Courage, Jealousy
and the Deadly Battle
MAYA LACAMP
"Courage above all things, is the first quality of
a warrior." —Carl von Clausewitz
Iremembered my mother's words as I grabbed my bag and headed for the new kingdom, Mount Olympus. It was created by my father, Zeus, so for the first time in a few hundred years, my whole family could be reunited. When I was younger, we were separated because of the Great War. Feeling fearless, I
slowly turned the metal handle and walked out of my
house, into the open air. I watched the violet butterflies
fluttering against the cool breeze, and the sun was shining brighter than ever. I took my map of Mt. Olympus
out of my leather bag and pronounced the words Athena, goddess of war and wisdom. In a matter of seconds,
the trees encircled me, and their spiky branches twisted
and turned reminding me of a dark, menacing forest.
The wind rotated around me violently, gripping on to me
so tightly that I thought it would never let go. The wind
was so strong that it picked me up. I tried to look around
for anything to grab on to, but I couldn't spot anything
because of the dust and the blinding sunlight. As suddenly as it had begun, the traumatic experience ended.
I dropped from the sky like a skydiver whose parachute
wouldn't open, and thought that this was going to be my
death. Luckily, I landed on top of a light, white, fluffy
cloud which felt like a soft pillow underfoot.
Shocked, I started asking myself all types of questions. So I had just been swept up by the wind and then
thrown onto a cloud? How is that possible? Could this
be Mt. Olympus? My thoughts were suddenly interrupted – "Glad to see you, Athena," my father said in
a friendly tone. He was sitting on an immense, beige
cloud that was shaped as a large sofa looking down at
me with a wide smile on his face [...]
Humans
SASKIA RAFONI
Humans. Just think of what we have become, what we
have done… we used to be apes, a very, very, very long
time ago. But we have evolved. We have evolved into
horrors…
Most people don’t realize the barbaric things that we
have done to the environment, to the other beings who
share this existence.
The Earth—a gorgeous place that is unique compared
to all the other planets in this solar system that can not
even grow a plant—we have destroyed systematically
and thoughtlessly. We have demolished nature itself
and have polluted so much that we can never make it
disappear. We have caused others pain, a pain that is
strong; we have ruined their beautiful lives, and made
them miserable. Now, we are engaged in a battle over
animals.
People say to me “I love bacon too much to become a
vegetarian." They should be ashamed of themselves. ALL
meat, in the end, was a stunning, intelligent, riveting,
kind creature, that had a face, a heart, a mind of its own.
People buy “organic,” or “range free,” as an excuse to
eat the flesh of others, or to eat the products of mothers. They say that the animals were “happy,” that it is
all ok. Yet in the end, they die a grotesque, very painful
death, that used to be hidden from the others, but is now
exposed. We still support it, which proves that we are
monsters. It is just a title that we have invented to make
abusing and assassinating animals sound fine [...]
Coup de foudre
MATILDA HOLTZ
Chaque matin je la voyais par la fenêtre, assise près
de la porte, buvant délicatement une petite tasse de café
au lait, un pain au chocolat à moitié mangé à son côté.
Une vraie femme d'habitude, elle se plaçait toujours à
la même table et commandait le même repas. Je chéris-sais ces moindres moments d'observation en passant
par le café pour me rendre au bureau. Pendant ces brefs
moments, on était seuls dans le monde, se tenait entre
nous, et je pouvais contempler tendrement la figure
élégante drapée d'écharpes en soie. Et c'est ainsi que
j'ai rencontré Suzanne, quelques instants de paradis
chaque jour. Enfin, "rencontré" n'est pas le mot qui nous
convient; je suppose qu'elle ne se rendait jamais compte
des secondes que j'ai trainé près de la fenêtre, ni de la
douleur que je subissais à son sujet. Elle était belle, d'un
teint albâtre, pourtant vif et sans air blafard. Toujours
tenus dans un chignon sévère, ses cheveux étaient lisses
et semblaient même plus foncés que la couleur noire
décrit. Mais de sa physique, ce qui m'attirait le plus était
ses yeux. Ce n'était ni la couleur, ni la forme, ni la taille
de son oeil, plutôt l'air de mystère qu'ils émettaient. Je
ne les ai point vu souvent, elle portait d'habitude des
lunettes de soleil, mais cela m’intriguait encore plus. Je
ne voulais rien que de mettre ses petites mains délicates
dans les miennes, fixer ses yeux énigmatiques, et lui
confier mon amour sincère.
Hélas, les femmes d'un tel charme ne veulent rien
d'un homme de mon type. On me trouvait plutôt bizarre, presque un vagabond. Je portais une barbe que
j'adorais, mais avec mon teint cireux, ceci me donnait
l'air d'un farfadet. L'état de mes habits était le résultat
