-WildClan-
loading
PART 1: Making an Outline
The story is set in an imaginary ecosystem, where a new species, the shazarxa, has recently been introduced
The shazarxi are beginning to learn to live there and explore the unknown, but there are variations in how they want their social structure to function, which causes conflict
This story takes place within this messy social scene, from the point of view of Thorn
Thorn grows up in a loving family: his father, Ember; his mother, Marigold; his brother, Parsnip; and his genderfluid sibling, Teardrop
Marigold slowly begins to lose her memory, and while this is hard on all of them, Thorn takes it the worst
Thorn is comforted by his friend, Holly, and the two eventually fall in love
Meanwhile, the society’s main leader, Swift, dies, and there is conflict between Shade and Ash, who both have a claim to be the next leader
Inevitably, Shade and Ash’s rivalry splits the whole society in half, and Thorn ends up siding with Shade, against the rest of his family
Labelled as a traitor by his loved ones, Thorn is reasonably stressed, and he develops sleepwalking habits
His brother, Parsnip, takes advantage of the sleepwalking to manipulate the situation to his own desires
Thorn becomes more and more paranoid and unstable
When Shade and Ash have their major battle, Thorn is too cowardly to join in
He watches as Ash is killed, his former home is destroyed by Parsnip, and Parsnip and Marigold both dying in the process; he also believes Teardrop to be dead, but they escape and run away
Thorn is unable to handle it, so even though it means abandoning Holly a second time, he runs off
He stumbles around on his own for a while, trying to deal with his trauma
Eventually he runs into a guy named Comet, who clings to him despite Thorn initially expressing distrust and hostility
Comet’s exuberance eventually wins Thorn over, and they have a tentative friendship
Thorn leads Comet home to the canyon and this time, he stays, too
He eventually makes up with both Holly and Ember, though it takes time to get their forgiveness
When Teardrop returns, Thorn has mixed feelings, but they can sympathize with each other’s trauma, and so they reach a state of weary familiarity which is close enough of a bond for them
Thorn never fully forgives Parsnip but learns to put up with his ghost, especially as Parsnip and Comet are instant buddies
PART 2: Exposition
Thorn blinked up at Ember, who smiled back kindly. “It’s alright,” Ember encouraged him, pushing him gently with his tail. “You can go out and play with them.”
“Don’t be afraid,” Marigold purred affectionately.
“Okay,” Thorn squeaked, tentatively setting a paw out of the shade of the canyon wall. The land stretched out before him, so wide, so confusing. Across the clearing, his siblings, Parsnip and Teardrop, wrestled noisily. He wanted to run back and curl up in his parents’ soft fur. He glanced back at them. They were watching him encouragingly.
“Thorn! Are you finally joining us?” Parsnip called, noticing him approach.
“Can I?”
“Of course!” He laughed carelessly, jumping up and tumbling into Thorn. Thorn stiffened at the impact as Parsnip’s weight toppled them both over and the two fell into a heap.
“Hey! Be nice to Thorn,” Teardrop chided Parsnip, bounding over. He licked the dust off of Thorn’s head protectively.
Thorn closed his eyes, a little dizzy. But it wasn’t so bad. Maybe this wouldn’t be as scary as it looked. It might even be fun. Cautiously, he opened his eyes and smiled.
Shaking Parsnip off, he sprang to his paws. “What are we playing?”
PART 3: Story Stew
Introduce a Symbol & Foreshadowing
“I brought you all a gift!” Parsnip chirped, scampering up to where Thorn and Teardrop rested in the den next to Marigold and Ember. He clutched in his tiny jaws a bundled-up structure, clearly made with his own claws.
Parsnip had been making a lot of additions to the dens recently. Instead of scattered nests, he dreamt of an interconnected network of waterproofed shelters. Thorn wasn’t sure that would work out, but he didn’t want to interrupt his brother’s passion.
This was the first time Parsnip had built something to give to someone else, though. “I-it’s not spiders again, is it?” Thorn questioned, slightly nervous.
“No- look!” Parsnip sat back on his hind legs, and used his front paws to hold up the circles of branches he had tied.
