First Flight
Challenge Name: Cultures @ writers_ball
Title: First Flight
Rating: G
Word Count (optional): 1868ish
Author's Notes (optional): I've decided to hit the fantasy world for this one. I had to double check the rules & I think this particular piece is fairly presented. ;) (Note #2--This may seem familiar to some of you hehe)
Moonlight peered through the tall oaks of the forest as two figures - scant more than three feet - stood in a small snow-covered clearing near a mound of earth they’d just exited. Lily, the taller of the two, had oft figured it for a simple small hill, now she knew it for entry into another world; it was a Faerie mound. The chilled smells of her surroundings gave her cause for deep inhalations, excited to embrace the beauty of scent; evergreens, acorns and all manner of wildflower that fought to survive on the harsh forest floor met her nose as never before. The fresh snowfall glistened in a bitter reverie; its magnificence only ever met by Lily’s wide blue wide eyes and Rosalyn’s understanding brown eyes. Rosalyn had been tasked with ‘the aid of those brought by happenstance,’ or some such bewilderment, and Lily was one such bewildered.
Lily was young, having just met her sixteenth birthday less than a day gone. She figured Rosalyn to be advanced in age, wrinkles dominating much of her features. She couldn’t be entirely certain, however, as Rosalyn had yet to surrender her own Fae origin, so Lily had little to work with. Lily dared not ask, for she knew even humans didn’t appreciate such questions, no doubt this creature would feel even less inclined to respond. Lily glanced once more at Rosalyn; a round face, pudgy even, attached to a plump body held aloft by what seemed like twig-legs and fat bare feet that were mimicked in her arms and hands. Rosalyn seemed about the right size and shape for a Brownie, but didn’t they live and work with humans rather than Faeries?
How precisely Lily had become a Faerie, Rosalyn didn’t answer. The only idea she’d offered was that Lily was one of the happenstanced, that They brought her here. Lily certainly didn’t know what that meant or who They were, nor did she much care to squander any energy she had for such a simple task as thought; she needed every ounce of her being, for she had been asked to fly. It was a strange request dwarfed in oddity only by the suggestion that she had in fact, awoken as a Faerie; she had found herself waking within the mound with no memory of how she’d gotten there, only that it wasn’t the flowered room she’d fallen asleep in the night before.
Lily’s now diminutive form was merely a fraction of what it had been. Only one thing had changed other than this reduction in size - and no it wasn’t the wings; she still didn’t quite understand why, despite being a Faerie, and despite all she’d known of Faeries from her previous life as a ‘delightful young lass,’ wings apparently weren’t part of the deal. No, Lily didn’t get off that easy; and to say, Rosalyn offered that none of the happenstanced did - wings were not natural to them, not that this made Lily feel any better. The only way in which she didn’t resemble an exact miniature of her Otherself, a term Lily had figured meant pre-happenstanced, was the tone of her skin, which had seemed to have faded from the color of the caramel sweets she had previously enjoyed, to a much lighter brown, beige even, often found on trees that had been skinned. Her hair was even the same bountiful blonde color that had attracted so many eyes before - long like the summer’s day, waved like the ocean’s shore, smooth like the finest spider-spun silk, and utterly useless in learning how to fly.
“You are kidding, right?” Lily stood bewildered. Even waking as a Faerie didn’t seem to grasp her as strange enough that she could fly.
“No, my child,” came the reply, certainly from Rosalyn, but still within Lily’s own mind, though she felt under no obligation to consider how Rosalyn could talk inside her head just yet. For now Rosalyn and the others would have to be satisfied, or rather content, with letting Lily speak as she did before she had been happenstanced.
“But…how?”
Lily was under no false assumption that all the Fae-born were delightfully human-friendly. All the same, Rosalyn seemed friendly enough, perhaps it was because Lily was not a human now; she possessed a nature that seemed agreeable enough for the time.
“Focus your energies, call your wings from within, let them take you.”
Lily let out a giggle. Her mother, well her human mother at the least, had often scoffed at many a traveling salesman offering peace, love and harmony; if only she would let him teach the family how to focus their energies, and imagine their own wings that would fly them to their dreams. It was just a dreamer’s dream (and a salesman’s coin) yesterday, but today…
“Focus, child! Do not sway from the task at hand.”
Perhaps Lily ought to learn how the Fae spoke, for with the ability must surely come the defense against being read. She closed her eyes and thought of the times she felt happiest; at least this much was true from the fairy tales, her wings would grow from the joyful feelings usually attributed to things like winter’s first snow (Lily loved snow!), a letter from her best friend long-since moved to another province, a first kiss, and tales of true love. At least these were Lily’s warmest memories. Rosalyn had pointed out earlier in the day that, and Lily’s mom would have been all-too proud her daughter was being assisted by one who used the phrase, “To each his own;” nobody could tell her she had the wrong happy thoughts!
