StoryCube Challenge

Once upon a time, there was this girl who lived in the country. She worked hard, but wondered if life would get any better for her. She just never understood why she could barely stay above water.

Reading had always been her escape, ever since she was just a little girl. She love fairy tales and stories about princesses. But not just any princess! Rather one who would stand up and fight for her people!

On a weekend afternoon, this girl pulled out an old princess costume she had and put it on. She then got a small sword that had been passed down in her family and went out to the backyard to envision what it would be like to be the fighting princess.

As she role played it out in her mind, she walked around the backyard — but not always paying attention to where she was — and that doesn’t always end well.

Such as this time.

She backtracked a bit in a “sword fight”, tripped over a small rock and as she tried to regain her footing, she fell backward and into the well.

Down she went and she landed with a thud. When she looked up, she was in a small boat and rowing was somebody who looked like the grim reaper. Or at least somebody dressed as the grim reaper.

She shook her head and looked around and didn’t seem to have a voice. The boat pulled toward a small landing spot where two people — some brute with a club and an evil-looking gremlin were waiting. As the boat stopped, they jumped on board and quickly got into place, tying up our “princess,” and making it hard for her to do anything.

Was this a dream?

She couldn’t understand how this was happening. Soon after they pulled up near a castle and the three pulled her off the boat and into the castle. After roaming through a few rooms, she was led to a dungeon area where her mouth was covered and she was pushed into a cage.

No words were ever said.

The three bad guys left the room and slammed the door shut. Our friend was trapped and she still couldn’t tell if this was real or a dream. She tried to wake up but then realized this might be real.

Hours went by. Or days. Or weeks. She couldn’t tell. She hadn’t seen her captors.

And then… the sound of a harp echoed through the area. The door slowly opened and in came this ogre of sorts. He was smiling and playing the harp. He ripped the door off the hinges and rescued our fair princess! He threw her over his shoulder and started walking and soon, he was below the well.

A smile from the ogre gave the princess hope and … he heaved her straight up toward the opening in the well.

Slowly, and quite a bit groggy, our princess wakes up. She had a pounding headache and started to look around and found she was in her bedroom. She stumbled to her feet and wandered into her kitchen where she saw a full mug of some sort of alcoholic drink. She shook her head, grabbed it, and dumped it down the sink … vowing never to get like that again!

LINKUP FOR MARCH 4

 

No. 5

Story Challenge No. 5 linkup will be posted on March 18! Here is the photo for that one (using Looney Tunes dice!):

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This is part of the Story Cube Challenge, a bi-monthly blogging challenge hosted here. Feel free to join up with us for the next one and tell others! 

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

It seemed like it took years, despite it being just a couple of weeks. But it finally arrived.

I had called into a radio show and they were offering a secret vacation. They gave the date – and that was it. I was caller No. 29 and that was the secret number.

Getting home from work today, the box sat on the porch. I knew the vacation was set to begin the following week. And there was the box… with the secrets.

As quick as I got inside, I ripped open the box and all I saw was a cardboard box full of packing peanuts.

Packing peanuts.

These things are annoying as all hell. They feel weird in your hand and they are just not cool. They get all over the place and it’s like one or two always find a way to get away.

But I knew I had to dig – and dig I did.

All I found was a small shield and a crown. Nothing more. No letters. No instructions. No tickets. Not one single thing.

Just a shield and a crown.

I put them on the desk near me and as I worked on the computer that night, I kept looking at them. Sometimes I’d pick them up and look closer. Was there a number or something? Information in hidden ink? A black light didn’t work.

A day went by.

Two days went by.

Three days went by.

And I couldn’t figure it out. One day, after staring at the crown and the shield for what felt like the billionth time, I couldn’t do it anymore. So I chucked the shield against the wall and the item slightly cracked.

And something looked odd.

Looking closer, it opened some. And inside … was a letter. It read as follows:

“Dear winner!

Congratulations on winning our vacation! It seems like this vacation could be anything! Maybe you’ll need to use an axe to cut some firewood. Or how about boating or hiking through the mountains? Think of all that nature! No? Maybe you’d rather be part of a crew researching something, and experimenting? You could get samples of things for those researching?

