Aihearkisto: Arvosteltu

Why, Honey?

Julkaistu , kirjoittanut
Vastaa

”Why, Honey?” is a short story written by Raymond Carver. The short story tells about mom who afraid something about his son. The whole story is a form of letter. The mom has written a letter to one man and in that letter she tells about her son. She tells about things which makes her suspects her son. She suspects that her son and his friend have put firecrackers in her cat’s ears and in ”you know what”. Their neighbour had seen two boys doing that and had seen the other one of those boys running towards the mom’s and son’s home. The son also has lied about his wages. He said that he got 80 dollars but the mom found the stub that show that he got only 28 dollars. That wasn’t only thing the son lied about. Everytime when the mom asked where did he go last night he always said that he went to the show. Then the mom found out that he went to the school dance or spent the evening riding around with somebody in a car. Once the son was supposed to have gone on a field trip and he even told that he saw land formations. Then a next day mom got a note from the school saying they wanted permission for a field trip. He lied again. The mom also found a shirt full of blood that was in his car. The son said that he had a bad bloody nose. Then one night he took his things and left. Now he is in politics and is governor and the mom is afraid of him. She says that she should be proud of him but she is afraid. She tells also that there have been a man in a car watching her. She wonder how the man whom she is writing to know who she is because she has changed her name and moved to different city.

I think the things that the mom tells about the son is very suspicious. Why he is lying all the time? Why he can’t tell the truth? And why the shirt really is bloody?

The final paragraph tells that the narrator (the mom) is very worried that someone know who she is and where she lives. She doesn’t want to be known. And that’s why she is writing to the man and she wants to know how the man found out who she is.

I think the narrator is reliable but it is also chance that she is little paranoid and imagine things.

The mom may be writing to someone how wants to know things about the son because the son is governor.

Why, Honey?

Julkaistu , kirjoittanut
Vastaa

Mom and her normal son are living a normal life in a normal suburb. But suddenly mom starts to worry about the son and even be afraid of him. The son starts to do very odd things and to act strangely.

It all started when the son and his friend put firecrackers in the mom’s and the son’s cat’s named Trudy ears and butt. Of course Trudy died. The woman who lived right next saw the boys doing that and told to mom about it. She couldn’t believe it and asked it from the son but he did not tell anything.

When the son got his own car he bought a shotgun and a knife and started to keep them in the car. One day the mom found a bloody shirt from the back of his car. There were also the gun and the knife. The son said that he had a ”bloody nose”. The son was always lying about everything and even about the little things which are not worth lying. He lied about his wages and work days and school things. And mom always find out the lies.

One day they had an argument and a fight. Because of the fight the son backed his things and left away. She and he never saw again face to face and never talked to each others again. Mom saw him on the TV and on the paper often ’cause he joined the marines, got himself in the politics and elected to governor. He became famous. Mom thought that she had better to move out, change her name and phone number. Because the son was now a powerful man and it would be easy to him to find his mom.

This short story was written as a letter. The letter was written by mom, but I did not find out to whom it was written. The text was quite easy to read but there were lots of ”would” and sometimes it was hard to read because of that. The text was not clean and straight. There were not dialogues. The text’s narrator was reliable and credible.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail ENA5.2

Julkaistu , kirjoittanut
1

Monty Python and the Holy Grail. What a name. What a movie.

 

Monty Python, despite the singular name, is actually a comedy group consisting of six comedians and/or actors. The Holy Grail is by no means the first (or last) project of the group: by the time they had already produced a TV series and a movie. The film was released in 1975 and is still known to people in our current generation. Making a humorous movie that upholds it’s charm through decades is truly an achievement to be proud of. The latest re-release is from 2012, when the movie was updated to Blu-Ray. The movie has also often been ranked to be one the best comedies ever.

The genre is easy to identify. Even the preface of the movie is humorous and it’s not exactly hard to giggle within the first few minutes. As a matter of fact, if you can actually find most of the jokes in the movie you’ll be laughing half the time, guaranteed. Dark humor is littered all over the movie and it’s not all obviously visible and thus understanding some of the jokes makes it all the more fulfilling. The forementioned multilayered humor that works across generations makes it all the more interesting.

The soundtrack is interesting. The actual voices of the actors are lacking in many places due to the technology available at the time. The soundtrack, however is not very astonishing. The songs used in the movie are not all up to par but none exactly lack any certain qualities. They’re just borderline average, just as many soundtrack after the Holy Grail.

The special effects are quite impressive considering the time of it’s production. The animations inbetween the scenes are better than the average animation at the time and the actual effects, e.g. Explosions are used both in exactly the right places and in some scenes overused to emphasize the ridiculousness. Overall the SFX are very well done, although not quite up to modern standards for quite obvious reasons. The movie also breaks the fourth wall on a few occasions, ridiculing itself as well as the audience.

The cast is not really anything to look at besides the members of Monty Python. The whole movie was performed and voiced by about 15 people which isn’t that many.

All in all the movie is brilliant. The charm doesn’t seem to wither even with time and the Holy Grail is always entertaining to watch. If you haven’t had the chance to see it I strongly advice you to pick it up from anywhere you can. This is a movie you don’t want to miss, even after 38 years.

Old buddies

Julkaistu , kirjoittanut
Vastaa

Spiderman is the movie trilogy. It’s first part came out on year 2001. Now it have been made movie which is called Amazing Spiderman(2012). It is the new version of the first Spiderman movie. Spiderman is the superhero of New York City. In the first movie his archenemy was the green gobling. In the Amazing Spiderman his archenemy is the green, mutant, scientist lizard.
The Avengers (2012) is Marvels movie where is put on all the Marvels greatest characters all the time like Thor, Hulk, Iron-Man and Captain America. Except the Spiderman.
But here is my short story.

