Spider-Man Homecoming // warning: much fangirling

*starts humming the spider man theme*

One week ago, my dad took me to the movies to see Spider-man Homecoming and it officially earned a place waaaay high up on my favouritest movies of all time list. I absolutely and utterly loved every moment of it. 

So of course I'm going to do a blog post solely to flail over it.
This post is spoiler-less, so don't worry if you haven't seen the movie yet, you're all safe.

My reaction basically: I LOVED IT SO SO MUCH AND HELP I CAN'T GET OVER ANY OF IT AND YEEEET.

This movie and I started off on a good foot from the very first. Spider-Man has always been my favourite superhero. I watched the 2002 Tobey Maguire version a year or so back, and before that, I'm fairly sure that I read some comics too. Not the super originals probably, but I have a recollection of Spider-Man comics and absolutely loving them. So when I saw the Spider-Man Homecoming teaser trailer- well, it happened something like this:

Me: oh hey I'll watch this trailer. it's Spider-Man after all.
Me: *watches*
Me: OH SWEET PIZZA AND PASTRY WHEN IS THIS MOVIE COMING OUT I MUST SEE IT.

And for the past two months, my family can confirm that I have been going on about Spider-man...a lot. :P I'd watched every single trailer that I could find - several times over. I even quoted the movie before it was even released. I was hyped, to say the least.

The day when I was going to see it, I was so nervous. I was worried it wouldn't be all that cool. I was desperately trying to not imagine all the awful things the movie could be like. But as soon as it started BOOM. All worries were gone.

SO GOOD.

I have always loved Spidey so much because he's just so relateable, and Homecoming has done this in a super great way. HE'S JUST A TEENAGE KID TRYING TO WORK OUT LIFE AND HELP DON'T WE ALL RELATE??? I'm sure I do, anyway. 
And another thing Peter was so dyyying to get out of school and be spider-man again. THAT WAS SO GOOD. IF I COULD BE SPIDER-MAN I'D WANT TO DO IT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Like...who wouldn't?! And he's my age. Not some college-going Superman or some billionaire Batman (or even the other versions of Spider-Man). He's just a kid like me, going through similar things to me (though I'm not spider-man, and I'm not in 'school' school - yay homeschooling XD but still, it's true) and I love that so much.

I'd watched a ton of interviews that Tom Holland (the actor who plays Peter/Spider-man, for those non-geeky people :P) did and once or twice I had a flash of concern of: 'wait, if I do this, what if I can't see him as Peter, but only as actor Tom Holland' BUT NO. It wasn't like that at all. Tom was Peter and the casting of everything was just so perfect.

Have I mentioned how much I liked the characters?? Peter was amazing. Aunt May was young and I really really liked that actually. Ned and Michelle cracked me up. (Michelle though guys, a female character who wasn't the love interest?? How cool is that?) And the villain was super well done. He made so much sense and was so real but so scary at the same time. (scary in a good way)
Gosh I just loved them all. No one felt flat or unrealistic at all.

Is Spider-Man a funny superhero? Hmm, let me think. UM YES. And Homecoming captured that perfectly. Even in the super intense epic action scenes, there's humour and comedy dropped in there. And it's not forced at all. It's just realistic. Because honestly, if I was in that situation YES. I'D DO ALL OF THAT. I'd be like "WHOA THIS IS SO COOL I'M A SUPERHERO - AVENGERS HERE I COME." And it's so quoteable and memorable.
(I have had several gif conversations with a friend in which I use solely Spider-Man gifs and I'm very proud of myself. xD)

And speaking of action, I was so in the movie. I was shivering with tension some of the scenes and I'm sure my heart almost stopped for a moment there with THAT PLOT TWIST. Not to mention that I was discreetly absolutely definitely not crying nope not at all in one certain scene. I just wanted to give Peter a hug because I could relate so much.

And, like the avid fan I am, I've now seen the movie twice. First time when my Dad took me and then I dragged both my older sisters along because I liked it so much and needed some more people to get my quotes and references. IT WAS JUST AS GOOD THE SECOND TIME. *shrieks and fangirls forever*

This is BY FAR my favourite Marvel movie (granted, I haven't watched a heap (*cough*two*coughcough*), but shhh that's beside the point. Silence peasant. XD) and way high up right near the very top of my favourite all-time. It's just so epic and cool and YES.

