Operation: Benemal

"I decide... I will. I mean, this will be an adventure, right?"
"Quite true, but there will be many dangers along the way. This will not be a play-time and if that is the way you wish to take it, then be gone with you. I do not have time for people of Benemal like you. So simply make the decision. It's not a hard one."
She talked with that accent that was soft and soothing and pronounces one like vone. She replaces r's with ds so very sounds like veddy.
"I suppose I will rise to the challenge. But what am I even to do?"
"Be patient my child. Along this quest you must never be indolent. You will not sleep for many weeks. There will be little food for you to consume. I don't suppose that you were prepared for that, were you?"
"My whole life is made up of hunger."
"Then you will do quite well on this quest my child of Benemal. I do not think that I have made the wrong decision. If I have, this world will be over, so if you don't think you are appropriate for the job, please speak up. NOW!"
I did not say a word.
"Well, then, I'd better tell you what you are to do, musn't I?"
"I guess so."
"Fine then. This quest is all about orbs. There are four orbs. One for each element. Fire, water, air, and earth. You must collect an orb for each element. You will face many dangers trying to get those orbs. For example, I know of the fire orb, to be in a burning fire. It will be hard to get the orb out of the fire. I know there is a way. There is a way for everything, my little child of hope. You may never turn back, for I create portals for you to go in and out of Benemal. Trust me, I will know when the time is right to let you back in. But, until you have four orbs, or you are dead, you will not come back. If you die I will know, but I will never tell you straight out what an answer is. You won't even know where your final portal will be. These are things I know that you can figure out. You must never give up. So I present you with four items. One, a cloak. Two, fishing supplies. Three, this air-catcher. And four, a box of something you will never know what it is, until there is nothing you can do, but open this box. If you ever open it, before needed, I will know, and I will kill you."

Operation: Benemal

After I have started skipping school there's no turning back. You can't march into the classroom and announce that you were "just running a little late". That takes you straight to the headmaster. The headmaster provides you with this glowing orb that you must smash into your element box and all of you collectibles with disappear. That wouldn't really matter except for that fact that there is a due date to have a certain amount of collected items and if you don't meet that requirement, it's off to the headmaster's. You get three trips to the headmaster before you're expelled. Here's one great thing about school in Benemal: They don't take notice if you skip the whole day. It's just being late. But, you can skip as much school as you want, but there is one test day after each 6 weeks of school. If you miss that test, you're expelled. If you fail that test, you're expelled. Pretty much any way you go, you head towards expulsion. The way I do it is skip a day, then I take a walk through the alley to the other side of town, where Xana lives. I ask her all about school, she teaches me things, and so on. But, I do limit myself to one "alley walk" a six weeks. Meaning, I can only miss one "learning before a test. It's kind of a nice system so today I head toward the trail that leads to the woods. When I get to the woods, I walk a little far and then stop. I can hear a soft humming. I peer around trees and even pull up grass. Nothing. Then suddenly, I see something white leaning against a tree. It turns out to be a spirit. Spirits have been gone for a long time. It was the kind of spirit we see in the books we read at school. The town elders banished them from the land because they kept decreasing the population by sending these dangerous quests that mostly people died on. Everyone tells tales of people driven insane by a spirit. I was always curious about them... so I decided to go say hello.
"Hello. I see that you are a spirit. I-- you're not really supposed to be in these woods."
"Neither are you."
"Yes, but it's my choice. I reason carefully."
"So do I."
"Listen, I think it's kind of great and awful that you're here. I mean--"
"Listen child of Benemal. I understand the elders have made these choices to protect you, but I think if they really want to protect everyone, they should let us do this. You see, all those quests have been trying to do the same thing. Slowly, the condition and the point of the quest has been getting worse over the years. This quest trial is our last chance. Will you take this perilous journey?"
"Don't I get to know what this is first?"
"No."
"Then... I decide..."