New Spiderman had been chasing it for a long time, the green mutant lizard, which raged free in Manhattan. It was almost midnight when it headed to the Manhattan Bridge. Spiderman believed to be soon on there and hoped that the creature wouldn’t have made a lot of destruction. But someone else was swinging at the same  time too.

Old Spiderman: ” What in the world…? Who is that? And.. It’s coming straight towards! ”

New Spiderman : ” What the.. heck..Watch out!”

Old Spiderman: ” Goddamn! I’m swinging on here! ”

New Spiderman: ” I’m sorry but I’m in hurry..wait a second? Why do you look just like me?!”

Old Spiderman: ”No! Why do you look like me? No..I’m much better looking, and more muscular. You are just a fan.”

New Spiderman: ” I’m not a fan? I am the real Spiderman! Who the heck are you? I didn’t know I have fans like you?”

Old Spiderman: ” This isn’t fun anymore. I know that I have lot of fans but some respect please! But you’re pretty well taken care of those cobweb machine and everything.”

New Spiderman: ”Yeah cobweb came out a little awkward place so I did such equipment in my arms that shoot the web.”

Old Spiderman: ”. Nice I don’t wanna know from where it came.”

New Spiderman: ” But really who are you, and I’m the real Spiderman not a fan. And I’m chacing a giant green mutant lizard. Have you seen it?”

Old Spiderman: ”Hahah! Pretty good one! But that what I was chased on my time was  the green goblin, not a lizard.  But it’s pretty well invented. You have a wild imagination.”

New Spiderman: ”I haven’t invented it. It reportedly is raging right now in Manhattan Bridge. If you were the original spiderman, why haven’t I heard about you?”

Old Spiderman: ” Some the 2000’s kids again. Well I have used to it that everybody in the world know about me. Have you lived in the barrel or something. But green lizard, green goblin .. kind of weird if you speak the truth.”

New Spiderman: ” Oh… Really..Hmm.. Yeah pretty weird, but you won it anyway? Maybe you could help me? We could work together?”

Old Spiderman: ” Hmph! I have kind a finished these things. I really do not want to chase anything green creep creatures who just destroy everything! All green creatures are stinky and ugly!”

Suddenly like the lightning strike came a terrible thud, and soon somebody green creature breathed the old Spiderman’s back.

New Spiderman: ”Who is he? Some of your friends..did you just said that all the green creatures are ugly and stinky.”

Old Spiderman: ” Oh God! No! You damn idiot!”

New Spiderman: ” Wait a second.. is that a Hulk? Oh! Now I know why didn’t you were in the Avengers movie !

Old Spiderman: ” Shut up!”

 

Hello Kitty Must Die

Julkaistu , kirjoittanut
Vastaa

The following is a work of fan fiction for the book ’Hello Kitty Must Die’ by Angela S. Choi. It is meant to be read after chapter thirteen.

We were at San Francisco Zoo. Originally called Fleishhacker Zoo for its founder Herbert Fleishhacker. Its first exhibits, in the 1930s, included only less than twenty animals.

Sean had called me that morning and told to meet me outside my house in forty five minutes.

”Sean, I have to go to work. It’s my second day, I’m not going to blow it off.”

”Of course you’re not. Because I had a little chat with Jack the Cheater and he gave you the day off!” He sounded way too enthusiastic about that. I felt exactly the opposite.

”You did what? Sean, what the hell did you say?”

”Oh, that’s not important. Might have mentioned something about Mei and his wife wouldn’t be too happy about it. Or the police.” I could hear his grin in his voice.

”You’re seriously fucked up, you know that?” But my anger was fading away.

”I thought we established that already. Anyway, fourtyfive minutes, Fi. Oh, now it’s only fourty, better hurry up!” I started to ask where we would be going but he’d already hung up. He wouldn’t even tell me in the car. I only found out when he parked the car in the San Francisco Zoo’s parking lot.

”The Zoo, Sean? The Zoo?!”

”A change of scenery. Besides, there’s this great cat I want you to see. I think you’ll come around.” I doubted it but went anyway. There was no saying no at this point anymore.

So now we were sitting in front of the Peregrine Falcon. Sean said it reminded him of him. I didn’t disagree. ”Peregrine Falcons catch medium-sized birds in the air with swift, spectacular dives. They often sit on high perches, waiting for the right opportunity to make their aerial assault. They hunt at dawn and dusk, when prey are most active, but also nocturnally in cities”, read the info sign. Sounded exactly like Sean. It even lookd liked him, with its dangerous eyes and beak but handsome and noble looks.

”So where’s this cat you wanted me to see?” I asked while eating my breakfast sandwich he’d bought for me.

”It’s coming, be patient. It’ll be worth it. So, date with Don?”

”Oh my god, don’t remind me. I’m going on the date with him on Saturday and then I never want to even…”

”Look! There she is!” Sean cut me off.

”Who? Where?”

”There”, Sean said pointing his finger to our left. And then I saw it. A big white cat with no mouth and no claws. A pink bow infront of its ear and a bunch of pink helium balloons with its face in them in its paw.

Hello Kitty. The bitch who gave American men expectations as to what Chinese women and children should be like. No one could be unique and anything else but cute, bright and warm and happy to stay at home taking care of the children, cook and clean. The bitch.

”So if I told you to pick one for me now, who would it be?” Sean interrupted my thoughts.

”What? No. No? I mean, really? You would?” I got hopeful. It felt weird but this time the thought didn’t give me nausea.

”Anything for you, Fi.” Always thinking of me, Sean was. I nodded. He stood up.