He stuck his face in the middle of one of the circles and giggled. “It’s a circle, see? Each of them has ten knots- two for you, and two for Marigold, and two for Ember and two for me and two for Teardrop! One for each of our eyes!”
Parsnip plopped a circle down on each of their heads in turn. Thorn wrapped his tail around to feel the bark of the branches and the knotted strands tying them together. “Hey, it’s poking my head,” he complained. “Are there thorns in this?”
“But you’re the Thorn,” Parsnip joked. Thorn squinted at him, recognizing the glint of mischief in his red eyes. He had purposefully put thorns in it, hadn’t he?
Thorn sighed, not wanting to make a scene about it. Parsnip’s pranks were always silly stuff like this.
New Conflict Arises
“Congratulations on fledging!” Holly purred, brushing against Thorn’s side.
“We can finally fly together,” Thorn responded, ruffling his new flight feathers with giddy delight.
“Looking forwar-” she was interrupted by a growl coming from the leader’s rock.
Ash and Shade were circling each other, fur spiking upwards and wings raised aggressively. “Oh, dear,” Holly whispered under her breath. Shade was her sister, and the two were opposites. In all the ways that Holly was patient and gentle, Shade was harsh and fierce instead. Thorn was a little intimidated by her.
The previous leader, Swift, had been taken down by a wolf attack not even a full moon ago, and as soon as the grieving was done, Shade and Ash were at each other’s throats over which of them should take his place.
Shade scared Thorn, but Ash wasn’t a great alternative. Thorn had seen his anger, his indecisiveness, his capacity for violence. He had seen Ash closer than he should have been to Holly. Sure, Teardrop was infatuated with Ash. But Thorn knew better than anyone how naive Teardrop could be. They always saw the best in everyone and completely ignored the warning signs. Not to mention they were overprotective and smothering…
Thorn realized he was thinking more about Teardrop than paying attention to what Ash and Shade were doing. Ash had apparently held his ground, as Shade was storming away.
However, what she proclaimed next surprised everyone. “Shazarxi of the canyon! I’m starting my own flock- anyone who doesn’t support Ash, join me! Who’s coming?”
Thorn felt suddenly torn. Picking a side? A shiver of dread ran down his spine. This wouldn’t end well.
Breaking the Fourth Wall
Had leaving Holly been the worst mistake of his life? Thorn felt miserable. He had done nothing at first, but after Shade’s exit, Ash had only grown more erratic and tyrannical. Thorn had opted to follow Shade’s pawsteps, join her flock, away from the conflict.
But everyone he left behind? Holly, and the two unhatched eggs they had together? Ember, who had seemed so genuinely hurt by his betrayal? Parsnip, who had built so many beautiful structures in the canyon? Even Teardrop, who, Thorn had to admit, only wanted to make everyone happy? Thorn’s circle of knots and thorns had been torn into pieces, to rot upon the ground.
Dreams were the only place Thorn could escape these worries that weighed him down like stones in the river. Asleep, he could turn into pure energy and light, escape the shadows, push them back. Become anything he could imagine. If only falling asleep was easier…
Sometimes he would fall asleep, completely exhausted, and wake up somewhere completely different, usually closer to the canyon. As if trying to go home.
He might have completely lost his mind if it wasn’t for Parsnip. Parsnip seemed to harbor no ill will, and so whenever Thorn’s unconscious wanderings brought him nearby, the two would talk.
Parsnip sometimes spoke of strange, things, though, which only worried Thorn more. He talked about powers beyond their control, of storylines and authors. He seemed to think that he was a character in some distant creator’s tale.
It made no sense.
Or did it?
Plot Twist
Thorn soon learned of Shade’s real plans. She didn’t want to start her own flock, she wanted to conquer Ash’s.
Thorn felt sick. He had barely slept in the past few days and kept himself isolated from Shade’s other followers. He hadn’t even visited Parsnip lately. The idea of fighting was too much to even consider.
Still, there was nothing he could do to stop Shade. He was helpless as she led her forces to battle, helpless as he saw Teardrop rise to face off against the attackers, slashing and biting like some kind of monstrous beast.
