CHALLENGE FOR ALL WINTER WISHES

[Tehya]

WINTER WISHES is a topic for artists, writers, and poets plus photographers. This is a contribution by all and we will be taking entries until the end of December. Everyone receives mhl and there will be one grand prize winner that will be voted on by players.

Wanted, original, Art, Stories, Poems, and Photography! This does not need to be game based even a unique Christmas story or Christmas picture.

[Thunder]

One Knows Not

One knows not what one must find hidden within the cold divine,
For if one does not know they are sure to decline.
What one's heart desires one's heart could break,
So why not sit down to watch the snow fall with each flake.

As winter falls the sun sets faster,
One desires to be closer to find one's heart's master.
One shall not know until the time has come,
When it is time to succumb.

So much time has come and passed,
That it is opened up one's eyes to new contrast.
The snow has fallen the fires are hot,
Now it is time for you to come up with your next plot.

Keeping it hot keeping it warm,
Are you ready for the big storm.
Close your eyes and open your heart,
Because it's all part of that amazing art.

[Tehya]

Lovely poem Thunder, your writing may encourage others to play.

[Thunder]

I hope so I would love to read and see others stuff. Thank you for a chance to do some writing i love.

[Tawny]

Christmas Wishes what would they be?
oh slave for you and a slave for me.
one to place across my knee,
And spank their sexy little Hiney.

Christmas Wishes lets do some more.
A wrapped up Wolven at my door.
To tease and tickle and even more.
To leave him begging me for more.

Christmas wishes lets make it three.
Let's make this one from me to all of thee.
Whatever your wish is, whatever it be,
I hope that it is exactly what you receive.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays.
Too one and all.
May it be happy and joyous,
And safe above all.

[Tehya]

Tawny I loved the humor in this poem and of course the holiday cheer.

Merry Christmas!

[Tink]

Here, I feel it coming once more
That chill, frost falling
That winter kiss, I so adore
My winter haven returning

With the fleeting feet
A kitten's paws shuffling
Silent races across moonlit trapses
I can see it calling
Hear it roaming

With a touch of December
A hint of decadence
I can tell the tale of an autumn cadence
And the changes of the leaves
Like gaurds standing vigilant there
Over a tomb I'd left bare

Traveling into Winter brilliance
Where my heart can slumber
My soul may freeze in regret
And from doorsteps beyond November
I can seek the solace
Of another February in silence
A Spring thawing to forget

But hear there upon the chill wind
A calling, a stalking
Memories rehearsed in splendor
A singing soul in reverse
A haunted heart in surrender
A soul left barren
A life left bare

[Tehya]

Another great poem. Nudge your friends to join in.

[Stormbringer]

Probably seen it before

[Joshua_Jericho]

Short and sweet.

When Dawn first finds the frost,
Skulking in flowerbeds,
And his chilly fingers pinch her cheeks red.

When noon shrinks into evening,
Skips the afternoon,
And the night comes all too soon.

When the world paints monochrome,
Strips green into brown,
And then to white, as the veil comes down.

That's when I miss the summer.
The sticky heat and cloudless skies,
that I hated in July.

[Tehya]

Stormbringer that snowman is enjoying the season that's for sure



Joshua Jericho, Sounds like a northeastern reaction to snow, if ...the ghost of summer sticks with you

I wish more people would join in commenting on people's work, it makes a nice sharing experience between us all.

Everything in the arts... artwork,writing, poems, and photography are part of us and it is great to share with our friends. Feel free to comment!

[Twerlinger]

[Tehya]

Twerl,

Miss seeing your artwork, very nice. Sure fills a lot of people's fantasies.

Happy Holidays

[CallieO]

The Lady's Veil

The independent city-state of Balmarrow, benevolently ruled over by Lord Ti'a'ha of the House of the Eternal Flame, is about a week's travel by horse southeast of Nanthalion Province. Far too southward to ever encounter the aurora borealis. So Dame Tennibrook Balmossie, who was born and raised in Balmarrow, had never seen it outside of paintings.

That is, of course, until her first night standing watch as a house guard in Virelith. It was the first Spiritday in the Month of Blooming, in the 38th Year of Lord Stormbringer's Reign. Tennibrook had celebrated her 40th birthday only two months previous. On this night, the single-tailed vixen, dressed only in a simple brown leather vest over a white tunic; brown leather pants; and brown boots, had been hired by Mapmistress Naomi after a very brief interview.