”Great. Go home. I’ll do especially intricate work, just for you.”

”No. I want to stay. I want to see it. I want to do it.” I could imagine what I sounded and looked like. Vengeful, thirsty for the blood of Ms Kitty be drained out of her. Sean looked surprised.

”Only if you promise not to back out and do exactly as I say.”

Now I was surprised. I would’ve never thought he would take me futher than this. I stood up too and we started following the giant white dispicable feline every kid wanted to have.

Hello Kitty walked behind the bathroom stalls, out of everybody’s sight. Sean took a waterbottle and a small baggie containing three roofies out of his bag. He gave them to me.

”Do the honors”, he said.

I took them from his hand, dropped the pills in the water and walked behind the bathroom. Hello Kitty had taken off her head, and she was trying to cool herself. Her brown curly hair was wet, clinging to her neck and forehead. I walked to her with a kind smile on my face and offered her the bottle.

”Oh, thanks”, she seemed embarrased that someone had seen her like this but took the bottle with a smile, ”this costume is so hot. Especially on a day like this.”

She took too sips and offered it back to me.

”Oh no, take it, it’s no problem.”

”Thank you.”

She was nice. About seventeen years old. But I didn’t hesitate or feel bad even for a second. Her head started to wobble back and forth and the waterbottle fell from her hand. Then she fell to the ground.

Sean walked next to me and put the giant Hello Kitty head back on her. To make it look like she had died of a heat stroke. I emptied the bottle in a toilet and gave the bottle back to Sean.

Then we left. As we walked across the zoo, I felt good. I felt awesome. Better than I had ever felt in my life. Hello Kitty had died.

Full Stop

Julkaistu , kirjoittanut
Vastaa

I decided to read a short story named ”Full Stop” which is written by Alecia McKenzie. The short story is in Open Road 5 and reading and writing about it is part of our course.

Full Stop is a story about old Grandmother Scottie who has raised Carmen and her little brother Richard. Carmen thinks that Grandma is her mother because she raised her. And relations with her mother (whose name is not given) is ice cold.

The story is told by letters. 73-years old grandmother Scottie and her grandchild Carmen are writing short letters to each others. They are telling about their living. The letters include just basic stuffs, like things about relationships and how they have been doing. Grandmother writes without any punctuation; commas or full stops. In every letter she sends greetings to Carmen’s husband Normy and concludes them with ”God Bless you”, because she is a Christian.

Along letters Carmen regularly sends her Grandmother money for specific purpose. The money is intended for paints, painter and burglar bars. Carmen wants to take care of Scottie because she thinks she’s her mom.

When Carmen was born, her parents were so young that they couldn’t take care of her, so that’s why grandmother has raised her. In the story Carmen is almost thirty years old and she haven’t ever seen her mother. So her mother is a complete stranger to her. Nevertheless, Carmen’s mother is continuously trying to contact her daughter by letters. Carmen isn’t happy about that because she doesn’t consider her as a mother.

Women have totally different versions of what has happened. In Carmen’s real mother’s opinion they made an agreement which grandmother has broke. The intention was that Scottie would have been kept Carmen for only a while until her parents get enough money to take care of her and her brother. Carmen’s mother thinks that Grandmother had been hiding children, because she don’t like their nonmember father. In Grandma’s point of view Carmen’s mother is a snake in the grass. She urges not to believe anything Carmen’s mother says.

I do believe that grandmother is right. Carmen’s real mother is clearly not have been interested about her children. Right after she had had her baby, she moved to another city and left Carmen to her grandmother. Though she was young and poor, its not normal to leave newborn just like that. I think she does’t have the right to keep in touch after such a long time.

Overall the sort story was quite simple but still interesting. It was easy to follow the text even though grandmother’s letters does’t contain any punctuations. It was a good story and I would recommend to read it.

Why, honey?

Julkaistu , kirjoittanut
Vastaa

Mom has a son who has made a psychopathic acts. Her son was first normal child (expet for occasional outbursts) but at some point in his actions became really sick.

Years ago they had a cat named Trudy. Cat had crept into the neighbor’s yard so that it was ”cutted up”. Ears and ass hole was put firecrackers.  Neigtbour suggested that the author had run in the direction of their house. Mother didn`t first imagined that his son would have made such a creepy thing. When she realized that her son was lying and not anymore cared about Trudy he was sure that the boy was quilty.

Her son luying increasing. He claimed that he had been at work many times, but the mother later found out that he had ended work a long time ago. He lied already after the first day of him salary.

Even though son was very girfted at school he lied of field trip. He said he was on a school trip but later mom found out that the field trip was only later.

First he lied about the little things but sudden things changed bigger and bigger. One night  the son did not come home at all. The next morning the mother found his tailgate bloody shirt and a knife. The son said that he had a nose bleed but mom knew that he lied. When the mother asked the son why he is lying the son told her to kneel down when the mother ran to her room. After this she has not seen her son.

I think that the mother telling the truth. Each example is descriped very closely. Text to find out that the mother`s fear is real. It seems that the mother was not told everything whick make the text seem sinister. It also affects adjectives. I think that she written that because she wants that somebody to understand her. The story is very reliable bacause the mother has so many evidences which are closely narrated.

I suspect that the mother wrote to someone who also has doubts about her son. Or maybe he is someone who cares about the mother.

 

 

A Daedra’s Best Friend

Julkaistu , kirjoittanut
Vastaa

Notes:

  • The milieu takes place in Skyrim, an enormous province of the fantasy land called Tamriel. The climate is similar to Finland, and it is homeland to the Nords, large and hardy men and women who resemble vikings or barbarians.

