Ceramic DM Winter 07 (Final Judgment Posted)
carpedavid
First Post
Ceramic DM, Winter 2007: Final Round
carpedavid vs. Rodrigo Istalindir
The Short Story of Esmeralda Santiago
Esmeralda Santiago’s only friend was a girl named Luna who lived on the moon. Luna and Esmeralda had been classmates since kindergarten and had spent every day after school running through the woods behind Esmeralda’s house – skinning their knees on fallen, moss-covered trees, forging alliances with the fairies who lived amongst the ferns, and establishing an uneasy truce with the kingdom of squirrels who inhabited the tall oaks and maples.
“My mom is a fairy queen,” Esmeralda had told Luna as they lay in the shade of the old oak tree that stood next to the lily pond, “that’s why she’s always away – she has a kingdom to run.”
“That must be cool to have a fairy queen for a mom.” Luna said as she stared up at the great white galleons that floated on the endless blue sea.
“Mostly it is. I get lots of cool stuff that she brings back from all the places that she has to go rule over.”
“That’s cool.” Her hand darted up toward a cloud that drifted by overhead, “Oh, look, a windmill.”
“Oh, and there’s a rhinoceros.”
“Does that look like a bear?”
“A really fat one, maybe,” Esmeralda puffed out her cheeks, and then giggled.
“Fat like Fat Bobby!”
“No way. He’s way fatter.” Esmeralda held out her hands as wide as they would go. “He’s like twice the size of a really fat bear.”
“Hey! If your mom’s a fairy queen, doesn’t that mean you’re a princess?”
“Oh! Yeah, it totally does!”
“Does that mean you’re going to have to marry a prince?”
“Ew, no! Gross!”
“You’re going to have to marry a prince as fat as Fat Bobby!”
“Eew! No! That’s totally gross!”
“And you would have really fat kids!” Luna puffed out her cheeks this time.
“Yuck! Stop!”
“And maybe you’d even have a really fat dragon!”
Esmeralda laughed, “I’d take a really fat dragon. That’d be totally cool. Then I could curl up on him and take a nap.”
“Da?” Luna looked over at her friend; she was the only one besides Esmeralda’s mother who could get away with calling her Da.
“Yeah?”
“Let’s go feed the squirrels acorns!”
***
One day, Esmeralda’s mother brought home a pleasantly plump dragon. Esmeralda squealed and tossed her arms around its neck. It grunted, sighed, and laid its large, scaly head on the top of hers.
“Mom, this is so cool!” She bounced up and down as she talked. One hand gestured at her mother while the other scratched her new pet behind the ears. “I’ve always wanted a dragon!”
“Well, now you have one. What are you going to name him?”
“Hmm,” Esmeralda put her hand to her chin, “Let me think.” She looked into her dragon’s big, brown eyes and his tail started wagging vigorously - sending the contents of the coffee table he was sitting next to clattering onto the floor. “I think I’ll call him Spike.”
“Ok. Spike it is.”
Spike the dragon lived outside in the backyard in a very large dragon-house and spent most of his days nosing around the lily pond, looking for goblins to eat.
***
During the summer between fourth and fifth grade, Luna fell ill. She had always been prone to sickness, but this time she wasn’t getting better. At first, she simply wasn’t able to run around in the woods, but as the weeks wore on, she wasn’t able to go out at all.
Esmeralda spent most of her afternoons sitting at the edge of the lily pond watching Spike. Every Tuesday, though, she traveled to the moon to visit her friend. After school, she would wait by the pond for her transportation. She could hear it from a mile away, rumbling through the sky toward her. The great mechanical steed coughed and sputtered as it flew through the air toward her. Smoke poured out of a pipe on the rear of the contraption, and every few feet it would emit a loud bang. [Image 5]
It resembled an old truck: red and rusted and clunky; but where it should have had side panels, it had wings that flapped up and down with a loud creak. When it landed, it blinked one of its headlights and wiggled its bumper at her.
Behind her she could hear Spike growl, so she jumped in quickly, and the truck took off, zooming into the sky. The ground receded into the distance beneath her, the house and lily pond and woods growing smaller and smaller. They soared up through the clouds, and the ocean appeared on the horizon. Then, as they left the atmosphere, the world as a whole became visible.
Esmeralda settled in as they sailed through the ether toward the moon, which glowed brightly in the distance.
***
Luna curled up on the crescent moon. [Image 3] The stars glowed in the night sky, the Milky Way hung directly above her, and the earth shined in the distance. Esmeralda bounced across the Sea of Tranquility toward her, pirouetting as she left the surface with each step.
“Hi Da,” Luna said sleepily as she turned toward her friend.
Esmeralda disappeared into a crater, and then reappeared a second later. “Hi Luna! How are you doing today?”
“Worn out, like usual.”
Esmeralda stopped bounding around the surface of the moon and sat down on the bed next to her friend. “I’m sorry.”
Luna offered a wan smile, “I know.”
“Maybe next time, I can bring feyberry juice. That’ll make you feel better.”
Luna was quiet. She stared at the stars overhead.
“Feyberry juice always makes you feel better, Luna. It’s got all sorts of fairy magic in it.”
Luna pale face turned red. “There are no fairies, Da!” She began to sputter, “You can’t turn into a robot, and Spike’s a dog, not a dragon, and the alchemist doesn’t give me potions, the doctor gives me medicine, and I don’t live on the moon, and the stars are just stickers.”
“I…I…” Esmeralda stammered.
“There are no fairies! There are no fairies! There are no fairies!” Luna yelled as she pounded the bed with her fists. “They don’t have magic and they can’t make me better.” She began to cry and looked away.
Esmeralda stared in silence for a moment, and then leaned over and then hugged her friend. “I’m sorry.”
Luna cried for a few minutes, was quiet for a few more, and then finally whispered, “My Mom says that I’ll be going to Heaven soon.”
“Is it going to hurt?”
“I don’t think it could hurt any more than it already does.”
“I’m going to miss you.”
“I’m going to miss you, too.” Luna returned Esmeralda’s embrace, and then collapsed back on the bed. Esmeralda lay down next to her, and they stayed that way, staring at the field of stars above them, for over an hour. Finally, Luna turned to her, “I’m tired Da, I need to go to sleep.”
Esmeralda nodded, pulled the covers up over her only friend in the entire world, walked over to the door, and blew her a kiss.
***
A month earlier, Esmeralda sat in a chair as the alchemist peered into his cauldron. Green smoke bellowed forth, creeping into the corners of the chamber and curling around her feet. [Image 1] Luna and her mother sat next to her, as the alchemist chanted arcane phrases.
He stared at a scroll for a few minutes, then pulled out a wand and began gesturing at Luna. The wand created eddies in the smoke, and little waves of magical energy leapt off the tip each time he came near her.
Esmeralda looked around at the alchemical equipment: the decanters and vials, the mortar and pestles, the braziers and cauldrons. She looked at the cabinets full of herbs and essences and the racks of bones and talismans. I can do this, she thought.
After several minutes of pouring over eldritch tomes and astrological charts, the alchemist scratched his chin and then pulled a glass vial out of a cabinet. He poured the contents of the cauldron into the vial, scribbled instructions on a piece of parchment, and ushered them out of his laboratory.
“I don’t want to take any more of these,” Luna told her mother.
“I know, darling,” her mother said, “But you need them to get better.”
Luna frowned, but nodded her head.
One day, I’m going to make potions for people, Esmeralda thought to herself. I bet the fairies will teach me how.
