#rival realms

[betweenthetimeandsound]

--prompt from @flashfictionfridayofficial

Katrina circled the Selerina whenever the weather called for it. Beyond the affairs of her fellow sirens, who only met on the rocky shorelines of Carina or further across in the Opaline Islands, the air meant nothing for her eagle-like wings. Clenching her hands, she swirled until her talons met the rocks, where the barnacles met the bristling waves.

When she landed on the perch, she navigated the crevices, hoping a stray crab or a naive fish would make its way for her. Instead, she grazed her hand to feel the whistling waves cool her scarred hands, as if to heal the wounds the Opaline sirens gave her. Despite the distance from the vibrant archipelago, filled with forests of magical trees and glowing lilies which prevented the citizens from combusting their environment, something ached in her.

And she cried out, her voice almost going hoarse from the agony which made her think of seeing Niobe for the last time. About how her jade green eyes seemed to cut her wings despite their wingspan obscuring the sun she could manipulate. The waves accelerated enough to keep her on edge, but Katrina remained paralyzed, unsure if she should fly again.

When she finished, she looked behind her, she spotted a sailor, grazing at her toes.

[betweenthetimeandsound]

--prompt from @flashfictionfridayofficial

For a hundred years, nobody remembered Stella-liis. They only remembered a trail of footsteps which lead to the waterfall, the quest in which she offered her magic for a price, and turned the willow tree which guarded the place brown. It glistened, life moved on in the realms, the nightingales sung.

But there was still a catch to the whole thing.

One day, a vanesti named Reverine preparing for her initiation wandered over to the brown willow tree. The leaves stayed a a harsh caramel brown; despite the way they glistened with Sukkoile's streams, they didn't respond to the seasons, nor to attempts to make it bloom again. The water should bring her solace, but instead Reverine laid down on the brown willow tree's trunk, observing it from afar.

Can't you see, the willow seemed to enter her mind, I am still of use. I can still live, but I don't know how.

But Reverine only unbraided her scarlet red hair; the shedding strands would rival the roots in how tangled they were. As she picked them up and tied them into a Keverian knot, they suddenly ignited.

Bemused by it, Reverine, rushed over to the waterfall, and tossed the talisman into the pool. As expected, the cooling effect nullified the fire, though when Reverine snapped her head back, some embers caught onto the tree, and light coursed through the trunk. The fire found its home inside that cursed willow tree.

Reverine paused. Sukkoile's rushes subdued her movements; a stream of water was enough. When she rose her hands in desperation, no water moved that didn't already come from the waterfall. Gritting her teeth, she turned back to the tree, and prayed to the goddess for her intervention.

"This tree needs life, and I will give it back to its leaves! Please entreat my words," she exclaimed, which startled the stray sheep. As she stepped closer to the flames, the smoke intrigued her more and more, but she started coughing, struggling to keep herself in control.

A few minutes later, the flame dissolved. All on a prayer.

But Reverine was nowhere to be found.

[betweenthetimeandsound]

The Voyeriss' Name

--prompt from @flashfictionfridayofficial

The New Year passed, with their cherries and drinks and treasures made in maroon. Despite the warning signs from which the shades of red signified, the Voyeriss sauntered over towards the brightest tree in Selveste's grove, with its frail leaves popping up the blossoms floating on the ground.

As she caught a flower in her hand, she pressed it up against her nose, only for the wind to tickle the petals and almost caught them. She winced her face, wondering what about these flowers could've repelled them from her presence.

Hundreds of years passed. They slithered through time like birds which evolved into demons, those which could fly over her and destroy this grove to threaten the Queen's reign. Every new year didn't mean the Voyeriss celebrated; instead, she passed through walls and only garnered a little bit more of her flesh.

A girl wandered across the falling petals, picking up the stray fruits of her labor when it slipped out of her wrists. Crowns of threaded gold intrigued the Voyeriss, moreso than the girl who wanted her own salvage. Based on the frayed ivory dress and the dried violets in her hair, the Voyeriss believed she could be middle class. Not elegant enough to be royalty, but just enough to get by.

"Aah!" The girl screamed when she saw the Voyeriss and her angular face; the edges threatening to sever her growth. "Who are you?"

The Voyeriss tried to soften her complexion, but her eyebrows betrayed their intent. They fidgeted as she arranged her honey blonde hair, loosening from their curls. In contrast, the girl smiled with crooked teeth, with fangs developing from where her baby teeth fell.

"Should I tell you?"

The girl nodded.

"No, I know of something better," the Voyeriss laughed, waving her hand in childlike delight. "Try to guess my name."

[betweenthetimeandsound]

--prompt from @flashfictionfridayofficial

"What is the darkness?"

The voice rung through the cave, filled with sparks of fool's gold, from which only Evelia's moonstone could define them from the rocks. The shadows almost swallowed her with their malleable forms, which almost made her step into the portals of crystal water. Except they would not purify her, just the bats who made them their home.

