Kinship Challenge: The Life of Water

Still and cold, I sleep. Gently I fell from the sky, oh so long ago. Now I sleep, seemingly forever. Days, weeks, months, and years go by. Then one day the sun breaks through the heavy clouds over me.
She makes me stir. I'm full of life and I want to break away. Her touch is warm and unrelenting, I feel heavy.
Still cold, but heavy. I'm sinking, loosing my grip on the stones. Slipping, slipping.. Then I fall.
Suddenly I have the strength to move again! I start to follow the path down. As I go, I feel stronger and stronger. I run faster and faster.
Soon I am flying down the mountain, gathering and roaring for all to hear.
The white fades away, the stones become bare and surrounded by green. I now carve my own path toward the valley below.
On I go!

A drop awaits me up ahead, but I am not afraid. I charge forward. I know I can fly!
So I fall, I fall past the trees, past the arch, past the lights, now the balcony.
I have gone under, my glimpse was brief, yet still I continue on.
There is more to see, more to visit.
On I run!

Forever I run, gathering more strength and roaring louder as I join others who are like me.
We will continue on forever until we reach the big sea!
Then, one at a time, we will ascend again to the clouds.
I will join the sun in the sky that first gave me my desire to run.
Then I will fly back to where I began and softly descend again. The circle will not end.

Written by Cat  ~  Illustration by Mae

Whispers

   Perhaps you are familiar with the feeling ...

You have lost something, and you do not remember what it is, or where it was lost, or how. You know that it is something of yours that has been misplaced... your shelf seems emptier somehow, and though you cannot even begin to describe it, you know that you greatly desire to have it back ...

  Sorrow without hope is despair. Although my heart is heavy, as though it has been anchored to the lowest depths of the ocean, I feel hopeful still, that this weight will pass, and that there will again be cause to have joy. There is nothing they can do to take that from me. Even should death watch me from around the corner, I will smile to him.

        
            

Fall of Ungoliant's Spawn

Nilithion Has Been Defeated!

The dreaded spider from Moria has at last fallen by the hand of courageous heroes: Captain Evonfall, Tyrral, Tarvhos, Mosaine, Caladheil, and Warey the River-Maid.

From Evendim to the Misty Mountains, the fellowship pursued this dreaded creature on a long and exhausting hunt, which at last concluded within the depth of Helegrod. The length of time spent in the bitter cold with limited rations left the fellowship half frozen and weak, yet they resolved not to let the monster escape this time. When the battle commenced, it took a vicious toll on all concerned. By the hand of the Elf scout Caladheil, the beast took a blow which felled her, but it was a hard earned victory. All members of the group had be injured, many with fatal poison, and lost consciousness in the dark of the cave along side the body of their enemy.

The identities of those who came to their rescue remain unknown, yet each member of the fellowship was delivered alive to Rivendell with poison removed and wounds dressed. As of now, these heroes continue their path to healing and rejuvenation in The Last Homely House.

The land has been cleansed of the spider's maddening influence and news has spread abroad of her death. Peace has returned to nature is seems, yet tales say there is still evil brewing within Moria-- What evil sent the Rune Hunter forth from that place remains unknown. What action will now be taken against it is the decision of kinship leader Skalithor Mountainzephyr.

-Dorus

New Year's Kinship Challenge!

Thank you for your participation
in last years Kinship challenges! 

This year we will be continuing our theme of "Unity" as we move into one of the most challenging stages of our collaboration effort. Our last two challenges involved "Photography" and "Interpretation", wherein our members voted for the screenshot that best represented our theme and were then challenged to take one object in the scenery and creatively describe it as a character. 

Very good job to all those who chose to participate! These submitted entries will serve as the outline for the next step:

 ILLUSTRATION

The instructions for this month's challenge are as follows; 

Participants will be given one of the descriptions from the previous challenge to illustrate in any visual medium of their choice. 

An illustration is a visual compliment to a story. The objective of an illustration is to enhance the writing without distracting from it, and to do so an illustrator must be attentive to the author's description. Nothing is more frustrating or unappealing than an illustration that improperly represents the original text of a work. So in this challenge you will be putting your talents to the test through comprehension of an author's original idea and fitting it into visual format in a way that illuminates the concept precisely and artistically, incorporates the challenge's theme, and merits the work of the author as well as the illustrator. 

Best of luck to our incredible artists!  

 

Allegory of the Wind

Will the grass oft speak of the trees when the wind blows over the mountainside?
Oh you little ones, gently swaying in the breeze, look to your elders under whose boughs you have grown; twas they that sheltered you from the downcast snow, but shadowed you beneath their glory. Thus, how oft will the Grass speak of the Trees?

Be plentiful and merry, chipper leaf of grass, give to your own while the season lingers, else comes the bitter winter, whereunder all green grows pale. So blessed and happy, for a life so short, as ought it to be; Grass that grows beneath the stones is pale and cold and sings no song for its mother earth. Will you not look skyward and laugh? Your time is too short to dwell under rock and foot. Cover the land, how splendid and merry, give to the sky your beauty while in your prime, else in passing seasons, earth grow grey and pale. 

Will the trees oft speak of the mountain when the wind blows through the grass?
 Oh great elders, look to the mountain on which you stand, with leaves rattling as the zephyr passes o'er; Tis the shadow of the mountain's mighty form, that guards you 'gainst the tempest's fearsome wrath. Yet, how oft will the Trees speak of the Mountain?