***
By six, Esmeralda was a full head taller than all of the boys in her class, and had the vocabulary of a spelling bee champion. One day, while walking through the jungle, Esmeralda saw a group of wild monkeys harassing a small, pale girl. They screeched and howled as they jumped around her, and several of them had picked up sticks.
The pale girl cowered on the ground, and Esmeralda knew she had to act. Summoning all of her power, she transformed: her arms turned into pistons, her hands into claws, her legs into tank treads, and her body spouted armored plates. Now a heavily-armed fighting machine, she zoomed into the fray.
“You primates!” she yelled as her pneumatic-powered arms pummeled the monkeys. “Leave her alone!” [Image 4]
One of the monkeys squealed as its nose was crushed. “Owie, owie, owie!” it screamed as it ran off into the trees. Another monkey threw a stick at Esmeralda, which she easily ducked. She turned, picked it up, and threw it back at the monkey’s head. It squealed in pain, yelled, “No fair!” and then ran off as well. The rest of the monkeys stopped and began to back away.
“Run, you simians!” Esmeralda bellowed as she advanced toward them. She only needed to roll a few feet before they broke and scampered off. As she watched them disappear back into the jungle, Esmeralda transformed back into a six-year old girl.
“Yes,” she whispered quietly, “Thank you.”
“No problem. When I transform into a robot, I can defeat pretty much anything, even talking monkeys.”
“Really? That’s so cool,” the pale girl said as she stood up and brushed the dust off of herself.
“Yeah. Hey, what’s your name?”
“Luna.”
“Mine’s Esmeralda.”
“Hi Esmeralda, how did you learn how to change into a robot?”
***
The next Tuesday, the great mechanical beast never arrived to take Esmeralda to the moon. She waited by the lily pond until the sun completed its circuit of the sky, and then went in side. After dinner, she did her homework, fed her dragon, and then put on her pajamas. The crickets chirped outside her window, and the light of the moon cast long shadows across her bed.
Sometime later, the sound of a phone rang in the night, and Esmeralda turned over and buried her head in the pillow. Then, she heard the sound of her mother climbing the stairs, and finally, the sound of her door creaking open.
“Da?”
“Yeah?” she said sleepily.
“Luna’s mom just called.”
Esmeralda sat bolt upright. “What happened?”
“Oh, Da. I’m so sorry.”
“No,” she said with a plaintive look.
“Da,” her mother walked over to the bed and sat down beside her.
“No!” Esmeralda threw off her covers and jumped out of bed. “No! No! No!”
“Da.”
“No!” She turned and ran from her room, bounding down the stairs and throwing open the front door. She could hear her mother calling from behind her as she ran out into the night. She headed toward the lily pond and the old oak tree that overlooked it.
Esmeralda had never felt so cold. She collapsed with her back against the tree, knees clutched tightly to her chest. Ice water ran through her veins, and her bones felt frozen through. A hollow emptiness churned within her belly – eating away slowly from within. She thought about crying, thought about yelling out at the top of her lungs, but instead sat quietly, trying to fold in on herself and disappear.
Spike peeked his head out of his dragon house and then wandered over to Esmeralda. He nuzzled her with his forehead, and, when she didn’t respond, he curled up around her: his head lying near the lily pond while his tail wrapped around the tree. [Image 2]
After a few hours, Esmeralda crawled over and lay down with her head on his belly, and the rhythm of his breathing finally lulled her to sleep.
***
Esmeralda woke in a strange land full of stone walls and steel-grey skies. Spike was gone, the lily pond was gone, and her house with her fairy-queen mother was gone. Bats flittered overhead, and Esmeralda felt the cold, damp air soak into her skin.
“Hello?” she called. Nobody answered, and the only sound was the whistling of the wind. “Is anybody there?”
She wandered through the desolate labyrinth for what felt like days. Occasionally, she would see a stray rock roll across the landscape of its own volition, and would hear a rhythmic creaking sound coming from the other side of the wall.
The light never changed: everything was washed out, nearly grey, no matter how far she walked. Her feet began to tire, so she stopped and sat. Nothing changed: the only constant was the emptiness.
She couldn’t tell how long she sat, but her feet eventually stopped hurting, so she walked again. “Hello?” she called again. This time, she heard the creaking, and it sounded close. She picked up her pace and rounded the corners of the labyrinth one after another.
Finally, she rounded a corner, and found the source of the creaking: not twenty feet in front of her, a specter, dressed in a white shroud, sat on a wooden bench. It had one hand on a wooden cradle and was gently rocking it back and forth. [Image 6] The specter groaned, and Esmeralda shuddered. This isn’t Heaven, she thought to herself.
From where she stood, she couldn’t see into the cradle. She didn’t want to see into the cradle – she was afraid of what she would see. “Who are you?”
No answer. The cradle simply continued to rock.
“Why am I here?”
The specter turned its head slightly, and Esmeralda notices a phrase carved into the wall behind it: “In hoc signo vinces.” She mouthed the words as she read them, “With this sign, be victorious.”
The cradle stopped rocking, and the specter turned to look at her. She saw a hollow shell filled with infinite, empty blackness, and felt a cold hand grip her soul.
“No,” she said simply. “No.”
The specter didn’t move, but she felt the cold recede.
“I won’t let you take any more.”
The specter looked away from her.
“I’ll use potions and medicine and wands and needles and fairy magic and science, and I won’t let you take any more.”
The specter began to fold in on itself – the white shroud consumed by the infinite black. A moment later, it was gone. She blinked, and the cradle disappeared. Then she blinked again, and she realized she was lying on her back next to the lily pond, while her pet dragon licked her face.
Esmeralda wiped her eyes and looked out at the stars far above, at the Milky Way that cut a brilliant path across the sky, and at the moon, where her only friend Luna used to live.
carpedavid vs. Rodrigo Istalindir
The Short Story of Esmeralda Santiago
Esmeralda Santiago’s only friend was a girl named Luna who lived on the moon. Luna and Esmeralda had been classmates since kindergarten and had spent every day after school running through the woods behind Esmeralda’s house – skinning their knees on fallen, moss-covered trees, forging alliances with the fairies who lived amongst the ferns, and establishing an uneasy truce with the kingdom of squirrels who inhabited the tall oaks and maples.
“My mom is a fairy queen,” Esmeralda had told Luna as they lay in the shade of the old oak tree that stood next to the lily pond, “that’s why she’s always away – she has a kingdom to run.”
“That must be cool to have a fairy queen for a mom.” Luna said as she stared up at the great white galleons that floated on the endless blue sea.
“Mostly it is. I get lots of cool stuff that she brings back from all the places that she has to go rule over.”
“That’s cool.” Her hand darted up toward a cloud that drifted by overhead, “Oh, look, a windmill.”
“Oh, and there’s a rhinoceros.”
“Does that look like a bear?”
“A really fat one, maybe,” Esmeralda puffed out her cheeks, and then giggled.
“Fat like Fat Bobby!”
“No way. He’s way fatter.” Esmeralda held out her hands as wide as they would go. “He’s like twice the size of a really fat bear.”
“Hey! If your mom’s a fairy queen, doesn’t that mean you’re a princess?”
“Oh! Yeah, it totally does!”
“Does that mean you’re going to have to marry a prince?”
“Ew, no! Gross!”
“You’re going to have to marry a prince as fat as Fat Bobby!”
“Eew! No! That’s totally gross!”
“And you would have really fat kids!” Luna puffed out her cheeks this time.
“Yuck! Stop!”
“And maybe you’d even have a really fat dragon!”
