#tobeahero

[elisalromagnoli]

To Be A Hero - Part One

What does it mean to be a hero?

She raced around the corner, her breath coming in short heavy bursts, and her fingers trembling as they grasped a tiny wailing child. Her feet slipped against the pavement, nearly sending them into another brick wall, but she caught herself just in time. “It’s OK, sweetheart, hold on for me – please,” a desperate edge clung to her voice and only served to frighten the child even more, as the wails turned to full out screams as if he knew his death was coming.  She pressed the baby closer to her chest, tried to muffle the cries without suffocating the poor soul or losing her balance. Five minutes, they only needed five more minutes. “I’m sorry.” 

The screams increased and echoed against the walls. Ramona winced, the headache that had plagued her earlier, coming back with a vengeance. Her steps slowed a bit as she squinted down the dark alley. Black fog pulled at the edges of her vision. She shook her head, willing it away as she usually did but only more black spots appeared this time. Five more minutes, for the love of chocolate chip cookies, please hurry up. She knew White Warrior could hear her thoughts but the stubborn superhero was, as always, ignoring her. 

Sweat slipped down her forehead and clung uncomfortably to the ill-fitting mask that had been shoved on her face. ‘For security reasons,’ White Warrior had said, ‘Whether you like it or not, you’re one of us now.’ An exasperated sigh escaped her lips as she stopped in the middle of the alley. The next time she and White Warrior met face to face she was dropping her off the top of a skyscraper for making her an unwilling participant in her ridiculous half made schemes.  

Her breath slowed a bit and the fuzzy edges around her vision faded as she pressed herself to the alley wall. Unfortunately the painful stitch in her side didn’t, nor did the overwhelming sense of guilt when she looked down at the baby in her arms. I hate you. White Warrior snorted, “Shut up, Eris.” Ramona jumped and whirled around but no one was there. She scowled and mentally poked at the annoying superhero she used to call her best friend. “Don’t be so dramatic, I’m just testing out superhero names.” Her scowl turned into a grimace at the explanation.

“Get out of my head and absolutely not,” She mumbled back. As she spoke, she backed up against one of the walls, her arms bouncing the tiny child she had been clumsily handed, easing the screams to quite sniffles and the occasional hiccup. 

“C’mon she’s the God of chao-” White Warrior’s pesky voice cut off from her head, relieving Ramona but also worrying her the slightest bit. She shoved the worry down and sat down on the edge of a rather suspicious looking black box. The yellow and red slime that coated one broken off corner wasn’t anything she ever wanted to witness again. I’m handing in my superhero resignation, she warned White Warrior mentally, cursing the girl’s selective hearing skills.  

The bloody mask still itched, she bit her lip trying not to let out a self pitying scream that would not only wake the sleeping baby in her arms but alert all of Philadelphia to where she was hiding. The edges of it curled against her dark tan skin, ruining the foundation she had mistakenly applied earlier in the day. Look! It’s black and grey, just like your hair! The loud-mouthed overbearing chick had said, It’ll be fine, no one will recognize you. She pressed her lips together. “Yeah? Well it’s not fine, Faith. It’s freakin’ itchy,” She murmured, freezing when the tiny bundle in her arms let out a yawn. But the baby only sniffled and snuggled further into her breast, still fast asleep.

“What’s up?” A familiar voice asked from behind.

Ramona jumped, jostling the baby, as she whirled around to face the white clad figure who crouched in front of her. “I’ve been here for thirty minutes questioning my life choices. What have you been doing?” She asked.

The White Warrior shrugged, her white and silver mask slid up her dark button nose as she sniffed indignantly, “Saving our ass-”

Ramona squeaked and slapped her hands as gently as she could over the baby’s ears, without waking him. “Little ears, Faith!” She hissed.

Faith, more commonly known to the public as White Warrior, snickered as she stripped her mask off. “It’s sleeping, Mona, she’ll be fine.”

She rolled her eyes at Faith’s mispronunciation of the poor baby’s gender but wordlessly followed her to the green dumpster at one end of the alley.  The medium sized girl bent down and pulled a bright yellow backpack from the stack of boxes at the edge with a small proud smile. Ramona returned her smile with an incredulous tilt to her brows. “Well that’s inconspicuous.” 

