2024 literary award winners - Creative writing:
1st Place Junior Student ' Friends Forever' by INdia Simpson
“I TOLD YOU WE SHOULDN'T HAVE OPENED THAT CHEST,” screamed Carcass as she and Avian ran away from a chest with jagged sharp teeth, a colossal purple tongue with gooey saliva and more eyes than they liked.
“I'm sorry, I thought it would have money in it,” replied Avian, a sorrowful look in her eyes.
“Hold up,” Carcass paused. “Why are we not flying?”
Carcass stretched her wings and Avian’s wings sprouted from her back. They lifted off and the mimic looked at them in shock.
“Ha, take that!” said Avian cheerfully.
Carcass looked upset.
“Why are you sad? We just escaped a mimic: not many people live to tell that story,” said Avian.
“Let's drop down,” said Carcass, their sore and musty feet touching the cooling mud.
“Avian remember what your mum said. She sent you down, because she trusted us not to get in trouble. At this rate, my dad will find us and we don't want that.”
“Okay I will try but I am not the only one causing havoc here. We do all of this together,” replied Avian.
“Let's get some sleep - it's getting dark, and you know that the townsfolk people get really creepy at night” said Carcass.
The next day the pair woke and heard a screeching noise. Rushing to town, they saw all the townspeople were in distress. Carcass and Avian walked away from town towards the cause of all the distress - a horrendous noise. It was a baby griffin in a cage, crying out for help. It squealed and screeched, when Carcass and Avian arrived, but together they slashed open the cage and the griffin walked out. It bowed to them and proceeded to fly away.
The pair walked back to town. They erected tents in the peaceful, calm town. They were rewarded greatly that night and the celebrations were fierce.
The next morning Carcass and Avian set off to the widely known town also known as Triboar. Day and night they walked, trudging through thick jungle, as rain poured. Finally arriving in Triboar, they were warmly greeted with a cup of cocoa and a place to spend the night. Their heroics preceded them.
First thing in the morning, someone barged in and reported that someone had stolen from the chief, taking his most prized item - his daughter.
Avian looked shocked and said, “We will find her, right Carcass?”
A half-asleep Carcass muttered an affirmation.
Thanking them deeply, the messenger left.
Heading away from the village, the heroes spotted a clump of trees, surrounding a circle of light.
“Suspicious. They must be over there,” said Avian.
“Oh really, I didn't notice,” replied Carcass sarcastically.
“I was just pointing it out,” replied Avian crossly.
“I am just messing with you, let's go.”
As the pair walked down the path, the two heroes heard murmurs. Looking up, they saw the bandits along with the chief’s daughter. Her hands were tied behind her back with rope and she had a unpleasant look on her face.
“I bet she feels horrible,” said Avian.
“I wonder why,” snorted Carcass.
“Stop doing that!” Avian grumbled, in an annoyed tone.
“Why don’t you make me,” Carcass bickered.
Carcass shoved Avian and she fell back with a thump. A branch under her snapped and alerted the bandits.
“Shit!” said Carcass. “RUN!”
Taking off, the pair hovered, feeling superior and invincible. But then, the bandits launched a volley of arrows towards the pair. One of the arrows hit Carcass just below her ribs. She let out a screech and plummeted towards the ground.
Avian yelled, “Carcass!” and dove after her, but just as Avian reached her, an arrow appeared from nowhere and pierced her in the wing.
They both plunged to the ground.
During this chaos, the chief’s daughter had been secretly fiddling with the keys and managed to furtively escape, running straight back to the protection of the village.
Carcass opened her sleepy, droopy eyes and looked around. She found herself in a cage surrounded by bandits. Worried, she could not see Avian anywhere. Looking beyond her cage, she eventually found her unconscious in a neighbouring cage.
Feeling a throbbing pain in her ribs, Carcass looked down and saw that it was oozing with blood. She felt faint and collapsed again.
When she woke up, Carcass heard Avian screaming. She was being stabbed multiple times. Carcass felt weak, but she still had to do something, so she let out a blood-curdling scream, which attracted the attention of the bandits.
“This is the one, boss wants. Should we take her to him?” asked one of the bandits.
“I think we should wait a bit longer,” said the second one and the two of them walked off.
“Who is your boss let me meet him now!” Carcass yelled.
The guards had no response. Carcass was getting frustrated, so she tried to use her magic to catch the guards’ attention, but the pain in her side made it hard to concentrate and she failed. Finally her anger took over and she punched a hole in the cage and escaped.
