2022.07.18 Daily
Words: 607

A sweet girl Red Riding Hood of the Fairytales cabin was traversing through the forest with a basket full of dailies, weeklies and also quite a few fruits and sweets. She was carefully venturing through the forest as her mother had advised her to strictly follow the path. She was heading to her grandmother's home. Red Riding Hood had a great potential to be a writer but she needed a lot of improvement therefore her mother allowed her to go through the forest to her grandmother's and ask her to critique Red Riding Hood's writing and give her tips.
She met a Wolf on her way. The Wolf inquired, “Where are you going, little girl?”
“To my grandma's!”, she responded.
“Well, I'm hungry. Is there something in your little basket I could eat?”, he asked sweetly.
“I'm sorry, these things are for my grandma!”, she responded.
The Wolf couldn't tolerate that the girl didn't give him anything to eat from her basket.
“I'm going to eat the girl and her grandmother!”, he thought.
He stalked her through the forest, hiding behind bushes, shrubs, trees, and plants. Finally she reached her grandma's house. She knocked on the door and her grandma opened and greeted her with a big hug and a huge smile. She was extremely happy to see her granddaughter. The Wolf decided to wait and watch. While grandma was busy helping Red Riding Hood with her writing, the Wolf knocked on the door.
Grandma opened the door and gasped, “Oh my!”
“Don't worry, grandma! This is Wolf, he's my friend!”, exclaimed Red Riding Hood.
He felt extremely ashamed as he glanced stvRed Riding Hood and her grandmother, “What was I thinking? I was going to eat them? I'm such a bad wolf!”
“Well, I'm here to know what you two are doing? May I help?”, he smiled as he tried to hide his embarrassment.
“Oh well dear, I'm trying to help Red Riding Hood with her writing so she can do great on her SWC dailies and weeklies!”, grandma responded as she went to the kitchen to grab a plate of freshly oven-baked chocolate cookies for Red Riding Hood and Wolf.
“May I know what SWC is?”, he grinned.
So Red Riding Hood told him all about SWC while they both enjoyed delicious chocolate cookies and he signed up to join the camp through backup sign-ups and they ended up in the same cabin!
“This is my first time in SWC! My grandma has never missed a single session in her life, she's a really experienced camper but she's getting old, you know?”, said Red Riding Hood.
“It's my first time too so why not you guide me a little?”, he smiled.
So Red Riding Hood told him everything he needed to know while they both walked back to Red Riding Hood's house in the village. Everyone was afraid of who Red Riding Hood had brought into the village but she introduced them to the Wolf and told them the story of how she and her grandma had interested the Wolf into signing-up for SWC. Red Riding Hood's mother scolded her a little for talking to strangers but then she talked to the Wolf and felt delighted. She felt proud of her daughter. All the villagers and the children became friends with the Wolf. The Wolf also introduced the villagers to Wolf-kind and other creatures living in the forest and thus an everlasting bond between the village and forest formed.
So Red Riding Hood and Wolf became best of friends and great writers through SWC and together they finished loads of dailies, weeklies and Wolf even won the writing competition once. They even became published authors and they lived happily ever after!

2022.07.18 Week 3 Weekly

Part 1
20 Characteristics of My High Fantasy Story
Points: 20

1. The story is set on a large-sized island civilization. ✔️
2. The civilization is a city built on nature mostly.
3. Society here was built almost a thousand years ago. ✔️
4. There's a historical library that contains the history of the island. ✔️
5. A mysterious white mansion is present that is said to be haunted. ✔️
6. The people don't believe in ghosts but they believe in magic. ✔️
7. All people believe in the legend of a trapped soul. ✔️
8. Mysterious and haunted sightings are a common and strong belief. ✔️
9. Natural soft magic can be used by a few. ✔️
10. It is unknown who rules, protects and provides the city. ✔️
11. There are stones that are completely black, they're rare and believed to be a symbol of evil and evil intentions. ✔️
12. The color golden is believed to be a symbol of victim of cruel. ✔️
13. White is a symbol of purity. ✔️
14. People don't interact much with neighbours.
15. Romance is unimportant.
16. Education is not made a burden for children.
17. Children's opinions and health is of much greater importance.
18. Politics, entertainment, newspapers, televisions and such things don't exist yet people are extremely educated and well-aware.
19. Careers here are mostly livestock and agriculture farming for food, other careers and people's jobs are unknown.
20. People travel on bikes or on foot since technology like cars, trains and airplanes don't exist.