  • This fan-fiction is based on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Kiiski was an unsual nord. She wasn’t interested in cracking skulls or breaking bones at all. She was a mage, a battlemage to be exact since she wore armor. Very few Nords were mages or used any kind of magic at all, the magic was seen evil and weak, since it was directly connected to the Elves, and by most Nords, the Elves were considered to be weaker than Nords, but the feeling was mutual on the both sides. The both sides had their lunatic fringes.

The young mage walked the streets of Falkreath. Falkreath was one of the biggest cities of   Skyrim and it was famous for it’s graveyard. Many honorable dead had been buried there. As walking the rocky streets she heard approaching footsteps. A city quard was walking towards her. Kiiski stopped and turned towards the guard.

”You don’t seem to have any work, so I have a simply request for you.”, the guard said.

”Go on.”, Kiiski added.

”Our city’s blacksmith Lod, he has been looking for a dog and spotted one near the entrance of the city. You should go to speak to him. He might reward you with some gold.”,   the guard answered.

Kiiski’s eyes glistened when she heard the words of gold. After that she thanked the guard from useful information. She walked directly trough the streets to the blacksmith’s smithy.

”I heard you will reward someone who retrieves a dog for you”, the mage spoke.

The blacksmith stopped forging his latest work, and turned around. The blacksmith who was called Lod, was a tall man with short brown hair and he was all dirty, since forging was  dirty and challenging work, and his face was almost covered in soot.

”Did you see a hound on the road ? A fine strong creature that’s been wandering near town ?”, Lod asked curiously.

”The guard mentioned a dog.”, the mage added.

She wanted to get directly to the work and wasn’t really interested in the chatter of this man. But then she opened her mouth and said:

”I would be convinced to catch him.”

She didn’t mean what she said, she was only interested in the reward.

The blacksmith replied eagerly:

”It’s a smart human being that demands something up front for her work. Here’s some meat, I’ll give you the gold when I have my dog.”

After that the mage dashed through the city. Then she stopped and looked at the forest. ”The dog must be somewhere”, she tought. And she continued to stroll in the forest. Suddenly she heard a voice.

”You are exactly what I was looking for.”, said the voice.

The surprised woman turned around, and she wouldn’t believed her eyes. She saw a dog. Did that voice really came from that ? It can’t be possible.

”Did you just speak ?”, Kiiski said a doubt in her voice.

”Skyrim is now home to giants, flying lizards as you know as dragons and two-legged cat-men, and you’re surprised by me? Yes. I just talked. And am continuing to do so”, the dog replied with a mischievous tone.

”Really funny.”, Kiiski said annoyed.

”My name is Barbas and you must help me human, my Master has banished me. I want you to help me with this problem. We had an argument…”

Then the mage interrupted his speech before he could finish what he was trying to say: ”Very well, you flea bag. Let’s go see this Master of yours.”

”That wasn’t really nice ”, Barbas growled, but then added: ”I will lead you to the Haemar’s Shame, my Master lives there.

”Who exactly is your Master ? Kiiski asked. She was greatly interested in why anyone would simply abandon a speaking dog, that was madness since the dog was really valuable.

”My Master is Clavicus Vile, the Daedric Prince of Wishes and Bargains”, Barbas answered, pride in his voice.

Kiiski cringed. Clavicus Vile was a Daedra. Daedras were evil creatures from a different  dimension called Oblivion, and they despised mortals.

”So I’m making deals with Daedras. I’m not risking my life on this, you foul creature.” Kiiski shouted. She didn’t want to get involved with Daedras. Daedras weren’t fools and they were highly intelligent.

”I will promise that you won’t get hurt, I swear”, Barbas said and then added: ”Shall we travel to Haemar’s Shame ?”

”Very well. But remember what you have promised Daedra.”, Kiiski said.

The traveled together. Through forests, through different roads. The ground became more hostile and snow-covered. Roads became more rockier and more dangerous. A careless traveler would easily broke one’s ankle, so one had to be really careful and watch every footstep. The climate got colder. Kiiski was tired. She had traveled with that Daedra for couple of days. But yet she gathered all her power to just keep going. Finally they came to the end of their journey. Haemar’s Shame was a cave in the snowy mountain area. The atmosphere of the area was repulsive.

”Shall we go in ?”, Barbas barked.

”It seems we don’t have any choice, after you dog.”, Kiiski stated.

They stepped inside the cave. The cave smelled disgusting. The mage wrinkle her nose in disgust. Then she gazed at the floor of the cave. She was as if poleaxed. There was mutilated bodies, limbs and bloody bones.

”Vampires”, she whispered.

”Barbas we should be really careful now..”, she couldn’t end her talk as she noticed that the dog was gone.

”Dammit”, she thought. Now she was alone with vampires. Then she heard an unhuman scream. Quicky she murmured, and opened her palms. Small flames surrounded her hands. Now she was ready. If a vampire decided to attack her, she could cast a fire spell and possibly even burn that monster in to dust. She started to run. The light that was caused by the flames improved her sight. But that also made her easier to detect.

”Another intruder !”

A vampire saw her. Actually there were two vampires. Barbas was trying to fight them both. Barbas fiercely tried to kill them, but he was weak. He had no match for two vampires. Kiiski casted a spell, a blast of fire ejected from her hands. The fire hit the another vampire who had noticed her. The vampire screamed in pain, then collapsed to death, still burning.

”You’re next.”, Kiiski said calmly.

The remaining vampire hissed: ”You’re not getting out of here alive.”

The vampire pulled out his dagger, and in a blink of an eye slashed Barbas with his dagger. Barbas whined when the dagger slashed his back, but the mage prepared to attack. She hurled a fire ball towards the vampire, but it didn’t seem to work. Determinedly the vampire walked toward the mage, this determination scared the mage. She had ever encountered a vampire who was this strong. Barbas had recovered a little from the strike, he grabbed vampire’s leg and pulled him down. The fire had weakened him and Barbas easily tore his throat.