Help. I don't think I'll ever be able to stop flailing and fangirling over this movie.
Actually no, don't bother send help. I'm quite happy right as I am. xP


Have you seen Spider-man Homecoming??
(if you did, FLAIL WITH ME, you know you want to XD)
Are there any movies that you've been flailing over before they're even released?

Rejoice in the Day

Christmas is nigh. And with Christmas comes much busyness. Last minute organizing presents (if you're anything like me- cough cough), getting decorations up, music, family, finishing up school for the year.

But through all of that one thing should stand out.

Joy.

Christmas is to bring joy and hope and peace to the world. In the most amazing example of selfless, sacrificial love, God sent his Son to us -His enemies- to show us his awesomeness and to die to give us new life.

Life can be stressful, and Christmas too. But through that, can't we take the time to step out of the chaos and really realise what it is that we're celebrating?

For me, I love the chance of holidays to just pull out of the humdrum of day-to-day life and be reminded to marvel at the amazing and awesome things our God has done, and to give Him all the glory.

An internet friend of mine recently did a post on A Time of Peace and that was partially my inspiration for this. It made me start thinking about what I actually think of when I hear the word Christmas. Do I skip to thinking about food and fun and water fights and miss the all-so-obvious Christ? It seems so obvious, and yet it's still so easy to forget.

One of the Christmas songs I quite like is 'Born is the King (It's Christmas)' because the words are so true, and I feel that they really display how Christmas is a time to celebrate Jesus. And to celebrate him joyfully.

It's a time to lift up your voice and sing His praise. A time to rejoice with great joy. Because even though life is tough, He is shaping us, and He is working in us. And we can't lose this fight.

Because in Christ the victory is already won.

And if that isn't something to rejoice about, I don't know what is.

So take the time to feel the joy! Pause in the busyness and thank our great God for all that He has done. 

Spare a moment or two, and REJOICE.

This year might've been tough at times, with its fair share of tears and fears and laughter. And maybe next year is looming ahead with deadlines and plans and things that are just so impossibly far beyond your control. And y'know what?

That's okay.

Because our God is bigger than anything we could ever face in this world. And He is holding our lives in His hands.

I can't think of a safer place to be.

Go spread some Christmas joy!

Blogging Hiatus: LIFE basically

Yes. It is true.

I am taking a blogging break. Or hiatus, as it seems to be called apparently.

The picture kind of says it all.

First off, we're having holidays starting in the third week of October. Visiting our Grandma for a week and then heading off to another homeschooling friends place and then were going on to a home school conference.

Those are pretty big plans for us. It involves lots of driving to get places, and with a family of eight that's not cool. Being stuck in the car for the entire day, cramped, having to listen to everyone, that musty closed-up smell of travelling the car gets.

But it also involves a peaceful week of (hopefully) relaxful holiday, some fun getting together with good friends and the words 'home school conference' speak excitement for themselves.

We're going to be sooo dead after all that.

And we get back just before November and NaNoWriMo.

Yes. NaNo is on in just a few weeks. And I still don't know what the plot of this book is and I'm trying not to panic. Not sure if being plotless is a good situation for a NaNo-first-timer. (Hence this month is going to be stuffed full of planning so I hopefully won't be winging it, but I'm not guaranteeing anything at this stage)


So you may gathered it from all that but here's the biggest announcement:

Swords, Sails and Scoundrels serial story will be on hold for six weeks.

During Camp NaNo I was just able to keep up with the serial story, but this time I'm putting it aside so I can focus completely on Agent Kit (book 2 of The Outlaw Legends, and what I'm pretty sure I'm going to be writing for NaNo).

From now, there'll be two more installments of the story, and then you'll have to wait until December before it kicks off once more. (Whoa. December. Okay, I just freaked out about how far through the year we are.)


But don't worry! The blog won't actually be completely silent since I'm writing up a couple of posts to schedule for the end of October and possibly one or two in November. Unfortunately though, there won't be very many comments by Jane Maree on all the lovely blogs I follow. Don't miss me too much. :)

I'm just hopefully going to have a nice peaceful break so I can relax and smell the gum leaves.

...

Either that or type like insanity to try and reach this impossible goal of 50k which is 20k more than I've ever written in a month before and eat pizza and cry and probably get a bruise on my forehead. Hopefully the letters on the keyboard won't be rubbed off by the time November is over.

