The Shed 14

a reply to: SyxPak

Ditto😉

originally posted by: SyxPak
Hello to You all!

As the sun rises on, a new day in the new shed...

As a Guardian Dragon, I Stand by the Gate,
Enter Not here, Hearts filled with Hate.

Spread Joy and Laughter, all about this place.
Freely put Smiles, to Everyones Face.

Speak Tales of Old, or some of New.
Tell Us of Travels, that involved You.

Let Us know of what Warms Your Heart.
Or of how You found this Realm,
may be a good place to Start!?

I LOVE this!!! It's beautifully composed & a welcome relief after the morning discussing finances with my elderly, hospitalized Dad. That's never fun or easy. So, tales of journeys, joys & smiles are a wonderful way to continue my day. My adventure today is simply to take my adolescent dog to his Adult manners class. He did great last week so I'm afraid he'll be a terror this week. He seems to alternate each week. Regardless, it will be an enjoyable adventure as nothing warms me like spending quality time with doggies....Except baby giggles. Baby giggles, to me, are the answer to all the world's problems!!

Wearing my tutu!! Have a good day!!

Love & Peace,
~LB

"Nooooooooo! Noooooo! Get awa' from my marshmallow tophat... Bees in the cabbage again... Minky? In that YOU?
uhm... torpedo the cracker... Nooooooooo! dinnae pick at it!... Bluuue shadows on the trail... can the beans! can the fluffy beans! ...fluffy... mnum mnum... Liquorice WHAT?... ah shaddup ya face..."

When he finally opened his eyes... blinked and tried to focus... the familiar sights of his shed room thankfully came into view, the Big guy decided in an instant that he would NEVER eat that Blue Cheese just before bedtime ever again!

"Coffee! I NEED Coffee... and I need it 5 minutes ago!"

He slowly got to his feet, made his way to the door and had just started to turn the handle when a strange scent caught his nostrils.

"What the...?"

It was a strange, spicy and smoky smell...

"Incense? Wha's burnin' incense at this ungodly hour?"

He turned the handle and opened the door and was immediately faced with a swirling mass of blue-grey smoke which sparkled like glitter as it spun and grew before him.
The whirling mass started crackling with sparks of electrical energy, mini lightning bolts shooting in all directions as it grew and started to engulf the entire hallway.
Gordi was rooted to the spot, it was just TOO EARLY for his brain to take it all in and a second later, accompanied by an almighty roar... he felt himself being drawn inexorably into the swirling mass.

Suddenly, the commotion was gone, the hallway was dark and still and the only sound Gordi heard was the loud THUMP THUMP of his heart pounding in his chest.

"Ah'm DEFINITELY aff that Cheese Noo!" he sighed, as he made his way to the kitchen looking for the coffee.
The kitchen was deathly quiet, but he thought that he heard Jacy moving about in one of the other rooms?
Strangely, the fire was out and for once there was no coffee on the stove...

"Whit the...? Somethin's no right here!"

He glanced towards the back door, screwing up his eyes - turning his head to listen out for any signs of danger, then slowly, deliberately... he opened the door...

a reply to: gimmefootball400

That is one of my favorite songs ever!! I love the Dirt Band but am only allowed to listen on my iPod. These people in my house don't get awesomeness when they hear it. LOL 🎵🎵🎵

Being a Steeler fan makes you OK in my book any day, too!! I'm what you might call a "rabid" fan...I make the dogs sit in attention for the national anthem & they all know what "touchdown" means. The big one grabs his blanket & shakes it like a pompon for "touchdown". Sad really...He won't retrieve a ball but he knows what a touchdown is.

Hugs & Smiles,
~LB

The Shed 14

That went fast eh. More live drama

a reply to: Gordi The Drummer

What happened to him???? Did the dragon get him??? 🐲

Playing with butterflies now we're back from dog class. It was a workout but Big Baby tried hard to pay attention & follow instructions. He's coming along if only slowly!! 💜🐕

Welcome Big B and Little B! How wonderful to see you both here! Now Little B is Big B's Sister if I remember reading in another thread correctly. Yes? Please keep us updated on your Dad. Hugs! Oh, I chuckled when Little B asked why there were men in the shed. Ahahaha! I have to tell you, one thing I love about our men in here is that they are sensitive souls, even if they don't admit it. They are strong and sensitive and just wonderful!

So many smiles reading through the pages. You are all so awesome!

Syx, your dragon pic and poem were just amazing!

Gordi, enjoyed your little tale. DDIG!

