Salt destroyed the world. Now, he must sacrifice everything to save it. -- A fatal drought ravishes the land after Salt insults the water god. Jaded, reluctant, and driven more by obligation than hope, he travels the brittle, dying land in search of the solution: a favor from a god, which he can gain by resurrecting one. Unfortunately for him, gods need bodies. Even more unfortunately, his wife makes the perfect cadaver. With the help of Calista---a witty delegate to the death god---they set out to track down the fallen goddess of peace, love, and war. But when a mysterious force rises, bent on wiping the gods from the playfield forever, Salt realizes that to restore water to the world, he'll have to confront more than just a rebellion. He'll have to confront the past. A fantasy humor novella about grief, gods, and doing the right thing too late. ONC Prompt (2025): When you challenge a magical being, the rules are simple: you must finish what you've started, no matter the cost. ONC Awards (2025): ♫ Round 1 Winner ♫ Ambassador's Pick ♫ Long List ♫ Short List ♫ Second Place Finalist! :D

Nobody has been chosen for over a hundred years, but the Guardian of the cursed forest picks Runa in the ceremony, forcing her to face untamed magic, forgotten legends, and choices she never thought she had to make. Legends and Myths Magic Guardians and Villains Where do tales end and history begin? ☾ ↟↟♖⛰︎↟↟ The Guardians of the Forest is a fantasy novella for the Open Novella Contest. 129) The ink of our souls bind us beyond the pages of time © Copyright All Rights Reserved

* Prompt 110: 20 days of freedom. Mod: 21 days. If the Stinking Corpse Lily had come from Scotland, the creature within it would have been named a member of the Unseelie Court. If from the Appalachians instead of Indonesia, it would have been called a Wendigo. And if it had come from the Mediterranean, perhaps it would have been a Dryad. But it's home had been dragged to a southern mansion on the Gulf Coast, to a people who thought the paranormal was a lie whispered by Satan to ears that wouldn't hear a sermon--even when a few of them knew better. But the Rafflesia arnoldii wasn't made for the subtropical swamplands of the coast, and needs nurturing to survive--and even more when it finally breaks free from it's bloom. The first line of defense is a young billionaire named Charles Bardot, a son of "the blood", and beyond him, his mother Cherish Claris. Neither of them is prepared to stand between humanity and a monster that refuses to fit the modern idea of rational. But if they don't, more people will fall to the creature that sees humans as their cattle.

ONC2025 Round 2 Ambassador Pick 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐎𝐬𝐤𝐚𝐫 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞, 𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞-𝐚 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧'𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧, 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝. Unicorns are sacred in the kingdom of Unara, their magic a gift only bestowed upon the worthy-or stolen through death. Someone is hunting them, and if the killings continue, their magic will fall into the wrong hands. Determined to uncover the truth, Oskar sets out to find the culprit. But the deeper he digs, the darker the secrets he unearths--secrets that could shake the very foundation of the kingdom. A standalone fantasy adventure, The Unicorn's Blessing follows Prince Oskar before the events of The Girl with Scars, revealing the choices that shaped the man he would become. Entered into the Open Novella Contest 2025 | @OpenNovellaContest - Rules & Guidelines: https://www.wattpad.com/story/387452246 **Main Prompt** 12. While hiking through a forest, you stumble upon a unicorn's horn. **Secondary Prompt** 130. Protect this with your life. ©2025 E. S. Elias All Rights Reserved. Book Created & Published to Wattpad: 02.01.2025 Book Marked as Completed: 04.08.2025 Cover: Me @DesignsbyEH I used Canva.com | Cover is temporary and subject to several changes. Word Count: 26,234 / 20,000 Goals: Round 1 ✔ | 2,000 words ✔ | Round 1 Winner ✔ Round 2 ✔ | 8,000 words ✔ Round 3 _ | 20,000 words ✔ LONGLIST _ | SHORTLIST _ Honorable Mention? _ | Ambassadors' Pick ✔ Mentioned in Ambassador Newsletter ✔ Rankings: #ONC2025: #21 on 02.02.2025 | #15 on 02.03.2025 | #12 on 03.24.2025 #opennovellacontest2025: #15 on

Shapeshifting cats, magic tea shop, and a hot neighbor who hates all of the above. ~~~ Tabitha is becoming a cliche of a single woman since she's always surrounded by cats. She volunteers at the shelter, fosters kittens, and has a soft spot for the neighborhood strays, even if it scares off her hot neighbor, who only likes dogs. Curious about a new tuxedo who's been visiting her porch, Tabitha follows her to a mysterious tea shop where her life takes an unexpected turn. The tuxedo is not a cat at all but a teenage witch whose careless magic turns Tabitha into a cat as well. If they don't figure out how to break the curse, they'll both be stuck in feline bodies forever. The problem is, they need the help of a human. Tabitha has helped cats her whole life. Will anyone help her? ~~~ Written for ONC 2025, using prompts 5, 7, and 15.

She was once a character in a deleted story, now lost and memoryless in the Library Limbo. If she wants to get her memories back, she's going to have to work on her backstory - by helping to fix some stories that have gone wrong. And how hard could that really be?