“What have we all become…” Thorn whispered, desolate. The panic threatened to overcome him, yet his paws felt rooted in place.
“You can be the hero,” Parsnip appeared beside him, his eyes glowing with a manic delight. “You can fix all this. Save everyone.”
“What? No- no, I can’t!” Thorn spat. “Parsnip, I’m not a hero! I can’t save anyone; I can’t even save myself. I don’t know what craziness you believe, but we have no power here!”
“Hmm. Well, we’ll see,” Parsnip nodded enigmatically, then turned to leave. “Maybe there are no heroes.”
Thorn looked over his shoulder just in time to see Ash tumble from the leader’s rock, plummeting to the ground below.
There was a long silence after the sickening crunch.
When Thorn looked back, Parsnip was gone. Thorn felt as though the walls were quivering, about to collapse. His heart raced.
Wait.
The walls… were actually quaking. “Run!” Thorn was the first to screech as Parsnip’s entire den system began to peel away from the cliffs, taking massive rocks and showers of debris with it.
Thorn bolted into the sky, straining his wings to fly as fast as possible. He didn’t care where they took him. There was no home to go back to anymore, anyway.
New Character Introduction
Thorn didn’t know how far he went. The land here was unfamiliar.
He was all out of feelings now, left with only exhaustion.
Finally, he collapsed.
Sleep, at last.
The inner world was so much more welcoming than the outer one. Thorn fell into it easily. He sank into the abstractions, dreamless, but safe. Until…
“Wake up!” A voice startled Thorn so much, he jumped all the way to his paws. Bristling, he growled at the stranger in front of him.
“Nice to meet you!” the stranger continued, unbothered. “I’m Comet. Who might you be?”
Thorn smoothed his fur, but kept his distance. Where had this shazarxa come from? He had never seen them before in his life. “I- you don’t want to know me,” Thorn muttered.
“Nonsense! I want a lot of weird things, and right now, you’re the weirdest. …So?”
Well, this Comet didn’t seem threatening. Thorn straightened up, trying to relax. After a moment, he spoke.
“I’m Thorn.”
The story is set in an imaginary ecosystem, where a new species, the shazarxa, has recently been introduced
The shazarxi are beginning to learn to live there and explore the unknown, but there are variations in how they want their social structure to function, which causes conflict
This story takes place within this messy social scene, from the point of view of Thorn
Thorn grows up in a loving family: his father, Ember; his mother, Marigold; his brother, Parsnip; and his genderfluid sibling, Teardrop
Marigold slowly begins to lose her memory, and while this is hard on all of them, Thorn takes it the worst
Thorn is comforted by his friend, Holly, and the two eventually fall in love
Meanwhile, the society’s main leader, Swift, dies, and there is conflict between Shade and Ash, who both have a claim to be the next leader
Inevitably, Shade and Ash’s rivalry splits the whole society in half, and Thorn ends up siding with Shade, against the rest of his family
Labelled as a traitor by his loved ones, Thorn is reasonably stressed, and he develops sleepwalking habits
His brother, Parsnip, takes advantage of the sleepwalking to manipulate the situation to his own desires
Thorn becomes more and more paranoid and unstable
When Shade and Ash have their major battle, Thorn is too cowardly to join in
He watches as Ash is killed, his former home is destroyed by Parsnip, and Parsnip and Marigold both dying in the process; he also believes Teardrop to be dead, but they escape and run away
Thorn is unable to handle it, so even though it means abandoning Holly a second time, he runs off
He stumbles around on his own for a while, trying to deal with his trauma
Eventually he runs into a guy named Comet, who clings to him despite Thorn initially expressing distrust and hostility
Comet’s exuberance eventually wins Thorn over, and they have a tentative friendship
Thorn leads Comet home to the canyon and this time, he stays, too
He eventually makes up with both Holly and Ember, though it takes time to get their forgiveness
When Teardrop returns, Thorn has mixed feelings, but they can sympathize with each other’s trauma, and so they reach a state of weary familiarity which is close enough of a bond for them
Thorn never fully forgives Parsnip but learns to put up with his ghost, especially as Parsnip and Comet are instant buddies
PART 2: Exposition
Thorn blinked up at Ember, who smiled back kindly. “It’s alright,” Ember encouraged him, pushing him gently with his tail. “You can go out and play with them.”