She'd simply told Naomi of her past experience and of her abilities and faults, and Naomi had hired her with very few questions asked, giving her a mithril house pin with Warmth, Ignite, and Message enchants on it, to help sustain her during her shifts. On this evening, Tenni worked a short three-hour shift guarding the Western Wall just outside the sealed portcullis. She'd be the one called upon to ask anyone approaching to identify themselves, and she'd be the first line of defense if someone decided to choose this time of night to attack.

It was a seven to ten o'clock shift in the early spring. The aurora borealis hadn't appeared in the sky during the daytime, but about an hour into Tenni's interminable stint, the clouds broke, and suddenly there they were in all their glory-- brilliant streaks of light blue, orange and pink that painted the sky like strokes of a master.

Tenni saw them, and had to struggle to maintain her composure. Because the aurora borealis are more than a simple astronomical phenomenon to the vulpine. In the triestan religion, they're called the kiro'shuka-- the Veil of The Lady. It's the home of the vulpine afterlife, where vulpine spirits go after they die.

Looking up into the kiro'shuka for the first time, Tennibrook can't help but let her mind wander for at least a few minutes while she has ground support and while no one is approaching the castle. She can't help but think of her mother, passed away of old age ten years ago, and how, in a just universe, maybe they would have had a little more time together.

But Jessie Volopa, born almost 900 years ago, had gone practically her entire life without a single Visitation from the spirits of her future children. Even as she'd gained renown from The Lady, and a second and third tail for her success with her restaurant in Lingori'ka, Jessie's marriage to her first husband, a vulpine, had ended after 25 years because he'd become impatient to have kids with her. Unfortunately, vixens don't become fertile until the Visitation occurs, no matter how long that might take. Usually, the first one happens within the woman's second century of life. But Jessie's marriage had ended when she was more than 300 years old.

Indeed, Jessie would be an old woman even by vulpine standards before her Visitation would finally come-- well over the age of 800. By this time, she was a five-tailed Musha Villa, 'High Blessed One of The Lady', Lord Ti'a'ha's house chef, and married to Henry, a human, who was the captain of Lord Ti'a'ha's guards. They'd gone into their marriage fully expecting never to have children, and had grown comfortable with that notion. When the spirits of Tennibrook, her older brother, and her older sister had appeared to Jessie in a dream and asked to be brought into the world, Jessie had actually asked, 'Why NOW?' But ultimately, she and Henry made the informed decision to honor their request.

If only it had been so simple. Two of those spirits would ultimately not enter the world, at least not in the form that they'd originally intended. Tennibrook's brother and sister died in infancy, 20 years before their Soul-Joining Ritual would take place, several days before they would even have been *named*. It was caused by a horrible plague, called the Gryungee, that had spread across the land of Balmarrow and caused hundreds of deaths. Tennibrook was spared only because Henry fasted and prayed in The Lady's temple and asked for her salvation and an end to the plague for all of Balmarrow. The Lady had agreed, on condition that Henry convert to triestan, train the rest of his knights into Her service, and raise Tennibrook as a knight in Her service.

Looking back now, Tennibrook misses both her parents deeply, but she considers her time spent with her mother, in particular, to have been an opportunity she'd wasted. Jessie Balmossie had been a master chef without peer, and Tenni had simply shown no interest in learning any of her recipes. As a result, since her death ten years ago, Tenni hadn't even had a decent bite of chicken jinjona, or any of the other comforts of vulpine cuisine. Oh, she'd turned out to be a perfectly capable knight; her father had seen to that. But he'd monopolized her time at her mother's expense, she can see that now.

Tenni looks up into the most orange part of The Lady's veil. "Mother," she murmurs under her breath, "on this night, I miss you. I hope you're looking down on me with love and pride in the woman I've become. One day, I *will* learn to cook. Probably not as well as you, but good enough so that whomever I end up with will have good meals to look forward to."

Her partner, standing on the other side of the entrance, stirs. "Did you say something, Tennibrook?"

"Hm? Never mind," Tenni replies.

[Tehya]

Very nice CallieO, enjoyed reading this.