The Glacier House
Characters: Fire Spirit Cookie & Sea Fairy Cookie (mentioned: Moonlight Cookie, Angel Cookie, Devil Cookie and Peppermint Cookie) Ships: none Word count: 1892 Description: Fire Spirit visits his sister.
wow! this blog has been seriously inactive, huh! here’s a fanfic i found on my phone and finished at 2 AM the day before the last day of school this year. not really edited but i love FS + SF content so it was just a matter of time that i posted this anyway. cross-posted on AO3!
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Magic was an odd concept, even for deities like himself. How air could be filled with its properties, morphing and affecting everyone within its range was a mystery. Simply using a spell took a large toll on the sorcerer that cast it. It would drain one both physically and mentally, to the point where they would turn delirious. Only a few prodigies and masters could use spells safely.
Fire Spirit, even though he was made from a spell so powerful it could take down an army, felt these limitations too. The fire underneath his skin would bubble aggressively and he'd feel the ground spiral beneath him.
It made Sea Fairy's final creation all the more impressive.
His fingers ached and each time he moved them they groaned and cracked. Despite being made from ashes, forged by fire and nursed in its flames, Fire Spirit could feel the creeping cold crawling up his back.
The more he thought about how much turmoil Sea Fairy must've felt and how the magic must have started to seep out of her cold, fragile skin, the more bitter he became.
Sea Fairy was barely younger than him. When he started terrorizing the lands under the orders of the Witch, the silent woods and crashing ocean grew anxious. After many moonlit nights, the sea emerged and the forest joined shortly after.
Wind Archer never paid him much attention. The guardian was busy tending to the small villages of the first civilisations of cookies. The destruction Fire Spirit had caused was tremendous; almost no cookies had survived.
The guardian made of sand and water, however, was quick to join Moonlight's side to defeat Fire Spirit and his realm. She had no emotions in her eyes when she first struck at him, her mind was somewhere else when she had him pinned to the grass under him.
He remembered the sharp pointed edge of her crystal sword and the fear he felt when she stared into his eyes. His arms felt scratchy when he remembered the water of her hair hitting his skin, his burning arms turning solid and dark.
Sea Fairy was a deity filled with justice and wisdom. When they first met, she had only existed for a year or so, but her posture and speech made her seem like she was a millennia old.
She was the only reason the fire legend even betrayed the witch. Her hidden kindness and passive interest in his well-being made Fire Spirit realise how pathetic and unhealthy his intentions were.
Their relationship kept on blossoming afterwards. Sea Fairy taught him justice and peace, while Fire Spirit taught her how to let herself feel and disconnect herself from her duties and destiny.
She eventually started falling apart. Fire Spirit could do nothing as he watched his friend- no, sister- desperately long for something else. Being a woman of few words, she never told him what bothered her so.
It only made the sour feeling Fire Spirit had in his stomach worse.
Could he have prevented this? It had been so long since he heard her voice. Where did his morals that she taught him so lovingly go?
Fire Spirit was a prankster. Nobody trusted him; not even his own people. They'd sacrifice things- belongings, money, food, or even other cookies- to keep him 'entertained'. He was a seducer, a gainer. Not someone to trust.
He had pushed away Moonlight when she came to console him. Fire Spirit was a shell of his former self and when he saw Moonlight's concerned eyes, he couldn't feel any pity. Just anger and sadness towards his lost family.
Shaking his head, he dragged his hand against the cold wall of her tower. The frozen bricks sizzled under his hand, but it didn't melt or deform. The enchanted ice was unbreakable, and he wondered how she managed. Just moving a simple flame for a longer period exhausted him- how had this spell not been broken yet? It had been centuries. Her power must surely have run out.
His heels clicked as he briskly walked upwards in the frozen columns. When she first froze all those hundreds of years ago, the tower wasn't a tower. It was merely a swirling wave, connecting at her waist. He vaguely remembers Moonlight making plans in Sea Fairy's honor, to make her final statement to this world a beautiful one. Fire Spirit just thought it was rude.
Grumbling, he grew impatient. Tapping his staff twice, he blasted up the halls, not wanting the lingering guilt to grow any larger.
He landed roughly on the glass surface at the top. Staring down at his reflection, Fire Spirit braced himself.
All around him was an even circle of sea foamed colored blue ice, mirroring the night sky above him. It was barren, nothing misplaced because there was nothing, except her and the small gifts placed around her from cookies brave enough to climb the tower. Enchanted flowers, potions and vials, and conchs and shells.
Frozen and destroyed she stood in the middle, her anguish and exhaustion written as clear as day. For anyone else, Sea Fairy would look longing and mysterious, but Fire Spirit knew her too well.
