Farewell, #3861

The air was chilly and the wind bit at the necks of every being on the street of the small southern town on the coldest night in January. Everyone scurried around trying to hide themselves from the approaching storm while one shadowy figure slowly walked down the street. The girl wasn't worried about the cold because what good is hot or cold when your dead? When Sam had first gone through the change it was hard to be around the humans without sinking her teeth into one or two or ten at a time. Trying to quench a thirst that only grew stronger with each drop. But after a thousand years or so she had learned to ignore the brilliant aroma that hid in their veins. All she had to do was press her lips against their skin and fill her form with sweet relief from the screaming voices that yelled for her to hunt, to kill, to satisfy their needs but she refused to give in to them again like she had for so many years. They never really went away though but she had learned it's easier to ignore them if the music is loud enough. As if the voices liked the sound of Radioactive by Imagine Dragons as much as she did. As she listened her steps began to move with the music and her eyes closed letting her lose herself in the lyrics. She didn't worry about being hit by a car because all it would do would dent the car and off the driver. Just like the time in Alabama when she was hit on a highway causing 10 cars to pile up and a semi full of fossil fuels to explode. While the memory faded back into her brain so did the final beat of the song. Her limbs halted in their place and her eyes fluttered open looking out at nothing but the empty road ahead. Papers fluttering around mixing with the leaves and other trash. But for some reason she didn't feel alone. She could sense that somewhere a pair of eyes had watched her little march through the streets but she couldn't pin point their location. She was used to the skeptical glares from the humans but this felt different more like someone who knew she wasn't what she appeared.

"Writer's Block" by Icy Terror, #2979

Another crumpled piece of paper flew across the room to land in the pile surrounding the small trash can. This story just would not come out the way he wanted it too. James sighed in frustration as he ran through everything he had ever been taught in his head about writing. In high school James’s favorite English teacher had always told him that if he was stuck to just write about anything. Well half of that mountain of paper in the corner was random ramblings that had not helped him at all.

The due date for this short story he was trying to complete was tomorrow. Everything was already plotted out; he just could not seem to make it come together. The story’s main character was a teenager named Sam who loved horses and was finally going to be able to own her own. The way she was to receive her own horse was through an inheritance from her great-grandfather in a different country that she had only ever had contact with through the letters they exchanged. The outline was there all that James was supposed to do was turn it into a well written, well-flowing, attention capturing story. All his life James wanted to write and now that he was older he was beginning to realize that the industry was more difficult to get into than it always seemed.

His brown hair fell into his face as he leaned over the desk to try again, and he brushed it back, annoyed. So far all he completed half of what should have been a simple story, and now all he saw was paper, blank, lined paper. Usually he could see the words strolling across, ahead of his pen. The employer did not even want anything difficult; it was just that sometimes writers got stuck. There was rarely any real explanation for writer’s block, and sometimes that is what irked James the most about the syndrome when he was plagued with it.

As he was lost in thought, something finally came to him. James knew how to make this story really work. The problem was that it needed to be completely rewritten from scratch. Snatching up a clean sheet of paper with one hand, James crumpled the original with the old and flung it over his shoulder. As he looked at the paper now the story flowed for him.

Citlali, #8295

One Spring day a new lamb was born, her name was Sam. She was especially pretty and loved to frolic with the other lambs. One day, Sam got separated from the flock, she cried out and walked until she couldn't walk no further. She lay down on a piece of newspaper and fell asleep. Suddenly she felt a soft breath on her wool, was she dreaming? No, it was Star, the gray mare that looked after the flock like a shepherd. Star led Sam back to the barn and flock at Stonerow Acres. From that day on Sam was never far from Star, they became the best of friends.

One autumn day, a great wind blew across the pasture, sending a piece of newspaper flying, spooking the flock. They went running for the barn but not Star and Sam. As they walked back to the barn, they remembered.

That winter was a cold one, and Sam knew Star was getting older. Sam knew Star's legs hurt, after all they were the best of friends. One morning, Star couldn't get up. Sam encouraged her to try and she gave it all she had. Star told Sam, "You have grown into a beautiful ewe, I will miss you." Sam told Star, "I will never forget you, my friend." The following Spring, they had a new shepherd horse named Kody. Kody was a good leader, she did well looking after the flock. In late spring Sam had a lamb of her own and she named her Star.