Connections Between Selected Points
Words: 416

Away from all land and water lies the majestic beauty of the White Island. The island was discovered almost a thousand years ago and a modern civilization was built and the island was populated. Who discovered, populated and built the city is unknown, and so is who protects, provides and runs the city. As society advanced quickly, a city library was built. As years passed by, thousands and thousands of books were put in the library yet the most valuable book still remained to be the oldest historical book of the city. It contained all the knowledge of the city. The book contains old legends and beliefs such as the legend of magic being used to trap one's soul to immortalise the user's generations. People believe strongly in these legends as they have sighted haunted and mysterious happenings themselves. Magic is possible, but can be used by a few only. The limits and consequences are unknown and the line between white and dark magic is unclear. A lot of these mysterious and strange happenings have occurred in the mysterious white mansion, The Wilson House. The Wilson House is a huge white mansion, signs of disasters and time have scarred its white walls of fading color. The people also believe in certain things to be symbols of certain other things and these beliefs are also connected to the legends. A mysterious strange stone is found here, it's completely black in color and there's nowhere else in this world where this stone is to be found. It's not common, it's super rare. According to the legend, it was misused by whoever tried to use it to immortalise his generations. The power of this stone is unknown. It's said that it is used for dark magic. Due to this legend, these stones are a symbol of evil intentions. The color golden symbolised innocent soul when magic was first used. Whoever's soul had been trapped, it left a golden glowing symbol on the black stone that was used. Since then, the meaning of the color golden has been changed. The color golden is believed to be a symbol of victim of cruel now. The color white symbolises purity. People who sighted anything strange say that the person whose soul had been trapped has always wore white, and her soul is dressed in white too. There's no evidence that any of this is true yet it is strongly believed in. The city lacks modern day technology yet the people are happy.

Narrative in My Setting
Words: 642

The car stopped. It was around midnight. It was one windy night. I couldn't see much clearly but it was a huge white mansion. The fading white color of the walls was scarred with signs of storms, wind and age. This was The Wilson House. Many legends and rumors surround The Wilson House yet there's no clear evidence. I stepped out of the car as I stared at the mansion in horror. I couldn't believe this is where we were going to be staying. I slowly walked in. It was dark, cold and lonely. The place was not cleaned in a long time. I took a look at all the rooms in the mansion and decided to take the room upstairs. It was quite a large room. Father took some time and set up a desk, a chair and a bed in my room. I took my pen, my journal and other important stuff from my bag and placed it in the drawers of the desk. The desk was placed right next to the window. I decided to journal before going to bed. The electric system was yet to be set up so I decided to keep the lights off and opened the window. I sat down and as I wrote down everything that happened that day.
“As I'm writing, I feel like the winds, they're talking to me. They're trying to tell me something. As if they're trying to convey a message to me, but I don't understand what rumors of this place they may be telling me!”.
I felt the presence of someone else, as if I wasn't alone there. I looked at the window just to get my eyes on a white blur. I couldn't interpret what it was or what was happening. As soon as I realised what it was, I screamed on the top of my lungs and ran as fast as I could. It was a girl, probably my age, dressed in white. Her jet black hair was flying and covering her face. I ended up running into mother.
I bent down on my knees.
“Mother- there… was… was- I-”, I said, trying to catch my breath.
She couldn't understand what I was saying.
“I saw a girl in my window who was wearing a white dress and her black hair was all over her face!”, I said this as fast as I could and my voice became louder and louder.
“You're seeing stuff, Aminah! Go to sleep, you might be having a nightmare!”
“No mother! I swear!”, I yelled.
“Calm down! It's one in the night!”, she told me.
Maybe I was losing my mind, just a little. I told myself that I am just starting to see stuff since I haven't slept properly for a long time.
Next morning, father let me go and explore the city since we were new here and it was summer so I didn't have to worry about school. I noticed this place was underdeveloped and had a lack of technology and modernism. Far and wide, I saw green grass, tall trees and beautiful flowers and birds. Well, that's actually not a bad thing, not at all. I was so busy admiring the beauty of this place that I bumped into someone and fell.
“My bad! Sorry!”, I apologised immediately as I got up and put my hand forward to help her get up.
“No, it's actually my fault too!”, she got up and dusted her clothes.
She was a tall and skinny girl wearing a top with a denim jacket and jeans. She had hazel eyes and a medium complexion.
I introduced myself since I thought this was a good opportunity to find a good friend at a new place, “Hi! I'm Aminah, your average weirdo extrovert that loves adventures!” I'm age 14 and I'm new here!“
”I'm Sarah, I'm 13 and I love solving mysteries!", she excitedly said.