Esmeralda laughed, “I’d take a really fat dragon. That’d be totally cool. Then I could curl up on him and take a nap.”
“Da?” Luna looked over at her friend; she was the only one besides Esmeralda’s mother who could get away with calling her Da.
“Yeah?”
“Let’s go feed the squirrels acorns!”
***
One day, Esmeralda’s mother brought home a pleasantly plump dragon. Esmeralda squealed and tossed her arms around its neck. It grunted, sighed, and laid its large, scaly head on the top of hers.
“Mom, this is so cool!” She bounced up and down as she talked. One hand gestured at her mother while the other scratched her new pet behind the ears. “I’ve always wanted a dragon!”
“Well, now you have one. What are you going to name him?”
“Hmm,” Esmeralda put her hand to her chin, “Let me think.” She looked into her dragon’s big, brown eyes and his tail started wagging vigorously - sending the contents of the coffee table he was sitting next to clattering onto the floor. “I think I’ll call him Spike.”
“Ok. Spike it is.”
Spike the dragon lived outside in the backyard in a very large dragon-house and spent most of his days nosing around the lily pond, looking for goblins to eat.
***
During the summer between fourth and fifth grade, Luna fell ill. She had always been prone to sickness, but this time she wasn’t getting better. At first, she simply wasn’t able to run around in the woods, but as the weeks wore on, she wasn’t able to go out at all.
Esmeralda spent most of her afternoons sitting at the edge of the lily pond watching Spike. Every Tuesday, though, she traveled to the moon to visit her friend. After school, she would wait by the pond for her transportation. She could hear it from a mile away, rumbling through the sky toward her. The great mechanical steed coughed and sputtered as it flew through the air toward her. Smoke poured out of a pipe on the rear of the contraption, and every few feet it would emit a loud bang. [Image 5]
It resembled an old truck: red and rusted and clunky; but where it should have had side panels, it had wings that flapped up and down with a loud creak. When it landed, it blinked one of its headlights and wiggled its bumper at her.
Behind her she could hear Spike growl, so she jumped in quickly, and the truck took off, zooming into the sky. The ground receded into the distance beneath her, the house and lily pond and woods growing smaller and smaller. They soared up through the clouds, and the ocean appeared on the horizon. Then, as they left the atmosphere, the world as a whole became visible.
Esmeralda settled in as they sailed through the ether toward the moon, which glowed brightly in the distance.
***
Luna curled up on the crescent moon. [Image 3] The stars glowed in the night sky, the Milky Way hung directly above her, and the earth shined in the distance. Esmeralda bounced across the Sea of Tranquility toward her, pirouetting as she left the surface with each step.
“Hi Da,” Luna said sleepily as she turned toward her friend.
Esmeralda disappeared into a crater, and then reappeared a second later. “Hi Luna! How are you doing today?”
“Worn out, like usual.”
Esmeralda stopped bounding around the surface of the moon and sat down on the bed next to her friend. “I’m sorry.”
Luna offered a wan smile, “I know.”
“Maybe next time, I can bring feyberry juice. That’ll make you feel better.”
Luna was quiet. She stared at the stars overhead.
“Feyberry juice always makes you feel better, Luna. It’s got all sorts of fairy magic in it.”
Luna pale face turned red. “There are no fairies, Da!” She began to sputter, “You can’t turn into a robot, and Spike’s a dog, not a dragon, and the alchemist doesn’t give me potions, the doctor gives me medicine, and I don’t live on the moon, and the stars are just stickers.”
“I…I…” Esmeralda stammered.
“There are no fairies! There are no fairies! There are no fairies!” Luna yelled as she pounded the bed with her fists. “They don’t have magic and they can’t make me better.” She began to cry and looked away.
Esmeralda stared in silence for a moment, and then leaned over and then hugged her friend. “I’m sorry.”
Luna cried for a few minutes, was quiet for a few more, and then finally whispered, “My Mom says that I’ll be going to Heaven soon.”
“Is it going to hurt?”
“I don’t think it could hurt any more than it already does.”
“I’m going to miss you.”
“I’m going to miss you, too.” Luna returned Esmeralda’s embrace, and then collapsed back on the bed. Esmeralda lay down next to her, and they stayed that way, staring at the field of stars above them, for over an hour. Finally, Luna turned to her, “I’m tired Da, I need to go to sleep.”
Esmeralda nodded, pulled the covers up over her only friend in the entire world, walked over to the door, and blew her a kiss.
***
A month earlier, Esmeralda sat in a chair as the alchemist peered into his cauldron. Green smoke bellowed forth, creeping into the corners of the chamber and curling around her feet. [Image 1] Luna and her mother sat next to her, as the alchemist chanted arcane phrases.
He stared at a scroll for a few minutes, then pulled out a wand and began gesturing at Luna. The wand created eddies in the smoke, and little waves of magical energy leapt off the tip each time he came near her.
Esmeralda looked around at the alchemical equipment: the decanters and vials, the mortar and pestles, the braziers and cauldrons. She looked at the cabinets full of herbs and essences and the racks of bones and talismans. I can do this, she thought.
After several minutes of pouring over eldritch tomes and astrological charts, the alchemist scratched his chin and then pulled a glass vial out of a cabinet. He poured the contents of the cauldron into the vial, scribbled instructions on a piece of parchment, and ushered them out of his laboratory.
“I don’t want to take any more of these,” Luna told her mother.
“I know, darling,” her mother said, “But you need them to get better.”
Luna frowned, but nodded her head.
One day, I’m going to make potions for people, Esmeralda thought to herself. I bet the fairies will teach me how.
***
By six, Esmeralda was a full head taller than all of the boys in her class, and had the vocabulary of a spelling bee champion. One day, while walking through the jungle, Esmeralda saw a group of wild monkeys harassing a small, pale girl. They screeched and howled as they jumped around her, and several of them had picked up sticks.
The pale girl cowered on the ground, and Esmeralda knew she had to act. Summoning all of her power, she transformed: her arms turned into pistons, her hands into claws, her legs into tank treads, and her body spouted armored plates. Now a heavily-armed fighting machine, she zoomed into the fray.
“You primates!” she yelled as her pneumatic-powered arms pummeled the monkeys. “Leave her alone!” [Image 4]
One of the monkeys squealed as its nose was crushed. “Owie, owie, owie!” it screamed as it ran off into the trees. Another monkey threw a stick at Esmeralda, which she easily ducked. She turned, picked it up, and threw it back at the monkey’s head. It squealed in pain, yelled, “No fair!” and then ran off as well. The rest of the monkeys stopped and began to back away.
“Run, you simians!” Esmeralda bellowed as she advanced toward them. She only needed to roll a few feet before they broke and scampered off. As she watched them disappear back into the jungle, Esmeralda transformed back into a six-year old girl.
“Yes,” she whispered quietly, “Thank you.”
“No problem. When I transform into a robot, I can defeat pretty much anything, even talking monkeys.”
“Really? That’s so cool,” the pale girl said as she stood up and brushed the dust off of herself.
“Yeah. Hey, what’s your name?”
“Luna.”
“Mine’s Esmeralda.”
“Hi Esmeralda, how did you learn how to change into a robot?”
***
The next Tuesday, the great mechanical beast never arrived to take Esmeralda to the moon. She waited by the lily pond until the sun completed its circuit of the sky, and then went in side. After dinner, she did her homework, fed her dragon, and then put on her pajamas. The crickets chirped outside her window, and the light of the moon cast long shadows across her bed.