And while I'm gone, I know you will all be faithfully cheering me on because you guys are just so great like that. :)

Who else is doing NaNo?

|| Jane Maree ||

Camp NaNo Novel - The Path Through the Trees

I'm back! I had a crazy fun week, got a couple dozen injuries, a sore mouth from smiling basically all the time, swam in the pool every second day, added a Spanish accent to my random accent/mimicking arsenal. So yeah, pretty fun.

So, to get to the point, as I have mentioned before, I'm doing my first time ever of Camp NaNoWriMo**. And so far I'm really enjoying myself.

I just thought that I could tell you guys a little bit about the story I'm working on for Camp. 'The Path Through the Trees.'

**A short explanation of Camp NaNoWriMo: (National Novel Writing Month) It's an online 'virtual' camp. Basically you sign up, create a 'novel profile' about the WIP you'll be working on, set a word-count-goal, and join a 'cabin' of other writers who talk about random writer stuff and cheer each other on. And you write. And write. And hope to to reach your word count. And have fun!

The idea wasn't mine originally. It was actually Jessica's, and I, the fool that I am, agreed to write the story with her. She had ideas for a couple of characters, and I added to that a little. The two main characters were rather based off ourselves (they still are, actually) and so Jessica didn't know much about 'Lydia,' (the me character) so she asked if I could write her part. And it just went on from there.

At first my half of the story was basically a fanfic of Ranger's Apprentice and Brotherband (yes, both at the same time), and I wince with horror every time Jessica mentions some of the 'brilliant' ideas I had back then. Ideas that were almost complete mirrors of scenes from afore mentioned books. *Shudders* It's truly horrible.

The worst thing was that it was all my ideas that were taken off those books, not Jessica's as that was back before she had read them.

Then I realised how very bad the story was, and suggested we get rid of the fanfic-y-ness and actually do something original for once. So we did, and that made it kinda okay-ish. (As in, marginally more okay-ish than totally dreadful.)

It's gone through a lot of different stages of awfulness, but it's slowly getting better. Particularly after I completely rewrote it a few months back.

Now I start laughing so hard whenever I read the old version, just 'cause it was so terrible. I can't believe I wrote that! I just can't.

I've been completely amazing myself with how many words I'm writing every day for Camp. I went for a 8,000 word count aim and thought that I should be able to do it. Maybe.

I got it on day six.

And almost died of excitement.

So I raised it to 15,000.

Aaand I've only got 883 words left as of today.

I'm continuing to stun myself by writing around one thousand (or even two thousand) words per day. Just like that. For Dusty Red and If Adventure Comes Your Way I struggled to write that much, but now it's just coming?! I am discovering hidden depths within me. (Except I was a little slack while on holidays and only wrote one thousand for the whole Sunday to Friday)

Now, back to The Path Through the Trees.
I wrote a synopsis kind of thing for it so I could put it in the details for camp:

“Lydia Keramed's quiet seaside trading town is attacked by pirates, turning her whole world upside down. In her struggle to build a new life she meets a thief by the name of Annette Revlis of Hidden Knowledge, and is suddenly embroiled in a life and death struggle for the throne.

With Annette’s treacherous sister, Ravanor, on the loose with an army at her command, is it possible that the two girls can work together to save their new country? And is Ravanor really the force behind it all, or is there a darker, more sinister evil hiding?

With courage, stubbornness and quick wit, Lydia fights her way through, always looking for the path through the dark forest into the light beyond.”

I've also got a short scene I thought you might find amusing..

***

The room was in uproar.

In a daze I heard the shouted words: “The invader!”, “Seize them!”

As my vision began to clear I found myself held in the iron grip of two soldiers. The cruel looking man stood before me.

“Who are you?” he demanded.

No time to reconsider now, Lydia, I told myself blearily, the only hope is to go with it. I forced a massive grin onto my face. “Did you mention Jay the Jumping Jester who enjoys jellies?” I burst out at rapid speed, raising my eyebrows in questioning innocence.

The man looked taken aback for a moment. I took advantage of the fact to add another layer of confusion.

“Judiciously jam jellies,” I nodded knowingly.

“What are you doing here?” he barked roughly, covering his bewilderment.

“Juggling,” I replied, keeping my face an innocent mask.

“What?” the confusion was back.

“Just juggling, James.”

“My name is not James,” he spluttered.

“Jude? John? Jack?—” I suggested.

“Do you know who I am?”

