messages hidden in the wind

It was a very windy day, the envelope was shaking violently in her hands. The
wind was messing with her red hair, which looked like fire in contrast with the
grey clouds. Beneath the bridge where she was standing, there was a very deep cliff that divided the city in two, and all the way down was a river that lead to the ocean, just a few miles ahead.

The envelope was finally let go and it flew through the air. This was the fifth time that she had felt the need to fold a blank piece of paper and put it into an envelope. She carried it with her until she felt it was pointless and abandoned it anywhere. A few days later she found out that the "letters" did have a destination, and than when they arrived they all had messages in them with what it seemed her handwriting.

They were messages hidden in the wind, too weak to be heard but too important
to get lost.

She doesn't know how that happens or why it happens. It is her handwriting but she is 100% sure she never wrote anything herself, and later she starts to hear voices in the wind, whispers.

AAP by unreadstory

The Society for the Prevention of Stew

Genre: Sword and Sorcery/Comedy

Your MC is a culinary wizard. Literally. Can't fight or divine or heal, but makes the most wonderful food. Joins adventuring parties in order to give them decent meals.

MC sets out on a quest to gather rare ingredients and open a gourmet restaurant. So get the party of skilled fighters and adventurers together, because this will require venturing deep into the Haunted Caverns of Doom for mushrooms, seeking out rare herbs in the Forest of Doom, diving for sea serpent eggs on the Lake of Doom (and dodging the sea serpents), and slaying the dragon to turn it into bacon!

AAP by larelmian

story of the evacuees

Genre: pseudo-medieval epic fantasy or some other war-torn setting. Remember how heroes are always evacuating those who are too young or too old to fight out of villages that will soon be site of some battle? Write a story about the evacuees. What is it like, being smuggled into hiding while your family, friends, and neighbors stay behind to fight? What happens when they never come back - no one ever comes back - and the "too old" must care for the "too young," or visa versa?

AAP by Selah Ex Animo

Guardian of the Dragons

Soraya was chosen as a child to be a Guardian of the Dragons - the one person from her village allowed into the dragons' lair, the one who serves them and meets their every need or desire. Without the Guardians, one young woman selected by lot from each village in the valley, the dragons would have to provide for themselves. Although these dragons are strict vegetarians and would not kill to eat or for pleasure, the dragons do not much care for lives other than their own and would think nothing of burning a whole herd of cattle and their keepers, along with razing an orchard to the ground, just to get one juicy apple from one tree. As had been proven many times prior to the arrangement of the Guardians.

It has been a hard life and a lonely one, Soraya not being able to connect well with the Guardians from the other villages in their few hours off each day. But now she has reached the age at which her contract expires and after spending a couple of weeks training her young replacement, Hamila, Soraya is free to return home to her village.

But the homecoming is not all that she had imagined it would be. The years of virtual solitude have left Soraya with few social skills; none at all when it comes to dealing with young men. And although her former friends among the young ladies attempt to welcome her back, Soraya feels that they would enjoy themselves more without her.

So Soraya finds herself mostly socializing with Hamila's mother, Rahat, a woman about ten years her senior, telling her stories about what high points she can remember or manufacture of her life among the dragons in return for lessons in socialization and the occasional story of Hamila's life before the selection.

The social lessons help and Soraya begins to feel more comfortable among her peers, finding herself capable of participating in their parties and conversations at least well enough to not embarrass her friends in front of their suitors. And one of the young men, Farid, is starting to pay particular attention to Soraya. At least, that is what the other girls say.

But Soraya is also growing closer to Rahat and feels her pain at the loss of her daughter. And the stories of Hamila's childhood, as well as their experiences together while Soraya was training her, convince Soraya that Hamila could never be happy as a Guardian. And Soraya begins to feel that it is her duty to rescue Hamila from that fate. But how to do it without endangering their peace with the dragons or with the other villages in the land?

AAP by topsecret

The princess is the villain

The princess in this story is actually a villain. She arranged to be married to a certain prince using magic she forced out of an evil wizard she met while on a ride (actually, she went and broke into his tower and kidnapped his beloved cat familiar hostage until he taught her what she wanted). She wants to marry this prince specifically because he lives in a warm southern country and she lives in a cold northern one. To accomplish this, she kidnaps the evil wizard's cat again and forces him to go to the prince's country disguised as her (because she doesn't trust him not to do embarrassing things if he were to stay and she were to go) and the evil wizard casts a spell to make the prince fall in love with the princess. To get back at her, the wizard also casts the spell on a vain, extremely clingy dragon he meets on the way back and chaos ensues.