Lily’s mind was adrift, And my mother’s bedtime kisses, after she’d read me the fairy tales I used to believe in, like a child; and now…
Something started to happen inside Lily, her stomach was aflutter with such an intense feeling she was certain she’d been drugged. The feeling soon echoed through her entire being, from the depths of her soul to every visible feature on her body, glimmering in the moonlight.
“I figured They had a good reason for bringing you, my child.” Rosalyn’s words seemed closer now than they had before, and in fact Lily nearly felt she could respond in the same manner. Perhaps it wasn’t mind reading after all, but Lily would have plenty of time to think on that later. For now she followed the advice of her assistant, and simply let herself be taken up. “You are doing well. Many never get this far on their first night, some never do.”
It was a magnificent sight to behold. While any of Nature’s Children lucky enough to be natural born Faerie, as opposed to the other Fae-born, would have a permanent wing more natural in color and fixture, those that were happenstanced only required part-time wings - wings that were much like a personal ornament, showing in beauty and splendor, all the beautiful feelings the happenstanced had felt during their Otherlives. Lily’s own betrayed a brilliantly delightful childhood of fun and fancy; a heart of deep blue - echoing the love from within - had been stitched magnificently into her back, threaded by intertwining silver and gold outlining the wings. It seemed two stars had fallen gently out of Winter’s own sky to take residence in the middle of each wing; Lily was flying.
Really flying!
“Open your eyes, my child!” Rosalyn insisted.
Lily opened her eyes, she’d only risen a few feet but the exhilaration consumed her. She looked around, letting her mind wander to all the things she could do, and her focus quickly vanished, leaving her wings only faintly visible. A sinking feeling much related to her human-side’s fear of heights overwhelmed her as her wings disappeared and she began to fall. Desperate and wondering why her wings escaped her, Lily fought with every ounce of energy left to find her happiness before the inevitable, but it was too late.
“You’re lucky, my child, it was only a few feet.”
Lily had used so much energy on focusing her feelings; she was barely able to pull herself out of the slight indentation she’d left. Why had her feelings failed her?
Rosalyn was smiling as she helped Lily to her feet. “You are doing well. It is one thing to focus when alone and there is nothing to distract you, it is quite another to reach the level of focus where your mind, soul and spirit naturally take up this task. Try again, my child.”
Lily’s mind was racing; even a few feet had seemed like eternity to her - an eternity of desperation, trying with determination to overcome the weight of this new world and perhaps her slight fear of heights. No, she had failed in sustaining flight, but not achieving it.
“I can do this,” Lily spoke with a new faith. Rosalyn nodded for another attempt, smiling briefly.
Lily had never been one to give up: not when she turned four and she tried blowing up all fifty of her party balloons (she had no breath left to blow the candles out, but she did get all those balloons), not when she was eleven and tried climbing the family’s oak tree (bruises from every misstep adorned her body for months, along with a newfound aversion to heights, but she finally made the journey), and certainly not now, when her very new life depended on these spirited wings. This time, she focused with her eyes open.
The familiar but not yet natural feeling of sheer joy overcame her once more. Lily had allowed her mind to split; focusing one side on every happy memory she could remember, the other remained aware of the physical world around her, it was working. Up she rose, half the height of the oaks now, believing more and more in herself and her future. If They had chosen her, whoever They were, she must have already had something…
Another thought came to her, one she’d wished to dwell on longer during her previous flight. If wings and flying were just focused energy and feelings…maybe she could send Rosalyn a message? She carefully looked down at her assistant, who was nearly breaking out of her own skin trying to keep from dancing gleefully at Lily’s performance. “Am I doing it right?”
Rosalyn nodded excitedly back up at her. Even at Lily’s height she could see the pudgy face moving up and down; even more, she could still see the detail of each wrinkle and the whites of her eyes. Perhaps she’d been granted better eyesight in this form as well?
“That’s enough for tonight, come back down!” Rosalyn’s voice echoed brightly inside Lily’s head, “Oh yes, and you have much to learn about our way of speech, my child. I doubt you intended to ask if the Brownies liked midnight.” Her words were much more spirited now than before.
As Lily landed she realized a hurdle had been crossed, and one less obstacle lay between her and her acceptance into the Realm. Clearly They had chosen wisely, and perhaps one day Rosalyn would let Lily in on the secret of who precisely They were.