Faith snickered again, stripping off her suit leaving her dark skin out in all it’s melanin glory for the entire world to see. Ramona didn’t bother holding back her grunt of disapproval as she scooted in front of the girl.  As much as she loved Faith, she did worry about the girl’s sense of modesty. What if the papers found them? Why would a journalist or pap be creeping down this alley? She didn’t know but she had heard some pretty freaky stuff about the media people, they didn’t understand boundaries. 

She closed her eyes as Faith turned around and bent over, pressing the poor soul in her arms even closer to her bosom.  “Faith, seriously? Grow up!” She exclaimed.  Ramona shuddered as another thought crossed her mind, she opened one eye to peek back behind her at the disgusting fluid that had been on her box. “You shouldn’t be stripping the middle of an alley, it’s unsanitary!” 

Faith snorted; “You’re not the first person to tell me to grow up.” She tapped Ramona’s shoulder, signaling that she was done changing. “Maybe I just don’t feel like it’s necessary to do what needs to be done.” 

“You’re a superhero,” Ramona said in a deadpan tone of voice as she turned back towards the street with her best friend. “You always do ‘what needs to be done.’”

“So are you,” She pulled at the spandex still covering the upper half of Ramona’s face before letting it snap back. At Ramona’s pained hiss, she sighed and pulled the mask off of her face and stuffed it into her backpack.

“I’m not a superhero,” Ramona protested. She held up the child in her arms as evidence. “I just kidnapped a child, that makes me a villain.”

| NEXT | MASTERLIST |

Warning: this is unedited.

So... feedback on part one?

Tagged

Part one was inspired by:

@gingerly-writing who told me to write a superhero story.

@witterprompts -  I used some of her prompts, and will continue to for the next couple of parts.

“I’ve been here for thirty minutes questioning my life choices. What have you been doing?”

“You’re not the first person to tell me to grow up. Maybe I just don’t feel like it’s necessary to do what needs to be done.”

@alloftheprompts - I found the prompts re-blogged on this blog.

Both prompts blogs are amazing and all future parts will continue to have bits of their prompts.

@litlereddoll I’m tagging you because you seem interested, hope you don’t mind!

Status

word count:  1110 words

music: N/A

[elisalromagnoli]

New chapter up tonight! We’re celebrating 200 followers!

[elisalromagnoli]

To Be A Hero - 100 Follower Celebration!

OK. the 100 follower celebration short story part 1 should be released tonight!

Since I’m racially mixed (My mom’s black and my dad’s white.) I try to feature protagonists or characters who are also mixed or black like me! This short story features a mixed protagonist and her best friend, one of them at least, is black. 

title: To Be A Hero

word count: N/A

parts: likely two or three, for now. I may expand on this story later.

excerpt: She raced around the corner, her breath coming in short heavy bursts, and her fingers trembling as they grasped a tiny wailing child. Her feet slipped against the pavement, nearly sending them into another brick wall, but she caught herself just in time. “It’s OK, sweetheart, hold on for me – please,” a desperate edge clung to her voice and only served to frighten the child even more, as the wails turned to full out screams as if he knew his death was coming.  She pressed the baby closer to her chest, tried to muffle the cries without suffocating the poor soul or losing her balance. Five minutes, they only need five more minutes. “I’m sorry.” The screams increased and echoed against the walls.

Cover (because I’m also posting it on Wattpad):

[galaticangel]

From a wonderful hero himself #tobeahero https://www.instagram.com/p/Cj6HPtUuoff/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[marcus-negus]

To Be a Hero

01 - To Be an Idiot

I awakened to the same sky I had fallen asleep under. The sun was still shining and the wind kissing all that lie on the grassy plains of Foresta Valle. I don’t know what other people wake up to in other parts of the world, but as for me, I don’t think there is a more beautiful place than this. Foresta Valle is surrounded by forested mountains on all sides. In the center of these mountains is the rolling plains, where most of the people here live. Not me though. I live on the unending treeline that encircles the whole valley. From here I can see the dense green forest, teeming with life, fruits, and insects. It’s not that I hate insect. I understand that they serve some sort of purpose in nature. But do they always have to crawl on everything? My food, my canteen, my body? It just feels so invasive.

In the distance I can see the village, and all the grassy plains around it. It’s really the most beautiful place ever. It’s the only place in the world where man eating monsters don’t naturally appear.

