant get away from remembering how much better the blended smoothies tasted, and just has to have one blended up. Whenever he blends up the ingredients for his smoothie, there is always an earthquake.


* Thanks to BJN, my sister, for letting me use her idea for Floor Mart.

Why We Have Stars

The Great Dragon hated the dark. Absolutely hated it. So, he decided to fix it so that night wasn’t so dark. He took a trip to Floormart,* such a nice helpful place that it was, to take a look around, see what they had to offer. They had lamps, both big and small, but they were too bright. They had night-lights, but they were too bright too. Luckily, they had a special going on in their pets department on electric eels. So, the Great Dragon bought an electric eel, hoping that it would give off just the fright kind light to make it bright enough. It wasn’t nearly as bright as the lamps and the night-light.
When it got to be dark, out came the electric eel. It gave off light for a few seconds while it was moved. After it was settled in his tank, the eel didn’t give off any light. The Great Dragon went over to poke the eel to see if that would help and make a glow, even for just a few minutes. “OUCH!!! That eel hurts when it shocks, and it doesn’t even give off any light! What a waste.” Frusturated, the Great Dragon went to sleep, hurt and upset.
Next morning the Great Dragon took the eel back to Floormart for a full refund.
The Great Dragon wandered around town, trying to get ideas as to how to light up the night, without making it too bright. He was wandering around the local park when it started to get dark. Out came the fireflies, blinking on and off and giving out just the right amount of light. “Bingo!” the Great Dragon ran home, and grabbed as many mason jars as he could carry. Back at the park, he gathered up hundreds of fireflies and took them up to his home in the clouds. He released them, and they flew to the sky, up so high that the fireflies got stuck. They couldn’t come down, so to this day, they are still up there, giving off just the right amount of light, so that the night isn’t so dark for the Great Dragon

* Thanks to Bonnie Jean for the idea of Floormart