AAP by Sayaren

diabetic vampires

Vampires exist. But they aren't sex gods. They aren't even a metaphor for homosexuality. This time, the vampires are closer to diabetics, which makes their condition liveable but horribly inconvenient.

These vampires are just like everyone else. They're nocturnal and can't stand sunlight, so most of them take graveyard shift jobs like night nurse and night construction workers. They also have to drink blood, too. Except they always are nice enough to ask first, since they want to make sure that the blood they get is safe. They do not take donations from children, they don't take donations from anyone with a blood disease, and they take nothing from people that don't want to. Thay also use nothing but the most sterile collection tools and reimburse all donors with cookies and juice, telling them to rest for a few minutes before doing anything strenuous.

Anyone feel like writing a story about diabetic vampires?

AAP by Dennis Dunjinman

The disowned children are the clan's only hope

The Isle of Lewis near Scotland is home to a pack of vicious werewolves. The pack's laird, Ian, has disowned two of his three children: Ewan and Meara. Meara is weak and a poor hunter, and Ewan protects her. But when Blaire, Ian's third child, goes power-hungry and attempts to assassinate her father, Ewan and Meara might be the only ones left alive in a bloody werewolf clan war. Can they stop their mad sister before she succeeds in deposing their father?

AAP by Kandy

God of Progress

For good ten thousand years, the world has remained the exact same. That is because ten thousand years ago, elder Gods of Life, War, Death and Peace locked away their youngest brother, the God of Progress, in the glaciers of the north pole. Since then, all the species under the domain of the four elder Gods stopped inventing, stopped developing new ideas and stopped changing - and since then, the followers of the elder Gods have been systematically making sure that no one would ever even know that there was such thing as the fifth God. All this was done because it was prophesied that one day all the races of the world would grow out of worship, and all the Gods would be forgotten - and it would be because of the fifth God's influence.

And so nothing has changed since then. Not until after ten thousand years, when the seals holding the God of Progress crack. In that moment, just before the seal is repaired, just enough of his power escapes that a child with a special power is born - the power to invent.

I wrote a bit of this long ago, written from the point of view of a blood knight, a follower of the Death God, who found the child with the ability to invent and who decided to flip the finger at the elder Gods and make sure that the kid would grow up - and somewhere along the way the kid was going to invent airships and they were going to release the fifth God and so forth, but... Well, I suppose it's up to the adopted parent to take this whichever way they choose, if they like it.

AAP by esama

Unicorn doesn't belive she is a virgin

An older woman, still a virgin, comes across a unicorn. The unicorn is skeptical about her claim. She is outraged.

AAP by Selah Ex Animo

The secrets of Genn City

All Faye has ever known is the sanctuary of Genn City. She knows the buildings, the colours of the roads in the afternoon sun and exactly how high the walls are. She knows every merchant, every trader, every nobleman and every Councilman. What she doesn't know is what's outside the walls, or who she can trust beyond the reach of the Council towers.

Orphaned at a young age, Faye was taken under the protection of the Council on which her father served. Why the Council won't let her out of their sight, and why even they won't travel beyond the high walls into the land they rule is a mystery to her; a mystery that up until now didn't bother her. But that was before they dragged him through the streets, howling and bleeding, all the way to the dungeons.

The wolf man.

Now Faye is doing the unthinkable - setting free a vicious beast and being kidnapped in the process. She is taken to his home, where more creatures roam the shadowed woods, and where there is talk of rebellion, talk of peace and talk of blood. All too soon Faye finds herself in the middle of a brewing war between the absent rulers and forgotten creatures of Genn, each with their own bone to pick with the Council who raised her.

At the end of it all, Faye is left wondering: who is telling the truth? The nightmarish creatures who took her from her home, or the mysterious men and women who kept her behind locked gates her whole life?

(In my head, Genn [the country] was a land made up of three or four races - the humans of Genn city, the wolf-men of the Dark Forest [not men who turn into wolves, but wolves who run upright like men, with human eyes and the ability to talk], the trolls of the swamps [great, hulking creatures with pebbled blue skin and tusks] and the nomadic tribes of the desert [very much like humans, but covered in shamanistic tattoos and with matching powers]).

AAP by jemcat

princess in tower doesn't want to be rescued

A princess is trapped in a tower by an evil witch, sounds like the typical fairy tale, but this princess has no desire to be saved by prince charming. She befriends a mischievous fairy who helps her foil the plans of every prince charming who comes close enough to save her from her fate. One prince however has different plans, and persists, not falling for any of the fairy's tricks and gets through to the princess.

