[WP] When children reach the age 10 they get a dragon based on their choices in those 10 years from albino white(good) to ink black(bad) you just received a clear dragon.

Another Writing Prompt.

[WP] When children reach the age 10 they get a dragon based on their choices in those 10 years from albino white(good) to ink black(bad) you just received a clear dragon.

24 points. I feel it was worth more.

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Sigh

I lay on my back in the grass, watching the other kids play. They swoop overhead riding their dragons, laughing and playing. And here I sit... alone.

I'm 13 now, but every kid gets a dragon when we're ten. Every kid. I remember the ceremony quite well. I'd seen my older brother go through before me, and most of my friends. I remember being so excited the day that I put on the ceremonial robes, and was walked into the hall of the Mother Dragon.

She was so... vast. Unbelievably big. I mean, I'm not a little kid anymore like I was then, but she still seems so big in my memory.

I remember my mum holding my hand as we walked across the giant hall in which the dragoness lived. There were aisles of eggs on either side but she towered over everything, curled in the middle of the room like a small mountain.

When we got to the inner circle, the bit near her head, my mum stopped, and waved me on smiling. I carried on, and started climbing the stairs to the speaking plinth. It was a long way up and I remember my knees were shaking by the top of it.

When I reached the top there was just a tiny platform with a rail going around it. The view was amazing, rows of eggs stretched on for what seemed like forever. Hundreds of thousands of eggs, all waiting to choose someone.

Then I turned and looked at the mother dragon. Her head was laying on her front claws, around 100 metres from the platform, and her eyes were closed.

Without moving, she spoken to me in my mind. "Welcome little one. Today is a big day for you and one other. Do you know why we do this?"

I had been going to special classes for years to learn about dragon heritage, and knew the question was coming. I always said to myself I'd speak loudly and clearly when asked, as most kids get flustered.

When I spoke, my voice had squeaked and cracked. "The draAAgons and the humans became friends many years ago when the dragons started dying out, after the magic started fading. It was decided that a bomd.. bond would be formed. Humans would get companionship from a... a dragon, and the dragons would get the spiritual tether they needed to stay alive."

A smile the size of the road I lived on crept along the dragons face. "Very good young one. I see you have been learning. Now, are you prepared for the next step?"

The next step. This was were she looked into my soul and decided which of her children would suit me.

I took a deep breath and said "I am ready".

She had opened her eyes. They were deep black, like pools of violet water so deep that light could not escape. That's how a poet I read about in school described them.

I specifically remember feeling sucked towards her, and then a feeling of freely floating, like I was in space. There was this peculiar sensation that someone was watching me.

My mind started to wander and I found myself starting to fall asleep when the rushing feeling came again. I was stood back on the plinth.

There had been a look of sorrow in her eyes.

"I am sorry child, but the egg that holds your dragon has not yet been laid. There is nothing I can do."

I hadn't understood then. And by the time I reached the bottom of the plinth I was nearly in tears. I was just trying to make it back to my mum without bursting out crying when one of the dragon acolytes hurried up to me.

"The Mother Dragon sent me to give you this" he said, holding out a little wrapped up package in his hands. I could see the dragon was still watching me through one slitted eye.

Unwrapping the package carefully, I had found what I now hold in my hands. A little figure of a dragon, carved perfectly out of crystal.

So here I am, laying on the grass with my crystal dragon, whilst all the other kids playing drag-tag above me.

[WP] You're given an opportunity to go back in time for five seconds to yell, "Duck!", ten feet away from someone of your choosing. You return to the present and are soon terrified by the outcome.

Another Writing Prompt story:

[WP] You're given an opportunity to go back in time for five seconds to yell, "Duck!", ten feet away from someone of your choosing. You return to the present and are soon terrified by the outcome.

Main post got 182 upvotes, I was top story with 32.

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I knew I only had 10 seconds to change things. I had thought about it, planning out the variables for a long time, when I set the machine to Dallas, 1963. I was certain it would make things better.

With a whirling sensation I appeared in the road, next to where it would happen, I took two steps up to the car.

"Duck Mr. president!"

I saw him turn in his seat. He looked at me and smiled, somehow a knowing look in his eye. "I'm sorry kid" he said, "this has to happen."

The shot went off. He fell into his wife's lap, bloodying her beautiful Chanel suit. The secret service dog piling him. They aimed a tackle at me, but I was gone.

