This week at Trifecta we were asked to write a 33 word story to go with the picture below.
Here’s mine:
Her hands, so warm, so comforting. It’s been so long, so long since I was held, caressed. So long since I was loved, respected.
Is she the one, the one to free me?
~*~*~
This follows immediately after Consequences
She rolled onto her knees and crawled to Aodhan. With shaking fingers she gripped his cloak.
“Oh, Aodhan. No.” The tears streamed down her face at the sight of his ghostly white face. She bent her lips to his and placed a final kiss.
A crackle above her interrupted her grief. Fionavar lifted her head and watched the knot of power she’d woven grow until it appeared as if it would swallow the world. She suddenly remembered Ceoir and looked for her.
Ceoir hovered at the edge of the woods, her attention absorbed by the knot. Fionavar watched her frantically try to build a counter spell. “Oh my sister. It is too late.” She glanced back at Aodhan. “And now you have slain an innocent.”
The feeble attempt bounced off the knot. Fionavar could hear Ceoir send a warning to the other inhabitants of the glade. Her proximity to the orb scrambled her telepathic abilities so her connection to her people was limited to snatches of words: ‘danger’, ‘magic’, ‘humans’.
As Fionavar watched, the orb settled onto the glade like a dome. It began to pulse; slowly at first and then with increased frequency. She could sense the terror of her people and for the first time regretted the actions she had set in motion. With a blinding flash the orb exploded, picking Fionavar and Aodhan up and tossing them like leaves in the wind.
She struggled to breathe. She lifted her head and gazed sadly towards the glade. The trees looked the same but she sensed that her home was gone. Her knees trembled as she stood, tears falling anew at the loss of her home and her love. She wrapped her arms around her body and sobbed. The baby responded with a flutter of kicks that brought her crashing to the ground.
“I’m sorry little one,” she whispered. “I-“ Her words were halted by a new sensation building within. A tingling began to spread throughout her body. Her skin prickled and she felt heat radiate through her extremities. Suddenly it concentrated on her back, growing hotter and hotter. Fionavar screamed.
She woke lying face down in the grass, one hand stretched out towards the glade, the other resting along Aodhan’s arm. Trembling she pushed up, her cloak falling to the ground. As she stood upright her body went rigid. She felt…different.
Terrified, she reached back with one hand to discover the price she paid for freedom. Her wings were gone.
She was no longer faerie. For good or ill she would live her life as human.
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Aodhan lunged at her as her body crumpled to the ground. “Fionavar! No! Stop!, Whatever you are doing, stop!” He grasped her shoulders and stared into her now vacant expression. His words faded to a muted buzz.
Fionavar watched it all from above, her spiritual self detached from her physical presence. She wished she could have explained it to Aodhan but there hadn’t been time. The magic of the orb pulsed through her, expanding to encompass the entire meadow. She watched as Aodhan tensed, his limited human senses picking up the subtle changes. He stood and placed his hand along the hilt of his sword, ready for the danger he sensed coming.
Satisfied he would be safe for the moment Fionavar began weaving the complex spell necessary to work the orb. She had only the vaguest notions on how it worked; snippets from faerie lore and tall tales shared by elders but she was confident she had the ability to control it.
Forming her hands into a ball she collected the streams of energy whirling around her. As it built she caught sight of a figure at the edge of the woods. She knew the flaming red hair, so like her own, cascading down the figure’s shoulders.
“Ceoir,” she breathed. She watched in horror as Ceoir gathered her energy force and directed it towards Aodhan, mistaking him for the cause of the power vortex building in the meadow. A bolt of pure spirit shot out from Ceoir’s hands, striking Aodhan square in the chest.
“Noooooooo!” Fionavar shrieked, helpless to do anything. The orb’s power held her in a stasis as it twisted the energy strands into a complex knot. She instinctively spoke the words of the spell, the magic of the orb taking control. As it lifted from her hands, her spirit was released and allowed to collapse back into her body.
