What if instead of aliens' invading Earth, humans invaded their planet?

After World war III reduced Earth to ashes, the last remnants of humanity fled to the stars, carving a new empire among the clouds of an alien world- *Elysium*. But this new paradise was already home to a native civilisation, one now shackled under the terms of a brutal treaty. Every year, the aliens pay tribute. Every day, their skies are shadowed by the ships of their human overlords.

The people of Elysium live under the boot of the Dominion-an authoritarian human regime that controls every aspects of life. Children are bred, not born. Raised not to love or dream, but to dominate. The highest honour in this twisted society is to become an Avatar-a chosen warrior diplomat engineered to mimic their slaves and maintain human supremacy.

Evan, a gifted but rebellious young recruit, never wanted this life. He dreams of something the Dominion forbids: *freedom.* But when he's selected to complete in the Trails, a brutal gauntlet meant to forge the next generation of Avatars, he must fight not just to survive-but to understand the truth behind the Dominion, the aliens they oppress, and the role he was bred to play.

As Evan's beliefs are shattered and loyalties tested, he'll face an impossible choice: rise as a symbol of oppression, or burn it all down...and take himself down with it.

In a world built on ashes and lies, what does it mean to be human anymore?

Lily is a snow witch with powerful magic and a quick temper. Not the best combination. But she keeps to herself, and the few people she lets get close know she has a good heart, and that’s enough for her. She doesn’t need any drama in her life.​​​​​​​

Too bad she got me as an author.

Her next-door neighbor, Pipaluk, is a mad scientist. A good one. His wife, Emma, makes sure of that. She’s basically a saint, putting up with his random explosions while raising their two children and mothering Lily every chance she gets. But Santa’s elves are known for their quick wit and adaptability, after all, and she’s no different.

Then there’s Lily’s meddling family. They’re in the North Pole, and she’s not, and that’s how she likes it. Unfortunately, her cousin Crystal still calls to pester her, and her aunt Gemma still meddles in her life. They may or may not trigger Lily’s blizzard-inducing rage from time to time, resulting in out-of-season snowstorms, snowbound towns, and confused meteorologists worldwide.

Good thing Lily has a fairy godmother. Wendy is always around to clean up Lily’s messes without her goddaughter ever knowing. It’s a full-time job, especially since giving Lily what she needs instead of what she wants is even harder than erasing the snow witch’s existence from her human neighbors’ minds every time it snows.

NASA can’t figure out the strange weather phenomena. Boris needs an enchantress for his newest book. Santa needs Boris’ new book pronto before Mrs. Claus throws a fit.

Yeah, Lily definitely got the wrong author if she wants a drama-free life.

Elements of Chaos

1: Of Ice and Snow

2: Of Fire and Smoke

This book began as a writing experiment when I joined The Fabulous Spec-Fic Smack Downby @LayethTheSmackDown on Wattpad, which required me to write Speculative Fiction flash fiction, short stories, drabbles, and poetry based on prompts. That was a huge stretch for me, but I enjoyed it so much that I continued following the prompts after I was eliminated. And I’m keeping it going as long as I can by joining other prompt-based contests.

I decided from the beginning to use the same characters and world throughout the book, so while I write each chapter as a standalone short story, there is continuity between chapters, and an underlying storyline is emerging. My goal is to keep that going. It’s an odd balance I’m trying to strike here, especially since I typically write novels, not short stories.

Since this is a prompt-based book, it has quite a few quirks. The first is perspective. Lily, the protagonist in chapter one, is the entire book’s protagonist. However, she is not the central character in each chapter. I write her chapters in the first person and all other chapters in the third person.

The second quirk is chapter length. Many prompts provide word count restrictions; some do not. Currently, the shortest chapter is 100 words long, and the longest is 10,000 words long. I’ve split the longer chapters up into multiple parts of 1,500-2,500 words each.

The third quirk is genre. Speculative Fiction is typically a blend of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror, often with alternate universes and timelines, but really, anything goes. The original contest was a Speculative Fiction contest, and I am a scaredy cat, so this is mostly a blend of Fantasy and Science Fiction thus far. I’m sure that will change, because I go where the prompts take me. But with Speculative Fiction, it’s fine if I take a jaunt into Chicklit land for a chapter or two, so it’s all good.

And that brings us to the fourth quirk: me. I don’t plan this. I can’t plan it. The prompts can change everything. I’ve learned to leave certain details vague on purpose, because that gives me wiggle room to pivot if the next prompt takes things in a different direction. When I get a new prompt, I read it, let it simmer in the back of my mind for a week or so, reread and revisit again when I feel like it, and I get some basic idea of how I at least want to start the next chapter and maybe what I want to happen.

Then I sit down to write. And anything can happen.

I write most of these chapters in one sitting, and I often surprise myself. This has become my writing sandbox. It’s where I go to play and let loose every wild idea that comes into my mind, and I love it. I hope you enjoy it, too.

At the bottom of each chapter, I list the date of creation, word count, prompt information, and a link to the original prompt, if I have it. I sometimes come back to tweak things here or there, and I have a list of editing/feedback suggestions from others that I intend to work through eventually. When that happens, I may leave a note about it, but I’m not changing the date and word count. That’s the original stamp, and I want to keep it there for my records.

Word count varies with the application used. All the word counts here come from Google Docs.

Content/Trigger Warnings

None of my stories contain profanity or explicit sexual content. Themes and content include instances or mention of:

Credits

@AprilJester on Wattpad, for talking me into joining the original contest. @BookLover3062 on Wattpad, for stealing my title and making me come up with a new one. Graphics created by me in Canva.

A story in progress, written to remind everyone of hope. Absolutely clean and Christian. There is probably too many typos in here, because I haven't had much time to proofread it. Sorry! Let me know if you have any ideas on how to make this better!

Hold on just a little bit longer. The pain ain't going to last forever. It's only going to make you stronger. ~Mandisa in Stronger

One wreck. Two survivors. With only hope, they can make it through and become stronger.

Logan Lockman and Camri Barrent are just trying to live lives as normal teenagers when a wreck turns their families upside down. With all of their parents and siblings in comas, Logan and Camri understand that all they have left might just be each other. But when grudges and bullies start to interfere, will they be able to hang on to the little hope they have?

Jesus loves you! Hebrews 12:1-2.

As a teenager, I have fallen in love with the Phantom Stallion series. I really hope someday to make it into a 2 seasons/25 episodes tv show. I took the book and wrote a screenplay for it. If you have read the Phantom Stallion series, you will recognized that I change a lot from the book to the screenplay. This was to lower the budget and time needed to make the episodes. Also, thoughts had to be transformed into action and dialogue, which was quite an interesting challenge.

And I apologize if there are any typos. I haven't had much time to go through it.

Please let me know if you have any ideas on how to make it better!

-Mia Flame