New Story Ideas...

Using the notes I made last night, here are my new story ideas:

• There's a hidden river deep within a forest where life thrives. Creatures from great to small gather here everyday to drink from it and celebrate their life. However, not too far away, there is an evil that lurks high above. Living off jealousy and hate, it strikes out against the forest creatures, corrupting the river and devastating everything around it.  There's little hope among the shrapnel and dust, save for a single seedling, barely visible above the grime.

• Dawn has broken on a new day and the creatures begin to stir. These creatures of nature, all elegance and beauty, are preparing for their fight to survive as they rise up against the evil force that's held them in fear for so long. They gather together and rush forward to their enemy's stronghold. Hidden deep within the castle(?) walls is the spiteful wizard. Too long has she been attacking those below her from afar and today she'll have to pay for it.  The creatures burst through and into the castle, running high and low until the find her. She's chased to the highest tower and before they can catch her she either: Falls into the blackness below or disappears instantly in a puff of smoke/fire.

• Opening on a beautiful courtyard with a great tree as its centrepiece. Many creatures live here, protected by the courtyard walls and seeking refuge within the solid wood of the tree. However, all is not well, as the evil outside the walls wants to destroy everything within them. Option 1) Unbeknownst to the creatures, the evil slowly creeps and crawls its way up the courtyard walls and steadily into the courtyard itself.  When the creatures realise they run to the tree to hide from the evil outside but the evil is strong and constricts the tree. The creatures are trapped. Option 2) The creatures feel a rumbling and crashing from outside the courtyard walls, it isn't until it's clearly reached the walls that they all retreat to the confines of the tree. They wait, huddled together as the evil brutally forces its way past the walls and despite their great strength, they tumble to the ground.  The evil rushes in towards the tree and finding no way in, it begins to smother it.  (I have no idea how these would end for sure, whether it would end with the evil reaching and constricting the tree or if there would be some big retaliation on the creatures side, I'm not sure).

Leftover or important story points:

• Flowing lines, twisting and dancing.

• Jagged rocks, things shooting up from the ground
• Spells and magic
• Violent weather.
• Rolling evil either liquid or rock. 
• Corruption of beauty, twisting it.
• Overwhelmed and surrounded, hopelessness or feeling trapped.
• Sudden and drastic actions.

I'm not sure if I'm getting myself stuck because I keep seeing it as a conflict between natural beauty and corrupted evil or if that's just going to help narrow down the story ideas. I'll add more stories later though I think, just to make sure I have the best options I can :)