Part 2

Questionnaire
Words: 923

Words: 82
Q1: What kind of magic is used in your world?
A: The magic used in my world is mostly dark magic but there's white magic too. An example of dark magic is the user being able to enslave one's soul in a magical dark stone to immortalise their generations (meaning each generation will live longer than they actually are supposed to). The only person who can be enslaved though, is also a user of magic. They can see and communicate to souls and unseeable creatures. There's many other sorts of magical powers too.

Words: 84
Q2: How common is magic, and are all characters aware they possess it?
A: Magic is not something that's common in my world. Magic is possessed and to be used by a few only and if in the wrong hands can cause centuries of damage to the magic system and lives. Some characters such as those who possess dark magic are aware that they possess it meanwhile characters that naturally possess white magic are not aware that they possess it. It takes the characters that possess white magic time to discover their magical ability and figure it out.

Words: 96
Q3: What are the limitations of your world’s magic?
A: In my world, magic is not something that is a skill and can be learned but rather it is something that a character naturally possesses and can discover, figure out and master. A character is limited by the type of magic he or she possesses. For instance, if he or she possesses dark magic, it's the only sort of magic he or she can perform and same goes for white magic. There's limits to what one can do yet the limits and consequences are unknown and the line between white and dark magic is somewhat unclear.

Words: 84
Q4: What happens when magic gets out of control in your world?
A: In my world, most of the limitations of white magic are clear and known but the limitations of dark magic are somewhat unknown to an extent. Therefore, if dark magic gets in the wrong hands and is misused, it can get out of control and can cause centuries of damage to the magic system and to many lives. Dark magic can benefit the user of dark magic but in return it would do a lot of destruction and cause much harm to the people.

Words: 106
Q5: How is magic viewed in your world (ie. as a boring normal, as a fascinating element of their life, or as a curse on society etc.)?
A: As there are two different types of magic in my world, both of which are naturally present in a human being according to their nature, there's dark magic and white magic. Dark magic is seen as a curse on society in people's eyes because if dark magic is used by someone for their own purpose, in return there can be huge consequences which generations may have to suffer from. Whereas, white magic is seen as a fascinating element of one's life but at times it can cause one to think of it as a curse or something that makes one's life even harder to deal with.

Words: 86
Q6: What is an important symbol of your world?
A: One of the most important symbols in my world is the black stone. A strange and mysterious stone is found in The White City that is nowhere to be found in any other parts of the world. It is completely black in color therefore having the name black stone. It is a stone used in dark magic to enslave one's soul in the stone so the user's generations are almost immortal (they live longer than they're supposed to). This stone is a symbol of evil intentions.

Words: 103
Q7: How is the education system in your world? What do your characters learn (or hypothetically would learn)?
A: Education is normal in my world as it is in the real world. There's no specific education for magic in my world because there's a very small amount of people that naturally possess any sort of magic, whether white magic or dark magic. They would learn what any other person in the real world learns at school. Homeschooling doesn't exist though. The City School is where all the students study. They would be learning all the different helpful subjects but they'd also be learning social and other skills. School wouldn't be made a burden. Children's opinions and health is of much greater importance.

Words: 101
Q8: Are there any sensations the characters feel when they are using magic? Describe these sensations using their five senses
A: There's no common sensation that's felt by all users of magic but there's certain sensations users of different magical powers feel. For instance, the main character Aminah possesses a white magical power to be able to witness and communicate to souls and unseeable creatures. Her sixth sense warns her of a presence of another being when there's a soul near her. She can see the soul as something that looks like a hologram and can hear the soul's voice too. There's no sensations known to be connected to dark magic but there's still a lot to be discovered about dark magic.

Words: 90
Q9: What is the origin of your magic?
A: The origin of magic in my world is unknown since the magic was discovered through legends in the historical books that are present in The White City Library. The only alive people who wrote any of those books are lady Madeehah who can read minds and the timeline and Abdullah who is the descendant of the man who enslaved a soul to immortalise his generations. These are the only two people who know the origin of magic as it was the knowledge that their ancestors transferred from generation to generation.