As she balanced herself on the pebbles which tricked her into thinking she could stabilize herself, Evelia questioned on whether to pray or not. To do so would to surrender herself in a trance which would blind her to the threat ahead.

"It's the absence of light," she responded, as if back with her friends in the grasslands.

"But what is it for you?" It countered, and all Evelia could do was shine the moonstone at it. The glimmer on its left side assured her of its power to manipulate all the elements, a gift only given by Re'letsi'Te herself. She knew that with a sleight of hand, she could command herself to freedom. And home would be in the light.

Instead, when she drew the moonstone again, a crack formed on the surface. She gasped before cupping the gem in her palms. As her hands trembled, Evelia looked up again, hoping an echo would bring upon her salvation.

She replied, "Where I cannot be afraid out of fear of death."

[betweenthetimeandsound]

The Siren Song

--prompt from @31-daysofhorror "pyre" (21 October)

"Do you know what this is?" Catalina exclaimed at her charge, who stared at the twisted tree. It's trunks were reminiscent of braided hair, whereas its fruits dangled for the sirens to catch in their little claws. " A pyre, to show who's courageous enough to challenge the flames."

Katrina found her grip to the ground loosening; her claws digging into the dusty earth which made up the island. High above, the sky reflected the Selerina Ocean surrounding the Opalines; it remained stubbornly turquoise, with only a few wisps of ivory breaking the balance.

As she floated in the air with her malformed wings, Katrina eyed one of the ruby-colored fruit and claimed it with her right hand. Its color permeated through its flesh, so much that she hesitated on whether to take the first bite. Suddenly, Catalina scraped her hand across the air, and sent Katrina flying. It took more flaps than Katrina anticipated for her to save the fruit from falling into the sea.

"But why are we afraid of fire, Catalina?" Katrina asked while floating in mid-air.

Catalina hesitated, "Because the humans over there," she replied, pointing across the horizon, "thought we were better off singing our songs for them. Not for our enjoyment, nor for our assertion."

At that moment, she snatched the fruit from Katrina's hand, and consumed a large bite with her vampiric teeth. As Katrina observed how she chewed its flesh and spit it back onto the tanned ground, a sudden fear swallowed her again, before she let herself float back to the ground.

"Thalia took a bite out of this tree, and she took in its joy. She drank its juices and floated on top of its branches, as if she were the sun goddess watching her children play in the fields. The Opalines glistened too, like the jewel it was named for. But they would crack, surely soon.

"The mainlanders ventured here with their arrows, their dogs, and their fire. She flew over the tree, trying to alert her fellow sirens, but they laughed at her. They laughed all the same."

Katrina stood there, her hands threading inside each other as if she could summon her own magic, then the story could be reversed. The sun's light would give this mysterious Thalia the revelation she needed from another life, so to give her a better ending.

Meanwhile, Catalina didn't remain indifferent. "So she stood on the branches, balancing on the newborn leaves as if they were stones on the shore, and cursed them for invading the island. The Carinians didn't start wondering what she sang; they assumed she screamed."

Katrina hovered a short distance before she grazed her talon at the root. The wood folded over with the slightest touch, but the small bits of magic still coursed into the canopy. Another fruit suddenly dropped into the young siren's lap, before rolling onto Catalina's hem.

Catalina crushed the fruit in her palm; the blood red juice seeping into the fabric and the land alike. "So they made a pyre out of this tree, and taunted Thalia for her tenaciousness. As it burned, she flew up into the clouds, but their magic was stronger. The ashes didn't make them any stronger, and we realized their power. The power to betray.

"So you must know this, Katrina--you must not let your fire be for any other purpose," she continued, before offering some of the tree's flesh.

Meanwhile, Katrina summoned a slight flare, from which Catalina only gazed in horror. Before smoke could emerge, she tossed the pith into the sun, and watched it ignite.

[betweenthetimeandsound]

--prompt from @flashfictionfridayofficial

"And what is this world, but a prism through which I could see the hearts of other people?" The voice accompanied Seraterina as she stepped onto the Carinian shore, already matching her homeland in how verdant it was. From the lilies which dangled on the shore like little bells, to the crystalline clover hiding in the grasses, Seraterina stumbled awkwardly as she paid her debt to the boatsman. As he muttered a blessing and loosened the seaweed from the shore, something cracked in Seraterina.

The world around her shrunk, despite the Selerina Ocean providing more than its share of treasures.

Heading east on her worn sandals, hands clinging onto her satchel, she ventured through the greenery, and into the realm. Angling her chin forward, her golden curls fell across her face like a curtain, from which she could smell the lavender still perfumed inside of it. Some comfort, but without the flower which gave it life.

And what do you see in the Carinian heart, divine one? Seraterina thought, all before stumbling on a bramble. As she rose to analyze the holes poked through her foot, she gritted her teeth, before summoning a spell.

