I will edit this with my part to the collaborative story (which I have decided will be a Harry the Capybara fanfic because there's nothing else that gets us Thrillians writing like that ;>) I'll write 300 words, and the next two people should write at least 250 words each ^^

MY PART:
(Word count: 352)

Harry wandered the lush forests of central America. He was a wild capybara and had never before encountered a human. His life was normal, typical of a capybara at his age, learning how to forage. He knew now to drink water carefully to avoid getting snapped up by a hungry caiman. He and the rest of the rainforest animals had some sort of understanding, or so he believed – that primal, instinctive understanding that was shared between all wild beings, but him and the rainforest especially. He felt connected. And yet… he felt that there was also something missing from his life. That he had been born to serve a greater purpose.

And yet here he was, munching away on aquatic vegetation. Birds would fly by occasionally, and he would try to tell them that he was friendly, but they never stayed around. He liked to pride himself on being the nicest capybara around. Unfortunately, he didn’t have many friends. It was hard to make friends in the rainforest. As much as he did want to make friends with the alligators in the water, he knew better than to get snapped up by their large jaws. So he stayed away. But he longed more than anything for social interaction, to be the kind, positive, amazing capybara influence that he had always hoped to be.

He finished off his meal of plants, wandered a safe distance away from the lake, and lay down to rest. He felt his eyes slowly close, and he laid out his paws in front of them, ready for a good long nap.

Harry the capybara dreamed that he was falling… falling… falling into a pit lined with jagged rocks and pebbles, until all went black. He couldn’t see anything. He squeaked in terror. Was this a nightmare? He couldn’t seem to wake himself up. Then he heard a voice. An animal… a human… stepped out from the darkness. She had turquoise and purple hair, light brown skin and a gentle voice. She knelt down to Harry, a bemused expression upon her face.

“Hey. I’m Birdi. Welcome to the Rift.”

No offense to anyone in this story!!


Harry P.O.V


'Hey. I'm Birdi. Welcome to the rift.'
What… Aren't I supposed to be dead?
I slowly opened my eyes. A girl with really neon blue hair… Or was it turquoise? And purple hair looked at me. Her light brown skin was the color of milk chocolate mixed with a lot of milk. A few other girls stepped from behind her.
'I'm Moonlit.' said another girl. She looked at me with exasperation.
'c'mon, be nice to him.' said another voice. ‘He just got here. It’s not his fault he got lost.'
'But K-' Moonlit starts.
'Hi I'm Kit', says the voice who defended you. A girl came up, smilling
'Im sorry', apologized moonlit. ‘Its just that our preparations aren’t ready yet.'
'what prepe-'
'Can I introduce myself too?'
I heard another voice behind Kit.
'I know I'm not one of the bearers, but…'
A girl stepped out shyly from behind Kit. She had silky black hair up to her shoulders, and warm brown eyes. Her skin was similar to Birdi's.
'I'm Ava.' she said, looking down and twisting her fingers slightly. Everyone could tell that she wasn't used to meeting talking Capybaras.

'I'm Harry', I said nervously. ‘What is this place?’
'This is the rift.' Birdi said, still zoned out, as if thinking of something important.
'What is tha-'
'And you, unfortunately, won't be getting out soon.'

7 days later…

I got used to the rift.
I wasn't going to get out for long, so the bearers adopted me. Ava came and visited me too.
Ava came to see me today.
'Soon', she said ‘Thriller cabin will open.’
'Will you be there?' I had asked.
'No.' she replied. ‘Well, yes. I’m a backup dreamer, you see. You are here in your dreams. If thriller wins top three hopefully we'll all get out. I can't participate yet. But I'll still be here!'
This made me feel better. There'll be more people to play with!
And then, suddenly, many people started flooding in, falling like I did.
This was what Ava had explained to me.
The camp had started.
A few days in, a girl named velvet got sick. Guess what? Ava got in!!
I'm pretty sad for velvet. I hope she's ok.
But the rift? I don't thnk it's gonna be as bad as I thought, you know.

This is my part for the cabin wars collaborative story!
(701 words)

-

Harry wakes up with a yawn, looking around at the scenery around him. Though he had already been in the Rift for a couple of days, he was still not used to it- all of the campers kept coming up to him and giving him massages. This was strange and foreign, but he enjoyed the feeling of being loved. When he had lived out in the wild, nobody had come up to him: after all, who would enjoy petting a capybara? Though different from what he had expected, the Rift was his new favorite place.

As he rolls out of bed, he sees Birdi walking up to him. Harry bounces up and down, excited to see one of the people that had made his Rift experience so great.

