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!

Sweet Honey cont.

Taylor and the cousins strolled around the block rubbing their hands together for warmth and pulling hats down over their ears. But, Taylor didn't care that her ears were pink from the cold. She didn't seem to feel it. She was mesmerized by Honey. Soon, she handed the leash to Dakota and Taylor pulled her hat down and rubbed her hands together, then stuffed them into her pocket. When they got home, there were 4 cups of steaming hot chocolate. They gulped them down. It was 10:30. They got out their toys. Taylor had gotten a dollhouse. She, Dakota, and Brooke played with that. Jordan and Matt messed with the clothes-chute. They would tie a string to a box and pull it up and down, write messages and then receive them. They would peer into the chute with a flashlight, and they would yell to each other through it. Only Matt thought it funny when he tossed his dirty and ah hem... STINKY laundry down onto Jordan. Then, the girls rushed into Taylor's room. This was Honey's new home. They made a temporary bed for her, because later this afternoon they were going shopping at Petco. Then they gave her a food and water bowl.

~~~

At the pet store they bought a bed, a rubber mat to put her dishes on, toys, loads and loads of toys, cute leashes, a carrier, brushes. Then, Taylor's Mom pointed out, that Honey would grow up to be a bigger dog, so the carrier may not work. They put it back. When they had paid for everything with Taylor's allowance they went into a boutique and bought a bouquet of flowers for Taylor's mom. When they got home. They set everything up in Taylor's room and then shut the door. They wrote poems and told fictional stories about adventures that they had with Honey, she lay down and shut her eyes. At that point they all "awwwww"ed. When the boys came in Taylor snatched up the sleeping Honey defensively. Jordan laughed. Brooke shot him daggers. Matt came toward Taylor. "Come 'ere, Honey girl. I'm not gonna hurt you!" "No," Taylor said, "she's my dog."

Sweet Honey (Okay, I changed the title!!!)

Taylor had a box of milk chocolate filled with caramel, a deck of cards, a cherry chapstick, and a stuffed penguin for her collection. She put the things carefully back into the stocking and lay it down on the floor. Jordan and Dakota had already starting delivering presents to people. Dakota brought a box over to Taylor. "It's heavy!" she complained. Taylor took the box from her and looked at the tag. It read: From Mom and Dad with love. Taylor tore off the ribbon and took the top of the box. In it was a squealing puppy. Taylor was so happy! She jumped up and hugged Mom and Dad. They chuckled. The picked the dog up and cradled it in her arms. It was a Golden Lab puppy. She stroked it and whispered to it. She didn't even notice when Matt stole a piece of her chocolate. The puppy growled at him. Taylor looked up. She saw chocolate smeared all over his face. "Matt!!!" she tattled. She looked down at the puppy. "Good girl!" she praised. The puppy closed her eyes. "What are you going to name her?" asked Brooke. "Honey" answered Taylor. Taylor quickly opened the rest of her presents with sweet thank yous to every gift giver. Then she went into the kitchen and took down a bottle from the shelf, then filled it with warm milk. She fed the bottle to Honey. Then, went into the garage. There was some dog food. She put some in a dish and set it on the floor. Dad had come into the kitchen for more coffee. "You know, we just thought you would need a starter bag of food, but after this one, you're buying everything. Food, toys, books about training dogs and HOUSEBREAKING them. The keyword there being housebreaking. I mean, if the puppy, Honey, if Honey makes a mess, you'll be cleaning it up." With that he got his coffee and left. Taylor groaned and picked up Honey and carried her into the living room again. She let Brooke, Jordan, and Dakota hold her. Then she told all of them to get dressed. She put on a teal long sleeve shirt and sweat-pants. Then, she tied up her Nikes. She put on her puffy coat and looked in the box from Uncle Michael. There was a dog sweater. She put it on Honey along with the leash from Aunt Lucy. When the three cousins were back downstairs, they went outside to walk the dog. When Honey made a poop, Taylor had to clean it up. She tossed it in a dumpster, then they continued on.

Bitter Brownies

Okay, I will post a little of the story each time, like a chapter or something, and then soon, after everyone has read the story, I will post more. So, here we go, it's called Bitter Brownies by Anna Raphael.

Taylor rushed down the stairs her monkey slippers warming her feet and her bathrobe flying behind her. It was Christmas morning. Her cousins, aunts, uncles, granparents, were all here to celebrate. She was so excited. When she realized that no one was awake yet, Taylor rushed back upstairs. She woke Brooke and Jordan, two of her cousins. They groaned, and then looked up at her. She was grinning broadly. They quickly each got a blanket, which they wrapped around them and socks and followed Taylor downstairs. They knew better than to go into the living room where stockings her hanging filled with candy and toys. They knew better than to peek under the tree, open presents, then re-wrap them. They all went into the kitchen where they discovered Taylor's mom cooking Cinnamon buns a Christmas tradition. She greeted them and they each sat down and turned on the TV. Jordan yawned and reached his arms up to the ceiling stretching. Taylor and Brooke did the same. Soon, Matt came down. Matt was Taylor's older brother. Following him was Michael, Brooke and Jordan's father, Taylor and Matt's uncle. When Theo Matt and Taylor's four-year-old brother toddled into the kitchen, they laughed at his messy hair. But he reached for his sippy-cup of milk sitting on the table. Slowly, Aunt Lucy dragged herself into the kitchen pouring a cup of coffee and taking a drink. Taylor expected everyone to be more excited. After all, it was Christmas morning. Finally, Dad, Aunt Mary, and Dakota came into the kitchen. Uncle Michael and Aunt Lucy were Mom's brother and sister, and Mary was Dad's. Her daughter was Dakota. She was adopted. When everyone had a Cinnamon bun on their plate and either a mug of hot chocolate or coffee, the grown-ups found a chair and the kids sat on the floor of the living room. Then, everyone emptied their stockings.

