Return of the Stump[CLOSED]

[AMItotic]

I'M NOOOOT OKAY!
Username: AMItotic
Prompt Response:

You feed the Stump a happy memory.

Lucky Bandit liked games, but she wasn't sure she liked this one, the shadows circling her, nipping at her heels. One in particular, large and skulking, dragging its weighty tail behind it, looked almost like her brother. "Feed it, Nameless," hissed the thing that was not her brother, and Lucky snarled back at it, her fur on edge. It was only as the teeth rose up to bite that she realized that the voice coming from the creature was not her brother's, but hers--

Running wild and free, tossing her head, her brother hot on her heels but she wanted it more, she wanted the win and the thrill and the danger of it. The two of them laughed as they rolled through the clearing, and just as soon as Run Away started to get closer, she turned on him and began chase, to both their shrieks of delight. A simple time, a loving time.

Lucky felt particularly unlucky, as the memory ebbed away.

[AMItotic]

I'M NOOOOT OKAY!
Username: AMItotic
Prompt Response:

13. You feed the Stump a memory of when you let someone down.

Until Next Time was having a perfectly dapper Winter Market. She loved the sights and sounds of the kin gathered in this season of coming together, of joy and light and giving--

--and cold.

The winter had come so soon that year, Until thought--too soon. She'd been so busy thinking away her days that she hadn't gone foraging for the cold times, and now their stores were low and the wind was howling, the hunger biting. Surrounding three small kimeti for the warmth of her body, Until shivered, blinking slowly--was there anyone to look out for them, anyone that would take pity on an absentminded doe (with no reason to be starving, she should have focused she should have worked, but she didn't, and now all of them would suffer.

"Mom?" One spindly foal looked up at her, body wracked with the shakes. "Are we going to eat soon?" The grasses would be picked over, the fruit long gone. And Until's breath was taken away by the realization that they well could not have enough to go around, that they would have to go without.

And it was her fault (her fault) all her fault.

"Soon, little one," she said to her son, and licked his head, cuddling him until he went to sleep with empty promises for dinner.

Until banished the thought into that terrible, wretched stump, kicking up her heels as she fled for safer parts of the market. It was fine, wasn't it? Hadn't they all survived? It was fine. It wasn't her fault, she just got a little distracted.

Just a little distracted.

[AMItotic]

I'M NOOOOT OKAY!
Username: AMItotic
Prompt Response:

You feed the Stump the names of your enemies.

It would not have been the first time Eager had sauntered her way into the wrong part of the swamp, and it wouldn't be the last. She stood unperturbed, tail flicking in boredom, as the shadows whispered around her, urged her to share.

"...my enemies?" Her head tilted to one side, before she made a bemused sort of chuckle. "Why, we'll be here all day if we do that. But let's see..." And she listed every slight she remembered from out of the egg, from her siblings to the totoma who had crossed her path on the way here and everyone in between.

[Nashawryn]

I'M NOOOOT OKAY!
Username: Nashawryn
Prompt Response:

16. You feed the Stump a memory of when you were scared.

Sea of Tears had come back but she was now thinking she shouldn't have. This time as she got closer to the stump, her shadow had separated from her and was giving her a hard white eyed stare and whispering at her. "Feed the STUMP... Feed it. It's so hungry....." Sea of Tears shivered in apprehension, the whisper making her think of a time she was very scared. She had been on her own, over in the Cres caves. It was dark because it had been raining out, thundering and storming and raging outside. She was trying to rest in her cave when a flash of lightening lit up her cave and she had thought she'd seen the shadow of another kin by the entrance of her cave. She'd called out, told them the cave was occupied and to find another cave while they could still see. No kin had answered.

At first, she'd thought they'd left but then the next flash of lightening came, and the kin's shadow seemed closer. Sea of Tears had started towards her entrance that time to tell them to move on. But nothing was there, and when Sea peeked out of her cave to look around in the rain, she didn't see any other kin nearby. When she retreated to the back of her cave and laid back down, she thought she heard a kin laughing. She decided to stay put because she just knew no one was there. She put it down to her mind playing tricks on her, until she heard the laugh again...Right before yet another flash of lightening illuminated the cave and she saw eyes staring at her. She ran to the very back cavewall and pressed up against it for the rest of the night storm. The next morning, when the sun lit her cave a bit, she saw hoof prints in the sand around her cave entrance that she couldn't explain.

Sea of Tears gave the memory to the Stump willingly. She looked her shadow over and said "That's all I can give." She left the area after that.

[fluo]

EVERYTHING IS FINE.
Username: fluo
Prompt Response: A mass of wriggling worms explodes from the stump and covers your hooves.

"Pathetic. You think a few worms will scare me off? I'll show you a mighty worm." And with that, Chain Lightning took his girthy tail and crushed the wiggling worms into the earth they came from. He squished his tail to the right for good measure. He did not like to do things by any half measures.

[fluo]

EVERYTHING IS FINE.
Username: fluo
Prompt Response: You receive a beautiful shell.