Within a few moments, the blood dripped out of her pale foot, and tiny dots replaced the otherwise gaping wounds. From a slight angle, they resembled stars out above the islands; the crown constellation made Seraterina think about home. And how she couldn't return, just yet.

[betweenthetimeandsound]

--prompt from @flashfictionfridayofficial

"Give it time," Abelia assured the Voyeriss, who widened here eyes at the little sprout. From the pot, it had a dim, shamrock-colored glow, in contrast to how they grew in the Lestana Mountains. Vivid, beautiful, as radiant as those in the forests further south. But here, it stood out like a cliff overlooking the sea.

The Voyeriss grazed her fingers on the bud, only for Abelia to slap her hand like a mother to a child.

"You cannot rush these flowers," she muttered, her voice turning sour. "Otherwise they will burn curses through this land."

As Abelia retreated to her sleep, the Voyeriss crouched on the ground, taking note of how the flower rooted itself into the pot. Their veins glistened despite the new moon darkening every crevice of the realm; they gave her more palpitations than what is necessary that night.

Her hands jittered, and she grasped onto the pot, with its little bud.

The Voyeriss rose her right hand and whispered a spell. Or a prayer, or an incantation. Anything which would give the dahlia a little more motivation to grow.

As the plant trembled, shook in its own home, the Voyeriss slipped away into the night.

***

"Why is my dahlia so dark?" A cry spread out through the community, but the Voyeriss only focused on consuming the few berries she kept in her pocket. Flaunting her golden locks, she sauntered through the rocks, searching for another home.

"Why is my dahlia bleeding?"

The second cry made the Voyeriss return to where she slept--somewhere not befitting of a girl her station, but enough to notice the little plants trying to greet her. When she knelt down to graze them, they fluttered against the wind.

And then she spotted Abelia.

"Did you do something to my plant?"

"I wanted it to grow, so it did. It would be a pity if a flower needed too much time to evolve; a falcon would snap at it before you could have its fruit."

At that moment, Abelia slammed the pot against the Voyeriss' feet, the dahlia splitting apart with its mutant petals. The deep reds and violets intrigued the Voyeriss, but when she cupped its remains in her hand, it bled onyx to her touch.

"May you keep your cursed dahlias and your hopes with them. You never deserved any fruit."

[betweenthetimeandsound]

Amaryllis

--prompt from @flashfictionfridayofficial

She held the moonstone in her hands. Vibrating with magic only gifted by the goddess' hand, Amaryllis only took the time to play with it for a second before she almost dropped it back into the Moonabyss and its elusive current. Her fingertips burning with the coldest of fires, she retreated to note its power, and how stubborn it is with the wrong hands.

After a minute of recovery, Amaryllis cupped her right hand, and summoned a gust of wind from it. The icy chill brought her to attention, but when it disappeared, an abnormal ecstasy took its place. Surprised, she turned to the moonstone on the ground, and made it hover at eye level.

All of this effort, all of this journeying, just to find a little stone like yours? Amaryllis thought, taking note at the lucid gem. As it glowed in the middle of its whirlpool, threatening even her with its magic, a crack suddenly formed across the middle, eliminating the nascent light festering over it.

Amaryllis sprinted away from it, almost tripping into the Moonabyss' current in the process. After running for several feet, her silk shoes started to show its vulnerabilities, as more ice water started to flow into her soles. She lifted her left shoe and let it dangle, when she snapped her neck towards one side.

The goddess Re'letsi'Te appeared in front of her, with a pitied gaze and her wavy hair. She cupped the moonstone in her hand, seemingly indifferent to the magic possessed in it. Instead, she clenched it harder as she forced Amaryllis to come closer to her, and let the wet shoe drop.

"My goddess..." Amaryllis' voice trailed before she stepped out of the water, and clumsily prostrated before the incoporeal figure. When she stretched out her hands to feel Re'letsi'Te's feet, she only received that same gelid feeling, one which made her think, Could I survive further north, where nothing grows?

"I've heard so much about you," Re'letsi'Te said, not lifting her voice out of anger. "What do you have here?'

"A moonstone. I've heard so much about it."

"And it's something that people would have to sacrifice for. What did you want out of this little gem?"

"Wealth--"

At that moment, Re'letsi'Te summoned a stream of river water, before conjuring a wave out of it. It took all of Amaryllis' reflexes to dodge the cold, but the goddess sneered in annoyance. Another wave, and it left the girl glistening despite the overcast sky.

"I could kill you now and have it be the end. But you demonstrated you can have some power out of it. What it something you desire?"

Amaryliis' hands trembled. Re'letsi'Te kept the gem close, as if it were a stray lamb from the mountainside. The goddess stared, and stared, before revealing the gem again, only with its scarred face healed.

"Would you sacrifice that desire, for this gem, for this power, for my protection?"