”You seem to be okay, let’s go burn all these bloodsuckers.”, Kiiski said a laugh in her tone.

”It has been a while I have had a challenging fight like this.”

”There is no time for chatting, woman, let’s go to find my Master.”, Barbas said angrily.

After clearing the whole cave of vampires. They arrived into a hall, in the middle of it there was a huge statue of a horned man wearing a toga raising a helmet in his hand.

”There is my Master. But a word of warning. Don’t accept any offers from him, no matter how tempting they are, okay ? But if you succeed to convince him to take me back, I’ll make sure that you will be rewarded.”, Barbas stated.

”Just talk to the statue. It will go well.”

Kiiski felt like an idiot. Talking to a statue. A talking dog. These events were like a really strange dream. But she decided to fill the dog reguest.

”Clavicus Vile, I came here to reunite you and Barbas.”, the mage stated.

A great and audible voice came from the statue:

”Why I, Clavicus Vile should take that mutt back, and you mortal, killed my last worshipers, but it doesn’t really matter since you granted their wishes and ended their misery. They were suffering from their vampirism, and came here for a cure and you gave it to them, by burning them all to death !”

The mage felt uncomfortable, she had never encountered a real Daedra before. And now she was talking to one and yet very strong one.

”Why you don’t want your dog back ? You are his Master after all.”, Kiiski mumbled.

”Hmm.. If you get me an axe, an incredibly powerful axe. If you bring it to me, I might take my dog back. The axe might rest in Rimerock Burrow. If I remember right.”

Then the statue silenced. Kiiski turned to Barbas.

”Do you know anything about this axe, he was talking about ? It might help, if you knew.”, Kiiski asked.

”There was a wizard named Sebastian Lort, he had a daughter, who was worshiping Hircine, the father of the werewolves. When his daughter became a werewolf, it depressed Sebastian. He didn’t want to see his daughter take such a bestial form.”, Barbas stated.

”Was your Master involved in this, I have my doubts..” Kiiski answered.

”Actually, yes, the wizard wished for the ability to cure his daughter’s curse. Clavicus gave him an axe.”

Kiiski remained quiet then said: ”Let’s go find this axe and end this.”

Barbas agreed and nodded. Then they left the cave. Rimerock Burrow was far away, on the other side of Skyrim, but the mage had a plan to get there. While walking she searched  for an open place.

Then Barbas asked: ”Shouldn’t we go to Rimerock Burrow, there is long way to there, we should be walking already.

Kiiski ignored Barbas, stared at the sky and suddenly shouted at the sky: ”Odahviing! Hear my voice and come forth. I summon you in my time of need.”

Nothing happened. Everything was quiet. Too quiet. But then a magnificent roar was heard from the sky. A giant red dragon appeared, he circled around them, then landed. Just in front of them.

”My friend, here I am”, the great dragon said while stretching his neck. The dragon was a mighty specimen of his kind. His scales were bright red and he looked extremely powerful.

”We need your help, Odahviing, my friend. Take us to Rimerock Burrow.”, Kiiski said with great respect for the beast.

”Does that dog come too as well ?” Odahviing asked.

”Yes, the dog comes with us, you liked it or not.”, Kiiski said.

Odahviing looked at Barbas, grunted load. Then lowered his head towards the land, that it would be easier to climb on his back. Kiiski climbed to the great dragon’s back, grabbed from his back and pulled him up. Then the red dragon spread his massive wings, started to flap his wings. A short moment passed and then they flew. The journey was much faster. Then Odahviing landed and let his riders jump out of his back.

”Wait here, don’t go anywhere we need to get back as we fulfill our task here.”, Kiiski ordered.

The great dragon nodded, flew and landed on a huge rock, it was better place to sit than snow. Then Kiiski and Barbas went to search for Rimerock Burrow.

”If Rimerock Burrow is an another cave, I swear..”, Kiiski muttered.

Unluckily for her, Rimerock Burrow was a cave and she wasn’t happy with that fact. She hated caves, since they were dark and who knows what dwells there. They walked into the cave. The cave was chilly. Really chilly, and it looked inhabited. But this time there was no mutilated bodies or anything like that, but fresh footsteps that seemed to belong for a human being.

At the the end of the cave, there was book shelves, barrels, tables and a chair. There was an old man sitting on the chair. He seemed to read some kind of book. Kiiski looked around and noticed an axe on a table. ”That must be that axe, I’m sure of it”, she thought.

She sneaked towards the table, grabbed the axe and sneaked back to Barbas, who was sitting down and waiting for the mage’s return.

”Was that man Sebastian Lort ?”, Kiiski asked Barbas.

”Yes, that man is Sebastian Lort. It seems he has isolated himself from others.”, Barbas answered.

”I don’t wonder that.”, Kiiski said while walking. Then they left the cave. Odahviing seemed to have taken a nap since he flinched suddenly. Then flew off from the rock, where he was sitting. Then landed to next to the mage and his companion. Then they flew back to the Haemar’s Shame.

”You can go now Odahviing, I don’t need your service anymore.”, Kiiski said.

The great dragon nodded and let out an roar, while flying away. The mage watched his flight away until he could not be noticed from the sky. Then Barbas and his mage friend. Stepped into the cave. This time the cave smell was different, now it smelled burnt flesh, but at least it was more tolerable smell than smell of bodies. When they arrived at the statue, the statue started to talk before either Kiiski or Barbas had opened their mouths:

”You got the axe. And my dog. Splendid.”

