~~

Ambrosia walked silently over to the pool. Its surface was entirely still, and it was like a liquid mirror, reflecting every moment of what it can see. The ragged dragon stopped. Somehow, it was too easy. On the other side of the pool there was an opening in the rock, big enough for Ambrosia to walk though it with ease. The mass of disintegrating petals stepped forward tentatively, cautious should anything go wrong. Ambrosia kept her head up and alert. She was just about to step through the opening when she heard a very familiar and beloved voice.

Ambrosia hurry!

Mother Aglaea! But... How?

Before we are all dead!

The dragon lept to the pool, only to see her own face. A terrifying sight, made of petals mottled burgundy and black, crumbling slowly into dust. Then, the petals began to crumble faster, exposing the wooden skull underneath. Ambrosia reared in horror, but she could not tear her eyes from the spectacle. When the skull fell out of veiw, it was replaced by Mother Aglaea and Ambrosia's Sisters back at the convent. They were covered in ugly black blotches. The dragon roared and fought back the bewitching spell that the pool had over her. She wanted to plunge into the pool and hold the good Mother and her Sisters tightly while she still could, but she knew that she could not touch the water in the pool for fear of who-knows-what. In a burst of will, Ambrosia turned and ran for the tunnel in the rock. The pool began to bubble. Ambrosia pumped her wings to gain momentum. She plunged into the opening just as tendrils of reflective fluid shot from the pool and covered the entrance. There was nowhere to go except forward. The dragon took a deep breath. It was pitch black in the tunnel. She took another deep breath. When she let it out, petals, twirling and glowing, danced in her mouth. A soft light surrounded her. She smiled grimly and stepped forward. The ground was covered in stone plates, each with a word on them. Ambrosia stepped on one that said 'Seed'. Before she shifted her bulk forward, a jet of flame shot from one side of the tunnel to the other. Ambrosia's eyes widened. Before she could react, all went white again.

A young woman sat on a cushion with a booklet. She murmured the same words over and over again.

One will be changed

But not estranged

Rearing, beautiful

As the most dutiful.

Ambrosia shook her head again. She really disliked when that happened, she decided. But, once again, it helped her. She was about to step on the plate labeled 'One' when the petals on her foot all fell away as black dust. The dragon's grey eyes widened and she stepped quickly from stone to stone. Once, she stepped halfway on the plate labeled 'Dragon' instead of 'Rearing', and the fire burned all the way through the petals on the front of her neck. When she finally made it to 'dutiful', two huge doors swung open and light shone through the new opening. She stepped into the welcoming glow, shutting her own glowing 'fire' inside her mouth. Ambrosia was back into open air, as there was no ceiling. On a thin, silver alter laid a silver seed. Ambrosia rushed forward and grabbed it. Immediately as her claws closed around the seed a covering began to slide over the lack of ceiling. Ambrosia roared in fear and flaped her wings vigorously. She was amazed to find that she could still fly after all of the petals she had lost on her wings. Just before the ceiling closed, the dragon slipped through the thin sliver of open space left. Black dust fell from her legs and torso. She would have to fly FAST.

~~

A wooden dragon skeleton with just a few black petals clinging to the white wood landed jarringly on the marble floor, next to a pit of black soil. Mother Aglaea, alsmost completely pitch black, rushed weakly forward but collapsed before she could get to the dragon's frame. Ambrosia turned to bury the seed in the dark earth but right as she was about to drop it into the dirt the last black petals crumbled and fell to the ground as dust. Immediately, Ambrosia's frame froze. Then, it fell to the floor, just a couple of lifeless wooden dragon bones. The Watchers of the Petals were dead.

~~

The seed just sat there. It could do nothing. It was on the soil though. Maybe if it just tried...

~~

Suddenly, a tiny tendril broke from the seed and slowly thrust its way into the ground. The seed dug into the rich, black dirt. Then, a tiny sapling energed. It unfolded its first two petals for the very first time. And then it stayed there. It couldn't do anything more. The air in the room turned cold. The dragon bones did not move. The pile of black dust, in the perfect form of a Mother of the Watchers of the Petals, did not stir.

~~

After about a minute, the tiny sapling behan to wave its two petals back and forth. Little did anybody know it, but this disturbance in the air was stirring a hidden magic. All of the sudden, the room began to warm, and the wooden dragon frame began to cover itself with burgundy petals. The dust pile began to turn back into flesh and blood and bone. But the little Tree was not content. It kept stirring the magic. The purgundy petals began to fall from the dragon without turning black and disintegrating into dust, and the Mother sat up and adjusted her glasses. Only now did the new Tree stop moving. The petals continued to fall from the dragon, and Mother Aglaea rushed to the burgundy dragon's side. She began to weep.

"Oh Ambrosia! You have saved us, but you were too late to save yourself!" She cried. The burgundy petals kept falling. Eventually, nothing was left of the dragon except a ring of brownish-purplish petals laying around a young, brown-haired, grey-eyed woman. Since the Mother wasn't looking, the little sapling flicked a petal. The Mother gave a start.

"What! Is it... Yes! Yes! She is breathing! She is not dead, she is asleep!" And then she kept weeping, but not of grief, but of happiness. Ambrosia stirred, sat up, and rubbed her eyes. When she saw the Mother sitting next to her, she smiled.

"Mother Aglaea! You're all right!" The Mother grasped Sister Ambrosia's hands.

"Yes, dear. And so are you!" More tears of joy ran down the Mothers weathered cheeks, and Ambrosia began to cry as well. Then, they fell into each other's arms, sobbing.

~~

TA-DAAAAAH nope you enjoyed it! I stayed up 'till 2 in the morning to write these last two so... *Faints from exhaustion* 

I'm calling an official end to the first round of these competitions! Congratulations to all of you for writing some amazing stories! I was truly impressed.

A reminder that the winner of this competition is the judge of the next one. If the winner does not feel like they can judge, the duty will be passed down to the runner up!

Competition #1 Results: 

Before I give out the results, I want to say that all of you did an amazing job. I was moved by a few of the stories and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. On the rubric, the difference between first and last place was only nine points! 

In first place, we have Claaws. You really got me with that emotional storyline and beautiful writing. Congratulations! 81/100

I couldn't chose between these two stories, so we had a tie for second place between Insomniatic and Soren. Congrats! 80/100

I wanted to point out as a general note that a couple stories would've done well as a prologue or first chapter, but they didn't wrap themselves up quite as neatly as I tend to like a short story to do. However, all of the stories were well thought out and fascinating. Again, thank you and congrats! 

I have notes, as promised, on the first and second place submissions that I will post later. If anyone else would like notes on their story, just let me know!

So you only do the first two places? And I would like your notes on mine, please!

Ohmygoodness thank you so much! Yay!

Congrats also to Claaws and Insomniatic. :)

*gasps* I won! OMK!

Congrats, Clawws, Insomniac (did I spell that right?), and Soren!

Ok, so I'm guessing that mine was the only that wasn't quite wrapped up. xD I get you LB, honestly, I do. I was too lazy to write an ending and I didn't want them to just come back to the future and be like, What the what was that? I'm guessing a lot of people will want notes, so don't do a rant for me. Honestly, just a sentance or too on critique or whatever would be swell.

So Clawws, what's the new prompt? Also, hello there. I see you've returned for actually a while now. Sorry I haven't popped in on your Rp to say hello sooner.