“Wow - they really should have made that punch-proof,” she said to herself, as she walked over to Avian’s cage and released her. She lay down next to her, placed her hands on her and slowly but surely healed her.
Avian got up and was surprised to see Carcass with blood flowing out of her side.
Carcass and Avian were about to leave, when they ran into someone who looked nearly identical to Carcass.
“D-dad,” said Caracss, her face turning pale.
“Leaving so soon honey? I thought you were going to stay longer,” replied Carcass’s dad.
“We are not going anywhere,” said Avian.
Carcass pulled Avian aside. “Avian, that’s my freaking dad you hear me, my dad!” she whispered.
Avian was in shock and shut her mouth instantly. When they looked back up, Carcass’s dad was gone. Suddenly Carcass and Avian noticed that they were cornered, surrounded by bandits. There was only one thing left for it - to fight their way out.
They were drastically outnumbered, so this was going to be difficult. Carcass jumped onto the first bandit and slit his neck, while Avian strangled another. A hellish battle ensued. Blood, guts, screams, death. After a while all the bandits were down and a tired but exhilarated pair of heroes sat down.
Unfortunately they saw someone approaching - it was Caracss’s dad.
“Come on why run? Come and fight me like a man, little dumpling!” said her father with a smirk. “You know we could have had fun. But I guess I will have to kill you now.” said her father with an even bigger grin on his face.
“If you want to hurt her, you have to get through me first,” said Avian bravely.
Grabbin Avian by the neck, he launched her across the grass, slamming her into a tree. Avian fell to the ground, lifeless.
“NO!” exclaimed Carcass.
“Wait you actually cared for her? That’s not what my Carcass would do,” said her dad in an odd tone.
“ trust me dad I have changed in twenty years” said Carcass. “And you weren’t there to see it!”
Carcass leaped forward and punched her dad in the ribs. He fell back but then jumped right up again and grabbed her neck, lifting her off the ground. He started flying and once they were high, Carcass started to lose her breath, because his grip was so hard. Dragging in oxygen, in desperation, she managed to take her gloves off, got her claws out and stabbed him in the stomach.
Her dad fell to the ground at a rapid speed. When he hit the ground, he was coughing up blood.
Carcass reached the ground and saw Avian standing over her dad with her spear in hand. He was no more.
The conquering twosome walked back to the village in exhaustion. When they arrived, they were greeted with a warm welcome. They were confused, but then they found out that the chief’s daughter had escaped and told everyone about the two heroes. Another celebration ensued. In the middle of it, Carcass stumbled into the chief’s tent, where she found him, stabbed to death with her father’s dagger. Would that man never die? What hideous problems would come from this? Would everyone think it was her who had stabbed the chief? Carcass was at a loss. Her father caused so much grief - never ending grief. Fortunately, she had a best friend who never let her down. Her family might suck, but her friend was forever. Forever by her side.
1st Place Senior Student - 'Cache-cache' (hide and Seek) by Jess Hudson
Un, deux, trois. Beneath the penumbra of nightfall, his silhouette stood, a silent sentinel on the menacing cobblestones of Madame Delpêche’s home for orphaned children. Shadows danced across the courtyard, cast by flickering lanterns swaying gently in evening’s breeze. Quatre, cinq, six. Around him, ivy-clad timber doors adorned with wrought iron latches and bolts stood guard, their mahogany hues seasoned and weathered by the passing of time. Madame Delpêche founded the orphanage in honour of her now deceased husband who devoted his life to caring for children. She was a stubborn old lady, but had a big heart and accepted abandoned children regardless of their race, age or background. Louis was left on her doorstep when he was just the ripe age of 2. No mother in sight, no father near, he was alone. All he came with was a note that read: Beware of the Devil. When she saw him, Madame Delpêche picked the small child up, chuckled to herself about a “foolish prank” and tossed the parchment into her fire. Now, seven years later, Louis still lives amongst 23 other children. 23 children yet not one friend. The children feared his presence, moreso his lack of presence. Eyes closed, he sensed movement all around him. Giggles and murmurs from the other children drifted past his ears; no, through his ears, as Louis continued to count to ten. Huit, neuf, dix.
“Prêt ou pas, j'arrive.”