Words: 91
Q10: What are some noteworthy examples of problems (in your world) that characters solved with magic?
A: The characters in my world refrain from using magic to solve their daily life problems since the magical abilities are unique and can be used for specific purposes therefore there are not many noteworthy examples of use of magic to solve problems. The main character Aminah was in search of information related to the sacrificed/enslaved soul and how that legend is connected to Aminah's white magic ability. She was able to communicate with the soul at Madeehah's place and was able to gather information related to the soul and Aminah's abilities.

Part 3

Science Fantasy
Words: 598

It was another mere day sitting on the couch watching TV when I suddenly heard the sound that a delivery guy's hoverboard makes. I didn't order anything, well actually I couldn't afford to order anything. I lived in a floating round shaped apartment which was called dome apartment which was the most low-class form of living. I decided to look through the glass wall of my dome apartment. I had a vibe that the guy wasn't a delivery guy. The guy was still on his automated delivery hoverboard and wasn't moving forward so I thought the delivery must be for me. He pressed the button on his hoverboard and the package floated over my door. I decided to go and receive the package. I opened the package and my jaw dropped. It was the Wishmaker's Well. The Wishmaker's Well is a small cube-shaped machine that can grant any wish but it has a strict security system. When the humans found out that Palladium was in immense quantity on Mars, they invaded Mars and planned to make living on Mars possible so they could have infinite amount of Palladium, the Martians declared a war. Millions of human and Martian lives were wasted in the war. As a treaty of peace, the Martians gave humans the formula of Wishmaker's Well and an almost endless amount of Palladium and the humans in return pledged to never return to Mars. Palladium then became a worldwide currency known as Pallad coins. The government produced millions of Wishmaker's Wells and sold them to citizens on a very high cost. Later, the government forcefully refunded the money to the citizens and took all the Wishmaker's Wells into the government's security as they said that citizens may misuse the overpowered technology but who knows what the government is using it for. I decided to try and hack into the Wishmaker's Well. I connected it to my super computer. Super computers are the most cheap and substandard computers you can buy these days, it's only 3 pallad coins. I tried hacking into the biometric authentication system. Fingerprints and signatures are no longer used as authentication. Now there's heartbeat, tongue print and iris print as biometric authentication. I managed to break the system and before I could activate the machine, my doorbell rang. I decided to go and check.
“Hello! I'm Alan! I'm assuming you're the one who received my package.”
“Um- do I know you? Who are you exactly and how come I received your package?”, I inquired.
“I live downstairs!”, he smiled.
So I quickly put the package together which I definitely hadn't touched and handed it over.
I shut the door snd exclaimed, “What a nice guy!”, when I suddenly realised, “I don't have a downstairs! How did I just hand over the Wishmaker's Well to a random stranger?”.
I rushed out my door and noticed the guy opening my trash can and using a biometric system. “Where did that came from in my trash can?”.
A staircase underground opened up and he went down the stairs. The staircase turned back into the ground. I ran off over to the trash can and opened it. I tried using the security system but definitely didn't break it with my fist. I ran down the stairs and quietly hid behind the wall. I was shocked. There was cauldrons, potions, weird stuff in liquid in jars, weird machinery, so much technology, and magical stuff, like the one we all dreamed of having as a kid.
“Alan is a witch? Why would a witch need a Wishmaker's Well? To have infinite supplies for potions?”, I was confused.

Urban Fantasy
Words: 478

I was just on the side of the road, minding my own business. I was scrolling through my phone looking for my mom's number. I was waiting for the traffic light so I could use the cross-walk. It was probably going to rain soon so I had to inform mom that I might be late on my way home. Suddenly someone snatched my phone and my bag. I ran after the person and yelled, “Wait! Give me my phone and my bag back!”.
I ran as fast as I could. I followed the person through the streets and he lead me to the subway. I got into the subway too. It was extremely crowded. I kept looking through the subway to find that person. He was wearing a black shirt and jeans, black sneakers and wore a face mask so I wasn't able to see his face. There was no sign of him. I was unsure if I got into the right subway or not or if he ever entered the subway anyways. When the subway stopped, I saw the person leaving and immediately ran after him. I followed him out the subway and kept following him until I realised that this wasn't the city anymore. We were somewhere else but where exactly. Did that subway teleport us into another dimension? I kept walking and looking around. It was our city but everything had changed. The places, the infrastructure, the people, it all changed. I snapped out of it and followed the person until we both ended up in a dead end. So he had no choice but to reveal himself. He took off his face mask and to my surprise, he turned out to be me but from this dimension!
“Imposter! I don't believe you! You could be tricking me!”, I yelled.
“You don't understand! I am you, you're me, we're each other, but from different dimensions.”, he said.
“What do you want from me?”, I inquired.
“I lured you here so you could help me save my world.”
“If you can't save your world, how is your other self supposed to save your world?”, I asked yet another question.
“I know I'm pretty genius and I also know that my other dimension self is also very genius so you could help save my world and my existence. Oh also, everyone here knows how to do magic and I can teach you too!”, he smiled.
“You do make a pretty convincing statement. I am pretty genius, there's no doubt.”, I suddenly changed my plans.
“So will you help me?”
“Okay, fine! I'll help you.”, I said.
“I knew it!”, he jumped off of joy.
“Your welcome, now get to business.”
So this entire world was a magical replica of my city and all the humans were supernatural replicas of my city's people, but little did I know that the real purpose of bringing me here wasn't to save his world.

