Arthurian Game – wanna play ?? – hang on here.

[anivid]

Want to play an Arthurian Game ??
It consists of 7 scenarios, which I’ll place one after the other.
For each scenario you'll elaborate your answer,
- - and then - - we’ll see J

[hopewrites]

Sounds interesting, but what are we elaborating? I'm sorry I don't quite follow the rules ...

[anivid]

1. Visualize yourself in a forest.
Tell what kind of forest it is (e.g. dark & treatening, light and cherrylike, faded or forevergreen etc), what time of Year is it??
What can you see around you ? – on the ground ? - flowers ? - animals ? - etc. - in other words: tell about the forest, all you can imagine.
How do you feel beeing there, glad ? fearsom ? nervous? relaxed? etc,
This is the first scenario.
Now you can elaborate your reply - yes, Hope :-)

[hopewrites]

A cool mist swirled and whispered along her senses, the predawn chill weighted down by something sinister lurking in the silence. Lush vegetation pressed close hiding her from anything that could see through the undulating fog, damp fronds reaching down every so often to drip in a cleansing ritual she had come to accept even if her skin did not. Each drop an icy sting that chased gooseflesh over her skin like ripples on a pond.

Waiting. Waiting for life to begin.

Too silent. The canopy overhead should be chiming with birds, the leaf litter underfoot crawling with those life forms charged with returning nutrients to the soil. The last drop traces icy fingers down her spine as the sun finally begins to filter the greenish-gray back to grayish-green and the dappling of shadows deepens.

Cleansed she stands, not safe to stay still in a jungle that preys on the mind. With swift sure steps she hurries off to...


(I assume the next player is meant to elaborate on what is seen next?)

[anivid]

Thanks J
You have a most descriptive style, Hope J
The Forest made you alert – good, and now we got to get you going J

2. You can see a path in front of you, describe this path ??
(curbed, straight – upwards, downwards, in level ?? – narrow & troublesome or broad and easy ?? – or ?? – how is the light, if any, on the path ?? – the colours ??
Are there obstacles on the path ??
Describe J
This was the second scenario.

[anivid]

Well, if anyone should be in doubt, it’s Hope continuing replying to the scenarios once she started out.
If/when others decide to join the game, they go through all the 7 scenarios themselves.
It’s everyone for itself J

[hopewrites]

bare feet sink silently into the damp leaf litter as she walks cautiously home. Vines that would tangle and trip have been trained up and over the narrow pathway out of the ancient forest. Anxious to get home and report herself cleansed, she picks up the pace. The higher the sun gets the greener the diffused light becomes, all its shadows blending and shifting down where no rays ever penetrate.
Still the unnerving silence continues, as though a thousand eyes are tracking her progress through their forbidden domain and will not speak until she is well out of their home. Would it be more dangerous to run or less?

[anivid]

Excellent J
3. While you follow the path up and down, in and out - you suddenly see a key on the ground - take it up.
Describe the key, what’s its size (big, little, or)?? - what does it look like (gold, rusty, ornamentet, inscriptions) ??
- and this is the third scenario.

[hopewrites]

(hope i'm not staying too far off the path here, just writing what comes to me)

Suddenly something flickered across her path, and she instantly went down on all fours eyes wide and searching for danger.
Again a flurry of wings buzzed near her head and taunting laughter skipped up the path ahead. A fairy!? Here?! Remaining still and low she slowly brought her left hand up to eye level.
Laughter and wings approached once more, and this time she was ready. Hand darting out she caught the creature by the foot and was almost lifted off the ground in its startled attempt at escape.
"LET GO LET GO" she squealed kicking furiously enough to risk dislocating her captors arm.
"Please.."

Stillness.


"What did you say?" the fairy's hissed question was almost drowned in the silence that threatened to erase the plea.
"Please," she replied with marginally more confidence. the fairy's wings had stilled and she dared to loosen her grip enough to make her plea more heart felt. "Help me?"
"Why should I?" The delicate creature demanded imperiously. "You dared to enter this forbidden domain, you knew the consequences of doing so. You will be lost forever, to all you kind, for your insolence."
"Please Fair One, help me save my people. If I am lost it matters not, I am willing to make the sacrifice but I need your help. I was sent to plea for them and you are my only hope. Please, I only want to help my people." Risking everything the young girl let the fairy go shifting her hand under the delicate foot as a support.
"What is your name child?" Emerald eyes narrowed suspiciously as they locked on plane blue ones. If this human child wants my help she will have to pay for it.
"My name was taken from me when I entered the forbidden forest."
Dust blown into blue eyes made them flinch. "Then I claim your for my own and name you Hope, you can not leave without my permission, I am your key to everything." Iridescent wings fanned with pleasure behind the creature, as she looked down on her captive.
"My Lady is generous in her naming. When asked, to whom should I say I belong?"
Stepping back off the tips of the girls fingers with a dangerous smile the fairy disappeared and the forest echoed with her laughter. "I am the forest, I am the key, I am everything, for I am ME"

[anivid]

You surely is getting a story out of it J
(Reminds me somewhat of George Macdonald and Ithell Colquhoun)
Whatever comes to you is fine J
4. You just go on following the path, with the key in your hand - and suddenly you find a cup.
Pick it up and describe it ;-)
(What's it made of ? - ornaments ? - big, small ?? - etc.)
T’was the fourth scenario.

