Let's All Write STORIES!!! discussion

Okay, here goes! Who wants to start? We're taking it from our plot in the brainstorming topic. So, here is the plot (please follow it): Kyalla lives in a small village. Her mother is dying from some unknown disease. The healer says that the only way for her mother to survive is for Kyalla's father to sacrifice Kyalla to the Gods. But Xelos, the air god, is secretly in love with Kyalla, and he won't let her die.

me!!!!!
Kyalla's mother lay close to death, slipping closer with every passing minute.

((then her father could go seek the help of the village witch, and she could say that he has to sacrifice what is dearest to him in order to save his wife, and so on so on, maybe???????????))

((Good idea, Fwit!!))

Kyalla never left her mother's side. She held her mother's hand, hoping that she would not die.

(oh, never mind, it took me so long to post, that it doesn't make sense now. what should i do?)

(I'll delete it.)

Footsteps behind her made Kyalla look up. It was her father, entering their straw hut. "How bad is it?" He whispered to his daughter.

Kyalla tried to hide her tears. "Very bad," she sighed. "Mother might...she might die." Kyalla fought past the hard lump in her throat.

"Go get the Healer," Kyalla's father told her.

"But-" Kyalla tried to protest. She didn't want to leave her mother's side, in case her mother died when she was gone.

Kyalla's father shook his head. "I'll stay with her. But you need to go get the Healer, now, before it gets worse."

Kyalla nodded and, with one more concerned look at her mother, she raced out of the hut.

(ok, but did you like it? i was thinking of starting a story with it)

She was almost into the heart of the village before she realized that she didn't know where the healer was. They hadn't ever needed one before.

But her family's magic had dried up with the river when the drought began. Without water nearby, their magic wouldn't work. It couldn't because they relied on the water god for their powers. Without the water, there was no water god, and no magic. Without the magic, her mother was wasting away from some illness foreign to their home. They needed a healer, and soon.

(Yes, I do, Mimi!)

(Veronica, they live in a village, not a farm. :D)

Kyalla looked around desperately, and hurried up to the first person she saw. "Where does the Healer live?" She asked breathlessly.

"Over there." The person pointed to a hut on the edge of the village, slightly bigger than all the others. Kyalla thanked her, then started running as fast as she could towards the house. She rushed in and startled a plump, old lady tending the fire.

"What in the world is the matter?" Healer asked Kyalla.

"It's mother! She's very, very sick." Kyalla said frantically.

(all right, I changed it from farm to village, and I added in the water god.)

(Cool, thanks!)

The Healer grabbed her bag and cane, and began hobbling after Kyalla.

Kyalla led the Healer into her family's hut, then pointed to her mother, trying to hold back more tears. "I don't know what's wrong with her!" She sniffed.

The Healer took out herbs, stones, and shells. She tossed the herbs into the air, set them on fire, and chanted and tossed the stones and shells as the flames devoured the dry plants quickly.

Kyalla narrowed her eyes. What the Healer was doing didn't look like it would help, but Kyalla kept her mouth shut. She had no clue about the Healer's ways. Maybe it actually was helping.

With large, blank eyes, the Healer locked her eyes on Kyalla's father. "The future holds naught but loss for you." She intoned in a blank voice. "To save one is to lose the other, to lose is to save, to save is to lose. The mother dies, the daughter stays. The daughter is given, the mother lives."

Father looked at the Healer with wide eyes. "What do you mean? Given where? What will happen to my daughter?"

"You'll figure it out," said the Healer. "Give her this untill you decide." She held out a bottle full of a blue liquid and hobled out.

Kyalla groaned. "Why does she have to be so mysterious? Can't she just tell us what to do?"

Her father looked at the blue bottle with concern. "It seems like this will only prolong your mother's death, not eliminate it. But it's all we've got..."

The bottle was mostly crystal, with only a small drop of thick blue liquid in it.

"This is all we've got?" Kyalla exclaimed. "How is that small amount supposed to help?"

"Patience, patience," Kyalla's father chided her, although he too looked worried. "If the healer says so, it will help for a little bit." He leaned down and poured the one drop into Kyalla's mother's mouth.

Her eyes fluttered open and settled on her daughter. "Kyalla?" she asked in surprise, still a bit foggy. "Why are you here? Xanthos told me that you were on a quest to find Aitera."

Kyalla stared at her mother in shock. The god of the dead had told her mother that she was trying to find the godess of water.

((where can i come in??))

((anytime you want to play Kyalla!))

"What...what do you mean?" Kyalla stammered, shocked to find her mother speaking.

"What do YOU mean," her mother said sternly. "Why aren't you trying to find Aitera," her mother asked.

"Mother, I believe you dreamed that. I've been here the whole time. I never went to search for Aitera, and even if I were to go, I wouldn't know where to start."

