Contest April-May 2021 Short Story Contest Voting Thread

This was one of the most exciting contest from that point of view. It has been a open race 'til the last day!
(well, leaving aside the past contests that effectively ended with a tie... it happened 2 or 3 times).

EDIT: by the way, these were my votes:

Spoiler

 

The winner by a nose is Killer Angel with his story "Incomplete", but don't let the name fool you, the story is actually fully complete.

Story One: "Fish out of Water" by @Lizards of Renown

Story Two: "An Old Friend" by @The Great White Lizard

Story Three: "The Fate of Haerhost" by @Y'ttar Scaletail

Story Four: "The Raiders" by @Tk'ya'pyk

Story Five: "Out of the Air" by @thedarkfourth

Story Six: "Incomplete" by @Killer Angel

Story Seven: "Claw in Mouth" by @Carnikang

Story Eight: "Muddied Legend" by @Paradoxical Pacifism

Story Nine: "Halls and Mountains" by @Imrahil

Thank you to everyone who entered and voted in this contest. Thank you to @The Great White Lizard for a very strong first entry getting a solid third place. I hope you will continue to write in future contests.

Updating some of my metadata, we have a mix of old and new friends. @Tk'ya'pyk, @Imrahil , @Carnikang, and @Lizards of Renown all have 3 or four stories under their belt as of this contest.

@Killer Angel has submitted 14 short stories so far, @Y'ttar Scaletail has 16 and @thedarkfourth retains the record with 18 short stories submitted out of 24 contests making @Paradoxical Pacifism the overlooked middle child of this contest with 9 short stories under his belt.

PP has nine consecutive entries and I'm pretty sure he's not going to stop making entries consecutive entries as long as he can still draw breath so I'm betting he'll sneak it into the top echelons of posters eventually.

These are the milestones that really count @NIGHTBRINGER...

 

GREAT!
Guys, i am really happy, thanks to all who gave a vote to my story, and also to all the other ones because tastes are a thing.

and @Lizards of Renown : your story was really good, i genuinely thought it deserved the praise.

Now, before commenting in details the process of building my story (which will take some time), just some general considerations

this was my 4th victory (yay!), i won telling stories about skinks, kroxigors and (finally) sauri... i only need a winning Slann to have the complete collection.

Also... in the last 3 comps, i've managed to win twice and take a 2nd place. It seems my writing has improved!

 

It will be!
I need to talk with @Scalenex... maybe we could anticipate it, to give more time to everyone. Sometime a month runs quickly.

I've also realized that (other than the excellent story by @Lizards of Renown), my votes went to the pieces written by @Y'ttar Scaletail and @thedarkfourth .
Guys, i miss your reviews, they are so enjoyable!

 

Yep, don't feel forced!

 

Before posting my story in my dedicated thread, i would like to comment it here.

This idea about a sort of Ugly Duckling, not only for the visual aspect but also for behavior came to me and it developed. I knew what the story should have been, but wasn't sure how to convey it; basically, how to structure the story.
When i've had the idea to set the piece in various moments of time, presenting brief scenes to show various moments of the saurus' life to give a sense of evolution of the character, i knew it was the right one.
But of course, then it came the problem of the calendar. I couldn't write "6th of june, 1340". And the imperial calendar was out of question.

At this point, i must thank @Warden and @Scalenex , mighty author of Lustrapedia. Seriously guys, it's a goldmine, not only to give more depth to your stories but also for inspirations.

As subtly anticipated in my own review, each date refers to lizardmen calendar, cured by @Warden (lizardmen timeline).
each date is a "real" one, those numbers were not made out of the blue, and each date refers to the appropriate year of the imperial calendar. If you don't have noticed, those were the years preceeding the End Times. So, with such a incoming struggle it seemed appropriate that the Old Ones gave to Lizardmen their first saurus wizard/priest ever.

Reading the lizardmen calendar, i learned that each day was sacred to a particular Old One.
That was perfect. Tnx to @Scalenex and his summary of the Old Ones, i could assign a particular Old One to each moment of the story, making sense for the evolution of our protagonist. Every single act got a significant Old One, for example:
At the birth there is Khotl, which is the chooser of those destined to greatness.
When Qo-Krag oversees the wall's construction, thinking by himself and then got the first visions, it's a day sacred to Xholanka; his domain is associated to deep intellect and it's suggested that brings both a bless and a curse. Very appropriate.
In the final act when the potential of Qo-Krag is revealed, we have Tepok (which is associated to magic).

There are also some other detail that was cured. I gave Qo-Krag a head color similar to Tetto-Eko's. Tetto-Eko is the master of the lore of heavens. The signature spell of that lore (so, the one easiest to cast) is Iceshard Blizzard... the one that Qo-Krag casts at the end. Is a curse / defensive spell, and "HUA-QU", in the lizardmen language, is related to mist and defence, so it fits in some way.

It was not a small reasearch work, but luckily the heavy weight was already done by others and I've just only to put together the pieces.


Adn finally, i'd also like to thank everyone that in the past gave me constructive criticisms. Here i'll name @thedarkfourth as notable example, but it's not only him.
Those critiques improved my style. Conflicts (even inner ones) must be shown, not debated. The story needs a certain equilibrium, so it's better to trim some parts and keep a constant pace to the presentation of the various events.
Always try to give some detail that could give a unique sense to the story... our protagonists are often "alien" creatures and so we should try to capture this aspect. Give details about the different way they use smell, sound and sight. Those details help also in making your piece more memorable when you describe a scene already told by other writers (for example, in my story when there is the spawning, i gave the "sudden" realizations about the world surrounding the newborn sauri, given by what should be perceived as ancestral memory).This won't always work, but it's worth a try.

So, thanks again.