All Unwritten Prompt 1367- In the Sky
(A continuation of the story begun with On the Ground)
On the lake floor, their sky had been the rippling surface of the water, light shifting and refracting in honeycombed patterns created by the waves above. She forgot the constellations, or what the face in the moon looked like. But now, flopped over on her back, she saw them once more. They poured into her, and she promised to never lose them again.
The woods behind her were alive with tiny bells, their pealing chorus in unison to the twinkling stars above. The bell ringers where her kin now; they had always been here, though. How much she had missed, in her other life! Her savior had given it to her, rescued her from Hell and brought her into a Heaven that had been all around her all the long.
“Siobhan.”
The dead girl propped herself up on shaking new arms, watched in awe and reverence as she emerged from the lake. Fideal, she had been called long ago, a name for all of her kind. Siobhan found the word beautiful, and fitting. Liquid on the tongue, like the waters of the lake. The word lived in her mind, like her own new name; but they had barely spoken yet, human speech failing underwater.
“Fideal.”
The waves lapped at her thighs, and then her calves as she took graceful strides towards the shore. Her bare skin glistened in the moonlight, an exquisite dark nut brown with a hint of green, the color of moss or seaweed. The night wind did little to lift her drenched, heavy hair, thick and deep russet and woven all throughout with plant fronds. Alluring full lips parted when she spoke to reveal sharp, pearl white teeth.
“You look at me with such . . . worship in your eyes, my pretty Siobhan,” she continued, teasingly, “Your mortal gods are said to be jealous, are they not? Don’t you fear their anger?”
Naked webbed toes sank into the wet sand, and in moments Fideal was standing over the dead girl- no, the girl who had once been dead.
“I fear nothing when I am with you,” Siobhan replied with all the passion of her burgeoning young life.
“Silly girl.”
Fideal knelt and then lay upon the pebbly ground herself, stretched out beside Siobhan, fingers twined with hers.
“Ordinarily, you should fear me,” she continued conversationally, gazing into the vault of the heavens. “My, but it is nice to see them from dry land sometimes- the stars, the moon.”
“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have that privilege,” Siobhan responded. Her voice had begun to lose some of the hoarse qualities of its newness . . . or was it disuse? Did she sound like this when she was alive, in her first life? She couldn’t
remember.
“A strange and never before bestowed privilege, that.”
Fideal held out her free hand out above her, scrutinizing it.
“I normally take life, not give it.”
Siobhan’s glance went from the sky to the flawless profile of her maker, frowning. Fideal caught the look out of the corner of her eye and laughed, a delightful sound that harmonized with the tinkling bells of the forest beyond.
“What did you expect, my precious girl? I was formed from swirling mud and dark currents in the primordial depths of the first lake. Unknowable powers long predating your god birthed my consciousness into being. Mother nature gives, and she takes, elsewise you short-lived, prolific little wonders would overrun every realm that you could grasp within the infinite vastness of the cosmos.”
“If it’s infinite, how could we overrun it?” Siobhan demanded, thinking Fideal was toying with her.
“It’s infinite, sweet one; your reach is not, though still far enough to be the end of many worlds. Besides, how can you be born anew if you do not first die? Death proceeds rebirth, always.”
“Like what you did for me?”
“No . . .”
Fideal’s sigh was the sound of wind rushing across a swampy pond. In it Siobhan could hear the faint staccato of cattails and wet plops of scattering peeper frogs, the abrupt quieting of crickets and rippling of once still water.
“Before you, I didn’t even know that I could do such a thing. Bones were just bones, scattered at the bottom of many lakes in which I’ve lived. But you, my dear girl, you were still there. I had never witnessed such strangeness. It came to me, a thought, almost an instinct. My kiss has taken so much life; could it not in fact give one life back?”
“Why? Why did you do it?”
What did she want to hear? That she was special. That she was loved best of all. That this had always been her destiny. But Fideal’s people did not lie.