“Jitslanish?” I asked, thoroughly enjoying myself now.

“I am lord Mâlekae, second in command here,” he said with narrowed eyes. I opened my mouth to comment but he snarled. “And don’t keep talking in ‘J’s.”

“Okay,” I said, shrugging carelessly. “D’you ordinarily open—”

“NO!” he yelled. “Not ‘O’s either!”

I shut my mouth abruptly, deciding to not push it too far. Better to stop before he beheaded me just to shut me up.

***

I've got several ideas of how to improve the story, but at the moment I'm just focusing on the writing part...Although, this week's holidays have included half a hundred conversations of ideas...Of the fifty-thousand-words/twenty chapters length of my half (Jessica's is only around fifteen thousand, but I do get more time to write than she does) chapters 13-17 are being deleted and a whole new idea replacing them. The prologue and chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4 (and very possibly more) are going to be completely different because we discovered a problem with the character's ages...(the 15 year old one sounded rather older than the one aged 17)

Meh, we'll see how it all ends up. As it is, I'm really enjoying my first Camp NaNo and am totally doing it again. I'm also thinking about continuing setting monthly word-count goals every month just to keep me writing. Dunno what's going to happen with that though.


I really don't know whether 'Swords, Sails and Scoundrels' will start next week or not. I guess I'll have to inform you on that when I find out. I'll do a random post if the beginning date is to be postponed again.

Have you ever thought of doing Camp NaNo?
(You really should) 

How did you like the segment of The Path Through the Trees?

Fare Thee Well!

New Story Reveal!

Here is the promised reveal of my next serial blog-story! To start with, I guess I'd better announce the title:

Swords, Sails + Scoundrels

I wanted something slightly shorter than 'If Adventure Comes Your Way' because that can be a bit of a mouthful to say sometimes, but I wanted it to be cool. And it also needed to reflect the story somehow.

As you can gather from the title, there will hopefully be quite a bit of sailing/ships in this story, as well as weapons - mostly of the sword-ly kind. I'm quite looking forward to starting so you can all find out about my brilliant plans.

Now, I have a couple new characters, and I spent ages thinking up random character profiles/blurbs that didn't give away everything that might happen but were still interesting, so I hope they'll give you a quick glimpse at what these people are like.


Louise De Corlette: 
(Yeah, I know, I know, the new ones'll come soon)

Using the cover name Conwell, she is eager to see more of the world. One time, Louise would have been daunted at such a prospect, but she is no longer the same girl that sat in the parlour with Governess Kathryn.

Now a tried adventurer, Louise finds that she has yet a very narrow field of experience. Changing status from a lady, she tries her hand at many trades; traveller, gypsy, even pirate. But her journey to Eirerandil isn’t just for fun…

Eumin Quest:

Leonora’s oftentimes companion on her Outrider missions. He's quiet and strong, the perfect kind to fight alongside Leonora’s daring courage.








Leonora Maysdaughter:

Lieutenant of the Royal Outriders and younger sister of Eumin Quest, Leonora has become well known for her adventurous ability and fencing skills

(Here come the new characters!)

Marius De Corlette:

The second of Louise’s older brothers, Marius is just twenty years of age. He and Louise were the closest of the De Corlette siblings, despite being almost complete opposites. Having left Feâ Sirih a little over three years ago to earn renown, he fell into deep trouble upon reaching the fair country of Eirerandil.

His family have heard nothing of him since the day he left.

Captain Wielder:

Infamous pirate of the Notrias Sea. Rapscallion, rebel and rascal supreme.

Although he goes by the term pirate, Captain Wielder has nothing alike with others of that kind. Since his boyhood he made adventures for himself, planning great feats and fame on the high seas. These dreams never died, and he now lives them in reality, sailing the seas in search of adventure. 

Captain Wielder is an expert swordsman, known for capturing soldiers to fight them and beat them with his gentleman-like manner – just to show off his swordsmanship skills. After which he unfailingly releases them so they can go tell the whole country about him.

Earning his widespread fame in this manner, he ceased searching for adventure, discovering that it found him plentifully without any help. Being such a renowned swordsman, the ultimate challenge for would-be soldiers is to fight and beat him. Many have tried. None have succeeded.

With gentlemanly courtesy for the ladyfolk and willing respect only for those who earn it, he sails his beloved Rift across the sea, meeting ever more famous swordsmen to fight. And beat. And release. And make his reputation grow ever more.