Sometime later, the sound of a phone rang in the night, and Esmeralda turned over and buried her head in the pillow. Then, she heard the sound of her mother climbing the stairs, and finally, the sound of her door creaking open.
“Da?”
“Yeah?” she said sleepily.
“Luna’s mom just called.”
Esmeralda sat bolt upright. “What happened?”
“Oh, Da. I’m so sorry.”
“No,” she said with a plaintive look.
“Da,” her mother walked over to the bed and sat down beside her.
“No!” Esmeralda threw off her covers and jumped out of bed. “No! No! No!”
“Da.”
“No!” She turned and ran from her room, bounding down the stairs and throwing open the front door. She could hear her mother calling from behind her as she ran out into the night. She headed toward the lily pond and the old oak tree that overlooked it.
Esmeralda had never felt so cold. She collapsed with her back against the tree, knees clutched tightly to her chest. Ice water ran through her veins, and her bones felt frozen through. A hollow emptiness churned within her belly – eating away slowly from within. She thought about crying, thought about yelling out at the top of her lungs, but instead sat quietly, trying to fold in on herself and disappear.
Spike peeked his head out of his dragon house and then wandered over to Esmeralda. He nuzzled her with his forehead, and, when she didn’t respond, he curled up around her: his head lying near the lily pond while his tail wrapped around the tree. [Image 2]
After a few hours, Esmeralda crawled over and lay down with her head on his belly, and the rhythm of his breathing finally lulled her to sleep.
***
Esmeralda woke in a strange land full of stone walls and steel-grey skies. Spike was gone, the lily pond was gone, and her house with her fairy-queen mother was gone. Bats flittered overhead, and Esmeralda felt the cold, damp air soak into her skin.
“Hello?” she called. Nobody answered, and the only sound was the whistling of the wind. “Is anybody there?”
She wandered through the desolate labyrinth for what felt like days. Occasionally, she would see a stray rock roll across the landscape of its own volition, and would hear a rhythmic creaking sound coming from the other side of the wall.
The light never changed: everything was washed out, nearly grey, no matter how far she walked. Her feet began to tire, so she stopped and sat. Nothing changed: the only constant was the emptiness.
She couldn’t tell how long she sat, but her feet eventually stopped hurting, so she walked again. “Hello?” she called again. This time, she heard the creaking, and it sounded close. She picked up her pace and rounded the corners of the labyrinth one after another.
Finally, she rounded a corner, and found the source of the creaking: not twenty feet in front of her, a specter, dressed in a white shroud, sat on a wooden bench. It had one hand on a wooden cradle and was gently rocking it back and forth. [Image 6] The specter groaned, and Esmeralda shuddered. This isn’t Heaven, she thought to herself.
From where she stood, she couldn’t see into the cradle. She didn’t want to see into the cradle – she was afraid of what she would see. “Who are you?”
No answer. The cradle simply continued to rock.
“Why am I here?”
The specter turned its head slightly, and Esmeralda notices a phrase carved into the wall behind it: “In hoc signo vinces.” She mouthed the words as she read them, “With this sign, be victorious.”
The cradle stopped rocking, and the specter turned to look at her. She saw a hollow shell filled with infinite, empty blackness, and felt a cold hand grip her soul.
“No,” she said simply. “No.”
The specter didn’t move, but she felt the cold recede.
“I won’t let you take any more.”
The specter looked away from her.
“I’ll use potions and medicine and wands and needles and fairy magic and science, and I won’t let you take any more.”
The specter began to fold in on itself – the white shroud consumed by the infinite black. A moment later, it was gone. She blinked, and the cradle disappeared. Then she blinked again, and she realized she was lying on her back next to the lily pond, while her pet dragon licked her face.
Esmeralda wiped her eyes and looked out at the stars far above, at the Milky Way that cut a brilliant path across the sky, and at the moon, where her only friend Luna used to live.
carpedavid
First Post
[sblock]Well, that's done, at least. I look forward to seeing Rodrigo's story.[/sblock]
Rodrigo Istalindir
Explorer
yangnome said:
You want more smack-talk, or you want a story? Go away!
Rodrigo Istalindir
Explorer
“Daddy, tell me a story,” the curly-haired moppet entreated.
“Shhh, honey, it’s time to sleep. You have a big day ahead of you tomorrow,” her bespectacled father replied.
“Please? Pretty please? Just one story, and I promise I’ll go right to sleep. Promise,” she repeated solemnly.
The man looked at her, and knew the battle was over before it had begun. He laid his daughter on the bed, tucked the covers around her, and, in the proscribed manner, started the tale.
*
Once upon a time, a sweet young woman named Kerestal fell in love with a young man named Syndir. Had they been normal people like you and I, they could have jumped right to “lived happily ever after” and skipped all the unhappy parts in-between. But they weren’t normal people like you and I. Iin fact, they weren’t, strictly speaking, people at all. Syndir was the child of the Sun, and Kerestal was the daughter of the moon. And just like your Uncle Harry went into the family business after Grandpa died, it was expected that someday Syndir and Kerestal would follow in their parent’s footsteps.
Now you know that the Sun and the Moon are almost never in the same place at the same time, and so Syndir and Kerestal probably would have never met, much less fallen in love. But every so often, as the Sun and Moon circle around the Earth…
*
“Daddy! The Sun doesn’t circle around the Earth, it’s the other way around,” the little girl said solemnly, like she was correcting the village idiot.
“This is ‘once upon a time’, sweetheart. Things were different back then. Now, do you want to hear the story?”
She nodded and scrunched down under the covers.
*
Now, every so often, the Moon and the Sun end up on the same side of the Earth. This used to scare people quite a bit. Some thought a dragon was eating the Sun, or something silly like that, but now we know it’s just an eclipse.
So there was an eclipse, and while the Sun and the Moon were busy ignoring one another and waiting for the other to go away, Kerestal and Syndir snuck away. Neither got to see anyone but their parent very often, and they were each very lonely. They were a little shy around each other, at first, but they soon became friends. They went out past Mars and played billiards with the asteroids, and played tag amongst the stars, moving so fast they were just a streak in the sky.
Soon, though, the Sun and Moon drifted apart, and as the heavens began to light up again, they realized their children had gone missing. They called and called, and finally Syndir and Kerestal came slinking back. They waved goodbye, each watched the other disappear into the distance.
Time moves differently for the stars than it does for us, and although years and decades might pass between eclipses, Syndir and Kerestal always managed to sneak away together to play, and one day realized that they were never happier than when they were together. Each resolved to run away from their parent so they could be together forever.
When the Sun and the Moon discovered what had happened, they were most angry with each other. They called each other bad names and threw things and generally acted poorly. They scoured the sky looking for Kerestal and Syndir, and finally found them hiding behind fat old Jupiter. The Sun grabbed Syndir by the wrist, and the Moon Kerestal, and the two were dragged home. Syndir called to his love, and promised that he would return for her.
The Sun was so angry that he sparked and flared, and before you knew it he just up and died. At first Syndir was unhappy, for he did love his father, but then he was happy for the thought this meant he could be with Kerestal. But he looked down upon the earth, and saw how cold and frightened the people were, and he realized he couldn’t just turn his back on them. With a heavy heart, he turned back and became the new Sun.
The Moon was angry with Kerestal, too, but more understanding. She tried to explain to her daughter that things would never work out with Syndir, that they were just too different, but it had little effect. When the Moon realized that Kerestal was going to have a baby, and that Syndir was the father, she feared that her daughter would run to him. The Moon was wise and knew that in the end the young ones couldn’t be together, so she quietly slipped into the sea and sank below the waves, leaving Kerestal to take up the job of lighting the night sky.