Too many pages to answer everyone individually, but I hope you are all having a lovely day/night!

a reply to: LittleBurgh

Stay tuned.... I haven't actually decided yet!
but... I suspect that it might have been one of Errollorre's wizards' time portals?
and that Gordi has been taken to a different time in/with the shed...

a reply to: LittleBurgh

Hello LittleB! Love the tutu! I'm sure Gordi will continue his story for us. We have people who add stories in here when time allows and inspiration is flowing. We use a different colored font when we make story entries. I will also use a different colored font when I want to make an announcement of some kind and bring people's attention to it.


I'll be popping in and out while I attend to other things. Good luck with the dog training! I have friends who own a pet supply store and also have dog classes they teach.

a reply to: Gordi The Drummer

Why did I not see this reply?
I think the pesky pixies are at play. Hiya Bug Eye! Where is our handsome Gordi???????

Pesky says she has nothing to do with it.

originally posted by: Night Star
a reply to: Gordi The Drummer

Why did I not see this reply?

I think the pesky pixies are at play. Hiya Bug Eye! Where is our handsome Gordi???????

LOL - I'll go get him... one of the strong sensitive ones???? Sounds like a bathroom product!!! ROFL

The air near the great oak and rosebush shimmered and seemed to warp. Blue and purple lightning crackled as the air seemed to rip open. Visaera the green pixie, who happened to be sitting under the oak reading a tiny book, looked up and smiled, her tiny eyes twinkling.

Smoke started to issue forth from the growing rift. Inside it she caught flashes of white like lightning strikes, great booms that sounded like thunderclaps, and the occasional red-orange glow. She heard a male voice shouting, and a roar that sounded like it came from a large cat. She ducked down behind one of the massive roots of the giant oak, only her head and the tips of her green wings poking up.

A purplish glow began to grow inside the angry portal. "Go! Get in there, now! I will bring them, I promise you! Go!" It was PrairieShepherd's voice. Visaera's heart leaped, but she stayed hidden. Whatever the Shepherd was doing was likely not for the likes of her.

Suddenly a figure emerged out of the portal. Her brown hair was wild, and her skin covered in soot and bruises. She wore rags, what may have actually once been burlap sacks sewn together into a crude dress. Her raw, bleeding feet were bare, and red trickled from her temple and her lip. She looked around bewildered, then ducked behind the oak and cowered in a ball, sobbing.

More shouting, and was that a child's voice screaming? The woman's head snapped up and she turned into a crouch behind the tree, coiled like a spring. Tears still fell, and she sniffled, but there was steel in her eyes.

A new voice echoed from the portal. "Itus exire latisus mehak, Shepherd. Gemehan kilietos ma un haka!"

"They do not belong to you, demon. Go back to the fire you came from!" There was a sharp crack, then figures appeared before the portal. At first she couldn't make them out, for the purple glow grew blindingly bright. A pair of small figures clung to Shepherd's bulky leather cloak as he backed his way through the portal. In one hand he held his staff horizontally, silver gleaming blades out, brilliant purple energy flowing in a torrent from its ends. His other arm cradled a third small child, hugging his neck and burying its face in his hood.

The woman cried out and motioned the other two children, who left Shepherd and ran to her. She hugged them tight and held them behind the tree. Now Visaera acted. She waved her hand and bent the light around the tree and the rosebush; a simple spell, but it would camouflage the woman and her children at least.

Shepherd was finally through the portal, and now Visaera could hear the little child wailing into Shepherd's hood.

"Gethu massa telemic! Gethu jhetekan aholta, Shepherd!"

Black energy crackled, flickering around the edges of the purple glowing shield Shepherd held. Huge black claws, radiating dark power, seemed to grip the edges of the portal and pull. Visaera felt as if the Shed was stretching and bending beneath her feet. Shepherd knelt and bowed his head, squeezing his eyes shut in concentration. The purple shield stretched and grew, it's edges burning back the darkness.

Just then a fanged, leathery skinned, twisted visage appeared in the portal, its skin the color of red clay. Its eyes seemed to glow like molten rock, and great rams horns framed its face. It laughed evilly as it started to push its face through the portal. Flames shot out and seemed to surround him. If Visaera could have made any sound she would have shrieked. She knew her magic, despite how flexible it was, could not muster anywhere near enough power to help Shepherd.

She couldn't see him anymore, engulfed in flames. Just as she was going to go get help - maybe a great dragon like Syx, or a wise elf like Night Star would know what to do - she heard a roar from within the tornado of fire around Shepherd. The purple shield pushed around the portal, and the great demon bellowed in fury as it closed completely. The flames and purple shield winked out, and there knelt PrairieShepherd, the child still cradled in one arm. His leathers and furs smoldered and orange embers still glowed here and their. Great patches of soot and char covered him, and the hand holding his staff was burned badly. Gently he set the child - a little girl with golden-brown hair and striking blue eyes clutching a tattered ragdoll made of some heavy rope and an old sock - down on the soft Shed grass. Visaera let go of the camoulflage around the woman and the other two children, and the little girl walked dazedly over to them. Weeping, the woman engulfed all of them in a great hug.

