Writing fiction and creating stories and characters is a skill and a taste for which we have a strong affinity in the UFP. The July Short Story competition only attracted two submissions this time, but both were quite entertaining and quenched the thirst some of us have to see these works come to life.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Our dear friend Lieutenant Commander Soral won this month's contest with Making Waves at the Lohlunat Festival. Soral has been a continual writer in the community, including his Captain's Logs in the forums and repeated short story submissions. So without further ado, enjoy his winning story!

MAKING WAVES AT THE LOHLUNAT FESTIVAL
WRITTEN BY SORAL

Gliding along the waves, the powerboard hummed softly beneath her feet. The wind blowing through her hair as she turns back to look at her companion. She sees that he is smiling, grinning ear to ear, as he glides his own board against the crystal blue waters. Giggling to herself, she swings her board across his path and looks back as he playfully yells, "Hey" as the turbulent waves cause him to frantically swing his board side to side to stay up.

"Are we having fun yet?!!!" she called back to him.

Regaining his balance, he laughed and said, "Almost!"

Powering his board up to full throttle, he flew faster across the water. Swinging up alongside and then past her. Hovering there for a moment, he turned back to look at the Risian beauty that he had only met this morning. Tall, with sun kissed skin and fiery red hair, she was a goddess to behold. Not to mention with a playful side that had him constantly at the end of one of her practical jokes, which he fully enjoyed. This time however, he finally had the opportunity to get one on her and he wasn't about to pass it up. Not when they were on his turf on the water.

He saw that she had settled in to him being in the lead and he saw his chance. He let off the throttle just enough to catch so that the kick of the wave he was creating would cause his board to ride up. At the crest of the wave, she came along side him. Throwing the throttle full ahead, he kicked the board up into the air, jumping it out of the water and flipped himself up and over her to land on the other side. The crash of the board hitting the water caused a wave to blast up and knock into her...causing her to lose her balance and go flying off into the icy waters.

Bringing his board around, he powered it down and glided in alongside of her. Laughingly, with his hand outstretched to help her up out of the water, he said, "Okay, NOW I'm having fun."

She looked up at him and laughed at the big grin on his face before saying, "Okay, mine was good, but yours was better. You certainly are getting the hang of the festivities around here. And here I thought you would be harder to break out of that shell."

Helping her onto his board, he chuckled saying, "Well, when you approached me this morning I wasn't exactly expecting this to be part of a festival honoring an orbiting moon."

Sharing in the humor, "Oh, this is just one part of the Lohlunat Festival. When we here at Risa say 'fun and relaxing' we really mean the part about 'fun,'" she said in reply.

As he moved them towards her board, which thankfully had powered itself down once she had fallen off, she turned to him, placed her hand upon his face and said, "And that doesn't just mean powerboarding..."

Leaning in, she placed her lips close to his. He had been waiting for this moment all day. As she drew nearer, he could almost feel her lips on his. Then she moved her mouth past his lips, up to his ear, and whispered, "but for the rest, you need to catch me first."

Pecking him on the cheek, she quickly jumping off his board and onto her own. Giving a quick kick to the throttle control, she sped her board away at top speed, giggled loud and heartily as she threw up a wave; drenching him from head to toe.

Laughing at her playfulness, he cleared his eyes to see which direction she'd gone. Spying her fiery red hair flowing in the wind a few leagues to the south, he powered up his own board, and began to give chase...

WRITTEN BY CAYMEN GREENER
EDITED BY TORINTH - STEPHEN.HALL@UFPLANETS.COM