“I am what I am. I was created that way. I am a predator, like the hawk and shark and tiger from the east. I do not hate those to whom I give my deadly kiss; I love them with all of my being as I embrace them. I do not select them for their wealth or lack thereof, their goodness or wickedness. Rather, their loneliness calls to me and I end it. It is my nature.
“I do not pretend to understand the nature of briefly burning mortal lives or mysteriously bright mortal spirits. But what was done to you called to me, as surely as any victim’s empty heart might. Your life was not ended for the balance of the world. The one who took it did not need it for sustenance or safety. It was selfish, wanton, the kind of destruction that only humans are capable of. It is pitiable to see the candle snuffed out at its brightest. Fire and I are strangers; I cannot relight your flame. But I gave you such as I could.”
“Am I alive?”
“As alive as I. For me, this is as it should be. I do not know how it will be for you. You have a human heart and soul, but you are not a human girl anymore. You will never hold a son or daughter in your arms. Your love is deadly to mortal man or woman. Your last thoughts and feelings will follow you like a curse until you resolve them, like any common ghost. And what then? I do not know. Maybe you will turn to seafoam, or dust, your little mortal spirit carried off to wherever men go when they die.”
Siobhan was silent; that thought didn’t frighten her. Whatever the Great Unknown of death might be, it could not be as awful as slowly rotting on the bottom of the lake. But what had brought her to that state still waited. Or did it?
“I don’t remember why I was down there. Don’t remember my last thoughts or feelings. There are pieces here and there of my life before; but what I know strongest is you.”
She curled into the curve of Fideal’s body, received by her maker’s embrace.
“You are what I feel strongest about now.”
“It won’t always be so."
Fideal kissed her lightly and stroked her long hair.
“Ten steps into the forest and it will begin to come back to you. You are what you are, all that you are. Life from my lips cannot change that.”
“Then I would put it off as long as I could.”
Siobhan rolled onto her back again. Hand in hand, the girl who had been dead and the girl who came from the first lake stared into the sky, watching the stars wheel in the heavens for as long as they could.
On the lake floor, their sky had been the rippling surface of the water, light shifting and refracting in honeycombed patterns created by the waves above. She forgot the constellations, or what the face in the moon looked like. But now, flopped over on her back, she saw them once more. They poured into her, and she promised to never lose them again.
The woods behind her were alive with tiny bells, their pealing chorus in unison to the twinkling stars above. The bell ringers where her kin now; they had always been here, though. How much she had missed, in her other life! Her savior had given it to her, rescued her from Hell and brought her into a Heaven that had been all around her all the long.
“Siobhan.”
The dead girl propped herself up on shaking new arms, watched in awe and reverence as she emerged from the lake. Fideal, she had been called long ago, a name for all of her kind. Siobhan found the word beautiful, and fitting. Liquid on the tongue, like the waters of the lake. The word lived in her mind, like her own new name; but they had barely spoken yet, human speech failing underwater.
“Fideal.”
The waves lapped at her thighs, and then her calves as she took graceful strides towards the shore. Her bare skin glistened in the moonlight, an exquisite dark nut brown with a hint of green, the color of moss or seaweed. The night wind did little to lift her drenched, heavy hair, thick and deep russet and woven all throughout with plant fronds. Alluring full lips parted when she spoke to reveal sharp, pearl white teeth.
“You look at me with such . . . worship in your eyes, my pretty Siobhan,” she continued, teasingly, “Your mortal gods are said to be jealous, are they not? Don’t you fear their anger?”
Naked webbed toes sank into the wet sand, and in moments Fideal was standing over the dead girl- no, the girl who had once been dead.
“I fear nothing when I am with you,” Siobhan replied with all the passion of her burgeoning young life.
“Silly girl.”
Fideal knelt and then lay upon the pebbly ground herself, stretched out beside Siobhan, fingers twined with hers.
“Ordinarily, you should fear me,” she continued conversationally, gazing into the vault of the heavens. “My, but it is nice to see them from dry land sometimes- the stars, the moon.”