"No. I wasn't dreaming. I'm sure that Xanthos told me that you went to find Aitera, and that you had followed the river upstream!"

"But Ma, there is no river anymore. The drought dried it all up."

Kyalla's mother looked confused. "What? Of course not. Don't be silly!"

Kyalla looked at her father with exasperation. "What's wrong with her?" She whispered.

But Kyalla's father was fluttering over his wife. As the Healer's words played themselves in his head, he made up his mind. "Sacrifice to save from the crazed." He whispered, desperate. "I must sacrifice one for the other."

Now Kyalla was looking at her father with concern. "Are you okay, father?"

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," Kyalla's father muttered. "Fine..."

Kyalla's mother slumped back onto the thin straw mat after swallowing the drop of bitter blue liquid. "Quickly." Kyalla's father hissed to himself, constructing an elaborate altar.

"What are you DOING?" Kyalla asked her father with a tint of desperation to her voice.

"It's the only way to save your mother!" Kyalla's father said.

"What is the only way? Father, what are you going to do?"

He took a deep breath. "Kyalla, the only way to save mother is to sacrifice one of us."

Kyalla gasped. "What? Father, you're going to kill one of us?" She shrieked.

"Forever with one, never with the other." He mumbled.

"Father! Answer me" Kyalla screamed hysterically now. "Please, listen! ARE YOU PLANNING TO KILL ME OR YOU?"

Her father looked up. "Kyalla. You know the price of separating one from death. You. To Xanthos."

Kyalla was so shocked, she could not speak. She did not believe her father would do such a thing. She could not believe her father could actually kill her.

She looked into her father's eyes, searching for hidden emotions. She could see that beneath the glaze, there was desperation. There was fear. There was sadness. But overpowering all those emotions was his determination to save Kyalla's mother.

"Please," her father said quietly. "It's the only way. Do it for your mother. She gave life to you, and now you must give your life in return."

Kyalla took a steadying breath. Full of indecision, she looked from herself to her mother, and back again. Could she really sacrifice herself for her mother? Well, if there's an afterlife, it's okay, Kyalla thought grimly. Then she turned to her father and nodded.

"I'll do it."

Her father smiled weakly. "You know I love you, and I'll meet you in the afterlife, hand in hand with Mom."

Kyalla nodded. "I know. I love you too." With one more glance at the woman she was about to die for, Kyalla stepped in front of her father and, kneeling, she squeezed her eyes shut. Her heart beating irregularly, Kyalla waited for her father to kill her.

"Hold it!" A strange bright light filled the room, as some tall dark, handsome stranger stepped in. "I forbid it."

Kyalla opened her eyes and gaped. She could not believe it. The man had perfect features, with pale, soft skin; large, glowing eyes; sculpted, painted lips; thin, arched eyebrows; windswept, silky hair; a tall, graceful body; and long, beautiful robes. There was no doubt- this was a god. A real god, come down from the sky to speak to them. Kyalla could not believe it. She threw herself at his feet and knelt. "My lord," she whispered. "I worship my god."

The god smiled and lifted Kyalla's face with his hand so that he could stare into her eyes. "You do not need to bow down to me, beautiful one," he murmured. Then he turned to Kyalla's father. "I am Xelos, God of Air. You shall not harm your daughter."

Kyalla's father narrowed his eyes. "But I don't have a choice!" he shouted. Xelos cast Kyalla's father a look of sympathy.

"Oh, but you must. Spare your daughter's life, in the sake for yourself." "What do you mean?!" Kyalla could sense the temper rise in his voice. "Your wife, will be fine. If you kill your daughter, she will be taken to Xanthos." "I won't let that happen!" "Oh, but it already has. Your daughter has an amazing spirit. But when she was born, so much hatred was mixed with it. She was sighned a contract forever with him. You cannot kill her. She has to enjoy life as it is." Kyalla couldn't help to stare at the God. He was amazingly handsome, but she couldn't find herself liking him. "My father has to kill me, or my mom will stay crazy!"

"Will not." Xelos smiled a glorious crooked smile, and held out a hand to Kyalla. "I heal."

"heal?!" she gasped. the power to heal was one of the most sacred rituals in the village. For one to heal would take immense power. "Yes to heal. But I can't do it alone Kyalla." Xelos said looking her in the eye.

"I need love." Xelos continued

"l-love?" Kyalla asked. The grand god smiled at her. "could you have a big enough heart to love me Kyalla?" Xelos asked with hope in his eyes.

"Oh!" Kyalla gasped, "Y--yes, I think."

She looked to her mothers pale face, turned to see her fathers glimmer of hope. She would do this for her family if not for Xelos. He held his hand out to Kyalla. She started to walk towards him. She heard her mother gasp again. Kyalla whirled to see her mother look at Kyalla with empty eyes. "don't go to him Kyalla! He's evil! You must come to me! To Xanthos!" She cried. Kyalla felt shivers run up her spine