“Don’t be afraid,” Marigold purred affectionately.
“Okay,” Thorn squeaked, tentatively setting a paw out of the shade of the canyon wall. The land stretched out before him, so wide, so confusing. Across the clearing, his siblings, Parsnip and Teardrop, wrestled noisily. He wanted to run back and curl up in his parents’ soft fur. He glanced back at them. They were watching him encouragingly.
“Thorn! Are you finally joining us?” Parsnip called, noticing him approach.
“Can I?”
“Of course!” He laughed carelessly, jumping up and tumbling into Thorn. Thorn stiffened at the impact as Parsnip’s weight toppled them both over and the two fell into a heap.
“Hey! Be nice to Thorn,” Teardrop chided Parsnip, bounding over. He licked the dust off of Thorn’s head protectively.
Thorn closed his eyes, a little dizzy. But it wasn’t so bad. Maybe this wouldn’t be as scary as it looked. It might even be fun. Cautiously, he opened his eyes and smiled.
Shaking Parsnip off, he sprang to his paws. “What are we playing?”
PART 3: Story Stew
Introduce a Symbol & Foreshadowing
“I brought you all a gift!” Parsnip chirped, scampering up to where Thorn and Teardrop rested in the den next to Marigold and Ember. He clutched in his tiny jaws a bundled-up structure, clearly made with his own claws.
Parsnip had been making a lot of additions to the dens recently. Instead of scattered nests, he dreamt of an interconnected network of waterproofed shelters. Thorn wasn’t sure that would work out, but he didn’t want to interrupt his brother’s passion.
This was the first time Parsnip had built something to give to someone else, though. “I-it’s not spiders again, is it?” Thorn questioned, slightly nervous.
“No- look!” Parsnip sat back on his hind legs, and used his front paws to hold up the circles of branches he had tied.
He stuck his face in the middle of one of the circles and giggled. “It’s a circle, see? Each of them has ten knots- two for you, and two for Marigold, and two for Ember and two for me and two for Teardrop! One for each of our eyes!”
Parsnip plopped a circle down on each of their heads in turn. Thorn wrapped his tail around to feel the bark of the branches and the knotted strands tying them together. “Hey, it’s poking my head,” he complained. “Are there thorns in this?”
“But you’re the Thorn,” Parsnip joked. Thorn squinted at him, recognizing the glint of mischief in his red eyes. He had purposefully put thorns in it, hadn’t he?
Thorn sighed, not wanting to make a scene about it. Parsnip’s pranks were always silly stuff like this.
New Conflict Arises
“Congratulations on fledging!” Holly purred, brushing against Thorn’s side.
“We can finally fly together,” Thorn responded, ruffling his new flight feathers with giddy delight.
“Looking forwar-” she was interrupted by a growl coming from the leader’s rock.
Ash and Shade were circling each other, fur spiking upwards and wings raised aggressively. “Oh, dear,” Holly whispered under her breath. Shade was her sister, and the two were opposites. In all the ways that Holly was patient and gentle, Shade was harsh and fierce instead. Thorn was a little intimidated by her.
The previous leader, Swift, had been taken down by a wolf attack not even a full moon ago, and as soon as the grieving was done, Shade and Ash were at each other’s throats over which of them should take his place.
Shade scared Thorn, but Ash wasn’t a great alternative. Thorn had seen his anger, his indecisiveness, his capacity for violence. He had seen Ash closer than he should have been to Holly. Sure, Teardrop was infatuated with Ash. But Thorn knew better than anyone how naive Teardrop could be. They always saw the best in everyone and completely ignored the warning signs. Not to mention they were overprotective and smothering…
Thorn realized he was thinking more about Teardrop than paying attention to what Ash and Shade were doing. Ash had apparently held his ground, as Shade was storming away.
However, what she proclaimed next surprised everyone. “Shazarxi of the canyon! I’m starting my own flock- anyone who doesn’t support Ash, join me! Who’s coming?”
