Story writing Competition- June Closed

IMPORTANT

I have received 6 out of the 7 submissions I am looking for and 9 overall applications. I need one more story filled by either the older or newer applicants. Even if the requirements are full, everyone is still welcome to participate in the competition.

Name of writer: Lana Scobell
House: Slytherin
Year: First
Story:

Reducio

The Lantern Forest

The first thing you should know about me is that I am not the hero of the friend group. I'm the one who remembers to bring snacks, carries the flashlight, and loudly points out why every terrible idea is, in fact, terrible.

Unfortunately, my friends have developed a fascinating condition where they only listen to me after everything catches fire. Since forests aren't supposed to catch fire by themselves, I figured I was safe that Saturday afternoon.

I was wrong.

The four of us met beside the old bicycle rack outside Alder's General Store, where every adult in town mysteriously knew your grandparents. Our town, Briar Glen, was so small that if you sneezed on one side, someone blessed you from the other.

My best friend, Liam, arrived first with his usual unstoppable confidence and a backpack that looked suspiciously empty. If there was ever a contest for making bad decisions with good intentions, Liam would win a gold medal.

Behind him came Nora, whose favorite hobby was proving teachers wrong without technically breaking any rules. She claimed she didn't believe in magic, ghosts, or monsters, yet somehow she always packed emergency supplies "just in case."

The last to arrive was Ben, carrying a camera that had more scratches than paint left on it. He insisted that one day he'd photograph something incredible enough to make the local newspaper stop calling him "that kid climbing roofs."

"So," Liam announced, clapping his hands together, "today we solve the biggest mystery in Briar Glen."

"I thought the biggest mystery was why your hair looks different every morning," I replied.

"It has personality."

"It has static electricity."

Nora unfolded a weathered map she'd borrowed from the library's history room after convincing the librarian it was for a school project. Judging by the guilty look on her face, the school project had not yet been invented.

"The Lantern Forest is here," she said, pointing to a faded circle near the edge of town. "According to this map, there used to be an observatory in the middle of it."

Ben frowned as he adjusted his camera strap over one shoulder. "That's impossible. I've flown my drone over those woods before, and there wasn't any building."

"Exactly," Liam said with a grin.

I sighed so loudly that a nearby pigeon flew away.

An hour later we were pushing our bikes along a narrow dirt trail beneath towering oak trees whose branches tangled together overhead. The deeper we walked, the quieter everything became, until even our footsteps sounded strangely distant.

"Either this place is magical," Ben whispered, "or every bird in the county scheduled a meeting somewhere else."

"I'm voting for the birds," I said.

The trail eventually ended at a clearing filled with dozens of stone lanterns covered in thick green moss. None of them contained candles, yet every single one glowed with a soft silver light despite the bright afternoon sun.

Liam slowly spun in a circle, staring at the lanterns with wide eyes. "Okay... now this is officially cooler than I imagined."

"I preferred the version where nothing glowed," I admitted.

As Ben lifted his camera, every lantern flickered at exactly the same moment, as though an invisible breeze had passed through them. A gentle humming drifted across the clearing, rising and falling like someone singing from very far away.

Nora knelt beside the nearest lantern and brushed away years of moss with her sleeve. Strange symbols were carved into the stone, twisting around each other like climbing vines.

"They're not letters," she murmured. "They're... growing."

I blinked.

"Letters don't grow."

"They do if reality wants to show off."

Before I could argue with that surprisingly reasonable sentence, the ground beneath the lanterns shimmered like the surface of a pond. Instead of cracking open, it simply became transparent, revealing an endless forest beneath our feet.

Liam looked down, looked at me, and smiled.

"I know that face."

"What face?"

"The one that says, 'This is a terrible idea, but you're coming anyway.'"

"I hate that you know my faces."

The glowing ground rippled gently beneath our shoes before dissolving into mist, and all four of us dropped less than a meter onto soft emerald grass. Somehow, we had landed in the forest we'd just been looking at from above.

The sky overhead wasn't blue anymore.

It shimmered with ribbons of gold and violet, while hundreds of glowing lanterns floated freely among enormous trees whose trunks sparkled like polished amber.

Ben slowly lowered his camera.

"I don't think my camera has a setting for... whatever this is."

"If it does," I said, "please let me know."

A tiny creature waddled out from behind a tree stump carrying an acorn almost bigger than its head. It had fluffy blue fur, enormous ears, and a tail that curled into a perfect spiral whenever it stopped walking.

It stared at us for several seconds before dropping the acorn directly onto Liam's foot.

"Ow!"

The creature squeaked.

