A possible future in less than 500 words, if plastic wins. This was my entry for the WattPad/National Geographic #PlanetOrPlastic competition back in late 2018. It reached their Top 10 Submissions which, given that there appeared to be well over 5000 entries, was a very pleasant surprise! The competition itself had a limit of 500 words so, for those who keep asking if I intend continuing the story, the answer (for now!) is no - unless I can find a very good reason for adding any more. Many thanks to everyone reading and voting on this story and getting it to number 1 in the #sciencefiction category in May/June 2020! I did try to thank the voters individually on their pages but Wattpad have a daily limit on the number of times I'm allowed to do that and there are now too many of you (not that I'm complaining)! Here's the top 10 submissions page: https://www.wattpad.com/list/738243473-planetorplastic-top-10-submissions If you want to read the story in Polish please head over to https://www.wattpad.com/story/236405960-m%C4%85dro%C5%9B%C4%87-staro%C5%BCytnych-t%C5%82umaczenie-pl where @juliatlumaczy has done a fine job - thank you, Julia! @juliatlumaczy has now sent me a version of the cover she used for her Polish translation - thanks again, Julia! @alex_sokolova has also translated the story into Russian as well. You can read that here: https://www.wattpad.com/976002417-мудрость-древних - many thanks, Alex! We now have a third translation! @AlfonsoLucassen has kindly translated it into Spanish and you can find it here: https://www.wattpad.com/1063634347-la-sabidur%C3%ADa-de-los-antiguos

The world is filled with creatures of magic. Some were good once. Most have always seen mortals as nothing more than food and spell fodder. For hundreds upon hundreds of years the brought havoc to mortals, tipping the balance in their favor. The gods whom had created mortals grew saddened by their inevitable extinction. They wished sorely to prevent the creations of demons from destroying what was once so beautiful. So saddened by the incoming loss, Luna goddess of the moon and life shed tears from her perch in the stars for she, more than any god was forced to bare witness to these atrocities. Her tears dripped from the sky off the ends of the stars, falling to the world into the forests she loved so. They coated the beasts she adored more than her own soul. The wolves who loved to chase the stars she would throw morphed before her very eyes. Seeing them standing beneath the nights sky, not man not beast, she knew. Her wolves would put an end to the horror against mortals. They would bring balance to this world. ~~ The children of the night? Leaches. The fae? Drunken partiers with a taste for murder. Merfolk? Fish sluts with a taste for human flesh. Trolls? Morons of the highest caliber. Zombie? Bastards of witches. Witches? Vile little whores who turned their back on humans for power. Werewolves? The beasts who hunt them all.

What would you do if, after getting drunk in a party and passing out somewhere you don't remember, you woke up in a cart that is pulled by a horse with two people speaking weird language and wearing white sheets over their bodies? You panic, obviously. Era never believed in Gods and magic. Why? Because it wasn't explained by scientists. She doesn't even change her view when she is thrown down the time hole and back to the ancient Greece -time when people believed in everything, especially Gods of the Olympus. But her talk of "Gods don't exist" lands her into a festival of the Gods - a festival where people marked by one of the Gods of the Olympus fight for their life by performing something sociated with the god that they represent. And she is supposed to survive when she is marked by the God of the Underworld himself. He goes by the name of Hades. 2# in Festival 2018/05/20 123# in Gods 2018/05/26 2# in Ancient Greece 2018/05/31 Cover by PhoenixOfStorys

In Underlayes, a dimension separate from our own, where all mystical creatures reside, lies an orphanage for seemingly cast-off children, known as the Abbey. Children who are born from two or more factions. There they learn both who and what they truly are, and what powers they have lying within. What these children do not know is they were put there for their own good, for their protection, not because they were unwanted or unloved. In fact, the very opposite is true. Many would kill to get their hands on these children. As Jelissa comes of age, she is about to learn the hard way to what lengths one such being is willing to go. Jelissa has been a resident of the Abbey for as long as she has been alive. She has also never known what she is, besides being part witch. At the age of twenty-five, she will learn just what types of blood run through her veins. She will also find out much more-that she is also the long-lost princess almost no one even knew existed. Tialanna secreted her only child away for her own protection. Before she can tell Jelissa the truth, Jelissa is kidnapped. All Tialanna's greatest fears unfold before her very eyes, and her past comes back to haunt her in more ways than one. As most do when they come of age, Jelissa will learn the hard way that adult life isn't all it's cracked up to be. And Tialanna learns the hard way that if you don't learn from your past, it will come back and bite you on the ass. Tialanna and her band of unmerry misfits are in a race against the clock to rescue Jelissa. Will they find her in time? And if they do, will they be able to save her from a danger they hadn't anticipated: herself?

[Complete] Isla Halloran has dreamed of visiting her father's birthplace, Merrow Island, since she was a child. Her grandfather would fill her head with stories of its beauty and legends: emerald pastures, blue seas, and cliffs that stretched into the sky. She vowed she'd visit one day. She just didn't know that one day would be her junior year of high school, or that the visit would be permanent. Angry with the turn of events, she struggles to find any of the magic her grandfather had described. That is until she meets Kieran Murphy and his friends. Dreamy, dark, and just a bit dangerous, Kieran reveals the hidden wonders of the Island. Wonders that include magic, myths, and a curse. A curse, that for over three centuries, has bound every islander. And now she knows...coming to Merrow Island was never going to be her choice. Her fate was sealed at the moment of her birth. Because she's the key to breaking the curse, and they'll do whatever it takes to keep her there so they can finally be free.

COMPLETE #1 in Fantasy #1 in Adventure #1 in Historical Fiction ---------- Sometimes, believing helps us to see truth. Other times, we need a little evidence to believe. But there is truth behind everything; every false manoeuvre, ever little lie...a small piece of truth is hidden. Just like truth is wound into legends too. Growing up best friend to the future King, Arabelle never really thought her life could go wrong. Whenever she wanted something, or needed something, she would get it. Then she lost her father at a young age and Arabelle was forced into a world of dresses, balls, and lies. Being a tomboy, Arabelle would have rather been out on her horse doing archery practice with her brothers. When Arabelle gets curious and sneaks into a forbidden area of the castle, she discovers a deadly secret: her bloodline is sacred, dating back to a legend surrounded by the one thing she knows not to be true. Unsure what to do, she gets caught up in a series of events that lead to her being hidden and whisked away from the only familiar place she knew. After making some unlikely allies, Arabelle sets off on a journey to find the legend of the last dragon egg. Fate has something big in store for her; will she be able to withstand the pressure of it all?There is one thing Arabelle needs to learn to survive this new place... Some things are more than a legend. ---------- © Isabella Espe 2013 - 2019 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. This work is unedited. Your patience and leniency towards any grammatical or spelling errors is requested while you read this story. This story was written in 2013, and the author knows there are a lot of errors in this work. Thank you for understanding. ---------- Credit to @Abyss-of-Crazy for the cover!