Thorn felt suddenly torn. Picking a side? A shiver of dread ran down his spine. This wouldn’t end well.
Breaking the Fourth Wall
Had leaving Holly been the worst mistake of his life? Thorn felt miserable. He had done nothing at first, but after Shade’s exit, Ash had only grown more erratic and tyrannical. Thorn had opted to follow Shade’s pawsteps, join her flock, away from the conflict.
But everyone he left behind? Holly, and the two unhatched eggs they had together? Ember, who had seemed so genuinely hurt by his betrayal? Parsnip, who had built so many beautiful structures in the canyon? Even Teardrop, who, Thorn had to admit, only wanted to make everyone happy? Thorn’s circle of knots and thorns had been torn into pieces, to rot upon the ground.
Dreams were the only place Thorn could escape these worries that weighed him down like stones in the river. Asleep, he could turn into pure energy and light, escape the shadows, push them back. Become anything he could imagine. If only falling asleep was easier…
Sometimes he would fall asleep, completely exhausted, and wake up somewhere completely different, usually closer to the canyon. As if trying to go home.
He might have completely lost his mind if it wasn’t for Parsnip. Parsnip seemed to harbor no ill will, and so whenever Thorn’s unconscious wanderings brought him nearby, the two would talk.
Parsnip sometimes spoke of strange, things, though, which only worried Thorn more. He talked about powers beyond their control, of storylines and authors. He seemed to think that he was a character in some distant creator’s tale.
It made no sense.
Or did it?
Plot Twist
Thorn soon learned of Shade’s real plans. She didn’t want to start her own flock, she wanted to conquer Ash’s.
Thorn felt sick. He had barely slept in the past few days and kept himself isolated from Shade’s other followers. He hadn’t even visited Parsnip lately. The idea of fighting was too much to even consider.
Still, there was nothing he could do to stop Shade. He was helpless as she led her forces to battle, helpless as he saw Teardrop rise to face off against the attackers, slashing and biting like some kind of monstrous beast.
“What have we all become…” Thorn whispered, desolate. The panic threatened to overcome him, yet his paws felt rooted in place.
“You can be the hero,” Parsnip appeared beside him, his eyes glowing with a manic delight. “You can fix all this. Save everyone.”
“What? No- no, I can’t!” Thorn spat. “Parsnip, I’m not a hero! I can’t save anyone; I can’t even save myself. I don’t know what craziness you believe, but we have no power here!”
“Hmm. Well, we’ll see,” Parsnip nodded enigmatically, then turned to leave. “Maybe there are no heroes.”
Thorn looked over his shoulder just in time to see Ash tumble from the leader’s rock, plummeting to the ground below.
There was a long silence after the sickening crunch.
When Thorn looked back, Parsnip was gone. Thorn felt as though the walls were quivering, about to collapse. His heart raced.
Wait.
The walls… were actually quaking. “Run!” Thorn was the first to screech as Parsnip’s entire den system began to peel away from the cliffs, taking massive rocks and showers of debris with it.
Thorn bolted into the sky, straining his wings to fly as fast as possible. He didn’t care where they took him. There was no home to go back to anymore, anyway.
New Character Introduction
Thorn didn’t know how far he went. The land here was unfamiliar.
He was all out of feelings now, left with only exhaustion.
Finally, he collapsed.
Sleep, at last.
The inner world was so much more welcoming than the outer one. Thorn fell into it easily. He sank into the abstractions, dreamless, but safe. Until…
“Wake up!” A voice startled Thorn so much, he jumped all the way to his paws. Bristling, he growled at the stranger in front of him.
“Nice to meet you!” the stranger continued, unbothered. “I’m Comet. Who might you be?”
Thorn smoothed his fur, but kept his distance. Where had this shazarxa come from? He had never seen them before in his life. “I- you don’t want to know me,” Thorn muttered.
“Nonsense! I want a lot of weird things, and right now, you’re the weirdest. …So?”
Well, this Comet didn’t seem threatening. Thorn straightened up, trying to relax. After a moment, he spoke.
“I’m Thorn.”