EVENT 2 [ITEM=Gnarled Incense Holder] Traditionally - when walking through or near a swamp our culture carried an incense holder to protect ones self from the exposure to the wicked the voodoo slinging fiends. Grandma once told me - traveling alone was dangerous, but traveling unarmed was a ticket to misery. One must never approach the swamp alone or without this contraption. I found myself needing to cross a swamp on many occasions and I always carried this lamp. Not only has it served as protection - but a source of visibility in the abyss of darkness I roamed in.

Event two

In the ancient days when elves roamed the lands, songs had power to them. Or rather they had more power to them than they do in our current days. For all words still create a mystical energy that take flight in imagination and within our hearts—both the good and the bad. One elf carried a song in his heart. He desired to perfect a bow that would never miss the intended target. He slaved on it for years and but he could not seem to create it to the desired effect.

As he slept his song spoke to his dreams and magic encircled around him. The song was so loud, so pure in its desire and intent that as he slept, the song and his dreams collided. When he woke, he discovered the bow beside him, encased in purple energy. It was a most glorious prize and the elf was filled with joy.

not sure if we are supposed to ping or not. I didn't for the first one

Nope, no need to ping (though I don't mind). I go through all the entries. ^^

awesome :) thanks darling ^.^

DAY 2 ENTRY

"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess," she began, "who watched over a magical, blossoming kingdom. The king cherished her; the servants doted upon her; the people gave her their utmost adoration. But these were not the only eyes upon her, as fate would tell. Deep in the forests that lay in her kingdom's heart, a fierce but forgotten dragon had woken from centuries of sleep." She stopped reading there and giggled as her companion flopped lazily over the book in her lap.

"Hey, I can't see the words if you lie on top of them like that," she scolded, as the tiny dragon rolled over and grinned. Stretching out his little claws, he pawed at her face and let out a tiny roar. "That's right," the young princess laughed, "you're absolutely ferocious, just like the story said." He gave her hair a playful bat in reply. She tickled him back viciously, right where she knew he was the most ticklish - right under his itty bitty wings. They both fell over with laughter as the book slid onto the floor.

Not thirty minutes later, they had both grown tired with their play and were winding down to go to sleep. From the castle window, the princess could see the moon shining high in the sky. Because her bedroom was in one of the castle towers, she could even see the ruins of the burnt forest from where she had rescued the baby dragon. She looked down at him tenderly - asleep on the floor beside her bed, curled up in one of her shoes, a tiny body wrapped up in its wings. The book lay next to him, a large green dragon etched into its gilded cover. And as she watched his belly rise and fall with his quiet snores, she thought to herself how wonderful it was indeed that she could be somebody else's happily-ever-after.

This incense holder went through many hands. Graveyard Keepers use it to offer the spirits that roam through the night some peace and also guidance. Rumors have it, that there was once a young man pittying those souls that got lost on their way to the after life. He wanted to help them find their way again and thus crafted the Incense Holder. He then would wander through the land and spread his kindness. After his death, the holder stayed at the one Graveyard where he was buried,

Felt the need to do two.

The people in town always complained that there was too much fog when the sun rose in the morning. But, no one knew why this was. So later that night one brave soul decided to stay awake to figure out what was causing it. The night was as dark as the fur of a black bear, as he looked out the window. He should have been asleep but, he had to find out what was happening. Sitting near the window, he stared into the darkness; a figure emerged from the fog as if they were leaving it behind them. The figure came into focus; the watcher could see now that they were carrying what looked like a lamp. The lamp was not a lamp though, but an incense holder that left vast amounts of fog behind him as he walked. The twisted pole it hung on gave off the same fog. The man watching then soon realized that this is what caused the fog in town.

A hunter was in the woods, looking for the most beautiful orange fox. But, he had no luck here, there were none to be found, he decided it was time to head home and look again tomorrow. His daughter was waiting by the window hoping that this time her dad would have a fox in hand and ready for here. She had been diagnosed with cancer a year ago. She went through many treatments to help her but, those treatments came at the price of her hair. She wanted long flowing beautiful hair that of an orange fox. So her dad went out every day looking for orange foxes to make a wig for his daughter. She was disappointed by the fact that he had no fox this time. He assured her he would have one tomorrow, but he knew that there was no hope. The next day he went out but decided to stop and pick flowers for his wife and daughter. Apon arriving at the field of flowers, he saw the more beautiful fox jumping in flowers. He quickly aimed his gun and shot. The fox was not jumping anymore; he had finally got the fox that was needed. As he approached his home, he saw his little girl running out to meet him, as happy as can be. She would finally get her wig.