The End!

"The Horse" by Nekeneke, #19460

There once was a young girl, no more than nine years old, who loved horses more than any other girl ever had. Unfortunately for her, her family lived in a place where horses were not allowed, and so even though her mother and father wanted to make her happy and buy her a horse, it was an impossible dream that she dreamed every day and every night.

One day, the little girl came home, to her parents putting all of her things into boxes, and a truck out front. Confused, she turned to her father with a question.

"Where are we going, daddy?"

Her father smiled, and told her about how they were going to move to a new home, in a new town, where she would meet all sorts of new people. He told her that some of these people were even her family, and that they had horses and a farm, and that her own family would be getting horses and a farm, too!

The girl was very excited. She helped pack boxes into the truck, and sat quietly for the long drive to the new home. When they arrived, she was so happy to spend the summer with her cousins, on their farm, where the horses lived! Their horses were beautiful, and she loved them all, but she still wanted her own horse to love and to spend time with.

The end of summer came, like it always does, and her family moved into their own farmhouse. Her parents were so excited to have the farm, and they bought many new things. They bought a trailer for their animals, and a puppy to protect the farm for her brother, who loved puppies almost as much as she loved horses. Her daddy bought himself a big red tractor. But every day the pastures stayed empty, and the little girl was sad because she thought that they were never ever going to get a horse.

Finally, one day her and her mother went to a man's house to look at horses. There were two horses bought that day from a nice man named Sam, and they came home with the little girl. She was so excited, but soon grew sad again when she found out the horses were her mothers, and not her own. She loved them, and she got to play with them all the time, but they weren't her own horses, and the little girl tried not to be sad about that.

Time went on, and more horses came, but these horses were for her daddy. One of them was a big, dark horse that snorted at her, and ran away when her daddy tried to catch him. As much as she loved this horse, and she did love him, she knew that he was not her horse, and she should stay far away from him. He was dangerous, her daddy said, and liked to rear and run and was too strong for a little girl like her.

She couldn't stay away though, and every day, the girl and the horse spent more and more time together, until they were inseparable. When her daddy needed to use the horse, the girl caught him and brushed him until his coat shone dark and beautiful. When the horse hurt his foot, she spent the night in the barn taking care of him, because she loved him and wanted him to feel better. She was the only one who could catch him, and he always acted like a gentleman for her, even when he was being bad for other people.

Years went by, and the little girl grew alongside the horse she loved. More horses came and went as time went by, and the little girl even had one of her own. But one day, she sold her horse, and went to her daddy with the money, begging to buy the big dark horse from her daddy. He said no, and explained to her that she wasn't strong enough to take care of the horse yet. Yet, he promised to let her ride him, and when she was ready, she could buy the horse off of her daddy.

More time passed and she rode the horse many times. She cared for him and loved him, and her daddy smiled and watched, and rode other horses so that the horse she loved was always ready for her to ride, but the little girl was unaware of what her daddy was doing. Then, one day, her daddy gave her a book all about Morgan horses, because that was the type of horse the dark horse was. She loved the book, and loved her daddy, and started to read the book right away. But she had schoolwork, and her birthday, and time kept passing and the book was unfinished. Her daddy never mentioned it, and the book sat on a shelf, not forgotten, but unfinished.

The little girl had grown up, and again boxes had come into her bedroom as she was moving again - this time to go to college and be a grown up. She was very sad to be leaving the farm, but her parents promised her she could visit all the time and ride whenever she wanted. She packed her things into the boxes, including the book. Something fell out of it, though, a piece of paper that she had not known was there.

As she picked up the paper, the little girl began to cry, for there was her name on the paper, and there was the name of the horse that she loved, that her daddy wouldn't let her buy from him. The paper was the horse's registration, paper and in the owner line, where her daddies name had been, hers was now. Her daddy, all those years ago, had given her the horse she loved, and she didn't even know!
Her name was Neke, and that horse' he was a gelding named Stubb.
And they still love each other very much.