Shepherd stood up slowly. "Hello, Green, I've missed you," he said with a weak smile. "New Shed, I see. I'll have to thank Night Star for bringing the tree and rosebush along. "

Visaera smiled at him and waved. Shepherd looked around. "Sorry about the burned grass. At least the oak didn't catch fire." Visaera shook her head at him and rolled her eyes. She waved her hand and the burn on the grass disappeared.

"What were you reading?" asked Shepherd. Visaera was surprised - the tiny book sat off on a root of the tree.

Smiling, she put one thumb to her mouth, pinkie out, then tilted her head back. Shepherd threw his head back and laughed.

"I could use a drink, Visaera Ellente of the Shed," he said, smiling. "I understand Sir Gordi has a few choice scotches available. And they need a safe place to stay for a while."

She flitted up to his shoulder and sat, then pointed to his free hand. He lifted it and looked at it. "What about it?"

She waved her hand and suddenly he held a large stein, filled with dark ale. He took a deep drink, and she pointed to the woman and her children, then off to the edge of the forest. The Sun was getting low, and the smell of woodsmoke and roasting meat filled the air. "I agree, some dinner and good friends sound like the best remedy." Shepherd and Visaera gathered the woman and her children and headed toward the trees. Visaera provided water and a strong draft cider for the woman, and cocoa with marshmallows for the children. They had haunted looks in their eyes. Visaera waved her hand, and the little girl's pathetic ragdoll shimmered and turned into a cuddly brown teddy bear. Bandages and ointment appeared wrapped around the woman's feet as they reached the trees.

edit on 2-18-2017 by PrairieShepherd because: there their they're!

Gordi, there you are! Much better! Much better indeed! Loved your story entry! Can't wait for more!

Shep, OMG, great story entry! I hope I can get to my own story line soon enough. I mean it is the shed, and we must have our stories. Thank you!

I keep putting off making ciggs and need to do that. Other things I should be doing as well like laundry and other mundane things. But I so prefer this magical realm and its' denizens.

I am very happy with the new shed. Want to know why? It's because it is our 14th incarnation since the beginning. It is because we have magic, enchantment, love and humor, stories and new and old members who make this place what it is. Kudos to you all for not only making it what it is, but for keeping it alive.
Love you all! _The Elf and me.

a reply to: PrairieShepherd

Shep - What can I say?
You Da Man!
THAT WAS BRILLIANT!!!

I Love it!

and.... yes, there may be a few nice whiskies in my cupboard... help yourself bro!
You earned it!


G

Thanks Night Star and Gordi! I'm kind of in writer mode today. I wrote that unposted scene for my story the other day, but it was sort of shallow. I had some excellent help reviewing it and suggesting edits and now it's much better. BUT, it has a big impact on the story so I'm sort of sitting in the aftermath trying to come up with the fireworks for that story arc. In the mean time, next episode coming up!

Hope you all are having an AWESOME Saturday evening!

For those of you new Shedisans, I'm PrairieShepherd. I've been writing a story for years, but the Shed has provided me an outlet to share it. If you find my writing enjoyable, and would like the entire story, what follows below are direct links to every previous episode, going back to Shed 11 when I joined and started posting. This is ONE story arc of probably four or five of what would be a novel-sized work. Currently this arc stands at about 42000 words.
ANYWAY, here's the list:

(Shed 11) Page 135 - Gaalen
(Shed 11) Page 136 - Disappointment
(Shed 11) Page 140 - Siere
(Shed 11) Page 143 - The Real Assignment
(Shed 11) Page 146 - An Invasion
(Shed 11) Page 154 - Life is Good Tonight
(Shed 11) Page 157 - The First Spark
(Shed 11) Page 158 - A Late Night
(Shed 11) Page 176 - An Early Morning
(Shed 11) Page 177 - The Prisoner
(Shed 12) Page 5 - The First Round
(Shed 12) Page 28 - Scars
(Shed 12) Page 53 - Sparring
(Shed 12) Page 56 - Blood
(Shed 12) Page 57 - Char
(Shed 12) Page 63 - Like Angels Singing
(Shed 12) Page 68 - Hauerdred
(Shed 12) Page 110 - Queen of the Jamael, part 1
(Shed 12) Page 114 - Queen of the Jamael, part 2
(Shed 12) Page 118 - Elder Poliara
(Shed 12) Page 121 - Attending the Elder
(Shed 12) Page 157 - In the Plaza
(Shed 12) Page 170 - From the top of the Tulvar
(Shed 12) Page 172 - Alone
(Shed 13) Page 55 - An Interview
(Shed 13) Page 66 - Detour
(Shed 13) Page 69 - What You Can't See
(Shed 13) Page 70 - Lives Given, Lives Saved Part 1
(Shed 13) Page 73 - Lives Given, Lives Saved Part 2
(Shed 13) Page 120 - News Comes to the Lord Captain
(Shed 13) Page 130 - Lowaeren
(Shed 13) Page 133 - An Unexpected Visitor
(Shed 13) Page 138 - A Dangerous Game
(Shed 13) Page 140 - Jutaera Baeler
(Shed 13) Page 148 - The Kala Ratoen
(Shed 13) Page 151 - The Proper Maintenance of Balance
(Shed 13) Page 153 - Flashback
(Shed 13) Page 193 - The Bearer*

Episode 38, "The Bearer", is roughly R-rated. It was not actually posted, so you can PM me if you are truly interested in reading it.

And now, some Saturday evening entertainment. Then I'll stop hogging all y'all's bandwidth.

Link to all posts in Sheds 11, 12 and 13

Today's episode: The Cipher

As she had promised the night she visited his chambers , the Elder Seeress had sent a Bearer to bring him a package. She had told him it would arrive that night, but the Bearer arrived a few days later instead. Luckily, Kaena had stayed in her own quarters that evening, exhausted from a long day in the field and needing to be up again before dawn the next day for more. Usually when she was out on maneuvers and needed to be up she stayed in her own quarters. There was too much temptation to find other things to do besides sleep, and usually too much wine consumed to make getting up in the morning easy.

The Bearer who brought the package was a bright-blue-eyed, perky and attractive young woman with light brown hair. She arrived quite late in the evening, just about the time Gaalen had decided to get some sleep. He recognized her from his time in Poliara’s office as the one who had written in the book.

NOTE: This is where the unposted scene,"The Bearer", would be.

Inside had been a copy of the Book of Voices, a thin sheet of metal with several small holes cut into it at different places, an ink pot, and a well-crafted pen. It was a template for decoding or encoding the key to a cipher. Of course, the Elder Seeress wanted their communications private. He had had enough experience with military communications to know the fundamentals of placing messages in cipher code. He would need to encrypt each one, and clearly she wanted it to be at a minimum a substitution cipher, if not both a substitution and a transposition. But why send a pen and ink?

He studied the inkpot and the pen. They both seemed perfectly normal, the pot sealed with a cork and wax. Grabbing a piece of parchment from his desk, he opened the bottle, dipped the pen in the ink and began to write.

Elder Poliara, Seeress of the Temple of Aomm
From Lord Captain Gaalen Braeghe

The ink was black, but with a pearlescent shine to it. To his astonishment, as he watched the ink dry it faded from sight. He understood, and was reluctantly impressed.

It was one thing to encode a message in a cipher, but anyone finding it would know the message was there. Steganography was incredibly difficult and time-consuming, so she had provided him a way of hiding the message. She must have some way of causing the ink to become visible on her end. He shivered, suspecting the method she used had to do with tamborae. It all fit, though. He would write a simple greeting letter, on one side of the page, then put the ciphered messages on the other side in the disappearing ink. She would need the page number of the book to know where to use the template, so he would need to include a number in the plain-text greeting. If she was clever enough, he could include a second number that told her what the transposition amount was as well.

This was quite sophisticated for simple surveillance. Poliara seemed to want to take no chances. Gaalen began to wonder what on Geaomm she was so afraid of. To go to these lengths, she had to have been spooked by something. Either that or she was unreasonably careful.

In order to hide what had happened the night the Bearer arrived, he had not attended his training with Seeress Meron since. Instead, he had Joen go to lead her in the a'karana and several exercises of mishi tae and taa onaa. For the next couple days he worked on the cipher, practicing with random pages of the book. The idea was that the template, when laid over a page of the book, would produce a set of words which could be used to create a running key. The reader would need the template, the book, and the correct page number to decode the message. Adding a transposition factor would increase the complexity further. With Poliara’s disappearing ink, they would also need a way to determine if the message even existed.

edit on 2-18-2017 by PrairieShepherd because: trimming the links

originally posted by: Night Star
a reply to: Gordi The Drummer

I had to look him up. He is the singer? Ok, I'm leaving now. Must get some rest. One sheep, two sheep...

He was actually a member here at ATS.

His screen name was Chris on a bike.

Have a great day shedifarians !