”We’re back, now take Barbas back as you promised”, Kiiski said.

”A hero and his faithful companion, fetching an artifact for the prince. It’s almost like a fairytail.”, Clavicus Vile answered.

”What if you kept the axe ? But only if you kill Barbas. Simply as that.”

”No deal, just take the axe and your dog.”, Kiiski yelled. This time she didn’t care if she made this Daedra angry, she was fed up with him.

”You’re not fun at all, but yeah yeah, dog gets his Master back, the Master gets an axe, everyone is happy. Now Barbas get over here.”, Clavicus Vile said annoyed.

Then there was a sudden blinding light. Kiiski closed her eyes since the light was too bright. Then she opened her eyes, Barbas was missing. Where was that dog ? No dog can’t simply vanish into thin air. But then she saw it. The statue was changed. Now there was a dog standing majestically next to the horned man. The mage smiled. Her work was now done here.

 

The Last Spin

Julkaistu , kirjoittanut
Vastaa

The Last Spin is a short story written by Evan Hunter, a American writer specialized into crime fiction. It tells a story about two rivaling gangs, which are trying to get peace between each other by selecting one boy from both sides to play Russian roulette. That way they try to avoid fighting on streets. ¨

The main protagonist of the short story is Danny, a member in a gang that uses blue and gold jackets. Danny meets Tigo, a member of rivaling gang, in a basement. Boys state to each other that there is nothing personal in this event. The two boys have not even met before.

The boys begin the game with one bullet. Tigo offers to go first. He points the gun to his temple and fires, but there is no bullet in the chamber. He hands the gun to Danny, but again: no bullet in the chamber. The game goes on and on until Tigo decides to add one more bullet to speed things up.

During the game the boys are having a talk about girlfriends, their families, gangs, guns and army… The boys realize that they have more in common than it appears. Again Tigo ads one bullet, making the odds now 3:6. Still the game goes on. The boys start to think their lives and how they are controlled by the gangs. They decide that Danny is going to try one more time; if nothing happens, they would leave the basement and resign from their gangs and start a new life. Danny raises the gun to his forearm and fires. For Tigo’s horror, the gun fires, ripping away half of Danny’s head, shattering his face. The story ends as Tigo puts his face on the table and starts to cry.

Hunt’s story is more of a drama story rather than a crime story, which he is used to. Although it tells a story about gang members solving a conflict, it still focuses more into the growing friendship of the two boys. The plot itself is not very addicting as the key element, the Russian roulette, slowly sneaks into backgrounds.

Narration is often pretty straight forward, but you can find parts with quite a lot of description. Language of the story is quite is easy to understand.

Personally I don’t think that Ethan Hunt’s The Last Spin to be so wonderful. Still it is well written and quite entertaining.

 

the green notebook

Julkaistu , kirjoittanut
Vastaa

I don’t think I need to explain what Moomin is.

”What are you?” Sniff heard a voice asking behind him. He turned around to see who it was and saw a little boy standing there. The boy was short, shorter than Sniff and had dark short hair and big dark eyes. He stared at Sniff like Sniff wasn’t there. Sniff fast looked behind him if the question was meant to someone else but there wasn’t anyone near. The boy was smiling.

“My name is Sniff. But you know, you should introduce yourself first and tell me your name and what are you”

“Oh, you don’t need to know my name, Sniff,” little boy said. Sniff didn’t know what he meant by it. Of course he needs to know little boy’s name. If not, then he couldn’t tell about him to others when he returns to Moomin’s house.
Wait a little. Where he was? Sniff started to look around and saw long straight white corridor where he and boy were. Lot of doors everywhere. Some doors were open and some closed. More little boys and little girls and they all had same clothes. And they were all same coloured. Everything was black-white.

Little boy still looked at Sniff. He calmly walked past him, “If you’re lost then you can follow me,” he said. Sniff saw him still smiling and soon ran after the little boy.

“You’re white just like my moomin friends, do you know moomins?” Sniff asked.

“No, I’ve never heard of them”, boy said still smiling. How strange he was.

“Why here are no any colours?”

“Colours?”

“Yes, colours.”

“I’ve never heard of those before, what are they?”

“W-what?” Sniff yelled, “You don’t know what colour is? So you don’t have colours here?” That was bad, really bad. If there were no any colours, then there wouldn’t be any gold or diamonds either, those things which shines all the colours of rainbow! What was this place, and why was het here? He wanted back to Moomin’s house!

Sniff has stopped walking and soon noticed it. Little boy didn’t stop and now was far away and walked inside one room.
Sniff ran after him and stepped inside the big room full of little tables and each table had one chair close to it. Little boy sat on one chair close to window where you couldn’t see outside. Sniff walked next to little boy and noticed him taking two big books out of his bag.

“You can sit there, next to me,” boy said and pointed the table front of Sniff. Sniff sat down and became curious about those big books. Maybe there were pictures with colours. Every book has pictures with colours, expect Moomin papa’s books. He only writes and doesn’t draw pictures. That was so boring. If there are no pictures, Sniff wouldn’t read it. That’s why he wants that Moomin papa tells his stories. Sniff liked to listen.

“Good morning, class,” calm voice said and Sniff saw older woman coming in to the room. She had also dark hair and white skin, no colours either.

“Open the page 489,” woman said and every little boy and girl followed her lead. Sniff searched and waited and looked carefully if there were any coloured pictures, but no. All he could see was letters, words, and some pictures of random circles and numbers he couldn’t understand.

“Why are you like that?” little boy asked. Sniff didn’t quite understand what he meant again.