The teens at the sleepover thought it was just a game. They bought black candles at the corner store and scattered rose petals and this dust they got in the mail. Latin words and some giggles later the teens went to sleep.
The teens were awoken in the small hours by a loud crunching noise. Crunch crunch and screams. Oh no! What had they unleashed?
The teens crept down to the living room and there they saw a flickering light and a mess. The creature they had summoned from the beyond was sitting on the couch crunching chips and watching a horror flick. Cute and fluffy as a duckling the teens squealed and fell to cuddling it.
[Item=Damned Ritual Markings]

thanks for the ping! There are some gorgeous items here. I might see about contributing once I'm a little less busy than I am right now. You're a doll :D

Day 2 A young girl loved to go out into the woods. Her parents always said to come back from there ro many dangerous animals. She would travel there even when only a young girl. Finally she stumbled upon a mother fox and her pups. Obe of the foxes was trapped in a cage. She pulled and pulled and finally got the cage open. When she did the fox pup jumped against her chest throwing her into a mass of flowers. When she rose her hair was all a mass and covered in flowers. When she returned her mom said she had some offly flowering fox locks!

Based on

A long time ago, a buddhist monk was climbing one of Veta's mountais, searching for a mystic lost temple. During his peregrination, he kept uttering ancient mantras while his musk incense was burning and exhaling its strong smell. During the climb, in the middle of the mountain, the monk heard steps in the bushes. Slowing down, he tried to equilibrate the incense in one hand and the lamp with the other to look into a bush. Nothing.

Continuing his journey, glancing what looked like ruins of an acient building, the old monk heard more intense steps behind him. He rushed to reach what looked like the temple he was searching. When he arrived, it was confirmed: there were only ruins to what some day probably was a majestic temple. When he stopped, there were no more moves behind him. Turning back to see what was chasing him before, he was surprised with a hit on his head, leading him to be unconscious. The mysterious creatures dragged him down a dark portal on the center of the ruins, but left his incense holder and lamp behind. Nobody knows what happened to him until today, but some brave venturer was able to rescue his old, rusted incense holder. Luckily, the venturer didn't had the same luck than the monk and reached the civilization alive and with a priceless ancient piece on his hands.

Thank you ! ❤️ Am.. Am I allowed to trade the fawn wig for another color (with another user of course !) ? I love this one but I feel I might use the cryptic one more. If not it's perfectly alright !

Entry 2 Standing within the ritual circle, tears searing her eyes, she began to chant Blood for blood Bone for bone A thousand souls shall be our goals As a smile crept across her face she slit her palm open. As the blood burned the hallowed ground she continued Roses of Plagues Coals of Blight Flames of Peril Blood of Destruction Brothers hear my call, come forth and do your jobs The ground began to tremble, lightning struck, winds blew... They shall be here soon.

Bag of Arcane Crystals

"Diamonds are a girl's best friend" is a term thrown around rather tritely by most people.  For Tessa, it was not far off the mark.  She LOVED crystals.  Not because of the color or the way they catch the light so delicately- now, that was indeed beautiful- but for far more profound reasons.  When Tessa encountered people, things were.... messy.  They had unreadable faces and did not always say what they meant, and they made unpleasant sounds and things just never seemed to go the way Tessa intended when interacting.  Crystals, on the other hand...  they had symmetry, planes, patterns, you knew EXACTLY how they were going to grow and how they were going to shear if you struck them.  Crystals were regular, predictable.  They just made sense.  So Tessa preferred the company of her crystals to that of others.  It was not unheard of for her to lock herself away for days in seclusion, studying the finer, delicate, subtle science of her beloved minerals.  She happily made excursions into caves others found terrifying, spelunking to her hearts content in hopes of finding new and exotic specimens, to understand them and find new ways to use them.  

On one such excursion, Tessa found a vast underwater lake, a perfect environment for crystal formation, this was not an especially unique or breathtaking discovery in and of itself. What DID take Tessa's breath away, however, was that in the gloom of the lake, there was something... glowing. Not the bioluminescence of deep creatures that will never see the light of the sun, but something soothingly cooler, something bluer. Something unearthly. Unnatural. Never one to let a discovery go neglected, Tessa threw caution to the wind and dove into the subterranian lake to investigate this strange light. The closer she got to the light, the easier it seemed for her to swim, the less of a burn she felt in her lungs. As the distance closed, Tessa found that the source of the light was...a crystal. Unlike anything she had ever seen before, the facets seemed to twinkle blue and violet, ever shifting, though the emanating light remained unchanged. Completely forgetting her surroundings, she reached out to the strange crystal. As her eager outstretched fingers made contact, pictures suddenly flashed before her eye, hundreds of images and memories flooded into her. Tessa gasped in the depths of the lake.

