And the winner is.....

Hello everyone! Today I will be posting the results of my writing contest
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Honnerable Mention goes to..

Ellie!

  If My Ladder Can Reach the Sky

by Ellie 

If my ladder can reach the sky I'll fly

With the birds who are kings of the air.

And the bluejays and eagles and scarlet macaws

Will allow me to fly with them there.

If my ladder can reach the sky I'll break

Free of society's chains.

And become the person I want me to be,

Not the person they just want to shame.

If my ladder can reach the sky I'll dream

On clouds made of hope and of love.

And I'll read and I'll write and I'll do what I like

On my own little cloud up above.

And to all those people who say to me, claim

That my ladder will not reach the sky:

I say to them, "No, I will get there someday

And on that great day I will fly."

 

Congrats Ellie! I loved the poem idea and I loved the way you crafted each stanza!

 

Third Place goes to...

Tenley!

I steadied the wobbling ladder, and took a deep breath. "This is it." I told myself. The air was still. It was like the world was waiting for me to move, and I knew that the decision I made, to climb or not to climb, would change my life forever. Shakingly, I placed my right foot on the bottom step, and then positioned my left next to it. Then I began my way up, on the Ladder Of The Sky. "This is where you shall discover your destiny." The Empress's words echoed in my ears. She had told me this before she left me in the wheat field where the ladder was located. I was going very slow, but I was at least sixty feet up in the air. "Don't look down." I thought, but I looked anyway. My heart skipped a beat. I'd never had a fear of heights, but being in a airplane is one thing, being suspended on a step ladder in the clouds is a completely different thing. My legs went numb... And I dropped off the ladder. Plumeting through the fog, I spread my arms out wide. I'd never really had much meaning, I was more or less at peace with the fact that I was about to die. But that day was not the day I would die. I felt something cold on my back and I stopped falling. I stopped falling and flapped my wings. I had wings! I had found my destiny! I was a fairy. One of the most powerful beings of The Sky.

Congrats Tenley! Your writing was amazing and I loved the vivid images that I could see in my mind!

 

Second Place goes to...

Miss H!

"Excuse me?" I glanced up at his human face. "I am most certainly NOT a fairy tale."
"I am not saying YOU are a fairy tale, but EARTH most certainly IS. You must be delusional, claiming that you come from earth. No one in their right mind wants to come from earth."

"Why?" I whispered. "What's wrong with earth?"
"You haven't heard? Oh wait, you have been floating around in space for the last hundred years. Good thing I found you, those lumingas were right on your tail." He chuckled.

"Lumingas?" I whispered.
"Space dragons. Really scary. Can swallow you in an instant."
"Great... so what's wrong with earth?" I asked again.
"Around a hundred years ago there was a nuclear war. The earth was falling apart, and no one knew the nuclear side effects. Cancer, memory loss, slurred speech, fast aging."
I nodded. Typical. I have read heaps of books about nuclear bombs ruining the earth. But that was only after Japan was bombed in World War 2. No nuclear bombs had recently gone off... he must be crazy. "
When people finally realized what was going on, they sent off life preserving space shuttles full of children. One day hoping that some aliens or something would find them and they could rebuild the human race. Around two days after the last space shuttle left earth's orbit, one last nuclear bomb exploded, but this time the whole earth was affected. There are no remains. Nothing. Except for the hundreds of children floating around in space."
"Wait, so I have been in space for the last hundred years while my home died? My family died? My friends died? Why didn't you do something?" I wiped away the tears that fell down my face in wet and salty abundance. "You stood by and watched while my whole civilization fell to pieces!"
"I never said I watched. I was one of the kids in a space shuttle. And its just a story that someone made up to explain the hundreds of kids floating around." He rolled his eyes. "Nothing stays the same. People change. The earth is gone. Nothing you can do."
I wiped away a tear. "So you are saying earth isn't real? How can you say that? You are human. You should know!"
"NO! I don't know!" He glared at me. "My whole memory was wiped. I'm just an experiment. First kid taken from the shuttle by the aliens. They don't know who I am. Or who you are. So just leave it. Go home and find your mummy and daddy, Fat chance they don't exist. Do you even remember?"

I fell to the ground in complete and utter mental agony. My memory was gone. All of it. Just like his. All I remember was where I came from. Earth. Now there is no point, because earth is just a fairy tale. A story to explain my past whereabouts. I looked up at him. "We aren't important, are we?" 

He looked down at me with gentleness in his eyes. "No, not to the aliens. But maybe somewhere, we matter to someone." I nodded. 

Then all of a sudden, a sharp pain filled my body and I fell, once again, to the cold hard ground. I screamed in agony and searched for the boy. I saw him, five metres away, experiencing the same pain still searing through my insides. "Adam." I gasped. Then everything went black.

And I remembered him. I remembered his face.
"It's okay Jia. Just breathe in and out. Everything is going to be better. Just wait until we find a new earth somewhere outside the sky." 