Soon, the new Moon had her baby, and named her ‘Halcyon’. Every night as she looked down upon the Earth, she cradled her daughter in her arms and told stories about the people that lived there. She loved Halcyon child very much, but every day she could look off across space and see Syndir in his father’s place, and it made her very sad.
Kerestal knew that if Halcyon grew up with only her mother to keep her company, she would be lonely too, so one night she wrapped her infant daughter in a blanket, and as a moonbeam stole through the window of a young woman who was crying because she couldn’t have a child. She laid Halcyon down in the empty crib the woman wept over, and returned to the heavens, her own sobs echoing in the night sky.
The young woman heard Kerestal’s lament, and raised her head to see who was as unhappy as she. She saw the moonbeam shining upon the crib, and let out a gasp when she saw the perfect little baby inside. (Picture 6) She cried out in joy to her husband who slept in the next room, and held Halcyon up to him when he rushed to her side. The father saw a piece of paper pinned to the blanket. He plucked it free, and had but a moment to see ‘Halcyon’ written in cursive before the note disappeared in a burst of silvery sparkles.
The new parents, Sarah and Will, were happy to finally have a child, no matter how irregular the manner, but they knew the neighbors would just look at them like they were crazy. They didn’t care what people thought about them, but they didn’t want them to laugh at Haley (for that is the best Will could remember from the note) and call her names, so they told a little white lie, and said that a cousin on Sarah’s had had a baby and couldn’t care for her. They raised her as their own, and never told her about how she had come to live with them.
A couple of years after Haley’s miraculous appearance in the crib, another eclipse rolled around. It was the first time that Kerestal and Syndir had seen each other since their parents had split them apart. Kerestal greeted Syndir coolly, and though Syndir tried to talk to her, but her attention was elsewhere. As the eclipse swallowed the earth, Kerestal turned her gaze groundward, hoping to catch a glimpse of Halcyon while she was awake and about.
Syndir saw that his one-time love was distracted, and followed her gaze. He saw a little girl with her parents, and saw her father showing her how to watch the eclipse through a pinhole camera. He saw the way her smile lit up her face, and knew her for his daughter.
He turned to Kerestal, and started to berate her for not telling him, but the wistful look on her face stopped him. They started to drift apart, and she broke away from Halcyon to see Syndir looking at her. She explained to him what she had done, and why, and Syndir’s anger drained away. He knew that Halcyon would be happier with two parents that loved her instead of being forced to choose between Sun and Moon. He bowed to Kerestal, and wished her happiness. Kerestal smiled, and said she looked forward to the next eclipse.
And so little Haley grew up with her adoptive parents, never knowing that her real father watched over her while she played outside or that her real mother watched over her while she slept.
But as much as she looked like any normal girl, Haley was a celestial child. One summer day, the neighborhood decided to have a block party at the lake near their homes. There were hamburgers and hotdogs and pop and ice cream, and everybody had a wonderful time. Everyone was getting ready to leave when something scary happened.
Mr. Gibbons had packed his wife and kids into their pickup truck. He started up the engine, but instead of going forward, the truck slipped into reverse. Mr. Gibbons panicked, and stepped on the gas instead of the brake, and before you knew it the truck had plunged into the lake.
There was a great commotion, with much waving of hands and running about, and a couple of men jumped in the lake to try and free the Gibbon’s from the truck, but the water kept the doors from opening.
Haley stood on the shore and watched as the truck started to sink beneath the surface. She noticed something strange, though. Ephemeral tendrils wrapped around the truck, some thick as the branches of a tree, some so thin that they were almost invisible. She realized that the bigger ones sank beneath the surface, while the smaller stretched off into the sky towards the sun.
She also saw that the translucent vines were engaged in a tug-of-war over the Gibbons’ truck, and that the wavy lines pulling it below the water were far stronger. She closed her eyes and concentrated, silently urging the lake tendrils to let go of the truck.
The gasps of the crowd made her open her eyes. To her surprise, the Gibbons’ pickup was floating mid-air above the lake. (Picture 5) She shouted and clapped her hands together in delight. She called out to the sky-tendrils to pull the truck to shore, and was pleased to see that they followed her bidding.
After the Gibbons were safely on dry land, she was less happy to discover that her friends and neighbors were staring at her in fear and suspicion. Will and Sarah grabbed her up and rushed her home, hoping that little Haley didn’t hear the calls of ‘witch’ and ‘devil’ that spewed forth.
But she heard them.
From that day forth, the people of the neighborhood would have nothing to do with her. Her friends were forbidden to play with her. When she went street to street selling cookies for school, doors were slammed in her face. Haley was confused and hurt; she didn’t understand why saving the Gibbons had been a bad thing. Her parents were devastated at how the others treated her, and would have moved if they could have afforded to.
As she spent more of her time alone, Haley began to notice other strange things. If she concentrated, she could see the little tendrils everywhere. The ones from the ground were always the biggest and strongest, but the ones from the sun were always there during the day, and at night she could see very, very faint lines leading to the moon as well.
She discovered that she was never cold; no matter how bitter the winter, she would scamper about as if it were a summer day. She could see in the dark as if it were broad daylight. And sometimes, if she listened really carefully, she could hear music coming from the stars and planets, each playing a different tune.
Haley became more and more withdrawn, and finally Will and Sarah realized they had to tell her how she had come to be their daughter. She was shocked, and ran to her room crying. The next morning, Will and Sarah found her room empty, her schoolbag missing, and her bed had not been slept in.
Haley ran far away. She moved mostly at night, using her night vision to elude the people that were looking for her. As the rosy hue of dawn spread across the sky, she’d ask the moon-tendrils to lift her to the treetops, where she’d fall asleep to a stellar lullaby.
Eventually, she left the town far behind and ventured deep into the forest She was tired and hungry, and she missed her Will and Sarah. She didn’t miss the cold looks of the others, though, and she thought if she could just find a way to talk to her real parents, then everything would be ok. She curled up at the base of a tree and fell fast asleep. (Picture 2).
She was awakened by a chattering sound, and leaped to her feet when she felt tiny hands pulling at her. She scampered up the tree and realized that she’d accidentally broken into the home of a family of monkeys.
At least they won’t make fun of me, she thought. And if they do I’ll just have the sun-tendrils pick them up by their tails and swing them around.
For several days she lived among the little primates. She followed them to a nearby stream where she could drink and bathe. She watched carefully to see what berries and nuts were safe to eat. She even made a bed for herself in the crook of the tree, and slept with her adopted family.
In the sky above, Kerestal and Syndir were beside themselves with worry. They had followed Halcyon until she had disappeared into the forest, but the thick canopy now shielded her from their watchful eyes. The Moon had tried using a moonbeam to lead the rescue party to the forest, but they paid her no mind, and eventually gave up.
During the day, when she wasn’t foraging for food, Haley explored her new home. As she become more accustomed to the wild, she ranged further and further afield, until one day she discovered a small cabin in a clearing. She saw a grizzled man puttering about, and hid herself carefully in the woods lest he spot her.
She watched until her stomach rumbled, and then she retreated into the forest to find something to eat. She returned the next day, and the day after that, never for long, but some part of her still longed for human contact.
One day, while she spied on the man, she saw something that made her eyes widen. The man stood in the clearing staring at a large tree that leaned precipitously over his small home. With her sight, Haley could see the earth-tendrils pulling it down.