You can scratch all of that off. This vacation isn’t that at all.

This one will feature as many beautiful sunrises and sunsets as you can handle. And hopefully you won’t get any of those awful rain clouds!

Instead, get to the harbor by Friday night… and there you will set sail on a 7-day cruise into the Caribbean islands! Everything is paid for but make sure you have your passport and any other documents showing your identification! Enjoy that trip and we’ll be in touch for an interview!

One final tip!

Don’t forget your camera!”

Less than a week later, I boarded a boat and as it drifted off into the sun setting over the ocean, I reached into my camera bag to pull out my camera and what else did I find?

Packing peanuts. Damn things are everywhere!

LINKUP FOR FEBRUARY 18

 

No. 4

Story Challenge No. 4 linkup will be posted on March 4! Here is the photo for that one (using the Fantasia dice):

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This is part of the Story Cube Challenge, a bi-monthly blogging challenge hosted here. Feel free to join up with us for the next one and tell others! 

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Remember, the new photo of dice for the next challenge is at the bottom of this post!

(This time I’ve gone out of order with the dice as it seemed to make a better story. Remember, with this challenge, you don’t have to go in the order the dice are … you just have to use each one!)

It’s a hard-knock life for Ronnie.

Life never was easy for him. He was a troublemaker in his early days. He loved a good scrap here and there. But Ronnie was usually never too crazy.

Somewhere along the way, though, Ronnie really lost his way in society. It wasn’t just a barroom brawl, or some drunken shenanigans — it was developing into something more.

He just didn’t seem to be getting ahead in life.

Every time Ronnie started to get somewhere, it seemed, he’d just find a way to mess it up. Like the time he was working as a night stocker at a big-box store. Somehow a dare came out of it where he’d do a handstand on a cart. Never the one to turn something down on a bet, Ronnie turned it into a way to make money.

He fulfilled the bet, but unfortunately, the cart went out of control and Ronnie crashed into an expensive display, ruining a lot of products.

Of course he ended up being fired. That was the final straw. He had nothing. He couldn’t do anything right.

He started plotting.

On a cold Monday morning, Ronnie walked in front of a bank. He covered his face and went inside, straight to a teller and passed a note saying he was robbing the bank. The teller threw all the money she had into a basket-bag Ronnie had. At the same time, she activated the silent alarm. Ronnie dashed out of the bank with the basket of money, and he thought he was all smart carrying that money, with his face still covered.

That didn’t last long.

Cops surrounded Ronnie. He tried to fight them off, but he stood no chance. Those cops have weapons and billy clubs and subdued him with too much of an issue, despite a few extra fists flying.

This was it for Ronnie.

In court, he couldn’t believe where his life had gone. The cameras showed him doing it. He had no defense. He was caught red-handed with the loot. Ronnie was done for. While the trial ended, Ronnie put his head on the table and wiped a few tears away. He had never planned on life going in this direction.

Now he was going to jail and there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

Maybe there was, though. He could still turn his life around! Maybe — just maybe — Ronnie wasn’t a lost cause after all! Maybe he could still be a good member of society!

Will he be a success story after all?

In jail, Ronnie read a lot. He studied. He was learning trades by working in the jail. He read some more and his behavior was steller! He was a model inmate and earned the right to do different things!

His few friends on the outside, as well as his family, were cheering and hoping Ronnie would find his way in this world.

Would he learn? He never did in the past.

Then came the big day. Ronnie was at his parole hearing. After being sworn in, he sat at the table and answered all of the questions. He had learned from his mistakes. He was ready to add to society. He now knows right from wrong.

When the ruling came down, his paroles was … approved! Ronnie was a free man but needed to start proving himself. As he left the hearing that day, he skipped down the steps, happy to be a free man, but he also knew he had to improve himself. He couldn’t continue doing what he used to be doing.

Did he succeed.