More soon!

SOUTH DAKOTA

Hey everyone. We arrived safely last night just in time for warm rhubarb pie and french vanilla ice cream. There was a fantastic lightning storm that we saw just pulling into South Dakota so we were just glad we were not victims of the beautiful show. Well, I always like lists, so here's one to start us off:

What We Are Going To Do:

See both Up and The Hannah Montana Movie in the theaters
Go to the art show at the Pavillion and have fun there
Make some fairy houses
Make our specialty Peanut Blossoms (a visit to South Dakota is never complete without the tasty peanut butter cookies with a chocolate kiss on top)
And probably more things that I didn't know we were going to do!

~Anna~

Random Rambling

My first tangent is not really a tangent since a tangent is when you go off your original topic. But, I don't really have an original topic, so all of this is rambling and tangents going away from the rambling. My second tangent will be about... I don't know what it will be about, because as you know, tangents are not on purpose and they just kind of happen and then you go from, say, mushrooms, to pencils, and you think how did you get there, and then there you go, off on another tangent. There's this girl in my class who does tangents on everything. We were doing the Robert Indiana LOVE thing, and she did fire, and then she went off and was in like fire is hot, like burritos, and then she did a whole list of foods she likes including ice cream which is not hot, nor has anything to do with the word fire. It was crazy. My third tangent will be about tangerines. I wonder if tangerines, the word not the real fruit because then what I say next will be like the root the tangerine grows on. Anyway, I wonder if tangerines come from the same root as tangent since they both start with tang. Tang's a word too, but the three words have NOTHING IN COMMON. So, that's just why I'm wondering. My fourth tangent will be about how if I were actually writing something that you wanted to read, this would be a lot shorter because clearly all this is is nonsense and nonsense is always endless. But, I find that if you make your nonsense interesting than people start reading it and they just cannot stop so I hope that's what's happening as you read this, or stop right now. Haha! Joke's on you! The post is over!

Spring Break

Wow! If I posted my whole spring break "to do" list, it would take up this whole post. Cleaning out my room, watching a movie a day, getting outside, maybe getting Wii Fit, getting together with lots of people, those are just some of my, and my family's goals. Preferably, I would want to do some of the less labor intensive things, but, having a cleaner room would be nice. When are they going to invent the magic spell that cleans your room? Sure, Cinderella's dress spell was nice, but less useful. All in favor of my preposition, comment yay, or nay, depending on your opinion. Those of you "yayers" you have a little project for spring break. Otherwise, I suggest going to movies, being a couch potato, or doing whatever. Sometimes I consider quitting the violin so I have more free time, but then I consider the effects. Nothing to get mad at my parents about, nothing to do when I don't have anything to do, nothing to procrastinate on, and since 66.6% of my friends play it so, then I would kinda be out of the band wagon. But, I have an idea. I am considering writing a continuous story that will cliffhang after every post. For those of you not knowing what a cliffhanger is, it is a point in a story where you stop abruptly leaving the reader in suspense, wanting more, and hanging. Normally used at the end of chapters. Misused by authors at the end of paragraphs. Then, the reader can just go on! But, tell me your opinion by comment or email, for those of you who have mine. A cliffhanging moment at the end is what keeps the reader going. If, for example you were reading along a story about a girl who is on a dangerous mission to kill the dark lord of Andenevea, and you were ending a chapter and you read: "She climbed a tree and peered ahead, spotting the dark lord. She followed him and plunged a dagger into his back." Although, it seems like it would make the reader want to know if he dies or not, they may see about how many pages they have, and realize, he can't die. The story would end. So, now picture reading this: "Belca scurried up a tree and sat on a branch. Slipping, she lot her balance and was holding on with one hand. Struggling to grip the branch with both hands she twisted in mid-air. She was hanging right over a stream over 8,000,000 feet below her." Ask yourself these questions: Do you want to read more? Do you prefer version A over B or the other way around? Can you predict what will happen next by using common sense or knowledge? Are you bored with the plot? Does the author drone on, or does it get to the heart of the story? You know what? This post should be called Cliffhangers, but I'm lazy. So, Spring Break remains. Anyway, ask yourself those questions and post your answers!!!!!

Youtube

OMG! Youtube is so cool. THe stuff find there you will want to watch over and over again! Here are some of my favorites so you can anjoy them too. Or, go to youtube.com to find anything you want!

1. The Hampster Dance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1_kgNp9oQg

2. Where the Hell is Matt? This is one of my favorites. It's really fun to see all these people dancing all around the world! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNF_P281Uu4

3. Numa Numa! This is a very famous one and this guy has reently gotten a lot of publicity! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60og9gwKh1o

4. Obama Baby! If you are one of those crazed Obama fans, you will enjoy this one very much! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlPsuzCjPiM

5. I love YMCA! Such a funny song! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9OO0S5w2k NOw, here's an Asian language version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw7o5gnu2cQ

I hope you enjoy all of these videos!