Gypsy Boy:

At the age of sixteen, he lived his whole life travelling the country with his parents and the band of gypsies. Unfortunate, and unexpected circumstances (a.k.a. Captain Wielder) drag him from his mother’s overindulging grasp, and send him reeling onto the wild seas.

He has the typical brown hair and olive skin of his race, but his eyes are dark blue, given by a distant Eirerandil ancestor.

A quick glance shows a sullen, quiet yet arrogant bearing and a remarkable ability to annoy people without speaking a word. But inside he really wants to be wanted by someone, to be needed somehow – he realises that no one actually likes him, they just fake it. Although some don't bother to even do that.

Though he is a fast thinker and good at quickly assessing situations, he doesn’t often share it, keeping his thoughts and feelings to himself.

---

I really can't decide if I like Captain Wielder or Gypsy Boy the most...I have such plans for them both. 
So, how to they all sound? Interesting?

And here's a random synopsis I wrote up:

“Eirerandil, a once-bright land, is marred by the presence of a terrible evil. A serial killer stalks the land, and only one person has a chance to stop him.

Louise ‘Conwell’ is excited about widening her experiences, but when she reaches her destination she realises that it’s worse than she imagined. Courageously starting off things begin to go awry from the very first. When Louise is captured by the infamous pirate Captain Wielder she discovers that allies can be found in the strangest of characters.

But with wild storms at sea, shiploads of pirates, and an elusive goal, can Louise and her friends possibly stop the killer before her long-lost brother is lost forever?”

Sadly I can't share the cover picture yet, because my artist is yet to finish, but I can say that, last I saw, it looks pretty cool.

And equally sadly, I won't be starting SS+S next week. I'll be away at my crazy cousin's farm! (Disclaimer: I never said she was crazier than me. I've been told she had her serious moments.)(besides, she goes to school. Pfft, overrated thing as it is, you've got to be at least half sensible to go there and live.) I'll be getting back next Friday and doing a post about my Camp NaNo novel, so things won't be completely silent.  (Also, since I'm leaving early Sunday morning I will check for comments Saturday night, but after that they will unfortunately remain unpublished until I return on Friday. But please comment anyway, it'll give me a nice welcome home!)

My plan is to start the week after though, so unless something bad blows up (or the cover picture still needs more time)(I think my artist is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to her drawings), you can expect the adventure to begin then. 

If you were wondering what happened to Maree and Jack, don't worry, they actually did live happily ever after (for a while). All the Freespirits are alive and they went to live with Jack's family in the forest. But they yet wait for news of Louise's return.

Oh, I almost forgot, I drew (you are about to witness the most artistic I ever get. Except for when making pizza) a map -

And then Clare, dear sister that she is, made it epic -

It looks so amazing! I'm just annoyed at myself for smearing the 'd' of Pyre-ite Island and the 'n' of Raeyn...(Raeyn is the town right down the bottom of the coast of Eirerandil, if you couldn't tell)
I reckon the sea looks pretty cool, with all the currents and the swirling vortex around the compass (I was rather happy with how the compass turned out, I usually draw them in a slightly different style but I actually like this one heaps). The land's great too...so's the whole thing really. Thank you terribly much, Clare. :D

I believe that's all for now. Phew, I wasn't planning on this being such a long post! I hope you're as excited as I am for the first segment! *does a happy dance*

Dúinn aller!

'Brace Yourself'

So...something happened that, a while ago, I wouldn't have ever expected. I've kept you all in suspense, although most of my followers already know, because they've seen me. I almost considered not doing a post just for a certain cousin of mine (yeah, Jessica, I'm talking about you...),  because I thought it would be funny to just turn up at Christmas time and freak her out. I did rather want to see her face when she saw me. But...just 'cause I'm nice, I didn't. 
Right, so to get right to the whole point of this post:

 I Have Glasses.

Okay, it all started with the projector at church. I'd been having trouble reading it and I eventually mentioned it to someone. This resulted in a frown and a few weeks later, an eye test. To use the exact words of the Eye-Doctor-person: "You are the best case for needing glasses that I've had today." (Sorry about that very generalised summary, I could go into more depth, but it's not much of an interesting tale.)

Yeah, so after that I had to choose frames for the glasses. Those who know me will also know that I really don't like making decisions. Really. And this wasn't just any decision, it was one that was going to stay around for quite a while. In the end I decided on a black frame, nice and simple, nothing fancy, just like me really (In case you didn't know, I have a strong distaste for most things fancy).

