Loksfjoer

MFP#4 - Ox (voting and feedback)

With 3 votes the Haiku for the ox is the winner. Congratulations! Your entry will be added to our hall of fame.

I do want to give a special mention to The Pride of the Ox or Stolen Oxygen or Lament for a Friend, for the originality and creativity shown.

MFP#4 - Ox (voting and feedback)

Last day of voting!

Revival of the Dragon Riders

Trevor nodded and the old dragon also nodded to show he agreed with that.
After Gnol announced their presence, Trevor watched him and the unknown man interact. He noticed the hand that stayed behind the door and the watchful gaze. Good, a man who wasn't easy to trust strangers. The man reminded him of himself.

"Noble," he said, looking back. "Leave your dragon in the forest and join us. Dragons can't fit into that house and we don't know yet how this man feels about dragons." He dismounted his horse and walked it to the paddock behind the house.

---

Mikhal nodded to Ricky. "She always knows where to find me," he assured her. When Alan made his comment, he chuckled as he got down from the dragon. "No, it's never dull with her around," he agreed.
He held out his hand to Meria, to help her down.

Meria, holding the young dragon in one arm, smiled at him when she took his hand. "At least there is plenty of water here," she commented when her feet touched the ground. "It cumulates... that way," she turned to look north, but didn't see a body of water at the surface. "Probably underground. But there is a slow stream west of us."

---

Rachel returned to the scene after a few minutes and watched Damien being helped up. She smiled and shook her head. "Getting rusty, Damien?" she asked.
Her eyes moved to the female who hugged him. "Is everything okay?"

A Trainers Ambition [SporkoBug and Calle]

"Yeah, sure," Michael said as he let Niccia lead him to the ones she wanted him to meet. He had seen Celebi before going through the portal, but not really had the opportunity to talk with him yet. He wasn't sure what he had expected from Star Fall, but it looked like any family reunion; just people talking and happy to see each other.

Lytse didn't react when Bia said could allow Michael to worry about him, but he looked at her when she mentioned she once had a trainer. "Really?" he asked. "What happened?... If you want to talk about it, of course." While he was curious, he suddenly realised Bia might not want to go into details. Trainer-stories weren't always happy stories after all.

Netherlu chuckled and gave a pat on her hand. "Now you're overestimating yourself. My wings aren't broken that easily. So don't worry about it. We're good." He glanced over his shoulder to Andy. "You know, my offspring made some offspring of their own with regular Pokémon. Has it ever happened one of us mated with a human? Would you be okay with that?"
Maybe it wasn't an appropriate topic, but a direct question was often best. He knew his offspring had actually been rather busy and he reminded himself he had to introduce himself to what technically were grandchildren of his.

Nethan turned to look at the musical diva's when they were mentioned. No surprise there, especially Penalopy seemed able to make friends with anyone. He nodded to Mindy and didn't give Xapher much attention as he walked off, going towards Gavin.
"I heard you made a friend," he said once he was close enough.

Mindy watched Nethan leave for a moment and then smiled to Xapher, before going to the table. It didn't take her long to spot the pastries and she took her time examining all of them. She noticed Andy join them.
"Hello, Professor Bansing."
"We're at a party, just say Andy. And please tell me what a Danish looks like."
Mindy giggled and pointed them out for him, before turning to see if Xapher was with her.

Andy took a plate and put a Danish on it, and after much consideration some apple strudel for himself. And after picking up two glasses of juice he started walking back to Frosiien.

Paranormal Activities [SporkoBug and Calle]

During the drive, Mike and Benjamin filled Mitch in. He wasn't overly enthusiastic about it - especially after Mike mentioned the mission with Gaia in which he had to do a ritual he had learned that same day - but at least he had a better idea of what they were doing now.
He didn't tell them anything about his job.

---

The guards looked at the boy. "You're a fish; a water tank is enough for you," one of them grumbled.
"You should be glad you're not put on the 4th floor," another muttered, only to be poked with an elbow by the first and a look that held a silent warning to stop speaking.

Lily walked from room to room to see what her darlings were doing. Gaia and Rose were boring to observe now, so she let her underlings do that. She went to the last window and watched the meditating Steph.
She was joined by her assistant. "Doctor, I was informed the boy in the tank wants his own room."
"Ugh, I don't care about him," she stated. "Do I look like a marine biologist? I don't know why they bother me with it, let one of the other scientists handle him."
"He was appointed to you," the assistant reminded her.
"He's just a boring siren-boy. I'm busy with my darlings now. Prepare a... I don't know, a swimming pool for him or something, with some land and some playthings. A climbing frame and a swing or something. Don't boys like that?"
The assistant promised to take care of it and left.

---

The doctor who was trying to treat Daz noticed the blood drip from his mouth.
"I'm going to take him into surgery to see if I can find the intenal bleeding and stop it," he said to the agent.
The agent nodded. "We thank you for your help. The world needs to see her true form."
He took his phone to relay all the information to Mr Johnson.

Nobody Will Believe It [SporkoBug and Calle]

"Are you okay?" Benjamin asked as he looked at Ray; he had seen her back away from Dia. "That's Dia and she's right: you should eat. If they see you're zoning out and not eating, they will add it to your file as one of your symptoms and you'll be called in for another meeting with the psychiatrist, and you just had one yesterday."
He actually had no idea if he was scheduled for one. The only appointment he knew he had was the group session at ten, for all other things staff just arranged it and came to collect him when it was time to go.