“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have that privilege,” Siobhan responded. Her voice had begun to lose some of the hoarse qualities of its newness . . . or was it disuse? Did she sound like this when she was alive, in her first life? She couldn’t
remember.
“A strange and never before bestowed privilege, that.”
Fideal held out her free hand out above her, scrutinizing it.
“I normally take life, not give it.”
Siobhan’s glance went from the sky to the flawless profile of her maker, frowning. Fideal caught the look out of the corner of her eye and laughed, a delightful sound that harmonized with the tinkling bells of the forest beyond.
“What did you expect, my precious girl? I was formed from swirling mud and dark currents in the primordial depths of the first lake. Unknowable powers long predating your god birthed my consciousness into being. Mother nature gives, and she takes, elsewise you short-lived, prolific little wonders would overrun every realm that you could grasp within the infinite vastness of the cosmos.”
“If it’s infinite, how could we overrun it?” Siobhan demanded, thinking Fideal was toying with her.
“It’s infinite, sweet one; your reach is not, though still far enough to be the end of many worlds. Besides, how can you be born anew if you do not first die? Death proceeds rebirth, always.”
“Like what you did for me?”
“No . . .”
Fideal’s sigh was the sound of wind rushing across a swampy pond. In it Siobhan could hear the faint staccato of cattails and wet plops of scattering peeper frogs, the abrupt quieting of crickets and rippling of once still water.
“Before you, I didn’t even know that I could do such a thing. Bones were just bones, scattered at the bottom of many lakes in which I’ve lived. But you, my dear girl, you were still there. I had never witnessed such strangeness. It came to me, a thought, almost an instinct. My kiss has taken so much life; could it not in fact give one life back?”
“Why? Why did you do it?”
What did she want to hear? That she was special. That she was loved best of all. That this had always been her destiny. But Fideal’s people did not lie.
“I am what I am. I was created that way. I am a predator, like the hawk and shark and tiger from the east. I do not hate those to whom I give my deadly kiss; I love them with all of my being as I embrace them. I do not select them for their wealth or lack thereof, their goodness or wickedness. Rather, their loneliness calls to me and I end it. It is my nature.
“I do not pretend to understand the nature of briefly burning mortal lives or mysteriously bright mortal spirits. But what was done to you called to me, as surely as any victim’s empty heart might. Your life was not ended for the balance of the world. The one who took it did not need it for sustenance or safety. It was selfish, wanton, the kind of destruction that only humans are capable of. It is pitiable to see the candle snuffed out at its brightest. Fire and I are strangers; I cannot relight your flame. But I gave you such as I could.”
“Am I alive?”
“As alive as I. For me, this is as it should be. I do not know how it will be for you. You have a human heart and soul, but you are not a human girl anymore. You will never hold a son or daughter in your arms. Your love is deadly to mortal man or woman. Your last thoughts and feelings will follow you like a curse until you resolve them, like any common ghost. And what then? I do not know. Maybe you will turn to seafoam, or dust, your little mortal spirit carried off to wherever men go when they die.”
Siobhan was silent; that thought didn’t frighten her. Whatever the Great Unknown of death might be, it could not be as awful as slowly rotting on the bottom of the lake. But what had brought her to that state still waited. Or did it?
“I don’t remember why I was down there. Don’t remember my last thoughts or feelings. There are pieces here and there of my life before; but what I know strongest is you.”
She curled into the curve of Fideal’s body, received by her maker’s embrace.
“You are what I feel strongest about now.”
“It won’t always be so."
Fideal kissed her lightly and stroked her long hair.
“Ten steps into the forest and it will begin to come back to you. You are what you are, all that you are. Life from my lips cannot change that.”
“Then I would put it off as long as I could.”
Siobhan rolled onto her back again. Hand in hand, the girl who had been dead and the girl who came from the first lake stared into the sky, watching the stars wheel in the heavens for as long as they could.