The man reached out towards the tree, and to her surprise she saw the strands weaken their grip on the oak. Freed from their grip, the tree straightened momentarily. The stranger moved his hand sharply, and the lines yanked sharply in the opposite direction. With a crack like summer thunder, the trunk of the tree shattered the splinters and fragments flying everywhere but towards the cabin.
Haley realized that the man could see the same things she saw. She’d never met anyone else who could do that, and despite his scraggly appearance, she thought maybe she’d come back some day to ask him if he knew who her parents might be.
Haley turned back into the forest but had only managed to creep a few yards before she felt her arms and legs grow heavy. She focused her sight and saw the tendrils from the ground pulling on her much harder than usual. She struggled, but soon was prone on the ground, unable to move. Out of the corner of her eye she saw muddy boots approach.
The man gestured, and Haley felt the strings holding her weaken. Before she could scamper to her feet and flee, the man grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and lifted her until her feet dangled above the ground. He marched back to his cabin, and no matter how hard she struggled, Haley could not break free. Inside, he tossed her in the corner like a discarded toy. She started to rise, but once again her limbs were pinned.
Haley’s captor was a dangerous and desperate hermit named Graves. Graves had been blessed with some of the same gifts as Haley, but he had come to see them as a curse. Once he had seen the earth-tendrils pulling at his body, he became obsessed with escaping their grasp. He studied alchemy and tried to brew potions that would let him slip their hold permanently, but to no avail. He studied magic, and sought a spell that would free him, but failed. No matter how hard he tried, he could affect their pull for but a few moments at a time.
It was only when he turned to astronomy and divination in search of his answers that he saw results. The signs and portents pointed to the child of the Moon and Sun as the solution to his problem, Once he knew that, Graves was able to use all that he had learned to create a spell that he believed would allow him to capture the essence of the heavens and so leave the earth once and for all.
Those same auguries had led him to this cabin, and though he was secretly surprised that Haley had come wandering here as ordained, he wasn’t about the squander the opportunity. That next night was the night of the new moon, and he intended to complete his terrible magic when the prying eyes of the Moon were blinded. He turned to the big cauldron that bubbled and gurgled, and began to prepare the foul brew that would rob Haley of her celestial spirit. (Picture 1)
Graves had lived too long by himself, and had long since acquired the habit of talking to himself. Haley overheard his muttering, and when she learned what he intended, she was terrified. She tried using her talents to free her from Graves’ control, but the sky-tendrils were weak in comparison, and she failed to move so much as an inch.
Far above, Syndir was angry. He’d sensed the disturbance when Graves had tugged at the tree, and had seen the evil man drag his daughter away. For all the might he possessed, he felt powerless. While he could turn the entire planet to ash in his rage, he couldn’t even risk setting the cabin afire for fear of harming Halcyon.
As the earth turned and dusk approached, Syndir called out across the heavens to Kerestal, informing her of their daughter’s plight. Kerestal didn’t possess Syndir’s raw power, so through the ages the Moon had learned to be more subtle.
Kerestal scanned the space between her and the earth until she spotted something suitable. With gentle tugs and nudges, she guided the man-made interloper the humans arrogantly called a ‘satellite’ out of its comfortable orbit and sent it tumbling into the atmosphere. She guided the falling metal star for as long as she could, but the closer to the earth it streaked, the weaker her grip grew. With a mighty crash, it plowed into the forest some distance from the cabin.
The next morning, a team of scientists prowled the forest looking for the fallen satellite. They found its crumpled form half-buried in the dirt, as monkeys pranced about like it was some new toy provided solely for their amusement. (Picture 4)
The scientists tried to shoo the playful little creatures away to no avail. One of the monkeys even stole the chief scientist’s fancy cell phone right from his pocket, and fled to the tree when he tried to steal it back. Complaining loudly, the spindly man climbed up after the mischievous beast.
To his shock, he found Haley’s backpack wedged in the crook of the tree. He pulled it free and jumped to the ground. He gave up rescuing his cell phone as a lost cause, and instead had one of his comrades go for help.
Two hours later, police and volunteers combed the woods. In short order, they found the cabin in the woods. At first Graves tried to fight them, sending the earth-tendrils to knock them down, and even tried to fell trees on their heads. Soon he realized it was a lost cause, and he set Haley free.
Haley ran to the first policeman she saw and threw her arms around him. Behind her, Graves walked slowly into the clearing, his hands held over his head. The Sun brightened unbearably for a moment, forcing the rescuers to shield their eyes lest they be blinded. When the sky dimmed once more, there was nothing left of Graves save a burnt patch on the ground.
Haley was reunited with Will and Sarah, and she stayed with them till she was all grown up. Being the child of the Moon and Sun, Haley was unaffected by the passing of time, but Will and Sarah were mortal. In what seemed like the blink of an eye to Kerestal and Syndir, they grew old and died.
So grateful were the Sun and the Moon for the happy life Sarah and Will had given their daughter that they raised their spirits into the heavens, and if the astronomers noticed two stars where none had been before, they were careful not to make too much of it.
Kerestal and Syndir grew to love each other again, and if they could only be in the same place every so often, they still talked every night when dusk settled over the earth, and every morning, too.
And Haley? In what would seem like a long time for humans but was really the blink of an eye for a celestial, Haley came into her full powers, and left the Earth behind once and for all. Now she streaks through the sky, travelling to see Will and Sarah for a while before swinging back to visit Kerestal and Syndir, who were the Sun and the Moon, and also her parents.
*
The father stopped talking, and looked down at his sleeping daughter. He might not be her real father, he thought, but his life revolved around her just the same. As he crept silently out of the room, he noticed her peaceful face framed by a moonbeam shining through the window.
“Shhh, honey, it’s time to sleep. You have a big day ahead of you tomorrow,” her bespectacled father replied.
“Please? Pretty please? Just one story, and I promise I’ll go right to sleep. Promise,” she repeated solemnly.
The man looked at her, and knew the battle was over before it had begun. He laid his daughter on the bed, tucked the covers around her, and, in the proscribed manner, started the tale.
*
Once upon a time, a sweet young woman named Kerestal fell in love with a young man named Syndir. Had they been normal people like you and I, they could have jumped right to “lived happily ever after” and skipped all the unhappy parts in-between. But they weren’t normal people like you and I. Iin fact, they weren’t, strictly speaking, people at all. Syndir was the child of the Sun, and Kerestal was the daughter of the moon. And just like your Uncle Harry went into the family business after Grandpa died, it was expected that someday Syndir and Kerestal would follow in their parent’s footsteps.
Now you know that the Sun and the Moon are almost never in the same place at the same time, and so Syndir and Kerestal probably would have never met, much less fallen in love. But every so often, as the Sun and Moon circle around the Earth…
*
“Daddy! The Sun doesn’t circle around the Earth, it’s the other way around,” the little girl said solemnly, like she was correcting the village idiot.
“This is ‘once upon a time’, sweetheart. Things were different back then. Now, do you want to hear the story?”
She nodded and scrunched down under the covers.
*
Now, every so often, the Moon and the Sun end up on the same side of the Earth. This used to scare people quite a bit. Some thought a dragon was eating the Sun, or something silly like that, but now we know it’s just an eclipse.
So there was an eclipse, and while the Sun and the Moon were busy ignoring one another and waiting for the other to go away, Kerestal and Syndir snuck away. Neither got to see anyone but their parent very often, and they were each very lonely. They were a little shy around each other, at first, but they soon became friends. They went out past Mars and played billiards with the asteroids, and played tag amongst the stars, moving so fast they were just a streak in the sky.
