More siggies (by badgerstar)

[Badgerstar]

I am letting you pick the picture that you want a siggie made of here is the code you have to follow...

Picture URL:
Text:
pics on pic url:

Picture URL:
Text:
pics on pic url:

here are some examples if you like one and want it tell me!...

and pics on pic url is if you want another small picture on the big one the url(s).



http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll8/mansfcr/caracal.jpg



http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll8/mansfcr/badgerstar.jpg



http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll8/mansfcr/leapclan.jpg



http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll8/mansfcr/winterstar.jpg

[winterstar]

How do you make those?

[Badgerstar]

i pmed that question to you so do you want one? (my way is probibly different than elenas)
( and sorry if i spell your name wrong elena)

[(~Silentstar~)]

FINALLY!!!
Someone who spells my name RIGHT on the first try!

PM how you make the siggies. I make them two different ways.

[Bear]

The shadows stalked her.
She could hear screams, everyone was running, shouting, screaming. She just stood, staring as they floated closer, morbidly curious. A man knocked her flying as he ran past, he didn't even stop to see if she was alright. She wasn't sure he'd noticed.
As she picked herself up hands roughly grabbed her shoulders and propelled her through the crowd. She didn't know who the hands belonged to, didn't dare look, just let them direct her.
She wasn't as scared as she thought she'd be. She was quite calm, not screaming and shouting and crying like the people around her, desperately clinging to their families with tears streaking their cheeks. Most were hurriedly dressed, some weren't dressed at all and huddled beneath thin blankets.
The hands pushed her to a long building jammed with far more terrified people than the place had been designed for. They stood packed together in every available space. yet whoever the hands belonged to had power and authority as the scared people made room for them to pass comfortably. The hands never said anything, just pushed her ever onwards.
It was dark inside. A few had created lights, peacefully bobbing above them but they were barely brighter than a candle and only served to make the rooms look even stranger. Shadow people ran and screamed the same as regular people, but contorted into bizarre elongated shapes across the walls, the floor, the ceiling. All the tables had been pushed away to make room, possibly propped against doors to provide an extra barrier. Everything smelled of smoke and fear.
No one had been expecting this. No one was prepared.
They'd been sent messages about it, she'd heard her parents and the others having hushed conversations about the shadows, worried looks on their faces when they thought no one was listening. No one had expected them to arrive so quickly. No one had expected them to arrive at all.
She'd seen the maps, her father and brother had taught her to read one. Everything was a tiny dot all the way on the other side of Edge, as far away from the Marshes as possible. There were hundreds of towns and cities between them. Thousands of people and months of travel stood in the way, still the shadows had come. The shadows didn't care about their maps or distances or obstacles. She could see that now. The shadows didn't care about anything.
"You need to stay in here Emen, where it's safe," the hands told her. Their owner crouched in front of her, all fuzzy dark beard and wrinkled smile but there was more worry in his near black eyes than anyone else in Everything. No amount of smiles could hide it.
The hands left her standing in a corner. She watched his broad back disappear through the crowd, dark brown jerkin detailed with golden thread and a golden badge on the breast. Despite all the people she was alone, and felt the first flicker of fear in her heart and stomach. She sat down quickly and held her knees, burying her face and closing her eyes. Maybe if she was small enough the shadows wouldn't notice her, would leave her alone...
"Emen!" a woman shouted her in a voice from the far south, and she lifted her head but couldn't see her mother through all the people.
"Are you ok?" her father called, his deep voice carrying across the room with an accent much more suited to their northern town. Behind him, her brother came running and wrapped her arms around him. She knew it was wicked, but she was much happier to see Heran than her mother or father. She knew he'd keep her safe, he'd promised.
Screams erupted from the other side of the room and all the floating lights went out. Everyone crushed against her corner, pressing her and her brother closer to the wall as the shadows entered. Emen had a small window to see them through people's legs. They floated gracefully across the room, not seeming at all dangerous. Their skin, or clothes, or whatever it was, rippled like solid water and seemed to suck in all light.
One approached their corner, seeming to glide through anyone who stood in their way. Whoever they passed through dropped to the floor, she didn't know if they'd died and she didn't think she wanted to check. She just stayed in place, surrounded by her brother and her parents.
One stopped in front of them, a good head higher than her mother and lowered itself to the floor to stare directly at Emen. It's eyes were strangely beautiful, she thought. She still didn't think they were frightening, not on their own. They shimmered and seemed to change to a different shade of purple every few seconds. First a delicate lilac then the exact colour of the roses that grew in her garden, then a barely visible amethyst against its dark face.
From somewhere in its floating watery form it stretched out a clawed hand toward her face. She wasn't afraid but strangely calm.
There was a shout, a roar and a flash of light.