[hopewrites]

The path lurched and swayed beneath Hope's faltering feet as she chased the illusive laughter through the chill air and grasping fronds of the forest. Greens slurred and ran together the faster she ran, her heart beat throbbing in her ears to drown out the dull thudding her feet made on the plush carpet of discarded leafs.

All at once there was no ground to met her feet, and the forest retracted its grasping arms, as though repulsed, from around her and she plummeted into a jagged cup of rock and air.

Just before as she started to fall, and before the terrified scream could leave her lips a sleek blue shadow shot itself after her with a snarl as deep and feral as life cornered by death ever made. Velvet paws with dagger claws wrapped around the naked girl propelling them further from the razor sharp rocks, and certain death, out into the expanse of air over a crystal lake, that held only probably death.

Scream expended in a frightened yelp, Hope twisted her head to try and see what had rescued her. Feline from toe to hip, sleek panther tail lashing the sun brightened air met pale skin as furless as her own, slim girls arms to the elbow wrapped tightly around Hope's torso but from elbow to claw was pure panther again. Diamond bright eyes flashed from a feral face whose feline ears were laid back completing the grimace that was Hope's last sight before the icy blackness of deep water and fright claimed her consciousness.

"not my fault you can't keep track of your own Gwen, your carelessness nearly lost you this creature. I saved her that makes her mine." a throaty alto voice growled.

"Thief! You can't just snatch peoples things out of the air and claim them as your own, I would have saved her," a petulant voice whined seemingly unconvinced of its own proclamation.

"She wouldn't have needed saving if you cared for anything but yourself!"

Hope opened her eyes to see a dark paw ready to strike out at the green winged fairy who now owned her. "Ladies," she pleaded softly "can we argue over my death after I'm dead? I came here to save my people, not be bickered over like a lost earring."

"Fine thanks that is," the panther-girl smiled "what are you doing here anyway?"

"Don't talk to my human Sasha!"

"I'll talk to whomever I please you little bug"

Rolling her eyes and clutching her head Hope struggled to a sitting position while the two creatures resumed arguing over her. Looking around she saw she was on a bank of fine black sand on the shore of the lake that was surrounded on all sides by steep jagged cliffs. Plenty of hand holds to climb out of, if one didn't mind being sliced to ribbons doing it.

"Where am I now?" she mused aloud, not expecting an answer since Sasha was engaged in swatting at a taunting Gwen, much like a kitten trying to catch a butterfly.

"This lake is called The Goddesses Cup" Sasha purred without taking her eyes off the dancing fairy, still trying to bring her down by catching her unsheathed claws in her gossamer green gown.

[anivid]

That’s a rather big cup you found yourself, eh ??
Let’s see how our heroïne copes with the rest J
5. You now have a key and a cup - you continue - and suddenly you come to a clearing, where in the middle of that clearing you see a bear standing, seeming rather threatening.
But you're determined to get to the other side of the clearing, so -- what do you do ??
Use your Creative Imagination.
Fifth scenario.

[hopewrites]

Wandering away from the edge of the lake, Hope wonders what she should be doing next.

The answer comes to her suddenly when a fluffy white bear comes ambling out of a close group of trees muttering to himself. She knows she should run.

Feet frozen in place, heart pounding in her ears, breath shallow and speeding up, all she can do is hope that one of those possessive females will notice her peril and do something.

"What!"

Oh no! It's talking to me, what do I say!?

"Oh bother, are you lost or something?"

"um, yes?" stammering to a bear when lost in the woods is hardly helpful, it doesn't look like it will eat me, but who knows what horrors the Forbidden Forest holds. "maybe... no! Probably not, I mean, I uh..."

"Look I cant help you if you dont even know what kind of help you need. Calm down and think about what your doing." He waits to see some visible sign of reason returning to the panic stricken creature before continuing. "Are you going somewhere?"

"I don't think so"

"are you doing anything?"

"um, talking to you?"

"well that seems to be in order then doesn't it? if your not lost and your not failing to do what you are attempting to do, then you don't need my help do you."

"I suppose not, but..."

"but?"

"what if I'm supposed to be doing something else?"

"Then I would let you get back to trying to do that, and wish you better luck at it then you have had trying to talk to a stuffed bear."

"oh!" surprised dejection scrunches up Hope's features as she tries to figure out what she was doing before all this chaos began.

As she does so, the bear ambles off once more.

[anivid]

What ?? - you just stand there talking to your fairy and the problem takes care of itself ??
You must be born under a lucky star – or using telepathy, bear-telepathy J

6. You continue and come to some water – describe the water, size, motions, colours etc. AND how you plan to get over it ??
This was the sixth scenario.

[hopewrites]

Getting out of The Goddesses Cup was going to be tricky. Since now way out had presented itself in the glade, Hope turned back to the lake. Black sand, jagged cliffs, and a gentle pulsing of water were all she saw. Stepping into the water she was surprised to find it invitingly warm. Not something she remembered from her plummet into it, or subsequent swim out, maybe because she had been unconscious for so much of that.

Realizing that a lake like this must have an outlet she let the current decide where to take her and floated under a dazzeling summer sun.