“What do you mean?” Sniff asked little gloomily. Little boy stared at him still smiling a little, but there wasn’t any emotions in his eyes. Sniff were confused because the emotionless eyes and smiling mouth. It was like there was main course and dessert on the same plate.
Sniff looked around him but didn’t saw any other smiling. No, he couldn’t see anyone’s faces. Gosh this place is strange!

“Are you happy?” Sniff asked.

“Happy?” boy was still smiling, “oh, do you mean that I smile? I have heard about that if you smile, people think you’re happy. That’s why I need to smile, so people wouldn’t be worried.”

“But that’s stupid!” Sniff cried, “If you smile and you’re not happy then you lie.”

“But isn’t it better not to cause any troubles to others?”

“Quiet there!” teacher said.

“We are sorry, teacher,” boy quick responded.

What was he saying? If you don’t want to smile then you don’t need to. If Little My smiled all the time, it would be as strange as if Moomin mama stopped cooking! That though didn’t make Sniff feel any better at all. Actually he started to feel hungry all of sudden. Now he really wanted to go back home. However that teacher was really scary, like Fillyjonk, so Sniff didn’t want to say anything to make her any angrier. He wanted to play with his friends and see colours again, he missed them. Sniff felt like crying. What a horrible place.

Lesson finally ended and that scary-Fillyjonk-teacher left.

“It’s time for lunch now,” boy said and that was best thing Sniff had heard all day!

“Yes! Let’s go now,” Sniff begged and stood up.

“We can eat here, Sniff,” boy said calmly and picked up his bag on the table. He saw Sniff sad.

“Don’t worry, we can share my lunch if you don’t have your own with you.”

“T-thank you” Sniff sat down and waited for the boy to take his lunch ready. Sniff moved his table right next to boy’s table so they linked. The boy took his lunch and one big notebook out of his bag.

“Green!” Sniff shocked.

“Green?” Boy surprised.

“Yes, that notebook! It’s green! It has a colour!” Sniff smiled and stared at the notebook like he has never seen one before.

“This is colour?” Boy checked out the notebook carefully. He was focused and you could see that in his eyes this time. Then looked at Sniff.

“It is really beautiful”

Sniff took the notebook from the little boy and looked at it carefully too, as carefully as he could before boy took the notebook from him.
“Give it back!” the boy now hold the notebook against his chest and looked down, he didn’t smile.

“I-it’s really precious to me. So please,” Sniff was really surprised but he understood. By precious, he meant that it’s like gold and diamonds are to Sniff. He wouldn’t ever let anyone take them away from him.

“I found this. It was in my room on the table this morning and I feel like I must keep it with me,” now smile had come back to his face and he left the notebook lay on the table under his arm. “Let’s eat.”

“I will call you Green then, because that notebook is green too,” Sniff smiled and Green smiled back. He didn’t mind that at all.

Soon after someone walked in the classroom and curious Sniff checked out who it was. It was a boy, taller than Green and he had a dark short hair too. But this boy’s clothes were all dark, Sniff was pretty sure it was some kind of tracksuit. But that what took Sniff’s full attention was that big beautiful basketball. Its colour was close enough to gold and Sniff drooled. Taller boy came closer and sat down on the chair front of them. He held the basketball close to him and after a while played with it, threw it to wall so it bounced back and so on.

“Does he like basketball?” Sniff asked quietly so only Green could hear it.

“I love it,” basketball-guy said. Sniff surprised, was he mad? No, this boy didn’t smile at all but he wasn’t mad. He waved to Green and Green waved back to him, smiling.

“I will join you,” he said and Green nodded.
They ate colourless food in silent and Green finished before Sniff (Sniff got more to eat because he was taller). Green opened his green notebook and took a pencil from his pencil case. He seemed to start doodling. Right when his pencil touched the notebook everything felt different. Green’s eyes which were dark became beautiful green, pictures he drew, animals, plants, birds, seemed to live. Sniff stopped eating and watched how Green drew. Eyes wide open Sniff stared at the paper as the doodles coloured themselves and everything were dazzling.

“That’s so awesome!” Sniff said with his eyes shining like stars, “Can you draw huge gold crown too?”

Green smiled (like always) and started to draw crown. Sniff was so excited that he cried a little.

“How do you do that?”

“I have no idea. It’s the first time I use this notebook,” Green smiled, now for real. Basketball-guy stared at the colours and so did many others in the classroom too. Drawer didn’t notice but some kids gathered around the table. Sniff noticed, he also noticed that one in the classroom who was reading a book alone in the corner. She had a pin, white chef hat and red rose in it. A red rose! More colours!
Sniff wanted to know more about that red pin and girl, but he couldn’t leave his gold crown alone.

“It would suit you,” when said that, Green drew Sniff there. The gold crown on his head and right after that a huge gold crown, just like the one Green drew, appeared to Sniff’s head.

“W-wow!” Sniff fell holding the crown, “It’s heavy!” he whined but were dazzled of how beautiful it was, that basketball was nothing compared to it.
Green closed the notebook and at the same time the huge crown disappeared.

“No!” Sniff cried, “My beautiful crown!”

“Oh, I’m sorry Sniff,” Green said smiling. If you smile, smile for real Sniff though, still crying because his crown.
Those few kids who came to see Green drawing, soon walked back to where they were and everything was back to how it was; colourless, tiring.

“You fools,” girl with the red pin yelled behind them. When she made it here? The girl stared at Sniff.

“What are you?” Sniff didn’t how she spoke to him.

“His name is Sniff,” Green said before Sniff could. Girl stared at Sniff from head to toe and crossed her arms.

“Hmp,” she walked next to Green, “Show me that notebook.” Green didn’t want to give it to her but girl’s strong expression made him to give it to her. Sniff bet that this girl didn’t have any friends. She was close to Little My but seemed to be smarter. Pin, as Sniff decided to call her, opened the green notebook. Doodles were all colourless and now just beautiful sketches, they weren’t living on that paper anymore.
Suddenly Pin took a pencil and drew chef hat. When Pin was done, she looked disappointed.