Yawning Void licked his lips in anticipation. The beautiful shell meant a delicious morsel hid inside. He scooted his face close and stuck his tongue tentatively. He didn't fancy a snip to his tongue. Nothing. Emboldened by the lack of response, he dared much and stuck his tongue in further, curling along the natural spiral of the shell. It was completely empty! Oh well. He scooped it into a broadleaf tied across his flank. He would ask a crafting kin to fasten a necklace for him. He would find a use for it somehow. If it did not nourish him, it would be a fashionable accessory!

[fluo]

EVERYTHING IS FINE.
Username: fluo
Prompt Response:You receive a beautiful cluster of feathers and flowers.

A soft smile flitted across the jovial mare's face. She breathed deeply into the flowers' core. She knew exactly who to give the flowers and feathers to. They were too intriguing to not share. If she was lucky, she might even see the feathers woven in the other's hair. Looking into the sky, she wondered if the other doe was seeing the same set of stars and clouds, and if there paths would cross soon. Squaring back her shoulders, Albatross walked away from the booth, a spring in her step. She was hopeful and the future was bright with possibilities.

[Yuki]

The second week is open and everything is fine.

Also, I've decided that folks will have until the end of the event to get their weekly entries completely finished to their liking to be counted for tickets. Because I'm rolling at the end, I'll be collecting all the tickets at the end.

[HuniPi]

EVERYTHING IS FINE.
Username: HuniPi
Prompt Response:

You receive a pile of ashes.

Sunny stared at the stump's "gift" to her. Having not been present during last year's winter market, she had no idea of the significance of the ashes but she only wondered if they would make for good fertilizer. Until she figured that out, she collected them into a hollowed-out cup.

[HuniPi]

I'M NOOOOT OKAY!
Username: HuniPi
Prompt Response:

You feed the Stump the names of your enemies.

The zikwa ruminated about all the kin he'd encountered in his life. He had a good deal of enemies. It was so easy to slight him, after all.

Blood was at the stump whispering names upon names, some even including what terrible crime these kin committed for him to consider them an enemy. Such as eating the berry he had his eye on, not remembering who he was after having introduced himself, breathing a too loudly, standing too close to him...

He was going to be there a while.

[doomsayer]

EVERYTHING IS FINE.
Username: doomsayer

11. You're sprayed by foul-smelling water. Your eyes! They're burning!!!

Prompt Response: Leaves You Breathless was told that this stump was giving out amazing prizes in exchange for a simple pebble.

Though she was skeptical, she could not have expected it to spray her face with rancid water, catching her in the eyes. She runs to the nearest watering hole to soothe her burning eyes and resolves to not let her guard down again when she next interacts with the stump.

[doomsayer]

EVERYTHING IS FINE.
Username: doomsayer

20. You receive a tuft of hair.

Prompt Response: Leaves You Breathless squints and steels herself for what will come out of the stump next. As she drops the pebble in it this time, she is prepared to turn and run at the slightest provocation.

But instead pf something dangerous or alarming, the stump gives her a small tuft of coal black hair. An oddity in itself as this hair is too long for regular fur but too black to belong to any kin she has seen before.

[doomsayer]

I'M NOOOOT OKAY!
Username: doomsayer

17. You feed the Stump a memory of when you were embarrassed.

Prompt Response: Leaves You Breathless stares into the stump at its top opens into a shadowy void. In the.void, she sees a darker version of herself.

It does not speak, but she instinctively feels what ot demands. She stares into the eyes of her shadow self as her memories go to a place long repressed in her psyche.

She was not raised by her parents, instead she was taken in by an older kin, one who taught her how to track and hunt. He always taught her to be careful, think and rethink her approach. But one day, in her hubris to show him what she was capable of, she had overshot a pounce meant to take down her prey. In front of her caretaker, she fell down a shallow hill, unable to stop herself from sliding to the bottom. She had suffered many scratches and wounds in the fall. She couldn't bare to hold his gaze as he helped her limp back up to the ledge. The hunt was over for that day. They came back with no prey, only lessons painfully learned through experience and embarrassment.

[Nashawryn]

EVERYTHING IS FINE.
Username: Nashawryn
Prompt Response:

27. A piece of bark falls off and out of the Stump.

Sea of Tears wandered over to the doe and the Stump. She wondered what she'd get today as she dropped her pebble in. She stared in anticipation until a piece of bark came out. Well. Sea of Tears supposed she could tuck that away somewhere. Maybe use it as some fish bait.

[Nashawryn]

EVERYTHING IS FINE.
Username: Nashawryn
Prompt Response:

26. You receive an intricately wrapped gift that was definitely not stolen from a Badger-run gift exchange.

Hidden Beauty approached carefully. She'd heard tales of the Stump and it's tricks. She put her pebble in and stared at the Stump. 'Please don't give me anything awful. Please.' she thought to herself. A moment later an intricately wrapped gift popped out. Hidden Beauty narrowed her eyes at it, it looked a bit familiar but she couldn't quite place where she'd seen something like that before. She looked from the present to the Stump to Tricks and back again. Hidden Beauty sighed, grabbed the gift and wandered away to another booth.