I heard stories of how monsters are everywhere in the world. Adventurers go on great journeys to gain honor and fame, bringing glory and commerce to their hometowns. Heroes. That’s what they call them. I don’t see what’s so heroic about going out and killing things for sport though. If people would stay away from the monster then the monsters wouldn’t eat them. I read in a book by Robert Charleston, that monsters tend to not migrate if they don’t have to. So people should just build their towns and cities in places like Foresta Valle.

~Crunch~

There was the sound of a twig breaking coming from the forest. Great! Time for breakfast. I grabbed my dad’s tanto blade and my sling and began a crouching jog, as my dad had shown me as a kid.

The sound of crunching continued, and so did I. It was definitely running away from me, I should've been quieter. It was probably a Rabbiclaw, though they were usually much more careful than this. Oh well, the loud would be eaten, the quiet would raise quiet leverets. Survival of the fittest, Robert would say. I tried distributing my weight more evenly and took greater care to avoid making too much noise. After a few seconds the crunching slowed. Perfect, I’ve got you now. I saw a shadow further up the mountain. It was farther than I would have liked, but also larger than I expected. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a rabbiclaw, and it might be more difficult to take down, but judging from the size of the silhouette, it was nothing I couldn’t handle.

It took about three minutes before I could see it, partly because I was being overly cautious, partly because the creature was moving deeper and deeper into the forest. As if it were stalking prey. My stomach dropped. There were no carnivorous monsters in the forest. Whatever this was, it wasn’t supposed to be here. Suddenly I thought of my parents. Later I thought. I’d think about them later. All my instincts were telling me to turn around and go to the village, get help. But what if it was nothing? Just an overgrown beaverfinn. A really, really overgrown beaverfinn. I had to get a closer look. Better to know for sure than be the boy who cried Shade Wolf.

I was finally close enough to plainly see this stalking creature. Creature wasn’t the right word. Whatever it was, it was clearly from one of the Sapien races. I looked closer at the curves and bulges from under the cloaked figure and blushed. A female Sapien to be sure. She was trembling. Was she cold? No, it was summer, she should be sweating under all those layers. Then maybe, fear? I swallowed hard. There was no need to be afraid of any of the docile monsters in Foresta Valle. Everyone who lived here knew that. Then, where was she from? No one ever came here, or left here. If she was an outsider, then maybe I could calm her down with the friendly face of a local.

“Hey!” I greeted.

She jolted around in a mix of fear, anger, and hysteria. I could tell from her expression that she was not pleased with my presence. In fact, from the look on her face, she might not be pleased with my very existence.

“Idiot! What are you doing here? Get out of here before~” a deafening, and all too familiar roar echoed and we both looked toward the direction of the source. I saw movement coming from far ahead. Whatever it was, it was big. Very big. And very fast too.

“It’s too late” she spat, “follow me, I know somewhere safe.”

“Weren’t you hunting whatever thing that is? Can’t you handle it then?” I asked.

“I wasn’t hunting it” she said as she took my hand “I was studying it, to find it’s weaknesses, diet, habits, behavior” she was pulling me harder now, and we were almost in a full sprint. “An Earbear is not something you hunt” she said gravely, “it hunts you. It has the most sensitive hearing of all predatory monsters.”

My heart sank. That’s why the roar was familiar. That’s why I had already given up on survival at the sound of that awful roar.

“An Earbear killed my parents” I said, not sure if it was to her of myself.

“I know” she said bitterly. She knew? How? Why would she know something like that? Who was this woman?

The crunching was getting much closer now. We would not survive this. Not together at least. She was perfectly fine before I came and practically yelled her position to the Earbear. The least I could do was help her escape. When the time came, I’d save her. I’d give her the opportunity to make it to wherever she was leading us. The Earbear was going to catch us long before we made it. And even if we did, it would still find us. Those ears were dangerous, and its sense of smell was no laughing matter either. The crunching was only a few second behind us now, maybe ten seconds at best.

“Go without me” I said, spinning around and readying my sling. If I could hit it in eye, it would be harder to see. If i could hit it in the other eye, then it would have to rely solely upon hearing and smell. If I could slash it’s ears, then perhaps she could survive without it tracking her. I realized that with each goal, my chances of success dropped lower and lower. And with success, so dropped the chance of my survival. This was stupid. Horribly stupid. At best I could slow it down. Oh well. It was my fault this was happening anyway. At least I’d see my parents soon. I smiled.

