Date: 07 Dec 2013 06:13 Title: Forged
Deeeeeelightful. It has a sort of epic feel to it. Your descriptions of the Forge are awesome, too, but the real winner of the day is, of course, the sehlat. And Syoseo having to downgrade his warrior's tale just a little because said sehlat was already domesticated. Even so. It's definitely a great little story.
Date: 28 Jun 2012 01:44 Title: Forged
Talk about pitting man against beast and the elements! The Vulcan Forge and a selhat! Liking the primal trip and the vibe of man versus come friend of wild animal. An unexpected but perfect fit for the challenge. You also did a great job of evoking the wilderness too. Well done.
Date: 24 Jun 2012 19:39 Title: Forged
Fantastically crafted piece. For a start my interest was piqued when seeing its setting. The Forge I once used in a story for survival training at the academy but I think you've done better justice here. The heat as palpable as Clive Cussler's "Sahara". Well described, likewise characters and descriptives. Thank Kobol for Sehlats.
Author's Response: glad you enjoyed it. And yeah, the palpable heat was definitely inspired a bit by my present locale...being deployed is definitely offering me a new definition for "hot." :P And sehlats are awesome. When I'm able to I need to watch the Animated episode with Spock's sehlat, but going off descriptions from that, ENT, and TOS, they are awesome animals. Unfortunetly, Star Trek Online makes them look MUCH more feline than ursine, but they are still pretty cool animals.
Date: 21 Jun 2012 22:51 Title: Forged
That was a fun read, and a most interesting take on the challenge. Hopefully it will make Syoseo think twice in the future about trying to relive his childhood, although I think it would be interesting to see if he and his 'friend' would recognize each other once again, or if now that his task was done (i.e. protecting Syoseo) he'd simply return home. Sehlats are very loyal creatures, after all. ;-)
Date: 18 Jun 2012 15:58 Title: Forged
A curious choice of a vacation for the captain!
But I know people like to challenge themselves. It's a bit reminiscent of not only Spock's wanderings (and coming of age ceremonies and rites) but even Travis Mayweather on Risa in Two Days and Two Nights (ENT).
It makes a lot of sense that the sehlat would have been domesticated at some point, as it was perhaps not reliant on the gift of food, but understood it. For a wild bear (for real) to be fed would be an occasion for violence (this is how campers are killed in Yellowstone National Park).
I'd like to see some more of this captain.
Neat take on the challenge. Whoever said the enemy had to be fully sentient?
Date: 18 Jun 2012 15:06 Title: Forged
Nice exploration of the Vulcan wilderness, it's rare for stories to explore Vulcan. Still think that captain was crazy going out there and it was never really explained why he chose to go to 'the Forge' for a vacation. If you can call surviving in the wilderness a vacation...
Author's Response: thank you! And yes, somewhat crazy indeed. This was my 5th iteration of a story for this challenge that centered on this captain and a few of his people's customs. The 4th went into a LOT more detail (and explained WHY he would pick an inhospitable location for a "vacation,") but it was a) going to be EXTREMELY long and b) really didn't fit the challenge theme except in the side-story of Syo and the beast. *cut* *paste* *type type type* and I managed to produce this. I know I will definitely revisit the original story at a later date.