I couldn't decide if the fairy stops trying to trick him at one point and turns on the princess, or maybe the fairy falls in love with the prince tries to take him for herself and that makes the princess fall for him or something else along those lines.....this is where I got stuck....perhaps you can take it from there :)

AAP by SpazticSunshine

Two witches escaping coven master

Getting out of a coven is hard. Very hard. Especially when the man in charge is powerful, inbalanced, and capable of inspiring intense loyalty in his followers. But FMC1 and FMC2 aren't going to bow down this time, not when he's telling them their relationship of three years has to end before the next Solstice, and definitely not when FMC2's grandmother is the most powerful witch in Canadian history!

Getting out of a coven is hard... unless you're smart. And FMC1 is smart. She posts an ad on Craigslist: "Two witches escaping coven master. Need to get from New Orleans to Canada in a month. Will take any help possible! 555-5555-5555 at any hour." It's a long shot, really, but any help at all will get them there.

To their surprise, they're contacted two hours later by a local documentary maker whose attempts to document the coven have been repeatedly shot down. Give him the rights to film their journey and ask them anything he wants about the coven and he'll use his contacts to get them to Canada.

As their journey continues across America, they face local superstitions, the efforts of their former coven, mystical beasts, and the discovery that they're becoming one of the biggest 'human interest' stories in America!

Can they make it to Canada unscathed? Can their relationship survive the trip? And will their coven master be crazy enough to try and follow them with public opinion turning against him?

AAP by Tolly

Curse: you can only die by one very specific way

The MC can die, but he (or she) hasn't yet figured out how. They've been stabbed, burned, decapitated, drowned, poisoned, and worse. Some time in their past they were cursed, and part of the curse was that they could only die by one very specific way. This caused the MC to become reckless with their life and take countless risks, leading to a very colorful and adventure-filled life. Now, though, the MC has grown old and is ready to die (maybe part of the curse was that they stopped aging). All of their friends and loved ones are long dead. Maybe nobody is alive anymore that remembers all the amazing things the MC did in their life. Whatever the reason, the MC wants to die. Now they just have to figure out how.

AAP by NURBS

The lost dragons

Within Mt. Kailash is the Valley of Wind and the home of the last dragons. Periodically, they will send a “scout” out into humanity to see if the time is right to reenter the world. Sometimes the scout doesn’t return and their heartfire is extinguished within the Temple of Wind - that’s how the remaining dragons know that scout has passed beyond the veil. Other times, the heartfire still burns but the scout still is lost. There are about 450 dragons left and while they are very long-lived, their numbers are waning. The last dragons born are now in their early twenties and there are no young on the horizon (figure out why). MC wants to find out what happened to the Lost, those who never returned yet whose heartfires still burn. But the Council Elders feel that’s too big a risk, especially for one of the youngest dragons. So MC has to sneak away.

S/he finds some of the Lost but they have been diminished somehow and trapped in their human forms and no memory of being a dragon except for strange dreams they all have in common. Turns out, an evil sorcerer devised a way to capture their essence to use as his own power and extend his own life. It takes a long time to drain a dragon completely so that’s why their heartfires still burn.

With the help of some new friends s/he makes along the way, MC is able to defeat the sorcerer and free the Lost, allowing them to return to dragon form and regain their memories.

AAP by ml427

The one who came from fantasy world to our world

The MC lives in the fantasy world and somehow discovers the 'normal' world; which as far as he/she is concerned it's the opposite of normal. As amazing as this new world is, it is very distressing because magic only exists in pockets in this world. Any time that he/she wants/needs to use magic--something that doesn't even need thinking about at home--it uses the character's own life force to do it. Obviously this causes some problems and the character eventually needs to return home....or does he/she?

AAP by perfect.in.imperfection

clones of dead American heroes

At a special secluded boarding school, a few very special kids, now in their mid to late teens, are being raised and educated, in hopes they will be the light and the leaders of the world. They have lived here since they were born - in a lab on the premises, in artificial wombs. They are the clones of assorted dead greats of American History, designed to lead America back to greatness. They are different American heroes, from differing times, chosen to be a very eclectic collection of talent and ability.

I think they were born over only a few years, so that they now might be, say, 15-19. I imagine this as a children's sci-fi. The teens trying to deal with the daily stress of school, of being a teen, getting to old to not be getting restless at being cloistered, starting to develop young romances - I imagine Abe Lincoln falling for Ella Fitzgerald, for instance.

Their teachers are good to them, really believe in what the school is meant to do, and are trying to guide them gently through the tough teenage years to prepare them for what comes next - leadership, either in power or in art or in some other spectrum - in an America with severe problems.