As Tessa was known to do, after a prolonged absence, she reappared as suddenly as she had left for the cave in the first place. She did not really talk about the journey underground, but she never did. She just did not get along well with other people, and other people did not expect much from her in that regard. She was always stiff, unsure, inappropriate in conversation. The wooden, nearly mute Tessa was virtually unchanged from before, she always behaved nearly robotically. The only thing people noticed upon her return was the newest addition to her mineral collection, which she wore everywhere on her cloak.

Based on

Each pair of Dragonscale Heels are unique. Created from the fallen scales of wild dragons it is a hard task collecting scales that are similar enough to each other in size, shape and colour to craft each pair. In years past there was a thriving business where the dragons were kept in captivity and their scales harvested forceably. This proved disastrous as these ones didn't stand the test of time and the scales quickly dulled and shattered.

One crafters family has a young son who loved to roam the woods alone as a child. The boy collected wild scales when he came upon them and built a collection over his childhood. His first pair were not as fine as those his family crafted but they lasted much longer. Intrigued they inquired about the type of scales he used in his creation and he told them tales of wandering the woods watching the wild dragons. His family quickly realised the value of making higher quality work without the need of forcing the dragons into captivity. They released their dragons back into the wild and fed any that chose to come back to visit. The family gained renown amongst the lands and they became rich from the proceeds, always carefully looking after their valley and the dragons that lived there.

Event 2:

Deep within the belly of the earth, demons lurk. Their skin boils black with rotten scales of armor. They are near impossible to pierce and an inky substance makes them sticky to the touch. Long talons that can easily slice through a zentu and a hunger for flesh threaten all of mankind. Some of the creatures have large black wings so that they can attack with stealth from the sky while others have long and spindly limbs to run at great speeds. All of them however have glowing red eyes, pointed teeth, and a shriek that will send chills down your spine. Only one thing can keep these beasts at bay and drive them back to the damned hole from which they came. A long time ago, an ancient civilization dedicated their lives to fighting these demons. Ritual markings were used to defend against the beasts, symbols of foreboding were used to ward off attacks. They developed weapons enchanted with magic to kill the demons, but the civilization fell to ruin and the technology was lost.

Only the ritual markings have survived throughout the years, humanity's last hope. The patterns for the markings must be created perfectly. One flaw could mean the difference between life and death. It has been told that deep within the ruins lies the secret to the powerful magic used to kill the demons. It has also been told that the markings, when drawn in the precise symbol of power, could summon a titan to destroy the demons once and for all. For now these stories remain fairy tales and rumors as no one who has searched the ruins has lived to tell the tale. The world lies in vain for a hero to eradicate the sickness from within. Although a new rumor has been told, a small rumor barely more than a whisper on the wind, of a man who has killed demons with the ritual markings. He was seen traveling towards the ruins. No one speaks louder than a whisper because it is a fragile idea. They are afraid that if spoken too loudly and too boldly, the idea will crumble to dust. Only time will tell the truth of this world's future.

omg yes of course, there are no ties at all!

Ooh, what a neat writing prompt!

I am interested, actually! Unfortunately I don't have any spare csc at the moment... I need to wait till I get my second paycheck. Thanks so much for telling me about this! c:

The small dragon hatched from an egg whose shell had shone like diamond. It snuggled into a scoop-shaped fragment and fell asleep. When it woke, it looked up to see large looming figures all around. Their voices boomed and it was frightened, but one figure, smaller than the rest, leaned down and offered it something that smelled wonderful. It sniffed, then its tongue crept out and licked the offered stuff. In a sudden burst of instinct, the dragon swallowed the offering and belched a tiny smoke ring.

The girl scooped up the little creature and placed it on her shoulder, where it promptly fell asleep. She then gathered up the bits of shell, placing them carefully in a bag. Later, after she got home, she made herself a pair of shoes out of the shell pieces. When she wasn't wearing them, they were the favorite spot for her little pet dragon to fall asleep.

I'm confused, the ping was 6 hours ago but the post is from over 24 hours ago

awesome reads!