“Why is it not working?” she mumbled. Sniff came to look at that sketch and so did the basketball-guy.

“It’s because it’s not ready yet,” basketball-guy guessed and then Green took the notebook and pencil and drew rose on that hat, exactly like Pin’s pin. At the same time that hairpin on Pin’s head grew bigger and clean white chef hat with beautiful red rose appeared.

“Ooh,” Pin blushed, her tight expression was now gone. That’s much better, Sniff thought, but it didn’t last long. Green closed the notebook.

“Don’t,” Sniff panicked, “It will disappear!” But it didn’t.

“E-eeeh?” Sniff couldn’t understand. Why his gold crown disappeared, but that chef hat stayed? Pin smiled her self-confident smile.

“It’s because this is what I really want,” she said, “That’s why.” Sniff was even more out of it, of course he wanted that gold crown! What is she talking about?

“So you want to become a chef?” basketball-guy asked. Pin blushed and nodded.

“But you can’t,” basket-guy added. Pin snapped.

“Of course I can’t! There’s no way for it because my parents don’t let me. They want that I make career as an musician!”

“I think chef is much better choice,” Sniff said quickly.

“Of course it is, because I want to do it,” Pin glared at Sniff like he was a fool, “Just like that guy with basketball wants to play basketball, but he can’t.” She added and stared at the basket-guy now. He was still sad, was it because he couldn’t play like Pin asserted?

“Why you can’t?” Sniff was curious.

“Because there are no one else like me,” he answered, “It’s impossible for me to play it alone.”

“I see,” Sniff muttered, “Why don’t you ask those faceless kids to play with you?”

Basket-guy looked around, “But I can’t connect with them, they don’t understand me at all.”

“They are just studying,” Pin said, “like all of us.”

“Just studying? Don’t you have fun and play with each other every day?” Sniff started to feel a little desperate.

“My parents said that if I don’t study I will die,” Green answered. “I don’t want to die so I need to study hard.” That was a shock to Sniff. He didn’t study; did that mean he would die at any time possible?

“But,” Green continued, “I’m happy as long as I can doodle.”

“AAAH! That’s why your notebook is coloured!” Sniff realised, “And your pin is coloured” he pointed at Pin’s hat, “And your basketball is coloured too,” Sniff felt so smart. They all stared at Sniff, that made sense and they all knew it, but they couldn’t do anything.

“It’s so easy for you to have simple dream,” Pin said aggressively and patted Green’s head. Green didn’t say anything.

“What do you want, Sniff?” Basket-guy asked.

“I want shiny and beautiful thinks, like gold and diamonds!” Sniff’s eyes were full of stars and he drooled.

Pin laughed, “But I don’t see any gold or diamonds with you, Sniff.”

“Of course you can’t, because I don’t have any! That’s why I want it,” Sniff cried again. The three others were silent and looked at each other.

“But you are coloured,” Basket-guy said, “You can have what you want but you don’t have it now,” what was that complicated talking Sniff wondered.

“Draw something here Sniff,” Green recommended and opened his green notebook again. Sniff took a pencil and started doodling, he wasn’t that good at drawing as Green, but it was fun and soon it was ready, Moomin’s house. Green took the pencil from Sniff and drew Sniff in the garden of the house.

“It was fun,” Green smiled and then disappeared, like everything else and right then Sniff noticed that he was back home.

“Here he is!” Sniff heard a familiar voice. It was Little My!

“Little M-,” Sniff shouted happily but Little My kicked him so he never finished it, “Ouch!”

“Where have you been?” Little My yelled and all his friends came running to see him. Sniff couldn’t remember a thing. It was like he had been sleeping all day and saw some strange, really strange dream but now couldn’t remember it at all.

“I don’t know,” he mumbled.

“What? Are you making fun of me?” Little My was annoyed, “we have been looking for you everywhere.”

“Sorry,” Sniff laughed.

“Don’t laugh!” Little My kicked him again.

“Ouch! Stop it!” now he was annoyed too.

Moomintroll and Snufkin laughed. Snorkmaiden opened the door and stepped outside. She had really familiar pin in her hair and Sniff stared at it.

“What is it?” Snorkmaiden asked.

“That pin,” Sniff pointed at small red rose pin.

“Oh, you mean this?” Snorkmaiden took the pin and gave it to Sniff, “I just found it. You can have it if you want. It doesn’t suit me after all.” Sniff took the pin and smiled.

“Thanks.”

”Now it’s time to eat,” Moomin mama came to say and they all ran inside. In the kichen Sniff noticed Moomin mama holding a pretty green notebook.

”Can I have that notebook, Moomin mama?” He quickly asked.

”Well, of course. I found it before, is it yours?”

”Yes,” Sniff answered. Why did he said that? It wasn’t his, but he felt like he knew who’s it was and decided to give it back to the owner when he remembers that person.

”Stinky!” Moomintroll said with the same tone of voice like always when he sees Stinky, ”What is he doing with that basketball? I’m sure he stole it again.”

”Basketball?” Sniff ran to the window and saw Stinky playing with it. Without a warning he ran outside after Stinky.

”Stinky! Give it to me!” he shouted, ”I want it!”

”Whaat?” Stinky surprised, ”You can’t have it, it’s mine! I found it!” And so whole Moomin family ran after Stinky and tried to get the ball from him because they though that it was Sniff’s.

If you watched carefully and focused to listen, you could saw the scary witch flying with her broom and laughing, ”Who’s next?”