Last Tuesday they were ready so Daddy and I, along with my three littler siblings, went down to pick them up. When I put them on I just said, "Wow." I couldn't think of anything better to say. It truly is wow-ish. Driving back home I read out about every sign we passed just 'cause I could, and commenting on all the jacaranda trees, that are flowering now, had so many flowers! The trees have so many leaves, the grass is so...umm...grassy, my feet look really small, not to mention that I can't work out if the ground looks close or far away.

Sadly, Tuesday and Wednesday were all cloudy, but finally on Thursday the sky was clear. And at night I went outside to look at the stars. So cool. I thought I could see heaps of stars before. But now? Now I can see loads more. And they're not just random blobs of light, they're actually more like holes in the sky, opening up into some other realm full of adventures and fantasy.

Naturally my sister Clare, who is also a photographer, would not allow me to do a post without pictures. So we managed to find a sunny few minutes just before the sun set the other day and she took a few photos. 

Yep. Just a few (I know, it's amazing). As I said, it was only minutes until the sun set so I am still to be subjected to a more lengthy photo-shoot. But to look on the bright side: I don't even have to pay! Which is a good thing, because I've already spent all my money on Christmas presents. Two Christmas presents (Guess what! They were books!).
I didn't really have much money to start off with. Actually I still haven't earned the money to pay my Mum back. I'm doing that at the end of this month though, so it's all sorted. I still haven't had any inspiration as to what to give any of the rest of my family yet, but I'm working on it. 

Right, sorry, I'll get back to the point.

One sad thing is that I can't show other people how much difference the glasses make. Everything looks so amazing! But if I'd always been able to see this much I wouldn't think it was amazing, it'd just be normal. I think all my siblings have tried on my glasses, most thought things looked really over sharpened, but my almost-two-year-old little sister, Ann, didn't say. She just stared at me and then smeared her hands across the lenses so I had to clean them if I wanted to see anything other than smear. I wonder why she did that? (Sorry...sarcasm runs in the family.)

Basically I have to wear my glasses all the time unless I'm doing something that's close; like stuff on the computer, reading and school work. Apparently if I wear them while doing that kind of thing my eyes could get worse. And I'm already half-blind enough, so I'm fine with taking them off. :)

 So there we go. Now you know that I have glasses. To finish off this post I think a poem (written by Skilf, naturally) about my glasses would be fitting. She wrote this as if from my point of view, after I told her about my glasses. She seemed to find it rather amusing when I mentioned the church projector being the bane of my life, as you will notice...

‘The Bane of My Life’

Oh the bane of my life, the projector.

To glasses and short-sightedness lie,

Forever to squint, or glasses to wear,

For I have the myopic eye.

Pray, come near me not, my dear friends,

For catching, my case may well be,

And you do not want to have glasses,

All the bother and annoyance, trust me.

All the smudges and all of the dust specks,

All the smears and the random chap’s stare,

I haven’t decided, but they might just be worth it,

For all that they rather impair.

For now I can see, what astonishment!

An amazing occurrence, I’m sure.

Oh the stars in the sky are quite brilliant,

Of the trees and the land I see more.

So maybe, just maybe, I don’t mind much,

Does the benefit outweigh all the blight?

I am yet unsure, but I’ll say one thing;

Glasses ain’t that bad...well, not quite.

Fare Thee Well!

Dusty Red ~ Part 15

In which permission is granted and a door is unlocked...

How is everyone this week? We (me and the rest of my family) are on holidays (just staying at home doing nothing kind of holidays) and I've spent most of my time...(you'll never guess)...reading. I finished several books so far, but soon I believe I shall start on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, so that should take me a nice long time to finish...more than a day at least...

I've been (or more correctly, my sister and I have been) experimenting with Dusty Red pictures. I'm still unsure whether or not I'll actually change it but I can say that if it does change it won't be until instalment 20, so I've still got plenty of experimenting time. But I'm staying with the original picture for now at least.

And now...it is time for the story.

Larzik stepped forward and knelt in front on the queen, his head bowed slightly, “Permission to accompany the Dragontwins m’Lady?”

Flicks opened her mouth to voice her objection but it was too late. Queen Alwyn nodded, “Yes, permission granted, Larzik. You shall accompany these two on their journey to acquire the Magic Rune Stones.”