Operation: Benemal

I got a chill. At this time of year, Benemal is reasonably cold. There was a bit of superfluous water in the stream. It flowed through a little canal to a bigger pool. I'm sure the water was quite unclean and unsanitary, but that's the "mal" part in Benemal. I felt weird skipping school. All these adults were looking at me and I knew they knew I was supposed to be in school. I didn't care. I was free. Well, I wasn't as free as I'd like. Someday, I'm going to find a way out of Benemal. I'm going to show everyone. But that's only a dream. A dream is something that happens when you're asleep. People are dumb when they're asleep. I was dumb when I came up with that dream. It's never gonna come true. But even if it did, it wouldn't mean anything because someone who's name means bad found the way out so the place beyond Benemal must be terrible. When that thought popped into my head, I shook it off. Not completely off, because if it was all the way off, I wouldn't be telling you about this. When you shake off a thought, you can shake it off completely or not completely. When you shake it off completely, you can't tell anyone. Maybe you forget. But the devil allows you to forget a thought, meaning you have to pay to the devil. So it makes you forget, and the only reason you don't tell people is because that is the payment you make to the devil. It may seem weird. If you forget, it's impossible to tell people about it. But not so. It's possible. That's one of the many things people 'round here don't know. Forgetting means not being able to think about it anymore. It doesn't mean you don't know how to think about it. That didn't make sense. Things rarely do. If you get me, then you get me. You're lucky. For those of you who think you get me, but you're not really sure, doubt yourself. People are rarely right about me. Not that people every really have interest in me. But if you have no idea, you're better off that way. I wish I didn't know about the devil. Our dad told us. He thinks it's better for us kids to know every nook and cranny, good and bad about this world. He thinks if you crawl into one, we should be able to identify which kind it is. I automatically think bad, but of course, that's my decision. If it's good, then I miss out. But for those who think it's good, and it turns out to be bad, those are the people who fall into the abyss of wrongness. Right, there's no such thing. More like a state of mind. But those people, the nook and cranny finders, get lost in the cranny, and rarely get out alive. Sure nooks and crannies are small and hard to come by, so how can you get lost. Well, I'm sure, once you have finished reading my story, you will understand.

More Benemal

I am not going to school today. I'm supposed to leave in a few minutes. Of course Bena is hogging the bathroom. I couldn't even take a shower. Dad ignores us, as usual. But, I've decided to pack my bag. I put in my nature box, a sketchpad and my slider case full of things to draw with. Mama gave that to me just the week before she died. I carefully tuck a ripe pear into the outer pocket so not to squish it. I knock on the door and hurry Bena out. I grab a hair tie, and bunch my hair together into a ponytail. My long black hair comes down to my waist. I'm ready. I walk downtown to the market. I go over to the fountain and kick off my shoes. I dip my feet in. The water is cold.


That picture is actually me at the farmer's market downtown. It was summer.

Oh the irony

Okay, that title has nothing to do with this post except for the fact, that my friend said it a long time ago so now this whole week, it's been running through my head. Okay, I have decided to create a new "story". I found the Sweet Honey one quite tedious. Sorry for those of you fans, but I have decided to move on. You on the other hand are welcome to continue it. I would be glad to read it. This new story is about a girl in world, or more of a town, called Benemal. Goodbad. Her name is Mallie, and her sisters are: Bena, Prence, and Prance. Prence and Prance happen to be twins. Mallie is in about the fourth grade, but her education is poor. The town is so poor, that even the educators are quite dumb. They have little money for school houses so there is only one, and few children attend. Though each one who does is given a little wooden box. They are to collect things that resembled the elements. What the children do not know, is that the town is using them to collect the elements, or the "soft" elements because the town is running out. There are however, more powerful elements, but the town of Benemal is afraid to use them. So one day, Mallie finds this person in one of the town's many forests and the spirit tells her that she must go through this portal and collect these four orbs. There will be many dangers, but once she has collected them all, a portal will take her back to Benemal. She must smash the orbs where she would like each element to rule over. So please enjoy this mouse-clicking (get it, page turning?) adventure of Mallie, her three sisters, and her secretive father.