She rolled onto her knees and crawled to Aodhan’s still form.
~*~*~
As writers, we fall in love with our characters and shield them from negative events. But effective plot development demands conflict.
This week we’d like you to stir up some conflict, using the following quote as inspiration.
It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948)
The word limit is 300.
This follows immediately after Freedom
If you want to know how this all ends…the continuation is here
image from Google
The meadow was quiet. As Fionavar and Aodhan stepped within its boundaries it felt as if the world stopped. She paused, looking around for the spot she only knew from legend. Until the orb was in her hands she’d never even believed it could be real.
The tall grasses stilled, obscuring anything that might be different, out of place. She worried her lower lip as she thought.
“What is it?” Aodhan asked, his hand never straying from the hilt of his sword. “Why are we here, Fionavar? Here, of all places?” He frowned and gazed towards the edge of the meadow where the trees began again. He knew what lay within the birch trees.
Fionavar lay a hand on his arm. “This is the only place my plan will work.” She tightened her fingers, gripping his rough wool cloak. “I mean to be free, Aodhan. Free for you and for our child.” Her other hand drifted down to rest on her stomach. She had felt the baby move today. She needed to act.
“My love, you are no fool. There is no way to be free. You know this.” He gripped her hands. “Please, stay with me one more night and I’ll help you get back to the glade. Raise our child.” He tipped her chin up and brushed a kiss along her lips. “Tell her of her father.”
Fionavar felt the tears cling to her lashes but she refused to let them fall. Pulling free she brought the orb out from the folds of her cloak. It took on a ghostly light that was suddenly mirrored only steps away from where she stood.
Hidden within the grasses was a small stone cairn with a shallow bowl perched upon it. Fionavar placed the orb into the bowl and crouched before it. The orb turned red then shifted to green. At that moment she clutched the edges of the bowl.
“Tell her yourself,” she whispered and let the magic take her.
~*~*~
3 a : a harmlessly deranged person or one lacking in common powers of understanding
Another piece to my faerie story. Read the previous one here
image from Google
Rachel pulled up in front of the music store and found a parking spot. Amy clambered out and rushed inside. She was acting like a kid in a candy store. Rachel shook her head and followed.
Amy went directly to section ‘T’ along the back wall and began flipping through the CD’s
“Here it is!” she crowed, triumphant. A man came out of the back room at the sound.
“Ah, Miss Amy. I was wondering when you would show up.” He chuckled. “You’ve only been pestering me about it for two weeks.”
“Hey Simon,” she grinned. “Do you have any of my ‘regular’ stuff? Mother only let me come by ‘cause I said I wanted a new gospel album.”
He pulled out a box from under the counter. “Take your pick.” Amy started rooting through the box.
“Tsk tsk, Ames. Lying to your mother,” Rachel teased. She needed Amy to start blabbing. Any information she could gather through casual conversation could prove to be helpful. Amy stuck her tongue out at her.
“You know how she is Rach. I’m cool with the attending Church and being charitable and all that but she is so narrow minded about some things. Did I ever tell you she threatened to stop me from hanging out with you?”
“Me? Why?”
“You were going through that rebellious phase, remember? I can’t really blame you, all things considered but Mother took it to the extremes. She thought you were a bad influence and told me I had to stop being your friend.” Amy looked up and met Rachel’s gaze. “Not that I ever would. I’d never abandon you Rach.” She went back to flipping through CD’s.
“Obviously she doesn’t think that now. What changed her mind?”
Amy paused. Rachel could see she was biting her lip. “You went to Kenya. Finished the work your parents began.” She glanced up at Rachel, her hair falling across her cheek, camouflaging her expression. Rachel felt her stomach drop. Her parents. And Kenya. She needed to know more but she couldn’t figure out a way to ask Amy without appearing crazy.