“Good morning, Harry!” Birdi says with a smile. “I’m sorry to tell you, but you need to work today. We have cabin wars tomorrow, and we need somehow to get the campers motivated to write more than they are used to writing.” She pauses briefly to make sure that Harry is listening. “Would you be able to go to a few of the camper profiles to scope out how many of them will be participating?”

Harry squeaks in confirmation, running over to the Hall of Doors. These doors lead to all of the camper profiles, and are found in a hidden location to secure the privacy of those participating. He looked at the list of usernames that Birdi had given him, and chose to enter through the first Door in the hallway.

He felt a strange sensation, almost a… pull. Is this what it felt like to temporarily leave the Rift? It felt as if he was being stretched in many directions, all at once. Harry shuts his eyes and rolls into a small ball, but that does not stop him from feeling dizzy. He feels like he is spinning around, colors flashing from behind his capybara eyes.

Suddenly, it all stops. The pull he was experiencing disappears, and he is dropped onto the cold ground of the first profile, shivering. The colors are gone from behind his eyes, and the dizziness stops, too.

There is no noise coming from the profile anymore. This is strange to Harry. The last time that he had done this job, most of the profiles had been bustling, full of color and excitement. This one felt… it felt dead,

Harry walks slowly down the cold granite floors of the profile, looking for any sign of life. There is none in sight. The lights above him are dark, hardly illuminating anything. He suddenly stops walking, chilled to the spine at what he is seeing.

It is a guestbook. These are common for profiles- they measure when the last time was that the user logged in. However, this one is different from those other ones. This one is blank. Even a capybara like Harry knows that blank guestbooks mean inactivity- they only erase themselves after a user has been gone for over a year.

Harry whimpers, running back down the cold floors of this awful, horrible profile. He wants to go home: home to the Rift, where he can spend time with the Bearers, where he can play and act lovingly for the campers.

He comes to the portal, and clenches his eyes shut. He had made a vow after the last attempt that he would use portals as little as possible, but this time, he needed to do it. He needed to get out of this place.

Harry jumps into the portal, prepared for the dizziness and spinning that hits him. He tumbles through the portal tunnel and is promptly spat out on the floor of the Rift. Moonlit notices, and runs over to him quickly.

“Harry! What happened? Are you okay?” she asks, practically yelling in worry as she sees the fear on the face of the capybara. As Harry explains what happened, her face turns more and more sympathetic. “Aw, Harry, I’m so sorry.” She pauses to give him a pet. “Do you want to keep going, or do you want to quit the job for the day?”

Harry opens his mouth to make his decision.

+376 words, this war is done :>

–

Moonlit frowns, looking down at poor, innocent Harry still shaking by her feet. She would never forget the look of pure terror that resided on his face as he jumped back through the portal and promptly scurried over to her. Something was very, very wrong. Harry was still fairly new to the Rift, but she had never seen him so blatantly terrified, even when Amy threatened to eat him. Very gently, as not to spook Harry further, she picks him up, gathering him in her arms.

Harry’s like a fur covered icicle, she thinks as she begins walking towards the chicken, where perhaps they could find something to warm him out. Frowning once again, Moonlit realizes that Harry didn’t answer her question, though his answer hovered around him and in his freezing fur – he was definitely done for the day. Waving her hand in a loose circle, she creates a simple in-Rift portal to speed up their transportation.

As she moves to step through the portal, Harry squeals, shaking uncontrollably. “What’s wrong?” she whispers gently. Clearly there was something more than Harry had not told her.

“The portal,” he squeaks, his voice concerningly high pitched, “It- it- it stretches and pulls and yanks and tugs and it was just all awful…” His voice quickly broke down into tiny capybara sobs. Moonlit held him tight, comfortingly rubbing his back.

“Don’t worry,” she whispers, hoping to calm Harry down. “I’ve got you know. This is an in-Rift portal - its just like walking through normal Rift space, except we don’t have to walk as much.”

To her great relief, Harry nodded, his eyes focused on her. She slowly steps through the portal, letting its shimmering gateway transport her over thousands of feet of rift space.

They reappeared in the kitchen, where Harry immediately left out of her arms and ran towards the fireplace. He curled up into a ball, squeaking happily. Moonlit sat down next to him, pulling a cushion over to sit on. He seems to be happy now, but she’d rather be safe than sorry.

And besides, there was quite an excellent collection of snacks available in the Rift’s kitchens… maybe she should snack on a sprinkle dipped chocolate covered fruit roll up as Daisy had suggested.