Hidden Magical World
Words: 379

“Mommy! Can Alicia and I play in the garden please?”, 6 year old Alex insisted his mother to let him and his 4 year old sister play.
“Of course sweetie! Just take care of Alicia and make sure you don't hurt her or yourself.”
“Thank you mommy! Come on, Alicia! Let's play with your fairy dolls.”
His mother smiled. Alex and Alicia liked sharing their toys and their parents didn't limit them to play with stereotyped toys so Alex would be found playing with Alicia's fairy dolls and Alicia would be found racing with Alex's hot wheels. Alicia took out all her fairy dolls. Alex held her hand and they both went to play. They sat near the bush they always sit next to and started role-playing.
“Hi Alicia! It's been very long! What're you upto?”, Alex held a fairy doll in his hand and pretended the fairy was talking.
Alicia chuckled and responded, “I'm playing with brother Alex! How about you, Rose?”
“I'm giving Alicia tickles!”, Alex pretended to be Rose and said.
“What?”, she chuckled once more and Alex started tickling Alicia.
“Stop! Stop! Make it stop!”, she said as she giggled and laughed.
Alex started giggling too and he hugged Alicia.
“Awwe! I love you!”, she said.
“I love you too!”
“I'm gonna ask mommy if she can give me a cup of milk.”
“Alright!”, he smiled.
She ran inside meanwhile Alex noticed some more fairy dolls.
“Oh, mommy might've bought her some more, I don't remember playing with these. Well, these ones look very much real!”, he examined the fairy dolls.
He thought of something and started shaking the dolls vigorously.
“Cut it out!”, he heard a high-pitched voice say.
“Is that you, Alicia?”, he freaked out.
“No, it's me Starley! The fairy you're holding!”, the high-pitched voice said.
Alex freaked out even more and dropped the fairy doll. The fairy doll screamed, “Ow!”, and started dusting her dress.
“I'm supposed to keep my world a secret but for the sake of fairy-kind, I have to tell you this.”
“Tell me what?”, he asked, scared.
“You're a very good boy, Alex, and your sister Alicia is also very nice. But other kids, they pull our hair, they throw us around and hurt us.”
“But you're a doll!”
“No, I'm not a doll. I'm a fairy! Some human beings have found our world and catch us and sell us as dolls!”
catch us and sell us as dolls!"

2022.07.28 Week 4 Weekly

Submission Code:

PATHS TAKEN: 5-2, 3-2, 4-2, 1-5, 82-3, 7-3, 9-1, 102-1, 6-1, 2-1 | SABOTAGE RESULTS: 4- S;3- S;7- S;5- S;8- F, 6- S;1- F, 2- S;9- S | ENDING: good

