Forum Thread

Tall grass, Green grass
As the grass blows in the wind
I run, quick and calm
Smooth as a stone, I move
Blades of grass sing their song
Wild and free, I run
I wander
Green as the grass
I wait... for you...

The forest is one he often sees
Calm yet wild are the trees
Hushing all the rustling leaves
As the secrets hide.

He knows the quiet is but a guise
Behind it dwells a loud reprise
Of dark lanterns, whispering lies
This deep wood is their guide.

Far from the troubled path he will stray
Unaware of the price they might pay
Still he continues down this way
The wind wishing to condemn.

Lost, he is not - at least not yet
Despite this ever towering threat
Again he finds the path, their journey reset...
But the forest watches them.

Wheee, bonus stanza:

As the secrets hide
This deep wood is their guide
The wind wishing to condemn
But the forest watches them.

In case you can't tell, it's about a kid and his sibling in the woods? Which is probably why it sounds really Over the Garden Wall/Gravity Falls-ish to me?

also, I hope you ignore the word "reprise" which can be pronounced as rhyming with either "ties" or "tees" (maybe I should have thought this one out more, haha)

She stared at liquid-red eyes, the hue piercing through her heart and providing a direction for her love. His fur felt soft to her touch, yet bristly, and that made it all the better. She relaxed against his lithe body, feeling his response as he stiffened, then curled his tail around her. She felt the paintbrush-like tail absently, gazing at the dark amber of the end.

“Why are you not afraid?” he asked crisply.

“Why should I be?” she answered, staring into the hypnotic red eyes that she had already fallen in love with despite the fact that she had only seen them moments before.

“I am a monster. Can you not see that?” he asked.

She laughed, a sound that sent shivers against his back, the tail straightening out briefly before curling again.

“Why should I be afraid of that?” she asked, stroking the feelers on his head, noting the similar explosion of orange hairs on the end to his tail. He sighed, before shaking himself, dislodging her grip on his body.

He stood directly in front of her, the moonlight highlighting all of his features. She mentally swooned at how he just oozed handsomeness.

He cleared his throat at her, drawing her attention back to him. “Look at my eyes. They are red, which is hardly considered normal around here.”

“Yet they represent the colour of the Sun, something that everyone needs to survive. They represent survival.”

“They are the colour of blood, something I can spill with these,” he countered, lifting his paw to reveal gleaming, sharp, ebony-black claws.

“They could do that,” she agreed, “or they could just help me open the packet of biscuits I currently find difficult to open.”
He growled, slicing open the packet of biscuits, before he stared at her. “You know that my fur is dark, decorated with swirling patterns that most find ugly and hideous.”

“Most,” she reminded him. “Not all. Besides, they remind me of the swirling patterns that decorate the clothes of the indigenous human tribes.”

“My feelers and tail,” he continued. “They are hardly normal.”

“They remind me of paintbrushes, which in turn remind me of art, which you know is my hobby,” she countered.

“Besides,” she continued. “You know that being a monster is the most mediocre excuse you can give for not wanting to date me, given that I am one myself.”

“…be that as it may, you are still my princess and I am a commoner. I could hardly date someone of your stature; your parents would maul and banish me from the tribe.”

“No, they couldn’t. I am of legal age to choose my own mate out of all my suitors. As such, I choose you.”

“I was not brought to the palace as a suitor. I cannot be chosen.”

“Persistent, aren’t you?” she sighed. “Just as well that I like that in a mate then. To counter that, though, you are a suitor as long as you are a male belonging to the tribe. Will there be any more arguments from you?”

He flinched at her glare. “No?” he tried.

Judging by the cuddling he got, and the rest that followed, that was the right answer.

The gist of this world is demons and magic. The world is divided into three categories: the Enchanted, the Otherworldly, and the Everchanging, Magic, Demons, and Humans/Animals respectively. They are all aware of each others' existences and have fought several wars amongst each other but are usually peaceful.
All three of them coexist on the same planet, the land divided between the three groups. To keep peace they created the Rule of Nine, where three powerful and diplomatic people of their kind are elected to go to to discuss matters amongst each other.
The abilities of the three are vastly different and vary.
This is really all I have so far.