They were created because some imagine that clones of the greats will be great enough to lead them out of current problems in politics and society. But of course some object to the idea that ~15-20 years ago, clones were created with the idea of them having specific destinies - including building future presidents. The school is cloistered to protect the children from protesters. But the time draws near for them to graduate and take up their places in society.

AAP by tsatske

Chosen One teams up with street-savvy thief

The MC (female, at least in my head) is a child of royalty and the Chosen One. She knows it. Her parents know it. Everyone knows it. Because of this, she's been preparing since childhood to fulfill her destiny. Of course, once she goes out to do so, she has no idea what she's doing. She's lived the typical cloistered, privileged life of royalty and has no idea how the world works. She's been told how to fulfill her destiny and save the world or whatever (and hopefully the people who told her knew what they were talking about), but she has no idea how to get there. It takes a street-savvy thief (or some other street urchin type) to teach her otherwise. Meanwhile, the time to complete her task is running out and if she fails, something really bad will happen.

AAP by Hyperewok1

Little sister goes to save adventuring princess

Spunky eldest princess goes off on an adventure, and gets captured by the Evil Overlord's men. Quiet, meek, serious youngest princess must then go and save her, using her Dangerously Genre Savvy self and competent self-defense skills to survive and gain allies that she feels she's known forever... But why?

AAP by Perse_Rising

Kate and Leopold and Zath the Hellbinder, OR The Reverse Don Quixote

The final battle between traditional fantasy hero and the traditional fantasy villain is imminent. The villain, perhaps, is about to utilize all the mystic energy he's gathered in his fortress, focus it through a stolen grimoire, and cast a mighty plot device that will give him power over time and space. Early on, they lock horns in a climactic deathfight, but something goes wrong, some horrible plot device involving the spell and blah blah, and suddenly it's a thousand years later.
Cut off from most of his magical foci, Villain retreats. Both have to adjust to a world where everything that made their lives and rivalry significant has crumbled and blown away. They become tentative allies, searching at first for a way back, and then gradually figuring out how to move on with their lives. Are they still enemies? Does their grudge still matter?
Not sure where it goes. Perhaps they are driven to resolve their grudge, as it's the last part of their mutual past that they just can't bury; perhaps they reach an understanding and let each other go, only to find that they were rivals for a reason and that even the modern world is too small for them to avoid stepping on each other's toes. I don't know. I'm not a doctor.

AAP by ConstantineWestwood

Fight against the shadow beings

The shadow beings have lived in peace and harmony in the depths of the forest for centuries. They don't really deal with many other beings, they have studied them and known a lot about them but kept a strictly hands off stand-point. They're very peaceful, calm, wise people. However, the light dwellers (humanoid types) believe them to be evil. A new generation is coming in who think offense if the best form of defense, as such they're planning to wipe out the shadow beings before the shadows attack them. Of course the shadows have no such plans, but now they're in a position where they have no choice but to defend themselves or be wiped out.

AAP by Fyreheart

The dragon's test

Once upon a time, the dragon lord fell in love with a princess. He gave her every comfort she could dream of and every luxury she could imagine, but still it was not enough. She ran away with a penniless knight and with a single, thoughtless action, broke the dragon lord's heart. But though he vowed never to love again, the magic which ties him to the land dictate that he must take a human bride of royal blood from every third generation. And so he began to test the mettle of each young woman who would become his bride, and princess after princess failed his tests until it was a dreaded thing, to be born to the third generation and be faced with the dragon lord's fearful test. FMC volunteers to become the dragon's bride and passes the test. Cue the plot essentials of beauty and the beast.

AAP by AliceUnrequited

Uprising of the Sanctuary

A young girl, half human/half (whatever you want, I used a Kirin- a Chinese unicorn), works for a secret organization that protects half breed children from mainstream society. The girl- FMC's job is to find other half breeds, and bring them to the protection of Sanctuary, where they can live out their lives in peace. MMC is a half human/half (something dangerous- I used a manticore), currently being hunted for doing something bad that he couldn't really help. FMC finds and saves him at the last minute, and brings him to Sanctuary. At first, it seems like a perfect place, but MMC can't help but notice that the other residents have an abnormal amount of hate for humans. He quickly realizes the other half breeds are being raised for war, to attack the surrounding peaceful villages. Despite being hunted his entire life, MMC decides this plot must be stopped, but he's going to need FMC's help to do it...and she doesn't believe him.