Title: First Flight
Rating: G
Word Count (optional): 1868ish
Author's Notes (optional): I've decided to hit the fantasy world for this one. I had to double check the rules & I think this particular piece is fairly presented. ;) (Note #2--This may seem familiar to some of you hehe)
Moonlight peered through the tall oaks of the forest as two figures - scant more than three feet - stood in a small snow-covered clearing near a mound of earth they’d just exited. Lily, the taller of the two, had oft figured it for a simple small hill, now she knew it for entry into another world; it was a Faerie mound. The chilled smells of her surroundings gave her cause for deep inhalations, excited to embrace the beauty of scent; evergreens, acorns and all manner of wildflower that fought to survive on the harsh forest floor met her nose as never before. The fresh snowfall glistened in a bitter reverie; its magnificence only ever met by Lily’s wide blue wide eyes and Rosalyn’s understanding brown eyes. Rosalyn had been tasked with ‘the aid of those brought by happenstance,’ or some such bewilderment, and Lily was one such bewildered.
Lily was young, having just met her sixteenth birthday less than a day gone. She figured Rosalyn to be advanced in age, wrinkles dominating much of her features. She couldn’t be entirely certain, however, as Rosalyn had yet to surrender her own Fae origin, so Lily had little to work with. Lily dared not ask, for she knew even humans didn’t appreciate such questions, no doubt this creature would feel even less inclined to respond. Lily glanced once more at Rosalyn; a round face, pudgy even, attached to a plump body held aloft by what seemed like twig-legs and fat bare feet that were mimicked in her arms and hands. Rosalyn seemed about the right size and shape for a Brownie, but didn’t they live and work with humans rather than Faeries?
How precisely Lily had become a Faerie, Rosalyn didn’t answer. The only idea she’d offered was that Lily was one of the happenstanced, that They brought her here. Lily certainly didn’t know what that meant or who They were, nor did she much care to squander any energy she had for such a simple task as thought; she needed every ounce of her being, for she had been asked to fly. It was a strange request dwarfed in oddity only by the suggestion that she had in fact, awoken as a Faerie; she had found herself waking within the mound with no memory of how she’d gotten there, only that it wasn’t the flowered room she’d fallen asleep in the night before.
Lily’s now diminutive form was merely a fraction of what it had been. Only one thing had changed other than this reduction in size - and no it wasn’t the wings; she still didn’t quite understand why, despite being a Faerie, and despite all she’d known of Faeries from her previous life as a ‘delightful young lass,’ wings apparently weren’t part of the deal. No, Lily didn’t get off that easy; and to say, Rosalyn offered that none of the happenstanced did - wings were not natural to them, not that this made Lily feel any better. The only way in which she didn’t resemble an exact miniature of her Otherself, a term Lily had figured meant pre-happenstanced, was the tone of her skin, which had seemed to have faded from the color of the caramel sweets she had previously enjoyed, to a much lighter brown, beige even, often found on trees that had been skinned. Her hair was even the same bountiful blonde color that had attracted so many eyes before - long like the summer’s day, waved like the ocean’s shore, smooth like the finest spider-spun silk, and utterly useless in learning how to fly.
“You are kidding, right?” Lily stood bewildered. Even waking as a Faerie didn’t seem to grasp her as strange enough that she could fly.
“No, my child,” came the reply, certainly from Rosalyn, but still within Lily’s own mind, though she felt under no obligation to consider how Rosalyn could talk inside her head just yet. For now Rosalyn and the others would have to be satisfied, or rather content, with letting Lily speak as she did before she had been happenstanced.
“But…how?”
Lily was under no false assumption that all the Fae-born were delightfully human-friendly. All the same, Rosalyn seemed friendly enough, perhaps it was because Lily was not a human now; she possessed a nature that seemed agreeable enough for the time.
“Focus your energies, call your wings from within, let them take you.”
Lily let out a giggle. Her mother, well her human mother at the least, had often scoffed at many a traveling salesman offering peace, love and harmony; if only she would let him teach the family how to focus their energies, and imagine their own wings that would fly them to their dreams. It was just a dreamer’s dream (and a salesman’s coin) yesterday, but today…
“Focus, child! Do not sway from the task at hand.”
Perhaps Lily ought to learn how the Fae spoke, for with the ability must surely come the defense against being read. She closed her eyes and thought of the times she felt happiest; at least this much was true from the fairy tales, her wings would grow from the joyful feelings usually attributed to things like winter’s first snow (Lily loved snow!), a letter from her best friend long-since moved to another province, a first kiss, and tales of true love. At least these were Lily’s warmest memories. Rosalyn had pointed out earlier in the day that, and Lily’s mom would have been all-too proud her daughter was being assisted by one who used the phrase, “To each his own;” nobody could tell her she had the wrong happy thoughts!