Her hands were reaching up, her back arched and her long pointed ears pulled downward. The moon shone bright, its light bouncing off her in waves. Sea Fairy seemed almost translucent in the soft light.
The edge of her sword was burrowed into the glass. It stood tilted, as if it froze mid throw. There were no cracks or unevenness around it; the plane stood untouched.
Fire Spirit had many times tried to pull it out- to feel it's comforting weight in his hands and give his beloved friend her life-line back. No matter how hard he pulled or how much he tried to melt the ground around it, the sword would not budge.
Tears were molded into her cheeks, a permanent sign on the aching in her heart. Despite the rumble of grief seeping into the air, her face was gentle and accepting. As if she had no regrets about giving up her life for the moon whom she loved, as if she knew this was the end of her pain.
Fire Spirit swallowed the clump growing in his throat as he looked at the familiar scene in front of him. "You... You idiot," he muttered, no malice evident in his voice. "You really went and did it this time, huh?" The fire deity chuckled, his mouth tasting like ash.
Sea Fairy did not respond. Obviously. Nothing but the waves could be heard, and Fire Spirit peered at his hands to avoid staring at the unmoving face of the individual he considered a sister. The fire under his skin bubbled in shame, and he could feel the weight on his shoulders pressing him down.
"... Actually, I'm the idiot here, right?" Fire Spirit squinted. "I haven't visited in so long, at least a couple of decades. Time flies by so fast when you're busy protecting the world, I guess. Yeah, if anyone's a fool, it's me.
"So much has happened since I last spoke to you- uh, Moonlight rebuilt her tower! Y'know the one... I knocked down- accidentally! But you probably know that," He could hear the sheepishness in his own voice and he cringed. "I have kids now- twins, actually. Devil and Angel cookie. They just showed up and slotted themselves into my life, which is saying a lot- I never was the father type," He smiled despite himself. "You'd like them. I know you always had a soft spot for kids. Even though my kids might both be tiny demons in disguise."
The moon shone quietly above them, luminating her face. Fire Spirit bounced impatiently on his feet as he looked anywhere but her almost closed, melancholic eyes. He hated this. Hated seeing her like this. He knew there was nothing he could do, not really, but the pain latched onto his core and would not let go.
"There's a new kid on the block, too. Pep- Peppermint? I believe? They're a good kid, very quiet," he chuckled, looking at the small blue conch at the bottom of her dress. "They hang around Moonlight a lot. Barely looks at me, but once they looked me straight in the eye and, uh... They have this conch, right? Pretty blue thing, they play tunes on it when they think nobody is around, and- yeah. Anyway, once they looked at me and took our their conch, and said that- ..."
Fire Spirit looked out at the horizon, watching the shores move softly. The moon shone and dispersed among them, and the fire deity couldn't help but feel nostalgic for something long, long ago. Sniffing, he forced himself to look back at the very cookie he considered family and look at her soft, clear eyes.
"... they got it from the sea," he smiled softly, feeling gushy. Stressed, he scratched his pointy ear. "Guess you don't have anything to do with that, huh? Of course you don't."
His feet clinked on the ice below him as he carefully strode closer to the statue. "But, if you do," he mumbled, stopping right in front of the statue. Hesitantly he wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling his face into her cold shoulders. It wasn't very comfortable, but his eyes stung anyway. "Can you at least give me a sign? Don't tell anyone, but by Moonlight, I miss you so much, Sea Fairy. I really do."
And so he cried. Warm drops of lava flowed down his cheeks, and slid down to the icy body he held. Despite his destructive tears, Sea Fairy's shoulder remained as still and as cold as ever. Fire Spirit still felt bad though, the twisting warmth of guilt pooling in his stomach. He could feel the orb at his very center cooling down, shifting uncomfortably.
He had no idea how long he stood there, weeping. He did not know whether he was weeping for her, her faith, or what she could have been, or if he was weeping for himself. For what he is, or what he could have done, or what he should have known. He swore he could feel her breath, feel her tears on his back, feel her cool presence drilling into his very soul.
When the sun was rising, he decided it was time to leave, before his surrogate children woke up to find an empty house. But he found as he tried to pull away, that he was locked in a close embrace. His swollen eyes glanced down at the shoulder he was resting on. It was no longer clear or shining by the sun, but rather warm and freckled like the beach. With a shaky inhale, he felt hands grabbing his arms gently, pulling him back.
And there she was. Her blue eyes alive, golden spots reflecting the yellow hue from the rising sun. Her freckled cheeks were peachy, her smile was small and her tears flowing. And before Fire Spirit could try to shake himself awake from this cruel dream, only to find himself alone in his home far away from his family, she spoke. She spoke in that voice he never could replicate in his mind, the voice that was the first thing to get lost to memory.
"Hello, brother."