Soon, though, the Sun and Moon drifted apart, and as the heavens began to light up again, they realized their children had gone missing. They called and called, and finally Syndir and Kerestal came slinking back. They waved goodbye, each watched the other disappear into the distance.
Time moves differently for the stars than it does for us, and although years and decades might pass between eclipses, Syndir and Kerestal always managed to sneak away together to play, and one day realized that they were never happier than when they were together. Each resolved to run away from their parent so they could be together forever.
When the Sun and the Moon discovered what had happened, they were most angry with each other. They called each other bad names and threw things and generally acted poorly. They scoured the sky looking for Kerestal and Syndir, and finally found them hiding behind fat old Jupiter. The Sun grabbed Syndir by the wrist, and the Moon Kerestal, and the two were dragged home. Syndir called to his love, and promised that he would return for her.
The Sun was so angry that he sparked and flared, and before you knew it he just up and died. At first Syndir was unhappy, for he did love his father, but then he was happy for the thought this meant he could be with Kerestal. But he looked down upon the earth, and saw how cold and frightened the people were, and he realized he couldn’t just turn his back on them. With a heavy heart, he turned back and became the new Sun.
The Moon was angry with Kerestal, too, but more understanding. She tried to explain to her daughter that things would never work out with Syndir, that they were just too different, but it had little effect. When the Moon realized that Kerestal was going to have a baby, and that Syndir was the father, she feared that her daughter would run to him. The Moon was wise and knew that in the end the young ones couldn’t be together, so she quietly slipped into the sea and sank below the waves, leaving Kerestal to take up the job of lighting the night sky.
Soon, the new Moon had her baby, and named her ‘Halcyon’. Every night as she looked down upon the Earth, she cradled her daughter in her arms and told stories about the people that lived there. She loved Halcyon child very much, but every day she could look off across space and see Syndir in his father’s place, and it made her very sad.
Kerestal knew that if Halcyon grew up with only her mother to keep her company, she would be lonely too, so one night she wrapped her infant daughter in a blanket, and as a moonbeam stole through the window of a young woman who was crying because she couldn’t have a child. She laid Halcyon down in the empty crib the woman wept over, and returned to the heavens, her own sobs echoing in the night sky.
The young woman heard Kerestal’s lament, and raised her head to see who was as unhappy as she. She saw the moonbeam shining upon the crib, and let out a gasp when she saw the perfect little baby inside. (Picture 6) She cried out in joy to her husband who slept in the next room, and held Halcyon up to him when he rushed to her side. The father saw a piece of paper pinned to the blanket. He plucked it free, and had but a moment to see ‘Halcyon’ written in cursive before the note disappeared in a burst of silvery sparkles.
The new parents, Sarah and Will, were happy to finally have a child, no matter how irregular the manner, but they knew the neighbors would just look at them like they were crazy. They didn’t care what people thought about them, but they didn’t want them to laugh at Haley (for that is the best Will could remember from the note) and call her names, so they told a little white lie, and said that a cousin on Sarah’s had had a baby and couldn’t care for her. They raised her as their own, and never told her about how she had come to live with them.
A couple of years after Haley’s miraculous appearance in the crib, another eclipse rolled around. It was the first time that Kerestal and Syndir had seen each other since their parents had split them apart. Kerestal greeted Syndir coolly, and though Syndir tried to talk to her, but her attention was elsewhere. As the eclipse swallowed the earth, Kerestal turned her gaze groundward, hoping to catch a glimpse of Halcyon while she was awake and about.
Syndir saw that his one-time love was distracted, and followed her gaze. He saw a little girl with her parents, and saw her father showing her how to watch the eclipse through a pinhole camera. He saw the way her smile lit up her face, and knew her for his daughter.
He turned to Kerestal, and started to berate her for not telling him, but the wistful look on her face stopped him. They started to drift apart, and she broke away from Halcyon to see Syndir looking at her. She explained to him what she had done, and why, and Syndir’s anger drained away. He knew that Halcyon would be happier with two parents that loved her instead of being forced to choose between Sun and Moon. He bowed to Kerestal, and wished her happiness. Kerestal smiled, and said she looked forward to the next eclipse.
And so little Haley grew up with her adoptive parents, never knowing that her real father watched over her while she played outside or that her real mother watched over her while she slept.
But as much as she looked like any normal girl, Haley was a celestial child. One summer day, the neighborhood decided to have a block party at the lake near their homes. There were hamburgers and hotdogs and pop and ice cream, and everybody had a wonderful time. Everyone was getting ready to leave when something scary happened.
Mr. Gibbons had packed his wife and kids into their pickup truck. He started up the engine, but instead of going forward, the truck slipped into reverse. Mr. Gibbons panicked, and stepped on the gas instead of the brake, and before you knew it the truck had plunged into the lake.
There was a great commotion, with much waving of hands and running about, and a couple of men jumped in the lake to try and free the Gibbon’s from the truck, but the water kept the doors from opening.
Haley stood on the shore and watched as the truck started to sink beneath the surface. She noticed something strange, though. Ephemeral tendrils wrapped around the truck, some thick as the branches of a tree, some so thin that they were almost invisible. She realized that the bigger ones sank beneath the surface, while the smaller stretched off into the sky towards the sun.
She also saw that the translucent vines were engaged in a tug-of-war over the Gibbons’ truck, and that the wavy lines pulling it below the water were far stronger. She closed her eyes and concentrated, silently urging the lake tendrils to let go of the truck.
The gasps of the crowd made her open her eyes. To her surprise, the Gibbons’ pickup was floating mid-air above the lake. (Picture 5) She shouted and clapped her hands together in delight. She called out to the sky-tendrils to pull the truck to shore, and was pleased to see that they followed her bidding.
After the Gibbons were safely on dry land, she was less happy to discover that her friends and neighbors were staring at her in fear and suspicion. Will and Sarah grabbed her up and rushed her home, hoping that little Haley didn’t hear the calls of ‘witch’ and ‘devil’ that spewed forth.
But she heard them.
From that day forth, the people of the neighborhood would have nothing to do with her. Her friends were forbidden to play with her. When she went street to street selling cookies for school, doors were slammed in her face. Haley was confused and hurt; she didn’t understand why saving the Gibbons had been a bad thing. Her parents were devastated at how the others treated her, and would have moved if they could have afforded to.
As she spent more of her time alone, Haley began to notice other strange things. If she concentrated, she could see the little tendrils everywhere. The ones from the ground were always the biggest and strongest, but the ones from the sun were always there during the day, and at night she could see very, very faint lines leading to the moon as well.
She discovered that she was never cold; no matter how bitter the winter, she would scamper about as if it were a summer day. She could see in the dark as if it were broad daylight. And sometimes, if she listened really carefully, she could hear music coming from the stars and planets, each playing a different tune.
Haley became more and more withdrawn, and finally Will and Sarah realized they had to tell her how she had come to be their daughter. She was shocked, and ran to her room crying. The next morning, Will and Sarah found her room empty, her schoolbag missing, and her bed had not been slept in.
Haley ran far away. She moved mostly at night, using her night vision to elude the people that were looking for her. As the rosy hue of dawn spread across the sky, she’d ask the moon-tendrils to lift her to the treetops, where she’d fall asleep to a stellar lullaby.