Story:
Words: 2,421
Zaniliya hesitantly said, “Good night mother, I better be sleeping.” and whispered, “We're being watched, you know?”.
Her mother sighed and hugged her. “Good night, sweetie!”.
Zaniliya climbed into bed and hid under the covers. She stacked some blankets on top to make it look like she's sleeping. She slowly climbed out of bed from the other side and went under the bed, making sure she wasn't seen in the camera in her room. She crawled forward and a doorway opened up underground. She slowly crawled in.
“My mother's lifelong savings have been robbed! I can't take this anymore!”, she had a tear in her eye.
“Hey Dr. Anthony! How's the work going?”, she smiled, trying to hide her worries.
“It's going great. Ms. Snow isn't here right now but Mr. Harper is. Here's trying to hack the government's surveillance system.”
He stopped and looked at her. “Great!”, she responded.
“What's wrong?”, he inquiried.
“Nothing!”, she said.
“Must be something?”
Zaniliya sighed and said, “Dr. Anthony, the reason I joined the lab a few weeks ago is not because I want to ruin the government's selfish plans so the people are free, safe and happy. I have to be honest here, I'm the one being selfish, I know but I'm doing it for my mother. Her entire life's savings got stolen. The police isn't gonna do anything so I might as well take the matter in my own hands. I'm so glad and grateful that my mother got me quality education otherwise I wouldn't have been qualified to be able to work here. I love how you guys supported me always, thank you!”
Phoebe walked in from around the corner and said,“ That's pretty selfless of you to do this since you're not doing it for yourself but for your mother.”
“Phoebe is right!”, Zach responded.
Zaniliya went forward and tightly hugged Phoebe.
“Don't you think it's a little weird that every night we sneak out of bed into the secret portal under our beds and neither our parents nor the government ever found out?”, Zach questioned.
“Don't worry, they won't find out.”, Dr. Anthony smiled and responded.
“Hey! I'm Indigo! I'm Sri Lankan and go by she/her! I'm a new member of the team!”, Indigo ran in from the front and excitedly jumped and smiled.
“Oh my god! Hi! I'm Phoebe Snow!”, Phoebe grinned.
“Great to meet you!”, she shakes hands with Phoebe.
“Zachary Harper and Zaniliya Giselle Yang.”, Zach pointed towards Zaniliya. He looked at her and instantly looked away.
“Are you guys together?”, she excitedly questioned.
Zaniliya and Zach kept indistinctly stammering and stuttering until Dr. Anthony interrupted.
“No they're not”, he cleared his throat and said, “Hello Indigo! Glad you could join A13S Labs today. Welcome! I'm Dr. Anthony Sallow.”
“Oh… I mean, my apologies!”, she smiled nervously.
“Ms. Snow and Mr. Harper will show you around. Csn I have a talk with you, Ms. Yang?”, Dr. Anthony responded, redirecting all the attention to himself.
Phoebe and Zach took Indigo on a tour of the laboratory while Zaniliya went to talk to Dr. Anthony.
“Yes?”, she asked.
“Mr. Harper is hacking the government's surveillance system and Ms. Snow is watching through all the surveillance footages. I need you and Indigo to find a breach in the government's security system.”
“Got it!”, Zaniliya responded.
“Ahh!”, Zaniliya yelled.
She started to breathe heavily.
“What… did I just saw!”, she spoke out loud.
“Mother! Mother!”, she ran to her mother's room.
“Yes, sweetheart!”, she responded.
“I- I just had the weirdest dream ever!”, she emphasised on the word “ever”.
“Mhm?”
“So the government is turning the city into a dystopia and- and- we hsve these cameras spying on us and using sleeping early as a disguise, I sneak under my bed into a portal which takes me to a laboratory where I work and the team there is working on sabotaging the government to save the city and the citizens. I aldo remember saying that my mother's as in your entire life's savings were robbed so I wanted to take revenge for the mismanagement from the government.”, she started breathing heavily again.
“Honey, it's alright. Okay, let's calm down. Inhale on the count of eight and exhale on the count of eight. Good, let's sip some water, alright?”
“Yeah… I guess you're right! I wish father was alive today, he'd tell me the same…”
“Let's not get upset, alright? I'll make you a healthy breakfast.”
Zaniliya's mother walked to the kitchen.
“Still though, there felt something… absolutely wrong about that weird dream. Wonder what it meant?”, Zaniliya thought to herself.
After breakfast, Zaniliya decided to go outside for a walk. She kept thinking about the dream she had. Suddenly she saw some fairies in the bushes.
“What- What is that! Fairies? Where am I?”
She blinked and there was nothing there.
She breathed deeply and continued to walk.
“Oh God! Am I hallucinating?”, she saw a wizard sitting on one side of a bench and a witch with a cauldron in front of her in the other. A blink of an eye and, poof, they're gone.
She sighed but kept walking.