"I'm being bullied by a cotton ball."

To our complete surprise, three more fluffy creatures emerged from the bushes and surrounded Liam, each carrying another acorn. One carefully placed its acorn in his backpack as though giving him a gift instead of declaring war.

I couldn't help laughing.

"They've accepted you."

"They've assaulted me."

"They can do both."

The creatures suddenly froze, their ears standing perfectly straight as they stared toward the distant trees. Their cheerful squeaking stopped, replaced by complete silence that spread through the forest like spilled ink.

A low rumble echoed across the valley.

The floating lanterns dimmed one by one, and shadows began stretching unnaturally across the ground despite there being no clouds overhead.

Something enormous stepped between the trees.

It looked like a giant woven entirely from black branches, with glowing green moss forming gentle patterns across its body instead of eyes or a mouth. Every step it took caused flowers to wilt beneath its feet.

"It doesn't look evil," Nora whispered.

"It looks... tired."

The giant slowly reached toward a floating lantern, and the silver light inside flickered weakly before going dark. As more lanterns dimmed, the colorful sky above us faded toward dull gray.

One of the fluffy creatures tugged on my sleeve before pointing toward a hill crowned by a single enormous lantern. Unlike the others, its light still burned brightly.

"I think it's trying to tell us something," Ben said.

"I was hoping it wanted directions."

We hurried uphill, following dozens of tiny blue creatures as they carried glowing seeds in their paws. None of them seemed frightened anymore; they simply worked together with determined little squeaks.

When we reached the giant lantern, we found hundreds of empty hooks hanging around its frame. Every hook looked as though it had once held a glowing seed.

Nora's eyes widened.

"The lanterns don't create light."

"They collect it," I finished.

Without saying another word, every fluffy creature dropped its glowing seed onto the empty hooks. Liam immediately emptied the acorns from his backpack and discovered each one had transformed into another glowing seed.

"Well," he said proudly, "for once stealing from me was productive."

We each grabbed handfuls of seeds and hurried around the lantern, filling every empty hook we could reach. With each new seed, the silver glow spread farther across the forest.

The enormous lantern suddenly blazed like a second sun.

Silver light poured across the valley in shimmering waves, washing over every floating lantern until they burst back to life one after another. The gray sky melted away, replaced by brilliant ribbons of color.

The branch giant stopped moving.

Tiny green leaves sprouted across its body, followed by bright flowers in every imaginable color. Slowly, the towering figure shrank until it became nothing more than an ordinary old tree rooted peacefully beside the path.

Nora smiled softly.

"It wasn't trying to destroy the forest."

"It was starving," I realized.

The fluffy creatures erupted into excited squeaks as they raced around the clearing, happily tossing glowing seeds into the air. One climbed onto Ben's shoulder and proudly posed for a photograph before jumping away.

"I finally got my incredible picture," Ben laughed.

"And nobody had to climb a roof."

The silver lantern above us chimed once, sending hundreds of glowing petals drifting through the air. They swirled around us like gentle snow before gathering beneath our feet.

The forest blurred for just a moment.

When my vision cleared, we were standing back in the original clearing surrounded by ordinary moss-covered stone lanterns. The afternoon sun hadn't moved at all, as though no time had passed.

Liam opened his backpack and reached inside.

He pulled out a single glowing seed.

"Well," he said, grinning from ear to ear, "either we just saved an enchanted forest..."

"...or we're going to have a very confusing conversation with my mom when this starts growing in my bedroom," I finished.

For the first time all day, everyone laughed without sounding nervous. We climbed onto our bikes and rode home together, promising never to tell the adults what had happened.

Mostly because they'd never believe us.

And partly because Liam would definitely mention the part where he got mugged by adorable fluffballs carrying acorns.

I wasn't about to let him forget that.

@Rosy Parker

CLOSED

Sign ups for the contest are now officially closed. results will be announced shortly. These are all the participants whose submissions will be taken in for results-

RESULTS

The much awaited results are now being announced.
1st place goes to @Avery Gray. She will win the first prize- a black quill.
2nd place goes to @Ophelia Vanderbilt. She will win the second prize- a blue quill.
3rd place goes to @Mikaela Hendricks. She will win the third prize- a grey quill.
While these are the winners, I would like to congratulate our participants for all the beautiful stories they write. Judging who should win was extremely hard!
@Mary Cornelia Littoreus
@Odessa Elodie Brown
@Jay Valkyrie
@Emi Sato
@Lana Scobell
I will organize this competition again in July, this time with a proper theme and an extended time limit.
Everyone will be welcome to participate