Eyes still closed, his nostrils began to flare, extracting essence enveloped in the whispers of the wind. With each inhalation, he could feel the universe of fragrance unravelling its intricate knot of mystery. He stretched his senses into the darkness that surrounded him, through the big wooden doors… fingerprint oil… down the labyrinthine halls and passages that weaved throughout the building…muddy shoes…past the door to the kitchen… fresh bread… under the door of Madame Delpêche’s office…ink stained parchment… drifting in and out of rooms and corridors. He could feel the air growing thick with anticipation. Silence. Stillness. Nothing. Something. A tiny, hardly noticeable ephemeral something, a crumb, an atom of scent; no, even less than that: it was more the premonition of scent than the scent itself - and at the same time it was definitely a premonition of something he had smelled before. Milk, sweat… and something else - tomato soup from supper soaked into the subtle scent of musty cotton. The unmistakable scent of a child; more specifically - an orphan hiding nearby. A girl. The scent of blonde hair and the sweet scent of sun bleached skin. Freckles. And her eyes… the scent of a jungle, the smell before it rains, a deep dark green. The pungent stench was an aromatic trail luring him like a hound to its prey.
Eyelids sealed, he scurried across the courtyard, if the doors really were guards - they would not have noticed him. Guided by forces unseen, he could feel something stirring within the soul of his slender figure - a dormant yet potent power, poised for awakening. Louis felt his heart pounding, and he knew that it was not the exertion of movement, but rather his excited helplessness in the presence of this scent lingering in the air. This sensation was so new to him, yet it felt so right. It was the power of scent; so subtle yet so blatant, beckoning him to surpass the laws of comprehension as he wandered into the darkness.
He continued to walk down the labyrinthine halls and passages that weaved throughout the building…muddy shoes…past the door to the kitchen… fresh bread… under the door of Madame Delpêche’s office…ink stained parchment… but this time, he did not need to drift in and out of rooms and corridors. He knew exactly where he needed to go, where his prey lay oblivious to its hunter. Moving quieter than a shadow, his lack of presence was a whisper of discomfort that sent ripples of palpable fear through the souls of the other orphans like a collective shudder that radiated off the chilling stone walls.
During the day, the children would often whisper amongst themselves, sharing terrified glances everytime Louis’s silent demeanour entered the room. They sensed his inhumanness, his otherness, his connection to an existence beyond their understanding. Some claimed Loui’s had the ability to read minds. Others believed he was a spy summoned from the underworld. One child even claimed he had the ability to make things vanish with a single touch. But none spoke of his obsession with scents, how he could decode even the most intense fragrances with a single breath, seizing the scents for himself, capturing the essence and secrets within.
He was getting closer. He could sense it in his bones - in his nose, attuning to the array of scents and stenches that filled the walls of the orphanage. He paused and took a deep breath. Then two steps backwards before reaching out his hand into the abyss of darkness and grabbing onto a door handle he knew was there. A myriad of aromas emanated from the open door. Spices…berries… leather…fermenting grapes…and something else…hints of smoke. The wine cellar.
He backed up against the wall, closed his eyes and flared his nostrils. The scent was so exceptionally delicate and fine that he could not hold onto it; it continuously eluded his perception and was masked by the scents of the cellar. But then, suddenly it was there again, a mere shred, a magnificent whiff he had to hold on to. And then, with a sinister grin, he opened his eyes and slid a barrel to one side to reveal the once hidden child cowering behind it. “Vous m'avez trouvé” the child whispered “You found me”. But Louis remained silent, his curious gaze fixed upon the little girl. He had found her blindly, no, not blindly - he had found her in full vision. But with the vision of his nose - and that was incredibly incredibly terrifying. He could feel his ability getting stronger, more powerful, more tasteful. The note was right; people do need to beware of the Devil, for the devil is within him.
Open Poetry Written - 1st Place 'Aoraki' by Peter scott
Aoraki
As you climb
The summit
Toward silent sky
You encounter
The silence
Of God.
Open Poetry Recited - 1st Place 'Morning' by john kelk
Robert McLEan - The Judge of 2024 Dan Davin Literary awards
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Robert McLean was born in Christchurch in 1974 and educated at Mairehau High School and the University of Canterbury. He is the author of six collections of poetry: For the Coalition Dead (Kilmog Press, 2009), For Renato Curcio (Gumtree Press, 2010), Goat Songs (Kilmog Press, 2011), A Graveyard by the Sea (Cold Hub Press, 2012), and Figure & Ground (Cold Hub Press, 2018). His collected poems, Enduring Love, which was published in 2020, was chosen as one of The Listener’s annual top ten poetry books. His work has featured in a number of anthologies, including Essential New Zealand Poems (2014). McLean is also known as a literary critic and as the editor of such books as From Cairo to Cassino by Dan Davin and No Traveller Returns, the selected poems of Ruth France. He lives in Lyttelton, works for the New Zealand Government, and is a doctoral student at Massey University.
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