MFP#4 - Ox (voting and feedback)

Welcome to the Voting and Feedback round for MFP#4!

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• The voting period deadline is March 2nd, 9:00 CET, which is 8:00 game time (both times are in a.m.).

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The Entries

The Pride of the Ox or Stolen Oxygen or Lament for a Friend

The Pride of the Ox or Stolen Oxygen or Lament for a Friend

From a burning fire Busy bar It’s not you
Came the edge of ire Gaz’d too far It’s me
As I stepped up To foe unfound I don’t love you
Irascible and froth’d Stood my ground I never did

Raising fists scarred Girl’s scared We’re not meant
Shouts of anger Rais’d hackles To be we’re only
Awash in liquid courage Drunkard sop Kids
Scourged a-purple Made to stop You’ll find someone

Unmoved from spittle Gleaming fist Special and sweet
Whipped a cut so clean Slipped my wrist I hope you meet
Jugular spilt a spew What’d he do? We’ll be friends
Bloody good head hurk I hope

The pint pour’d high Oh God Please don’t cry
Crimson cast light I need help I’ll never forget
On stern brows furrow’d Can’t breathe Our walks in the
Sunder’d form fled Need some air Park and the ranch

Sirens rang Sky? Our favourite branch
I sang It’s black We watched them
Gruesome horns I’ll be fine Graze many days
Gripp’d his neck I’m on my back Sun soaking skin

Relentless …. You pulled too hard
Brave …. Ripp’d too deep
Never weak …. My heart you’ll never keep
Oxen horns never break …. Stubborn still, I weep

By @Kalleth

Dew

Yay to the land,

Over the bluff of grass,

There was an Ox name Fitzgerald,

Every time it rained,

And every time it thundered,

Fitzgerald tamed the land, with a munch, munch, munch.

By @reaping Adder

Haiku for the Ox

ox under the yoke
burdened by many sorrows
ploughs for a new spring

Microfiction and Poetry contest #4

Last day to submit an entry!

A Trainers Ambition [SporkoBug and Calle]

"Of course," Michael said, smiling gently. "Lead the way."
Seeing Niccia happy like this, that was what he wanted to see. He tried to recall the difference between Mythical and Legendary as there was some debate about that among scientists, but his uncle had once said to not worry about it as all Mythicals were Legendary Pokémon, but not all Legendary Pokémon were Mythical.

"I'm not really," Lytse said as he followed Bia. "I just needed Michael to not worry about me. But a quiet place would be nice."
He watched Michael walk in a different direction, feeling much lonelier than before even though he was surrounded by Pokémon.

"Sorry for..." Netherlu began as he pondered what in Arceus' name Nygari was talking about. Why was he supposed to be angry at her? Then he recalled the last time they had spoken and Nygari had been snappy at him. They hadn't spoken since. "Oh, right. Hey, apology accepted. I know I reacted a bit harsh when you flew off; I honestly shouldn't have called after you that if you weren't going to stop for a quick chat you shouldn't bother coming at all. That was insensitive of me and apologize as well."
At that time he really had felt annoyed to see her and that she didn't even make time for a quick chat, but that feeling had gone away rather quickly. Of course he hadn't seen her after that, but he was glad they had the opportunity to make it up now.

Nethan looked down on Xapher. "Oh, it's you," he said. He seemed ready to say something more, but then remembered it was Star Fall and he really shouldn't. "Look out where you are going," he said instead.
"We were on our way to check out the pastries," Mindy said as she joined Xapher. "Hi, I'm Mindy. Human friend of Gavin."
"That's a surprise," Nethan muttered as he glanced to Gavin. Mewtwo making a human friend? What were the odds of that?

Andy listened to Rorsh; he liked this cousin much better than Dialla. He started looking around and he turned his attention on the table with the food.
"Would you like something?" he asked Frosiien. "I can go grab something for us."

Paranormal Activities [SporkoBug and Calle]

The three made their way outside and Mitch led the way to his car. "We are going to have a talk about this," he stated as he glared at them. "Because you led me to believe you were doing some harmless ghost-hunting shit and yesterday I learned about Succibi and now about a fucking raid on a high-security complex."
"If you put it like that..." Mike began, but was cut short by Mitch.
"There is no other way to put it. You two can be thankful I'm inbetween jobs. Now get in the car and I want to know everything you've been doing for this agency."
"I'd ask the same," Benjamin said as he walked to the car. "But I really don't want to know about all your murders."
"Good. The less you know, the better it is."
The three of them got in the car and Mitch drove to the hotel he stayed.

---

Lily closed the door and left. She went through a door to the corridor on the other side, where her assistant already was.
"Now, let's observe them for a while," Lily said, looking through the window of Rose's room. "Oh, and get some books for the Succubus. My darling wants to read, isn't that precious?" She turned to her assistant. "And see if you can locate Benjamin anywhere. He will make a fine test-subject for the advanced tests on her."

---

The doctor hooked him up on a heartbeat monitor and tried to stitch one of the many wounds, but the look he gave the agents was one of little hope this patient would make it.

"Go on," the agent said to Daz. "I thought she was just an alien girl, how can she have a mortal form she can shed?"