“Don't tell me that I'm gonna see a guy with superpowers now?”
And she saw a mother moving her child to herself from the ground using telekinesis!
“Oh, what a coincidence!”, she sarcastically stated.
“I don't understand what's happening today but it's weird!”, she madly said.
“No. As mother always advices, let's stay calm.”, she said and instructed herself saying, “Take deep breaths, inhale on the count of eight and exhale on the count of eight. Let's sip some water. I know everything that's going on is crazy but keep yourself together! Mother, what would I have done without you?”
She kept walking while taking deep breathes and she stumbled upon a rainbow colored hole in the ground which was where all these magical things were being unleashed from.
“There's also sorts of things everywhere! I can't seem to stay calm!”, she thought.
She felt a familiar gentle pat on her shoulder.
“Could… it be?”, she started to tear up.
She turned around and burst into tears.
“Father… Are you real? Is any of this real? Am I real? How- how could this be? You died years ago? You were taken hostage by the military of the enemy forces?”, she spoke as she whimpered and sobbed loudly.
“You were so little when I left for the war and was taken hostage. You're grew up so fast yet you're still my little princess. ”, he said and cried.
She cried her heart out until she couldn't breathe anymore.
“I didn't die.”, he wiped her tears when his own eyes were crying.
“I was thrown into the void of fantasy as punishment when I didn't reveal the secrets of the my country's military.”, he revealed.
“There's a lot to catch up on”, Zaniliya smiled through the tears.
They walked home. Zaniliya knocked on the door.
“Mother! It's me! I brought a surprise for you!”, she tried to hide her emotions, but it's her mother she's talking to.
How could she not guess her emotions?
“You're crying, honey?”, she said as she opened the door.
As soon as she opened the door, she stood there dumbstruck for a few minutes as tears streamed down her eyes.
“P- Peter-?”, she spoke but her voice got stuck in her throat.
Zaniliya, her mother and her father sat down on the carpet.
“Father, you remember the time you and mother were teaching me how to ride my bike and how I ran into a pole and fell?”, Zaniliya sniffed.
“And we checked to see if you lost any teeth?”, her father said.
“And how mother and I were really upset when you told us there was an immediate emergency and you had to go?”, she said.
“Darling, how could I have forgotten? This entire time, memories of you and your mother were with me and when reality would be haunting me, these memories were what made me strong.”, her father said.
“You promised me you'd teach me how to ride a horse too and we thought you'd never be able to fulfill your promise when we heard you were taken hostage and there was no news of you?”, she burst into tears once more.
Both her parents hugged her.
Zaniliya's father was once again Zaniliya's and her mother's strength.
“Remember when mother was sick so you snd I made some tea for her and we used a recipe from the Internet just to make tea?”, she chuckled.
“Of course, I remember. And when we made boiled eggs for breakfast that morning and they turned out to be disgusting and raw?”, he smiled.
“I can never forget the taste of those eggs!”, she wiped her tears.
“How old have you grown? What's your qualification? Did your mother get you educated?”, he suddenly said.
“I'm 18, it's been 7 years since you were taken hostage. I'm extremely grateful my mother worked restlessly her entire life to educate and raise me. I had sciences as majors in college and I'm looking for a job now!”
“My genius scientist, I always knew it! Thank you, Martha! You could've just left her ad an illiterate to feed you and her but you didn't.”
“Why would I, she's my daughter too?”, she smiled.
Suddenly a loud whooshing sound came from Zaniliya's room. She gasped.
“What was that sound?”, she worriedly said.
They instantly ran to her room.
She looked around to see a bright blue light coming from under her bed.
“No, no, no. It can't be. That was just a dream.”
“What're you talking about?”, her father asked.
“This is the portal from my dream!”, she yelled.
The portal started to suck in air.
“Oh no! The portal's gonna suck in everything! Close the portal by throwing something big in it!”, her father yelled.
“Quick!”, her mother screamed.
In all the loud noise, it was super hard for tgem to communicate.
“It'll close on something big like a human just like the fantasy world portal!”, he yelled once more.
“It's time for you to go, Mr. Cuddlesworth! I'll never forget you”, she cried as she threw her life-sized plushie bear into the portal, the plushie bear she vented and talked to through her hard nights. The portal was about to close but suck her in too. She screamed loudly and her parents ran towards the portal. The portal closed.
POV: Zaniliya