Everything is bad. This town is all malice. No benevolence. Simply smoggy air, drought, famine, no trees, no fire, and nothing ever that has been good. Or at least as long as I have lived in this bloody town. My name is Mallie. That's correct. Before my mother passed, she and my father decided to name me after all that is not well in this world. Mal. Mal as in bad. My name comes from the same root as malice. A word I despise. I have never liked being named Mallie. Somehow it makes me think I was unwanted. Even my father seems to agree. He is so secretive and cruel. What little rations there are, we get little of them. Every time, my name is said, I wince. I hate my name. Why not name me Bena like my sister? Is she better than me? Wanted in this world? Worth something more than me? Needed? Did my parents only want three kids. Was I a mistake? Was I just for experimentation? Whatever it is, as I stare out of the window, looking for answers, all that comes to mind is more questions. Is there some reason why God birthed me into this world? Well whatever the reason is, I'm sure it's no good. Just like me. No. The only word my father knows me. Good. My sister. Not me. put them together and you get mal. Me. The only thing that I can find myself to be.

Comment! Tell me if I should continue! The quest is on. Can Mallie complete operation Save Benemal?

Poems

Here's a few poems I wrote.

Can you see my in my dreams?
Crying
Weeping
Sobbing
The days pass,
as days may do,
and without the trees,
standing tall around me,
surrounding me,
grounding me.
They help me find my roots,
they help them stretch to the core of the earth.
The trees are what I thrive on,
the sweet nectar of my song,
my flower never blooming,
without the trees around me.

That was kind of a weird poem I made up. Not really sure what it's about, but then again, aren't a lot of famous poems kind of confusing?!

My Body is musical.
The beat of my heart,
is the beat of the drum,
and my hands the cymbal's crash.
My hair the long hairs of the violin's bow,
when it plays along the strings,
and when I write my words,
it makes music just like my body,
for:
The beat of my heart,
is the beat of the drum,
that keeps my rockband going.

Sing, sing, sing,
among the trees,
and hills,
and sky.
Ring, ring ring,
the voice ricochets through the fields,
and clouds beyond.
Swing, swing, swing,
sway up in the sky.
Soar up there too.
It's a chance,
a chance, so just take it.


Okay, so those are some poems I just made up really quick. You can email me at annerg1999@gmail.com for more poems, pieces, or something like that. You can also give me a topic, tell me where to post it, and I'll write something. Got any good ideas? Just want to hear a poem? Also, I can edit something! Even though, me, as a writer, I would never want someone to tell me how to make something better! So, make the decision, email me, and voila. I'm like a machine. So, here's the process:
1. Choose what you want from the selection above: 1. Poem 2. Writing piece 3. Editor
2. Email me at the address listed above.
3. I will either post it at the blog here, or send it back to you on email.

Here's the format of the email:

Hello, Anna. I would like choice number _____. Please post it at your blog/send it back to me. (Pick one)

Sincerely,
__________

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!! COMMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Eat the foam, fight the power!

Books and Stories and More Books!

So, I have been reading and writing lately, nothing much different, huh? Well, I read Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix, which was really sad, but kind of happy, and deep I guess. I read it in a day, not totally happy with how it ended, but my sister pointed out, that if they ended the story the other way, there wouldn't be the rest of the story! But, I expect to read the rest of the series.
Then, I was exploring some other books on the web, when I remembered a title I had heard of last year, called Zack's Lie by Roland Smith. I thought it might be a fun read. I read the first few pages of it, loving it. Then, I thought I might look a little more up about this on the web, since I wanted to understand what I was reading, I mean come on, who doesn't?! So, then, I thought I maybe should write a story about the same topic. It's called USFWPP. That stands for United States Federal Witness Protection Program.
Unfortunately, I cannot publish the writing on the blog for some odd reason without having to retype it all. Post a comment telling me how to do so, or email me and I'll be happy to share it with you! But, since I am a writer, and this is completely fake but I like fake, but fun stuff, so you may need to "sign" (meaning type) the e-contracts I send you before sending you the file. Once you have read the file please instead of responding to the email, post comments on the blog so others may read them! Thank you!