“Are you about done, Amy?” Rachel made a show of looking at her watch. “I think time’s almost up.”
“Oh crap, right!” She pulled a random disc out and tossed it on the counter with the Touchstone album. “Ring em up Simon.”
The drive to Amy’s was silent as Rachel processed everything she’d learned so far. She pulled up in front of Amy’s house.
“Bye Rach. I’ll give you a call later, once the meeting is done.” She began to climb out then paused. “Unless you want to come in?”
“Uhm, thanks but I have some things to do at home. I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Sure. I’m really sorry I upset you. I can’t imagine what it must be like.”
“It’s okay, Amy. Hearing the words is still a shock, that’s all.” She watched as Amy slowly walked towards the house, turning briefly to give Rachel a wave. Rachel drove off, intent on going through every box piled up in her apartment, looking for answers.
~*~*~
Let’s go shopping. You choose what kind of shopping, but you must involve 2 characters on the trip, and there must be a conflict of some kind (not necessarily between those 2 characters). Write a paragraph from the point of one character, then write the same interaction from another character’s point of view.
Above is Rachel’s POV. Read the previous piece here. Below is the scene from Amy’s POV. I must say it was interesting to do it over from another character’s POV.
~*~*~
Rachel pulled up in front of the music store and found a parking spot. Amy clambered out and rushed inside. She rushed into the store, forgetting about Rachel in the car. As happy as she was to have her best friend home again she had to get her hands on the new Touchstone CD.
She headed directly to the back where a large ‘T’ hung from the ceiling and began flipping through the CD’s. The familiar font of Touchstone’s name leaped out at her and she pulled the disc out.
“Here it is!” She cried out. She resisted the urge to do a little celebration dance. A man came out from the back at the sound.
“Ah, Miss Amy. I was wondering when you would show up.” He chuckled. “You’ve only been pestering me about it for two weeks.”
“Hey Simon,” she grinned. “Do you have any of my ‘regular’ stuff? Mother only let me come by ‘cause I said I wanted a new gospel album.”
He pulled out a box from under the counter. “Take your pick.” She started rooting through the box.
“Tsk tsk, Ames. Lying to your mother,” Rachel’s teasing voice came from behind her. She turned her head and stuck her tongue out.
“You know how she is Rach. I’m cool with the attending Church and being charitable and all that but she is so narrow minded about some things. Did I ever tell you she threatened to stop me from hanging out with you?”
“Me? Why?”
“You were going through that rebellious phase, remember? I can’t really blame you, all things considered but Mother took it to the extremes. She thought you were a bad influence and told me I had to stop being your friend.” Amy looked up and met Rachel’s gaze. “Not that I ever would. I’d never abandon you Rach.” She went back to flipping through CD’s.
“Obviously she doesn’t think that now. What changed her mind?”
Amy hesitated and nibbled on her lip. She didn’t want to upset Rachel again with a comment about her parents but it couldn’t be helped. “You went to Kenya. Finished the work your parents began.”
She used her hair as camouflage as she observed Rachel’s reaction. Beyond her already pale ivory skin shifting a shade whiter there was no response. Rachel lifted her arm and glanced at her watch.
“Are you about done, Amy?”She asked. “I think time’s almost up.”
“Oh crap, right!” She pulled a random disc out and tossed it on the counter with the Touchstone album. “Ring em up Simon.”
The drive home was silent. Amy kept her attention on the scenery until Rachel pulled up in front of her house.
“Bye Rach. I’ll give you a call later, once the meeting is done.” She began to climb out then paused. “Unless you want to come in?”
“Uhm, thanks but I have some things to do at home. I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Sure. I’m really sorry I upset you. I can’t imagine what it must be like.”
“It’s okay, Amy. Hearing the words is still a shock, that’s all.”
Amy walked slowly towards the house, turning briefly to wave as Rachel sped off. She knew her friend well enough to realize that the events surrounding her parents were still raw.
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