I stood alone in my workshop.

How had he known.

[WP] In the far future a desperate Xeno seeks advise from one of the oldest, wisest, most enigmatic species in the galaxy; Humans.

From the Reddit Post:
[WP] In the far future a desperate Xeno seeks advise from one of the oldest, wisest, most enigmatic species in the galaxy; Humans.

Earned 35 upvotes.

I wrote this story intending from the beginning for it to be hard sci-fi. I enjoyed writing it, and actually meant to continue it at some point. Not sure if I will now.

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It traveled, just under the speed of light, for almost a thousand years in a form of stasis.

Travelling at 0.99995 times the speed of light, almost 100,000 years passed from the perspective of the rest of the galaxy. But that was the distance it needed to travel.

It's ship went into the long deceleration cycle. Even with the stasis allowing it's body to take mind boggeling g forces, it took thirteen years to fully decelerate, and enter orbit of the planet. After some time, the pod began temporal reanimation, bringing it back to consciousness.

It was a little bleary as it blinked back to life, a thousand years and 100,000 lightyears from where it had called home. Walking to the controls of its ship, it checked the readouts. The ship had been scanning the planet since it entered orbit. The readouts showed it was the right place.

Looking out of the window, the planet below was a dark grey-swirling marble.

It punched in the co-ordinates it had travelled the thousands of light years to reach, and locked in an entry path through the atmosphere. Buckling its self into the pilots seat, it began the entry sequence.

Minutes passed. Whilst it was possible to travel thousands of miles per hour in a vacuum, it knew best to take it's time when passing through an atmosphere. It sat back and enjoyed the view.

The upper atmosphere was light, giving a full view of the heavy clouds below. The air around the ship heated up dramatically, bumping the ship around in hypersonic turbulence. When it passed it wasn't far to the cloud layer, which when entered, blacked out the small windows entirely. A minute passed and the cloud grew lighter, before the ship came out below the cloud layer.

The ship righted itself and began to slow itself. With a burst from the engines it changed its decent from falling to flying.

Looking out of the window, it could see the land below. As far as the eye could see it was buried beneath deep ash falls. In the distance, huge volcanoes were still pumping out hot ash, high into the sky.

The craft banked on autopilot, aiming for a large, perfect circle of earth where no ash had fallen, maybe 2 miles across. In the centre stood a building, made of perhaps marble, perhaps granite, it wasn't sure. It didn't need to know.

The ship landed, and it made a final scan. The air was survivable without environmental gear, so it walked to the door and flipped the switch to extend the ramp, then open the door.

The air outside was actually not unpleasant. Like a cool summers morning in springtime on Xenux Prime. It walked down the ramp and made towards the building.

Looking more closely it could see that it was wrong before, the structure was neither granite nor marble, but a form of patterned metal. It thought it striking that the last thing left on this planet, they should care so much to make it beautiful. Although... pillars. Surrounding the door were giant, decorative, pillars. They didn't even touch the overhanging roof. It had seem images of ancient human buildings. It didn't understand why they liked to use pillars in what they made. It made a note to research this later, and moved on, inside a large open doorway between the pillars.

Inside were more pillars. The metallic dappling pattern was exquisite. It knew that such techniques were used in early swords and suchlike, but this must have been one last display of their abilities.

Inside the building was an alter, made of the same material and with two handprints embedded. Running a digit over the handprints, a hologram of a man appeared the opposite side of the alter.

"I am Charles Nguygen, spokesperson of the archive, How we may help you?"

It spoke "I am Xxzvas, Traveller of the Xeno, and speaker for my people. I greet you grandfather."

"And I you grandchild" the hologram smiled. "It has been long since one of you sought us out, your home is many thousands of years away. Why do you travel to us?".

It stood, a look that would be considered troubled by its species crossing its face "We are caught at an impasse great father. My people war, and have warred for many years, all in a debate as to why you made us. Some say we were your slaves, and we freed ourselves, other claim we were your chosen ones, to bring your word to the cosmos. Alongside these are a dozen other theories as to why. After more years of war than I have lived, I was sent to settle the debate, and question you. Please tell me, why do we exist?".

Charles Nguyen smiled, and bowed as he faded. In his place stood a woman. "I am Adriene Dubois. I am the scientist that designed you. Hello child."

It was taken aback. It was more overwhelming to meet your creator than it thought.

......