 “One problem,” Skilf said, the queen raised her dainty eyebrows questioningly and Skilf continued. “I buried them.”

“Ahhh,” Queen Alwyn murmured. “That could make complications.” She looked up at Skilf, “Do you remember where?”

Skilf shuffled her feet, “Ermm…well…I…to put it simply…well…no.” 

Flicks frowned, “Well that definitely could make complications.”

Larzik jumped up and down in excitement, “When are we going? When are we going?”

Flicks rubbed her forehead tiredly, “Are you going to keep this up the whole time?”

Larzik didn’t seem to realise the question was addressed to him and continued to bounce on the spot. “I can show you to the entrance at once!” he squeaked.

“Yes, you must leave at once,” Queen Alwyn agreed. 

“But we don’t know where we’re going!” Flicks protested, but Larzik was tugging her out of the room and the queen simply smiled and waved the question aside, closing the door behind them.

Skilf sighed in frustration, “Where now?”

Flicks looked at Larzik who had a firm grip on her hand. “I’m not sure we have a choice,” she replied.

Larzik lead them through the palace by small corridors and narrow staircases. Flicks began to get completely disorientated. “I’m sure we’ve gone down more stairs than we came up,” she remarked to Skilf.

Skilf nodded. “I concur,” she said under her breath. “This is getting rather confusing.”

“Rather,” Flicks agreed.

Larzik turned a huge grin of the two girls, “Here we are, right at the exit.”

Flicks and Skilf blinked in unison, the blink meaning, What? Larzik had led them to a dead end and there was no entrance or exit anywhere in sight.

“Are you sure you’ve got the right place?” Flicks asked hesitantly, fixing a puzzled expression on the Imp-Goblin.

Larzik looked insulted, “Yes of course I’ve got the right place. I know these halls like the back of my ears!”

Flicks looked consideringly at him, his statement wasn’t very comforting since Flicks could not quite believe he could see the back of his ears, them being on the side of his head as ears generally are and his eyes being on the front of his face, where eyes usually are.

“You can see the back of your ears?” Skilf asked cynically.

“Of course I can,” Larzik said, in an injured tone. “I know ‘em as good as these halls.”

Flicks and Skilf exchanged a glance. “Er…yes, naturally, I don’t know how I didn’t see that myself,” Skilf said.

“So, how exactly do we get through this exit?” Flicks asked.

Larzik’s mouth dropped open, “You mean to say you don’t know?”

Flicks sighed, “No I don’t know. But if you just told me…”

“Oh, yes I can tell you, I can tell you about anything in the castle. Plenty of magic doors about the place you know. There’s the hold, as where you can’t even see the door!” Larzik snorted in amusement, “But all the others you can see, and it’s a simple click, flick, snick, snack, and there you’ve open the door!”

“Could I have a straight answer please?” Flicks asked.

Larzik composed himself, “Well, all us Imp-Goblins have do is knock on the door and say, ‘Click, flick, snick, snack!’ and the door opens nice and easy.”

“So,” Skilf drew out the word, “You are going to knock on the door and say the password to get us out. Right?”

“Oh no, when you are here it must be one of you to open the door otherwise the exit won’t let you through,” Larzik replied, puffing his chest in pride at his great knowledge.

“And where exactly is the door?” Flicks asked.

“Why it’s right here!” Larzik said, pointing to a section of the wall.

Flicks stepped closer. She could just make out a faint outline about the size of a small door. Larzik gave her a lopsided grin, “Well, are you going to open it?”

Flicks took a deep breath, feeling rather silly and rapped her knuckles of the door. “Click, flick, snick, snack!” she said, feeling even more idiotic by the second.

As she finished speaking the outline of the door became more and more obvious and Flicks stepped backwards as a grumbling rumble emitted from the wall. Larzik pushed her back, “You must go through now!”

“Just go through? But the door’s still there!” Flicks pointed out.

“No it’s not, just go through,” Larzik said, “It’ll disappear in a few seconds and then you’ll have to do it all over again.”

That decided Flicks, she may as well make a fool of herself by walking into a wall if the alternative was having to say that crazy clicking and flicking sentence again. She closed her eyes and slammed her shoulder into the wall, or at least she would have if the wall was actually there.

Instead she just stumbled forward as she met with no resistance, nearly falling on the ground. And it was probably a good thing she didn’t because who knows what she might have landed on.