Let me just... think out loud for a second here, haha: you have the Enchanted (Magic), Otherworldly (Demons), and Everchanging (Humans/Animals) (neat name by the way!). That means 1/3 of the entire planet is... well, demons. They can be a pretty diverse sort, I'll give them that, but still. Daemonkind. Alright.

One thing I suggest you do is sort out which time period the world is set in (or, appears to be set in: for all I know, societal collapse caused the planet to bounce to Industrial Age and back eight times). The technology; what's that like? Modern? 19th century? Western?

magic western sounds awesome lol

You should also figure out how the three factions (and/or diplomats) are aligned. Are the Everchanging good? Are their representatives good? Are the Enchanted usually neutral, but plotting something behind the others' backs? Are the Otherwordly actually super friendly demons but because of misunderstanding between their stone-faced leaders and the rest of the planet they accidentally get involved in wars? Do they actually want war?

Is there another kind of category nobody knows about?

Okay, sorry, that was... a mouthful.

I'll probably think of more, but I guess I should post this before I head into ramble territory (or did I already? whoops). ^^;

The tiger paced along the edge of the clearing, hatred burning in its smoldering amber eyes. The crow perched on the branch opposite it narrowed sharp yellow eyes. "You have killed her?"
The tiger exploded. "For the last time," It roared with an obvious male tone, "the girl disappeared from under my paws!"
The bird snatched a glimpse to the panther beside itself, who was lazily licking a paw, until she heard the tiger shout.
The big black cat pulled itself off its stomach and strolled towards the tiger, winding itself around him. "No need to yell, Berjlar." She purred, staring up at him with light eyes.
The tiger stiffened and forced himself to look away. He had been warned previously of this panther's... seductive powers. "I'm sure." He nodded, not meeting her gaze.
Growing irritated, the panther nudged the tiger's head up to meet her unusual blue eyes. Instantly, the huge cat felt his knees turn wobbly, and his mind slurred. He fought against it, trying to look away, but his heart screamed at him to keep gazing into those... beautiful... sea-colored... eyes...
The tiger fell to the ground, asleep. The panther sat on her haunches and whispered in his ear, "You must get that girl."
The tiger stirred a little.
"You must kill that girl."
The tiger began to moan.
"If you do not..."
Silence from the huge orange cat.
"You will die."