Ronnie walks every day now. He smiles. He often walks past that bank where he once made the biggest mistake of his life. He’ll sometimes stop and look in and drift off to a place he once was. And then he’ll continue walking to the bank’s ATM machine.

He needs money for lunch, after all.

You see, there are often happy endings. All the studying and research Ronnie did in jail helped him get ready for a community college to learn a trade. It was there he studied construction and masonry, and soon got a job with a local company. Now Ronnie’s work is some of the best in the area — and even the bank president has hired the company to do work because of how good Ronnie is.

He’s happy now, too. And Ronnie does go back into that bank — every two weeks to cash his paycheck.

It’s not a hard-knock life any more for Ronnie. It’s a good-luck life instead.

LINKUP FOR FEBRUARY 4

 

No. 3

Story Challenge No. 3 will be posted on February 18! Here is the photo for that one (using the voyages cubes this time):

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This is part of the Story Cube Challenge, a bi-monthly blogging challenge hosted here. Feel free to join up with us for the next one and tell others! 

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Remember, the new photo of dice for the next challenge is at the bottom of this post! This story is for the dice in the initial listing, which you can see by clicking here. 

The world is a strange place.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s filled with a lot of cool things. There’s a lot of good. But there’s a lot of bad out there, too. I guess, like anything else, there’s balance.

Our Earth is just one planet, but one people say we need to take care of more. It’s not an easy task, though, when you think about how vast it is and how people are in different parts. But that’s a story or chat for another day.

You know what gets to me though?

Bugs.

I like being outdoors. And I like hiking in the woods. But goodness, I can’t stand bugs. I think they are plain evil. Especially ticks. I’ve had a few of those things on me before and it’s one of the creepiest feelings in the world. I once went to the ER to have one removed because I was so scared about it. When done, they gave me a tick removal thing, in case it happened again.

That was an expensive tick removal tool.

Alas, sometimes you just have to deal with things you don’t like. If not, what’s the point of living. You could hide in a bubble all day, but it won’t matter. Something will find a way to get to you or annoy you – thus meaning bad can get in.

Still, there are ways around it. Life isn’t all daisies, some will say. But I say it can be full of sunflowers! Imagine if this world were full of sunflowers just basking in a perfect blue-sky day. How perfect it would be!

How else can you eliminate the “bad” from your world?

It can be quite hard, I know. When it feels like time is just slowly clicking away and nothing positive is happening. It’s like the sound of beads just dropping down an old-school timer. Click. Click. Click.

When will it end?

Click. Click. Click.

Maybe it won’t.

Click. Click. Click.

But it will. I promise you, it will.

Here’s the think. Sometimes you have to find the key to happiness or to good. It’s not easy and I understand that, but it’s worth finding. So where should you look? With the world being so big, maybe focusing on something smaller will help you get the bad out.

Maybe start by looking within your own home!

Though I realize this isn’t the answer for all people, for many, just being home is a way to block things out and get rid of the bad. Maybe it’s a nice glass of tea, or some time on the computer, or a good book or TV show. But being within the confines of your home can be a way to block out bad.

You do control your own destiny, though.

Life – or the “Big L” – often has a way to kicking you down. To bring that bad into your world. We will often question why, but in the big picture, everything shapes and molds you into what and who you are.

Sometimes good, sometimes bad.

Maybe you won’t capture lightning in a bottle. In fact, maybe that lightning will snap you on the ass at times. But what can you do besides push forward and try and face the world with a positive outlook.

It’s the way you need to go.

If so, more often than not, you’ll be able to find the end of the rainbow and, hopefully, you’ll be finding the good to go along with it!

(This was a lot harder than I personally thought it was going to be! I look forward to future challenges on this as interpreting some of the dice wasn’t easy! Hope to see people sign up with this one and join up in future posts.)

LINKUP FOR JANUARY 21

No. 2

Story Challenge No. 2 will be posted on February 4! Here is the photo for that one (using the action cubes this time):

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This is part of the Story Cube Challenge, a bi-monthly blogging challenge hosted here. Feel free to join up with us for the next one and tell others! 

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!