Lily’s mind was adrift, And my mother’s bedtime kisses, after she’d read me the fairy tales I used to believe in, like a child; and now…
Something started to happen inside Lily, her stomach was aflutter with such an intense feeling she was certain she’d been drugged. The feeling soon echoed through her entire being, from the depths of her soul to every visible feature on her body, glimmering in the moonlight.
“I figured They had a good reason for bringing you, my child.” Rosalyn’s words seemed closer now than they had before, and in fact Lily nearly felt she could respond in the same manner. Perhaps it wasn’t mind reading after all, but Lily would have plenty of time to think on that later. For now she followed the advice of her assistant, and simply let herself be taken up. “You are doing well. Many never get this far on their first night, some never do.”
It was a magnificent sight to behold. While any of Nature’s Children lucky enough to be natural born Faerie, as opposed to the other Fae-born, would have a permanent wing more natural in color and fixture, those that were happenstanced only required part-time wings - wings that were much like a personal ornament, showing in beauty and splendor, all the beautiful feelings the happenstanced had felt during their Otherlives. Lily’s own betrayed a brilliantly delightful childhood of fun and fancy; a heart of deep blue - echoing the love from within - had been stitched magnificently into her back, threaded by intertwining silver and gold outlining the wings. It seemed two stars had fallen gently out of Winter’s own sky to take residence in the middle of each wing; Lily was flying.
Really flying!
“Open your eyes, my child!” Rosalyn insisted.
Lily opened her eyes, she’d only risen a few feet but the exhilaration consumed her. She looked around, letting her mind wander to all the things she could do, and her focus quickly vanished, leaving her wings only faintly visible. A sinking feeling much related to her human-side’s fear of heights overwhelmed her as her wings disappeared and she began to fall. Desperate and wondering why her wings escaped her, Lily fought with every ounce of energy left to find her happiness before the inevitable, but it was too late.
“You’re lucky, my child, it was only a few feet.”
Lily had used so much energy on focusing her feelings; she was barely able to pull herself out of the slight indentation she’d left. Why had her feelings failed her?
Rosalyn was smiling as she helped Lily to her feet. “You are doing well. It is one thing to focus when alone and there is nothing to distract you, it is quite another to reach the level of focus where your mind, soul and spirit naturally take up this task. Try again, my child.”
Lily’s mind was racing; even a few feet had seemed like eternity to her - an eternity of desperation, trying with determination to overcome the weight of this new world and perhaps her slight fear of heights. No, she had failed in sustaining flight, but not achieving it.
“I can do this,” Lily spoke with a new faith. Rosalyn nodded for another attempt, smiling briefly.
Lily had never been one to give up: not when she turned four and she tried blowing up all fifty of her party balloons (she had no breath left to blow the candles out, but she did get all those balloons), not when she was eleven and tried climbing the family’s oak tree (bruises from every misstep adorned her body for months, along with a newfound aversion to heights, but she finally made the journey), and certainly not now, when her very new life depended on these spirited wings. This time, she focused with her eyes open.
The familiar but not yet natural feeling of sheer joy overcame her once more. Lily had allowed her mind to split; focusing one side on every happy memory she could remember, the other remained aware of the physical world around her, it was working. Up she rose, half the height of the oaks now, believing more and more in herself and her future. If They had chosen her, whoever They were, she must have already had something…
Another thought came to her, one she’d wished to dwell on longer during her previous flight. If wings and flying were just focused energy and feelings…maybe she could send Rosalyn a message? She carefully looked down at her assistant, who was nearly breaking out of her own skin trying to keep from dancing gleefully at Lily’s performance. “Am I doing it right?”
Rosalyn nodded excitedly back up at her. Even at Lily’s height she could see the pudgy face moving up and down; even more, she could still see the detail of each wrinkle and the whites of her eyes. Perhaps she’d been granted better eyesight in this form as well?
“That’s enough for tonight, come back down!” Rosalyn’s voice echoed brightly inside Lily’s head, “Oh yes, and you have much to learn about our way of speech, my child. I doubt you intended to ask if the Brownies liked midnight.” Her words were much more spirited now than before.
As Lily landed she realized a hurdle had been crossed, and one less obstacle lay between her and her acceptance into the Realm. Clearly They had chosen wisely, and perhaps one day Rosalyn would let Lily in on the secret of who precisely They were.