Welcome to Week Three! Can you believe we’re at the halfway mark for the challenge?
You all did so well with your stories last week! There were so many interesting and unique ways you interpreted the prompt. It’s now the third week, so it’s time to do it again! Will your story have aliens? Zombies? Maybe it’ll have a dragon in it! Whatever you decide, we can’t wait to see what you come up with.
So, without further ado, here’s your next prompt!
Week Three Prompt – The Starting Sentence Prompt
Write a story that starts with the
following sentence: So this is what drowning feels like.
Wait…what’s a “Starting Sentence” prompt?
A sentence prompt is a prompt that uses a particular sentence. It doesn’t matter where your story takes place, who’s in it, or what’s said. The only thing that matters is that your story must start with this sentence: So this is what drowning feels like.
Before you start writing, we have some important rules for you to follow.
Writing Rules
1. Please keep the content of the stories you post to a PG rating. Please avoid real curse words. Violence/fighting should be limited and purposeful. Please do not include any spice.
2. Your story must be 1,000 words or less, and must contain the prompt to be counted for the challenge. You’re not required to post it in order to “win” the challenge, but if you want it to count for your team, your story must be posted by Sunday at 11:59 PM ET, and you must include your team name.
Remember to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and post your story as an “answer” to this question, not a “comment”. 🙂 You’re all doing such a great job! I’m so proud of all the stories you’ve posted.
Happy Writing!
Will you notice if someone is like 1-25 words over the 1000 word limit (asking for a friend hahaha)
what if i accidently posted my story as a comment last week lol? does it still count?
Hey Izzy and Ava,
If you accidentally post your story as a comment instead of an answer, you should get an email to alert you! It will still count for points for your team, but no one will be able to vote for it.
And, to answer your question for your friend 😉 As far as word count, for your story to count for the challenge, it does need to be 1,000 words or under. Great questions!
Team 1
The Imperfect
So this is the feeling of drowning…
Tairi had decided, but when the icy water enveloped him, something in him sobered up and he quickly pushed himself up. The breath of air turned out to be sweeter than all the previous ones.
*
Tairi was born without wings – the only one in the entire world of the airi. His parents waited, but the days passed, and the baby growths did not appear. They named him Tairi, which in their language meant Wingless.
The little one had everything else – a pair of arms and legs, eyes and ears, a nice beak and feathers…At one year old, when others were learning to fly, he could only walk.
The difficulties began.
Tairi resented, blamed… envied, until finally he closed in on himself and did not want to see anyone. The parents tried, but they couldn’t help him, and society silently declared him defective.
The only thing Tairi loved were the mountains, and that’s why he climbed high so he could see them like the others. However, he suspected that it was not the same and tormented himself even more. And then he reached the age to have offspring, but no female looked at him in that way. And Tairi didn’t dare to court, because without wings he wouldn’t be able to perform the love dance…
That’s how he came up with the idea to end it, because society was already suggesting it to him. One day he overheard a conversation about him. They said that if Tairi had offspring, then his young ones would also be born without wings, and then their young ones, and so the airi would lose their wings. Tairi was very angry that they thought that way and even then he thought of attacking them, but something stopped him and he realized that he had become a pusillanimous. Then he said to himself that there was no point and that at least he had the will left to end himself. So he chose a deep lake and jumped into it. But right there something else happened.
*
The airi live for at least a thousand years and some become very wise, while others remain almost the same. In the airi society there are more of the latter, because the wise ones have flown far away and live alone. Therefore Tairi decided to go to one of them, about whom he had heard good things. His name was Zolra.
Tairi goes around for eighteen days around the eternally snow-covered mountain Ura, until Zorla himself spared him. He landed near him and said to him:
„Why, stranger, are you looking for me so persistently? Don’t you know that such like me love solitude?“
Tairi was not embarrassed, on the contrary, he was very happy that Zorla revealed himself to him and said:
„I am only twenty years old and my name is Tairi. And I’m the only airi who doesn’t have wings…and that’s why I was thinking of ending myself and not torturing anyone anymore.“
„The stupidest thing is to end yourself. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. But why are we standing here? Come home, incomparable Tairi!“
It was the first time anyone had called him that, and for the first time Tairi didn’t feel ashamed that he had no wings.
Zorla didn’t want to waste time and picked up Tairi with her wings and carried him to her nest. Tairi had done this with his parents before, but when he grew up he wouldn’t let anyone carry him. Now, however, he enjoyed it.
Zolra’s nest was modest – located in a cave, with only the bare necessities for sitting, eating and lying down. It wasn’t crowded with hanging meats and dried fruits, which were a common sight in most homes.
They talked for a long time and ate and lay down several times, and Tairi never realized how long he had been in Zorla’s nest. However, when he left there, he knew what he had to do and that gave him hope.
And here it should be noted that the airi have no inclination towards technical development, because they easily find their food and only need to store it.
Unlike them, however, Tairi began to be interested in everything. There were many ideas, but no materials and tools. But he began to melt solids and make shapes from them. And Zorla showed him the most important and wonderful thing that he himself had not thought about – the wheel. And of course, Tairi knew that this could take him many years. But he consoled himself that he had at least a thousand.
Not long after, his activities were discovered and he was banished. But he went to another place and continued to invent. And when he sometimes went to other airi to get supplies, another miracle happened – he met a female airi – Hoira. And they fell in love and started a family. Then they had children… and as they had predicted, they also had no wings. But that did not discourage them. And the children grew up and began to do the same as their father.
After three hundred years, Tairi had mastered metals and make produce any shape, and at five hundred he built a tall and strong house.
The airi, on the other hand, remained distrustful of him and declared his family a corrupted race that had nothing to do with them. Only his parents admired him and one day came to him.
When Tairi was seven hundred years old, he flew in a ball of cloth full of hot air. But that was not enough for him and he continued to invent. Until, on his nine hundred and first birthday, he invented something he could sit in and could carry him through the air hundreds of times faster than the airi.
On his thousandth birthday, Tairi and all his relatives set foot on the nearest moon…
*
Wait so if we like accidentally post our stories as a comment here, will it count or be ignored?