“You idiot” she screamed, running ahead. That was good, she wasn’t going to do anything futile like try to fight the Earbear, like me. I had to admit that I was slightly hurt by the fact that she didn’t even slow down to give saving me a second thought. Oh well.

The bear came rushing from a different angle than where I was prepared to shoot. And much closer. Too close. It was by the grace of God that I saw it rise up for a killing swipe in time to barely throw myself into a roll out of the way. I crashed into a tree and hit my head. Dazed, I readied my sling. The momentum from the bear would take a few seconds to control and redirect, just enough time for me to aim. The bear came again and I shot, hitting in dead in the left eye. It roared and slowed down, violently shaking it’s head. It rose onto its hind legs and began stalking toward me, keeping its claws near its face, knowingly. It was protecting its other eye! Damnit! I hadn’t realized predators were smart like this. How could I? I'd never faced a predator before. I was going to die, right here, forgotten, never doing anything with my life but look at grass in the wind.

At that moment an arrow pierced through the bears left ear. The skull of an Earbear is too thick for any arrow to pierce. Only a stab through the heart will instantly kill it. It roared in the direction the arrow came from, exposing its right eye to me. I shot. It wasn’t a clean hit, barely a graze. But that would make it hard enough to see. The bear roared again and began charging at me. I dashed off to the right, toward the direction the arrow came from. Someone was trying to help me, and if I could give them a clean shot at the bears other eye, I might make it out alive. The bear must have been aware of this too, because it was chasing me with its head turned down, exposing as little of its usable eye as possible.

I was no match for the bears speed, I knew this, but I did not realize how outmatched I was until it knocked me down. I rolled several times as the bear circled in front of me, putting its back to the shooter. Damnit. I tried. This was it, it was really it this time. I drew the tantou. If I got lucky it would raise up on its hind legs again, as Earbears tend to do for the killing blow. That would expose its underbelly, but I would have to risk either being torn to shreds, or being crushed beneath its weight even if I somehow stabbed its heart. Better me than that woman, or that archer who tried to save me. True to it’s instinct, the bear rose up for the killing blow. But I’d have to wait. If I charged too soon, it would fall back onto all fours and simply rip me apart with its fangs. I’d have to wait for it to raise its claw for the killing strike. In that very moment its heart would be exposed, it would be vulnerable. The bear came closer and closer, savoring the kill. Wait. Just. . . wait. The bear was now only two meters away. It waited, seeing if I would run, or if I was frozen in fear. It decided on the latter. It raised its claw. Now! I leaped up, extending the blade to its ribcage. As if predicting my plan the bear spun out of the way. The blade stabbed through flesh and became lodged in its left arm. Now I was defenseless. Outsmarted by a predator, should I have expected anything more? Now all the bear needed to do was turn around and finish me.

At that moment it began a frenzied roar, thrashing about. Another arrow had pierced its right eye. The archer must have been waiting for the perfect moment to shoot. The bear’s thrashing knocked me down and I went tumbling into another tree, the air rushing from my lungs as I was nearly knocked unconscious. In a half conscious state I saw the archer, dashing toward the bear. He drew a sword identical to the one my father had and began a dangerous dance of slashing and dodging with the bear. He wore it down one slash at a time. With one final swing the bear was still at last.

“You really are an idiot” a familiar voice called. The archer ran to me, winded. It was the woman, and she was crying. “You could have died! I had a plan, why did you do that” she asked, tears falling as she lifted me up.

“You were fine until I came around, it was my fault you were in danger. What kind of man would I be if I let you get killed because of me” I asked.

“I had a plan” she repeated. “Come on, we need to talk” she said.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll know when we get there.”

[elisalromagnoli]

I’m talking about an old story I started a while ago in my latest blog post! The story’s coming back to tumblr and #wattpad in the New Year! . I’m also writing tonight on tumblr and Twitter via #scribblesprintparty , come join in! Starts at 5 PM EST. . . . . . . . . . #writersontumblr #wattpadauthor #tobeahero #amwritingsciencefiction #explorecreative #fictionbooks #teatime #quotestagram #chitchat #amwritingchat #rewriting #amediting #nanowrimo #writinganovel #noveldesign #writersonig #writerandhismuse

[elisalromagnoli]

Some character backstory in part two? 🤔🤷🏾‍♀️

[elisalromagnoli]

I started writing the second part of To Be A Hero, yesterday. It should be up sometime today or more likely tonight. Key word: should lol