In the dark and cold embrace of earth, your roots were nurtured and grown, yet twas the light of sun that drew you out to reach, Great Trees of the Mountainside. Pardon the wind in passing, that it should linger about in your arms, yet look skyward all, and ne'er cease to reach for the skies.
Seasons unnumbered, affliction often suffered, time as a whisper has no meaning - for you who live longer than man. Look down upon the grass at your root, ne'er they ever to live half-so long. One season for them all, and then their time be done, but their seed shall last longer than the root of the Great Trees on the Mountainside.

Will the mountain oft speak of the wind when the trees rattle and the grass

gives sway?

Oh great giant whose days none know, heavenward your gaze is spent and ageless your foothill stay; look to the wind that brings you sign of the tempest passing near, for it wages war against your little ones, else you halt its way. Still, how oft will the Mountain speak of the Wind?

Mighty Mountain with face above cloud and storm, foremost the guard of land, and guide of rain to feed those all, every root that needs earth still... Great seasons have you endured, stolid, unshaken, worn and weathered; beaten and scorned, yet for the reason to lift others nearer the sky. Beneath your base a fire is kindled, burning deep, yet ever resting, though rest it may til all else is done, when then to rise and shake land and air. From the earth you came, so separate from the sun, rising to bask in light of glory - to greet every growing dawn. Great Mountain with gaze out upon tree and grass, first to tempest meet, and keeper of sun's last ray, so to let light descend on earth in final day...  


Will the wind oft pass through the grass and trees on the mountainside?
Oh you who is the wind, wandering to and fro from pasture and peak, dancing between branch and root and leaf; twill always be that you look upon the trees and grass, while you sojourn upon the mountainside, for these may yet have what you seek, lest from them you turn away. Then, how oft will the Wind pass through the Grass and Trees on the Mountainside?

You, who to yourself are wind, begotten of tempest's wrath, the only to rest on mountain face and still glide between blade and bough unstayed. You go from the foothills to the peaks, ne'er dwindling too long, yet for the tempest's break you do flee, both to him and from. Twas the tempest from whence you came that continues your journey on, yet pause a moment and listen here, to the tale of grass-green, rock-deep, and bough-long - for all they have words for you that echo to a timeless dawn: From the Grass of the foothills may these words be kept; waste not your time while in your prime and delay not to serve the skies. From the Trees of the white peaks, an ageless chorus they call; cherish the small things that are in your keeping, for twill be they who carry your song. And from the Mountain-wise with his face so high, these words a whisper to the wind: Do not forget your purpose here, and what in this brief moment you have seen, for the story goes on and we are all one small piece.

An Allegory of the Wind

~Lynsyrien

Truth

  Dear Mother,

It's been a while since I've last written to you. As it stands, I am currently in the majestic Elven home of Rivendell, preparing to journey with a handful of Skalithors best men into the Misty Mountains. There is time yet, however,  before we embark, which naturally has lent me more hours than I might ever be comfortable with, to reflect on the thoughts in the distant reaches of my mind.

Lo and behold, when you traverse those dark seas of your soul, you get caught in it's waves. The darkness, the power of them seeming so overwhelming, so consuming... You may gain a certain pleasure even, in feeling the torrent beat away your being, that it becomes like an abusive love affair. In time, you only wish you would be swept under and drowned to be rid of it all. If only it were so easy - then perhaps a coward such as myself could succumb to the abyss that no feeling can ever touch.

There's an anchor, however. It's almost agitating, the way that it tethers you to it; pulling you back up from the darkest reaches of despair. Fight as you might, there is no ocean so vast and so violent that this anchor can't pull you from it's grasp. You are never so lost in it's depths that it can't find you. Even if you are forced to the bottom, it's heavier still, and it will meet you and drag you up time and time again. Whether or not we see it, or feel it, it exists constantly.

This anchor is friendship. The steel it's forged with is something greater; charity, love, commitment, humility, hope, faith - everything that the darkness fears. The rope that binds it to the ship is a bond that cannot be broken, frayed, or cut by any evil. Once we've established that bond, it is eternal. The ship itself is something far greater than we will ever be able to fully comprehend, and has traversed more seas than we will ever know. Across the hull of this ship, you will find Truth written.

I've learned recently that no man at all times is happy. We are perceiving creatures; we must let ourselves feel the ebb and the flow of the tide. If we fight those adverse currents, we will be taken by them. We can however, in those moments of harshness, learn and let ourselves be shaped in the way that stone does not argue against the tides that bring it's character about with time. We will, with patience, know empathy, and understanding, and gain wisdom. We will grow stronger, as the weakest parts of us are gnawed away as limestone, until all that's left is a pillar of marble.

Therefore, let yourself feel the pains of life and not be consumed, but rather, when Truth comes, let it take you back to the surface and breath. We are here still.

           -Tarvhos Bartholomaus

New Kinship Challenge!

Thank you all for your participation 

in June's Kinship challenge! 

This screenshot, taken by our very own Dez was voted to best represent the theme "Unity" and will serve as the reference for the rest of our collaboration challenge! 

We hope you all are well rested, because here is where the challenge gets challenging! 
The next step of this collaboration is (get ready for it -)

 INTERPRETATION

So here are the instructions for this month's challenge; 

Select one aspect of the above screenshot, interpret its meaning, then give it life through creative description. 

Artistic interpretation is one of the most fundamental stages of the creative process. In this month's challenge, each member is to choose one thing that can be seen in the above screenshot, discover its hidden meaning, and describe why he/she thinks the object is important to the overall theme of the scene. Get with other kinship members to make sure every participant has chosen a unique object to describe, and enhance the meaning of the scene through creative discussion. The descriptions you come up with will become the project outline for the next stage of this collaboration.

Remember! The collaboration theme is "Unity"

So put on your thinking caps, get inspired, and good luck!