So I just had to sacrifice my best friend, the one who listened to my crying, venting, ranting, complaining, all my sorrows, joys, excitements and the one who I couldn't ever imagine sleeping without. You'd say it's just a teddy bear or a plushie, but that life-sized bear never left me through the hard times unlike fake friends. People don't change, the mask falls off. What did I just start talking about, oh gosh! I didn't lose the bear though, I got sucked in with it. So reader, you know all I've been through, right? I hope that this story has a happy ending too. Sometimes, tragic stories have happy endings, but not all stories have happy endings though. I was able to reunite with my father by coincidence and that was all because I kept following those fantastical things. This week has been one of the most confusing and weird times ever. I'm still not able to process all that's been happening but I never wanted to lose any of my parents again. It's been a hard life but reuniting with my father and seeing my parents together and happy had given me the strength. Now losing my parents again, I don't think I have the courage anymore. But for my parents, I'll do anything.
POV: Third-Person
She started walking forward and remembered what place it was.
“Uh- hi-!”, she hesitantly said.
“Zaniliya! Where were you? You've been missing for a week!”, Zach said.
“We missed you so much! Are you okay?”, Phoebe came running towards her.
“Uhm- yep! I'm all good!”, she said, saddened.
“Something wrong, Ms. Yang?”, Dr. Anthony walked into the laboratory and gave her a worried look.
Zaniliya sighed.
“I- I think this is an alternate dimension. A few minutes ago, a portal opened into the ground under my bed and took me here along with my plushie Mr. Cuddlesworth. I had just reunited with my father and now I'm separated from my parents.”, she explained.
“Can you explain your story to Ms. Snow with all details? We might actually be able to research and open a portal back to your dimension.”, Dr. Anthony suggested.
“I also wanna listen to the story, but first, can I tslk with you, Phoebe?”, Zach said.
Phoebe and Zach walked into a corner
“Phoebe, I don't wanna lose Zaniliya again. You know what I mean and why I'm saying this, right?”, he whispered.
“But she can't be happy if she is not with her parents. Talk to her, alright?”, Phoebe suggested.
“I- I can't. She's upset because of her parents and I don't want to hurt her or anything.”
“Let's think about it later.”
Suddenly a crane cracked a huge hole in the wall and several people came running in armed with guns and weapons.
“Surrender or we'll have to use force against you!”, a man shouted.
“I won't let you do anything to Zaniliya, Dr. Anthony or Phoebe! Back off!”, Zach yelled.
A man shot a bullet at Zach. Zaniliya's sixth sense sensed it. She instantly pushed Zach away. The bullet pierced through Zaniliya and made it's way out of her body.
“Nooooooo”, Zach yelled loudly.
“Who told you to shoot? The government wanted the workers alive! Now scram!”, the man who talked earlier said.
They ran away.
Zach, Phoebe and Dr. Anthony gathered around Zaniliya.
*a few days later*
“Hey”, he called her name tenderly, voice full of heartbreak.
“How was your day?”, he spoke softly, “Mine was alright, I hope yours was better.”
A crack of thunder emitted from the sky, sending a shudder down his spine.
He traced his hand along the engraved name gingerly.
The name read his one, true love.
“Zaniliya… Giselle… Yang…”, he read and sighed.
“I really miss you!”, the rain started to pour, washing away the dirt that laid across her name.
“I wish I could've told you this before… but…”, the cold raindrops felt like daggers against his hands.
“I love you!”
Zaniliya woke up, confused.
“That- that was a traumatising experience. What did I just watch in my dream? Ufh, my brain hurts!”, Zaniliya said to herself.
“Good morning, mother! Good morning, father!”, she happily exclaimed, walking to her kitchen.
“Rise and shine, my little princess!”, her father smiled.
For the first time in such a long time, she hugged both her parents when she woke up.
“Mother, father, there's something I have to say!”, Zaniliya said.
“What is it, honey?”, her mother smiled at her while cooking her favorite breakfast, fried eggs with wheat flatbread.
“I'm glad I have you both with me. You are really amazing and I can't even imagine how life would be without you. I love you!”.
Both her parents hugged her.
“We love you too!”, her father said.
The family bond was stronger than ever.

2022.07.29 Word War With Lia
Words: 111

I am a lovely human being Mishel and I have a lovely little cat. I call it Yumi. I love my cat. She's white and black and very sassy. She loves meat more than milk or water. She actually never drinks milk or water. My cat sleeps a lot. By a lot, I mean a lot. I have a sister and two brothers who also are in love with our cat. Yumi gets shy a lot. We play with her too. We actually kind of get scared of her too sometimes. She likes to stay outdoors mostly. Yumi doesn't like coming indoors. I love Yumi a lot. She's an amazing cat.