AAP by KayceeRonin

Misunderstood gift

Your MC is a typical Chosen One material: young, naïve, possibly a farm boy. His life (I imagined him as male, but feel free to play with the gender) revolves around a single secret: his ability to see the inner nature of people at a glance. An Old Wise Mentor encourages him to join a Five-Man Band out to destroy the Evil Overlord. The party is suitably impressed by the MC’s gift of truesight.

The Five Man Band begins on their merry jaunt. The MC is praised to the skies as he exercises his power and grows stronger. The party picks up companions along the way and there much joy, etc. – until the moment that the MC makes a mistake and sentences the wrong person to death.

This mistake is just the tip of the iceberg. He discovers that this is not the only error he has made: he and everyone around him has misinterpreted his gift, and he has been damning innocent people ever since the beginning of the quest.

Shocked and horrified by what he has done, the MC tries to hide the consequences of his errors. But the effort to do so tears the Five Man Band apart (as some defend and others condemn him. All of them are hiding from their own role in his wrongdoing and from their own crimes — some of which, done in the name of the Greater Good, are worse than any the Evil Overlord perpetuated).

As the heroic band collapses, the MC realizes the true nature of his gift: he cannot see the inner nature of people, only the “roles” that they play (“noble king,” “spunky, rebellious princess,” “wise mentor,” etc.)

He can no longer hide from what he has done. He attempts to clean up the mess he made of individual lives, whole families, and entire communities.

I always imagined that he can never quite fix what he did wrong, and so on coming face to face with the Evil Overlord, is executed for his crimes. But of course, you can go wherever you want with the end.

AAP by Selah Ex Animo

The prince's sister

Once upon a time, there was a farm girl who turned warrior and rescued a handsome prince. But she didn't marry him, having sworn herself to a life of chastity.

Then the prince's sister fell in love with her, and everything changed...

AAP by Raksab

seeing the future causes amnesia

MC1 has the power to see the future, how he gains it depends on your story. Anyways, he uses his power to cheat at casinos to earn a living. He uses the money to help MC2, who is sick, with the hospital bills, which is expensive. MC2 is either his lover, sister or a childhood friend.

Unfortunately for MC1, every time he looks at the future, he loses a past memory. To counter this, he reads a lot of books to gain new memory to lose. Eventually he loses his memory about MC2. All he knows is that he has to take care of her and that he loves her. MC1 is having internal conflict about feelings and motivations he does not remember.

MC2 is distressed about MC1 losing his memory about her and the times they spent together. It ends with MC1 eventually forgetting that he has the power to see the future, and he ends up living his life normally with MC2 as his lover (if she's the sister or the childhood friend).

AAP by majikero

Vampire boyfriend disappears

Feel free to change the names, it's just easier to follow than FMC or C1 and C2.

In a world where supernatural creatures live side-by-side with humans, mortal girl Carla Stewart is delighted to be in a steady relationship with Pete, a sweet and loyal vampire. Aside from the pesky issue of sleep deprivation and never being able to eat a meal with her boyfriend, they're perfectly happy together. The sex is great, but Carla will never let him bite her, because she has a gut feeling that somehow he will take her soul if he drinks from her.

When Pete is stolen from under her nose, Carla desperately seeks out the leader of his coven, only to find out no one knows who took him. A bad-tempered shapeshifter turns up out of nowhere to help her search, all the while giving her warnings about not getting to close to any supernatural with a blood lust. He says vampires are out of the question, as are werewolves and certain warlocks.

All Carla wants to know is who took Pete, and why? And why in God's name is the mysterious shifter trying to convince her that her blood is special?
AAP by jemcat

she doesn't want to be a dragon rider

A girl is chosen to be one of the kingdom's dragon riders; a great honor for anyone. How unfortunate that she never wanted to be a dragon rider. She abhors the dragon she is teamed with, though the dragon extends to her an almost puppy like love. The worst thing about being a rider is that one must remain celibate; but the girl was deeply in love.

Because the girl wants nothing more than to kill anyone in charge, she quickly masters swords, archery, and whatever else you want her to learn. When the girl is foolish enough to let her guard down and be kidnapped, she realizes she has only one person to turn to: her dragon.

AAP by BlueGonfalon

one twin dies, the other has increased abilities

After one of a pair of twins dies from SIDS, their mother retreats into herself. The father raises the remaining child without her aid [or vice versa], and when the child turns seven, it's discovered that [s]he has twice the capabilities as any other seven year old. Twice as fast, twice as strong, twice as smart, twice as...etc. When the father[mother] discovers a secret journal in the mother's[father's] bookshelf and learns that the mother[father] sacrificed the one child to make the other better, what kind of consequences will unfold?

AAP by [unknown]