The sun woke her gently. Emen sat up and stretched. She'd been having dreams for weeks, months, worrying about today.
She dressed quickly and headed downstairs towards the smell of breakfast. Her mother always cooked the most wonderful things today. Comfort food she called it, but her southern dishes were nothing but wildly exotic in Everything. No matter how often she cooked them they always tasted of sunny, faraway places that Emen could only dream of visiting.
Her mother, Elocaro, was forever promising to take them to her home city of Obryn, had been for as long as she could remember. Promising to show them the fountains of coloured water, expertly sculpted to look like certain animals so detailed travellers often thought they were real. The endless fruit orchards filled with olives, pomegranates, lemons. And the sea. Emen's favourite stories were of the sea. Not their cold northern sea filled with jagged rocks and sharp, treacherous drops, often too dangerous for even the most seasoned sailors and definitely not somewhere to swim. The southern seas were warm and calm and filled with bright fish bigger than she was, but tamer than any dog or cat. Her mother often told them of her pet fish who would come when she called it every morning, waiting to be fed by hand.
The journey was too dangerous, however, not with her younger sisters travelling with them too. So Emen kept on dreaming of the south to keep her warm at night.
Elocaro had her breakfast ready by the time she sat at the table. Her mother's long, soft, dark hair was held in place by flowers and gems that matched her delicate and flattering gown. Another thing she'd brought with her from the south over twenty years ago.
Unlike every other year, her mother was sitting silently staring at her bowl instead of comforting and assuring her. Maybe she'd given up hoping like Emen had. This year was her last chance. If she didn't get an Ender today she'd never see her family again.
"Are you excited little sister?" Heran burst in with a smile on his face. Her brother looked exactly like their mother, deceptively delicate with darker skin and the same soft curly hair and eyes. He easily towered over Emen, their mother and nearly everyone else. It wasn't surprising that nearly everybody quietly questioned if Elocaro was being honest about his father. Heran did not look anything like his father or his sisters, much to Emen's jealousy. The only thing she shared with her mother was her eyes.
"I am ecstatic Heran," Emen rolled her eyes but smiled slightly.
"Me too, after today I won't have to see you anymore."
"Heran sit down and shut up," her father called and pushed the boy into a chair beside Emen. "Your sister is not going anywhere. I got my Ender late, and your grandmother was nineteen too when she got hers. It'll happen today, it has to."
Risuro, her father promptly began to eat, his wiry hair falling into his face. He'd never been very good with words of comfort.
While Heran looked like their mother, Emen and her younger sisters were very much like their father. They shared the same pale skin and freckles, although Emen was slightly darker. The same hair, nothing at all like the soft dark curls of her mother.
Heran winked at Emen. She knew he wasn't serious and was probably more worried than their parents. He'd been looking after her and her sisters since she was born. Always there to comfort her when she was sad and play with her when she was bored.
"I have a gown for you to wear," Elocaro said suddenly.
"A gown?" Emen sighed. She didn't mind wearing one, but anything her mother picked out for her was sure to make her look terrible and be very uncomfortable. It'd probably be frilly too. She loved dressing Emen in frills. Thankfully since her sisters were born and old enough, their mother had been dressing them in frills instead and mostly left Emen alone.
"One of my old ones, it'll make you look beautiful."
Emen just nodded. She'd only have to wear it one day. Maybe her last day. She didn't care about wearing frilly gowns, she'd rather keep her mother happy. No one else would be paying her any attention anyway. During the Ender Festival everyone's attention was focused solely on their own family.
She finished her breakfast and headed outside. The Renders had already set up their camp just outside of the town. She walked slowly over to it, watching as men tended to horses, set up tents and huddled around fire pits.
Already people were going to see them. Mostly anxious parents with young children. The Ender Festival could be a very stressful time, especially for families who hadn't been through it before.
Emen perched on a fence and for a while did nothing but look out across the fields and paddocks at the edge of Everything, taking it all in. She never wanted to forget her birthplace, no matter what happened. In the distance she could see the sea, no more than a pale shape on the horizon. In front of it were rolling hills covered in wheat and barley, cows, sheep, pigs and horses.
Behind her a horse sighed. She turned and watched as a fat old man struggled up the small hill to the Render camp. A pretty black horse with white stripes across her face and legs followed him patiently. Several bags were strapped to her saddle filled with clothes, food and personal possessions. As she watched, the man tripped and fell. She jumped off the fence and went to help.
"You need to be careful Baard," she told him gently as she helped him back to his feet.
"Yes, yes, do this Baard, do that Baard, be careful Baard," he murmured into his big bushy beard. Emen had always liked Baard. He had been the town's Elder since she was a little girl until a few weeks ago when he stepped down and decided to move to Rend. Everyone in the town was sad to see him go, but when he got an idea he was implacable, and in his mind what had happened was unforgivable.
"If you're not careful I'll move to Rend and look after you myself," she joked but Baard didn't laugh or even smile. He sighed and took Emen's hand in his massive one.
"You're not going to Rend. You'll get your Ender tonight and live a long and happy life here," he told her quietly, staring at her with his dark eyes.
Emen shook her head. She wanted to believe him but she'd returned home empty-handed for the past eight years, she wasn't convinced tonight would be any different. Heran had received his Ender when he was fifteen, and her mother at thirteen. Here she was at nineteen at her last Ender Festival, her last chance. She'd already secretly packed her bags ready to leave with the Renders.
As Baard continued to shuffle up the hill Emen and the striped black and white horse followed. She left him safely with an old Render when the two started talking and began to walk around the camp.
Most of the Renders were busy preparing for the journey back but one young man was staring at Everything with a sad look in his eyes. Emen vaguely remembered the man, only a few years older than her he'd left for Rend after not getting an Ender. He cam every year, from what she knew anyone in Rend could volunteer to become a Render and travel around Edge gathering the unwanted to go and live in the city of Rend. Some Renders appeared every year, anything for a chance to see their family or hometown. She didn't remember his family, or anyone else being too upset over him leaving but he'd always been polite to her when they'd seen each other.
"Emen," he noticed her watching him and grinned, waving madly. "Still no Ender?"
Emen shrugged and shook her head.
"Well, good luck tonight. I hope I don't see you tomorrow."