He was smiling down at me while he closed the space shuttle. "Remember me." He whispered.

The light came into view, and I could see the boy again.
"Adam?" I whispered.
He looked at me with gentleness in his eyes. "Jia?"
"I remember."

 Congrats Miss H! The way you started and finished your story with such suspense made me want more.

 And the winner for 1st place goes to...

Morning!

"Evelyn! Evelyn, stop!" The brunette bearing that particular namesake stopped and turned to see who may be crying out to her. Fumbling down the hill was the mayoress, a tiny double-chinned lady about the age of fifty and gray hair strands matching the dense fog that has encompassed their small province. 

Drat, Evelyn thought. How could Ms. Randell have possibly known that she would be escaping? The night was in an ideal condition to leave leave this town: misty weather and the distraction of a committed crime. But again, what she was about to do was punishable by death. 

"You shall not go up there!" Ms. Randell, with her stubby stock legs, attempted to waddle gracefully, but it had only caused more tripping and scurrying. "You shall not climb up the--"

"Ladder?" Evelyn answered inquisitively. Her hands clenched the cold sides of the ladder. The object was old, created of rough twig. Stringy grass bonded together the ends. The ladder went for barrels and barrels up. There seemed to be no end, from a ground point of view. "I'm afraid I cannot heed your advice, ma'am."

Ms. Randell put her hands to her hips and cocked out a hip. "Young Evelyn, I do not know what has caused you to believe such oddities and atrocities, but there is nothing at the other end."

"Yes, there is." Evelyn adjusts her backpack's strap. "Don't try to change my mind of letting me go." With determination in her voice, she groveled, "I have to reach the top."

"My husband and I can assure you that there is nothing at the top. No one has ever arrived back. Not even your foster family, leaving you in this village to die off cold."

"Just because they haven't done so yet does not mean that that will not ever come back! I know they will! Have not we all heard the tales of there being a better life up there?" Evelyn pointed her fingers aggressively to the sky. "They are my family, blood wise or not. I have lived in their care for over fifteen years, and I know they did not mean to leave me on purpose. I know they are up there, somewhere."

"Now, stop with this nonsense! My husband, if he finds out of this ordeal, he will kill you. As you may know, climbing up this ladder is treason. It is better to live safe and content than to live a life of the unknown."

Evelyn gasped and walked to look down upon the old women, being the shorter one of the two. Her breath came out in a form of vapor as she whispered, "That's why no one is allowed to go up this ladder, isn't it? You are afraid of the unknown."

Ms. Randell's silence acknowledged the fact. The cold night air blew gently to their direction, causing the brunette and the silver one to have their hairs flying in both directions. Evelyn looked uneasily at the hill which would lead to the village, trying to keep sight of any men who would catch them out here. Her nerves relaxed when the only noise she heard was a cow's moo.

"Ma'am, you know that I am fifteen. I am unaware of my biological parents' identities and of the whereabouts of my foster family. At the sixteenth anniversary of my birth I will be presented to men who I have no interest in to go off and marry. It may be best, for my sake, to leave the village."

"Bah! You are attempting plain foolishness, I assure you--"

"My deed may be selfish, but you are one who knows me best next to my foster family. I need to find answers of my family-- both families." The fifteen-year-old gazed up to the ladder with green keen and hopeful eyes. "There must be more than this life, and I intend to find out of these things."

Ms. Randell smiled sadly at the girl, and she shook her head. Of course, letting her go would be hard, but the young girl beholds much potential and excitement. It would have been a pity to let that all go to waste, just as the old woman did at her age. 

Should she let Evelyn go, Ms. Randell would be greeted in the village with treason. But perhaps, if Evelyn returns, her husband would understand that not all of the unknown and magical could be bad. The old women grasped the girl tightly and embraced her. "Please, my dear, do come back holding great news of the world up there."

"I promise." Evelyn tugged away and latched onto the ladder, starting to climb.

"Now, go. Go off at once, before dawn should dare to catch you! For once the day has awaken from it's slumber it will try it's best to work against you! I wish you best on your journey!"

Evelyn did so. Her first several steps on the ladder caused her to slip due to the dew collectively forming, but she brought herself together. The wind blew, hiding the squeaks and noises. Surprisingly, the ladder did not sway unevenly; its base is stubbornly in place. Her eyes squinted to see the end. 

The journey may be long ahead, but the brunette knew that at the finals pages of the journey, it would be hope that brought her to where she was meant to be: at the end of the ladder, with answers and a fresh sight on the future ahead.

Amazing job Morning! You had amazing imagery and diction. I enjoyed your story very much and it stuck with me through out reading the other entries.

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I want to thank everyone who entered. This contest was fun for me and I hope it was for you too! Congrats to Morning, Miss H, Tenley, and Ellie! (And to them, what type of prizes do you want?)

Thanks Again,

Emily