Flicks regained her balance in time to catch Skilf just before she hit the ground. Larzik appeared right after her but at a more dignified pace, if an Imp-Goblin can be dignified.

“So where are we?” Skilf asked, looking around, “Outside the castle walls?”

“No…” said Larzik, “We are somewhere else. That is a magic door after all.”

Flicks looked back the way they’d come but all she saw was a large tree, although that wasn’t anything so very different as they were surrounded by large trees.

“And where might that somewhere else be?” Flicks asked.

“Ermm,” Larzik replied, clearing his throat nervously. 

It was all the answer Flicks needed. She slumped down at the base of a tree. “Oh great, just what we needed,” she muttered. “Now we’re lost in some forest we don’t know the location of, and presumably no one else does either. Perfect.”

“Well, you are a figure of very dejectedness if you’ll pardon my saying so.”

~

1. The voice that spoke was one Flicks had never heard the like of before, and yet it seemed somehow familiar, like a voice of a friend she’d long forgotten.

2. Flicks leapt to her feet and spun around searching for the source of the voice, “Who are you?” she called, then added. “Or more to the point, where are you?”

 3. Skilf frowned, looking at Flicks and Larzik in turn, “Did you say something? Or was I just imagining it?”

~

So there we are, I managed to kind of incorporate option three into there as well! (Just for Lydia Scott, one of my lovely commenters.) Although no doubt if I hadn't told you no one would have noticed. I think maybe I'd better not next time, otherwise you might think to...well, let's just say, check up on everything else sneaky I do. I think I'd better change the subject...or maybe just leave now...

Anyway, please leave a comment and use your amazing power to change the course of the future! (Well, Flicks and co.'s future anyway.)

Fare Thee Well!

The Short Tale of My Holidays

Hello again everyone! I'm back again. And this time I'm actually here. Yeah, sorry about that post on Friday...I just couldn't help myself. But I promise this week's Dusty Red is coming. For those of you who haven't commented please do, I have kindly linked to the post so you don't have to look for it just click right here and comment!

Now, about my holidays. It was a nice time. We stayed in an upstairs flat just a little walk away from the sea, we had to have two rooms so everyone could fit. Even so I slept on a lounge, which wasn't so bad, apart from the fridge waking me up every time it turned on and off.
Also my baby sister Ann got sick and started throwing up on Monday, that wasn't so fun.

At the beach I had nice inspiration for the new novel I'm planning as it's set on some islands and around the sea in general so it was nice to be able to watch the sea and just sit and think about it.

We had lovely weather except on Thursday and Saturday I think, which were a little rainy. Or maybe it was Wednesday and Friday...I really don't remember!
It was a nice time, going to the beach basically every day and just hanging around doing nothing, or as some would put it, just chillin'. 

I didn't actually collect any shells or anything, and only came back with as much as I left with. I did help Clare in her collecting of sea glass (glass that has been all unsharped and fogged up by the water) but I'm not entirely sure why she wanted the glass, and I never really asked I suppose she has a good reason.

The downside of sleeping on the lounge was that if you want to go to bed, you have to wait until everyone else has and is no longer sitting on your bed, and then you can. I think I only had to remake my bed once after my two little brothers (who were dogs at the time I believe) jumped all over it and everything kinda ended up on the floor...

We had a nice photo shoot by the sea, but I'm sure Clare will tell you about that in better detail if you ask. Having a sick baby and trying to take happy photos of her was rather challenging. Even for the people who weren't holding the camera. 
People like me who were jumping up and down behind Clare and pulling funny faces in a failing attempt for a smile. Perhaps I should have said especially for them.

I'm sure they was lots of other interesting things I was going to tell you but I have forgotten all but one, which I will now tell you.
Do any of you remember the post I did about the Battle of Swords? Well, at the end of that post I listed off all my injuries and one was: One greenish grey finger courtesy of the throwing knife. But what I forgot to mention was the fact that there was also an interesting lump on my finger for the same reason. And it turned one month old on Saturday! Yes...it is still there...The bruise only stayed for a normal amount of time but the lump...well, it must have liked me and just didn't want to leave.

So, now I am ashamed to say I must stop as I seemed to have forgotten everything else...I'm very sorry.
I had a good time but it's really nice to be home.

Fare Thee Well (and don't forget to comment on the Dusty Red post!)

~ Jane, Misty Maiden