This world has many different names, but three are universally known: the Sphere of Magic, the Tainted, and the Embrace. The first is typically used by the country of the Enchanted, the second for the Otherworldly, and the last by the Everchanging.
Of course, with different names come different languages. There are thousands upon thousands of languages, but the most spoken one would be Loralian, the language of the Everchanging, due to the fact that Loralian is the easiest to learn and speak. Then there's the language of the Enchanted, known simply as Evaish. And the hardest language to speak due to the odd pronunciations, Skecresh, of the Otherworldly. The majority of the world speaks at least one of these languages and the minority speaks languages such as Grish, Ancient Loralian, Ancient Evaish, and/or Ancient Skecresh.
There's really no such thing as "weird" when it comes to food, since the three nations trade with each other quite often for food and baubles. However, good flavor is usually best found in their native country. The Enchanted specialize in making brews, soups, and drinks due to the vast amount of herbs and oddly sweet rivers in their country. The Otherworldly specialize in roasts due to the rich meat in their country. (However, if you don't like eating demons, don't eat here. While it can be considered as cannibalism, demons are just a relative term regarding them; they have their own species as well.) The Everchanging specialize in artificial food, with their ways of breeding plants and animals to have a better flavor.
While food may not be weird, clothing certainly will be, especially if somebody has never seen another in those clothes. The Enchanted, when in formal meetings, will wear long and flowing cloaks that are spun of the bark and leaves of the Midnight Tree (yes, singular), a holy tree within their country. this is how the fabric is made:
Once they peel the rough bark and leaves from the tree, they soften it within the water from the Shimmering Lake, a magical lake that had been drawing magic from the Enchanted themselves. The water turns the bark/leaves soft after being soaked for ten hours. Any longer, and the bark/leaves will fall apart. They then proceed to comb through them and turn it into thread. The tailors of the Enchanted create clothing that is loosefitting and very comfortable to wear.
The clothing is a pair of long and unwrinkled pants (in meetings, gray, since the representative color of the Enchanted is gray) that almost seems like a long skirt/dress. They wear boots made of the skin of the silver panther, an incredibly rare species in their country. For a shirt, the Enchanted wear long sleeved clothing, the bottom running halfway down their thigh. The sleeves are about half a foot longer than need be, leaving them drooping unless rolled up. No matter the season, they will wear a long but thin scarf that hides the lower half of their face and a veil over their faces. When not in meetings/informal events, the females will wear a knee-length skirt and a loose sleeveless shirt. During the winter/fall months, she will wear a thick shawl and thick stockings. Males will wear thin long pants and a tee-shirt. During the winter months, he will don a jacket and change his pants to thicker and fur lined pants. (Please note that not all people will dress like this; it isn't a requirement. These are just the norm.)
The Otherworldly typically wear protective and strong clothing due to the fact that there tend to be minor (and some major) skirmishes happening practically every day. Their clothing is created from various different skins of animals and other demons they fight.
The most popular kinds of clothing for both genders are an ankle length pair of skintight pants to prevent them from hampering movement and a long sleeved skintight shirt along with running shoes; males and females wear the same clothing due to the fact that the Otherworldly are NOT sexist. During formal meetings, the representatives will wear a pair of flats lined with fur and will don a red and green fur coat, their national colors. (Same as above. All nations are NOT strict with the way they dress.)
The Everchanging have... well... an ever changing style of dress. Currently they enjoy wearing tee-shirts and shorts in the summer and spring and thick jackets and sweatpants in the winter, but this varies as well. For formal meetings, they wear orange tee-shirts under a dark navy blue jacket and light blue jeans. Orange and blue are their national colors.

Someone once told me I could save the world.
They were wrong.
The Change... the dreadful deaths of thousands... millions... ravaged the Earth, shaping the course of history.
I am life.
The beautiful creatures... vanished... either from starvation or freezing to death...
I am time.
Their brethren fled the planet... promising revenge on the false prophesied...
I am death.
They swore... that they would return... to shake the roots of evil... off a planet that was good...
I lost.
The prophesied fell... as it struck the Earth... and killed us. All of us...
I thought I was dead.
But I wasn't.
I was energy.
Pure, undiluted energy.
One might call me "God", for I have gained many names throughout the ages. I am the light and the dark. The giver of life and the bestower of death. My life, shaped by a prophecy, was gone.
But my spirit wasn't.

"Hiieek!"
The boy who'd been poking the injured pigeon with a stick immediately draws back, tumbling over onto his bottom with a screech of surprise as said pigeon topples over with a knife in its neck.
"Maybe you should pick on creatures your size, kid." His head swiveling around, he is greeted with the sight of a white-haired and fair skinned teenager, arms crossed and with an impassive expression. "Then next time I wouldn't have to kill an animal that wouldn't survive."
Surprise is quickly replaced with anger and annoyance due to the stranger's nonchalance and rudeness, but when the teenager notices his anger, he casually adjusts his left hand, and the blade of a thin knife catches the light.
"Go away kid." Immediately the boy's anger dissipates in favor of fear and he bobs his head, getting up on his feet and running away.
The teenager waits until the boy is out of sight before walking towards the pigeon's body and bending down.
"Get up, Whiteford. Something as trivial as this wouldn't kill you," he murmurs, and the pigeon stirs, slowly enlarging and changing shape into the form of a teenage girl, with an annoyed expression.
"Damn you, Silverworth," she hisses, yanking out the knife before tossing it away and standing up. "Did you really have to throw a knife at me?"
"Be glad it wasn't poisoned."
"I still hate you."
"Good."