Eventually, she left the town far behind and ventured deep into the forest She was tired and hungry, and she missed her Will and Sarah. She didn’t miss the cold looks of the others, though, and she thought if she could just find a way to talk to her real parents, then everything would be ok. She curled up at the base of a tree and fell fast asleep. (Picture 2).
She was awakened by a chattering sound, and leaped to her feet when she felt tiny hands pulling at her. She scampered up the tree and realized that she’d accidentally broken into the home of a family of monkeys.
At least they won’t make fun of me, she thought. And if they do I’ll just have the sun-tendrils pick them up by their tails and swing them around.
For several days she lived among the little primates. She followed them to a nearby stream where she could drink and bathe. She watched carefully to see what berries and nuts were safe to eat. She even made a bed for herself in the crook of the tree, and slept with her adopted family.
In the sky above, Kerestal and Syndir were beside themselves with worry. They had followed Halcyon until she had disappeared into the forest, but the thick canopy now shielded her from their watchful eyes. The Moon had tried using a moonbeam to lead the rescue party to the forest, but they paid her no mind, and eventually gave up.
During the day, when she wasn’t foraging for food, Haley explored her new home. As she become more accustomed to the wild, she ranged further and further afield, until one day she discovered a small cabin in a clearing. She saw a grizzled man puttering about, and hid herself carefully in the woods lest he spot her.
She watched until her stomach rumbled, and then she retreated into the forest to find something to eat. She returned the next day, and the day after that, never for long, but some part of her still longed for human contact.
One day, while she spied on the man, she saw something that made her eyes widen. The man stood in the clearing staring at a large tree that leaned precipitously over his small home. With her sight, Haley could see the earth-tendrils pulling it down.
The man reached out towards the tree, and to her surprise she saw the strands weaken their grip on the oak. Freed from their grip, the tree straightened momentarily. The stranger moved his hand sharply, and the lines yanked sharply in the opposite direction. With a crack like summer thunder, the trunk of the tree shattered the splinters and fragments flying everywhere but towards the cabin.
Haley realized that the man could see the same things she saw. She’d never met anyone else who could do that, and despite his scraggly appearance, she thought maybe she’d come back some day to ask him if he knew who her parents might be.
Haley turned back into the forest but had only managed to creep a few yards before she felt her arms and legs grow heavy. She focused her sight and saw the tendrils from the ground pulling on her much harder than usual. She struggled, but soon was prone on the ground, unable to move. Out of the corner of her eye she saw muddy boots approach.
The man gestured, and Haley felt the strings holding her weaken. Before she could scamper to her feet and flee, the man grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and lifted her until her feet dangled above the ground. He marched back to his cabin, and no matter how hard she struggled, Haley could not break free. Inside, he tossed her in the corner like a discarded toy. She started to rise, but once again her limbs were pinned.
Haley’s captor was a dangerous and desperate hermit named Graves. Graves had been blessed with some of the same gifts as Haley, but he had come to see them as a curse. Once he had seen the earth-tendrils pulling at his body, he became obsessed with escaping their grasp. He studied alchemy and tried to brew potions that would let him slip their hold permanently, but to no avail. He studied magic, and sought a spell that would free him, but failed. No matter how hard he tried, he could affect their pull for but a few moments at a time.
It was only when he turned to astronomy and divination in search of his answers that he saw results. The signs and portents pointed to the child of the Moon and Sun as the solution to his problem, Once he knew that, Graves was able to use all that he had learned to create a spell that he believed would allow him to capture the essence of the heavens and so leave the earth once and for all.
Those same auguries had led him to this cabin, and though he was secretly surprised that Haley had come wandering here as ordained, he wasn’t about the squander the opportunity. That next night was the night of the new moon, and he intended to complete his terrible magic when the prying eyes of the Moon were blinded. He turned to the big cauldron that bubbled and gurgled, and began to prepare the foul brew that would rob Haley of her celestial spirit. (Picture 1)
Graves had lived too long by himself, and had long since acquired the habit of talking to himself. Haley overheard his muttering, and when she learned what he intended, she was terrified. She tried using her talents to free her from Graves’ control, but the sky-tendrils were weak in comparison, and she failed to move so much as an inch.
Far above, Syndir was angry. He’d sensed the disturbance when Graves had tugged at the tree, and had seen the evil man drag his daughter away. For all the might he possessed, he felt powerless. While he could turn the entire planet to ash in his rage, he couldn’t even risk setting the cabin afire for fear of harming Halcyon.
As the earth turned and dusk approached, Syndir called out across the heavens to Kerestal, informing her of their daughter’s plight. Kerestal didn’t possess Syndir’s raw power, so through the ages the Moon had learned to be more subtle.
Kerestal scanned the space between her and the earth until she spotted something suitable. With gentle tugs and nudges, she guided the man-made interloper the humans arrogantly called a ‘satellite’ out of its comfortable orbit and sent it tumbling into the atmosphere. She guided the falling metal star for as long as she could, but the closer to the earth it streaked, the weaker her grip grew. With a mighty crash, it plowed into the forest some distance from the cabin.
The next morning, a team of scientists prowled the forest looking for the fallen satellite. They found its crumpled form half-buried in the dirt, as monkeys pranced about like it was some new toy provided solely for their amusement. (Picture 4)
The scientists tried to shoo the playful little creatures away to no avail. One of the monkeys even stole the chief scientist’s fancy cell phone right from his pocket, and fled to the tree when he tried to steal it back. Complaining loudly, the spindly man climbed up after the mischievous beast.
To his shock, he found Haley’s backpack wedged in the crook of the tree. He pulled it free and jumped to the ground. He gave up rescuing his cell phone as a lost cause, and instead had one of his comrades go for help.
Two hours later, police and volunteers combed the woods. In short order, they found the cabin in the woods. At first Graves tried to fight them, sending the earth-tendrils to knock them down, and even tried to fell trees on their heads. Soon he realized it was a lost cause, and he set Haley free.
Haley ran to the first policeman she saw and threw her arms around him. Behind her, Graves walked slowly into the clearing, his hands held over his head. The Sun brightened unbearably for a moment, forcing the rescuers to shield their eyes lest they be blinded. When the sky dimmed once more, there was nothing left of Graves save a burnt patch on the ground.
Haley was reunited with Will and Sarah, and she stayed with them till she was all grown up. Being the child of the Moon and Sun, Haley was unaffected by the passing of time, but Will and Sarah were mortal. In what seemed like the blink of an eye to Kerestal and Syndir, they grew old and died.
So grateful were the Sun and the Moon for the happy life Sarah and Will had given their daughter that they raised their spirits into the heavens, and if the astronomers noticed two stars where none had been before, they were careful not to make too much of it.
Kerestal and Syndir grew to love each other again, and if they could only be in the same place every so often, they still talked every night when dusk settled over the earth, and every morning, too.
And Haley? In what would seem like a long time for humans but was really the blink of an eye for a celestial, Haley came into her full powers, and left the Earth behind once and for all. Now she streaks through the sky, travelling to see Will and Sarah for a while before swinging back to visit Kerestal and Syndir, who were the Sun and the Moon, and also her parents.
*
The father stopped talking, and looked down at his sleeping daughter. He might not be her real father, he thought, but his life revolved around her just the same. As he crept silently out of the room, he noticed her peaceful face framed by a moonbeam shining through the window.
Rodrigo Istalindir
Explorer
Good luck, carpedavid!
Sialia
First Post
While we wait for the judging, here's something to amuse: I've started posting he pictures that never made the cut:
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=24156&page=3
(starting around post 97 there's new pictures).
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=24156&page=3
(starting around post 97 there's new pictures).
