forest, ghost, cotton candy
5/14/20 - OOF one of my least favorite pieces. Wrote this in a writing session w/ a friend, but I was incredibly burnt out from school/finals. But, even if I’m not proud of it, I still had a lot of fun trying to incorporate all the random words! Trying out a more whimsical tone was also rewarding in of itself. Writing doesn’t have to be perfect to be worthwhile!
Every summer, Tai returned to Blessing.
Blessing was a little town, with little houses, filled by little, lost children. Houses were strung along the form of a sleeping giant as he slumbered so deeply his shoulder turned to stone turned to a cliffside by the sea. Or, so they say - the seawater had long since buried whatever may have been of a man so large he could shake the earth. Each home connected to another by iron cables, as windows and doors and chimneys bridged together, creating a network of black vines that delicately curved along the cliffside. From where Tai was, braced against a ship’s railing with her hand blocking the sun, this intricate system appeared as a web in the distance. Still glimmering from the most recent storm, the iron cables sweated, turning black to gold to opal in the light. As the ship sailed dangerously near the cliff, just barely swerving to avoid scratching its silver hull, a vine tumbled from above.
“Tai!” Young voices squealed from above. Round faces poked out from the tiny homes, the red roofs glistening in the sunlight and reflecting radiantly on russet skin. Tai smiled as she gripped the vine, letting its leaves wrap around her long, pale fingers. It stretched, elongating itself to wrap around her arms and torso and legs. Really such comfort creatures, vines. “Haul!” She heard from above.
Every summer, Tai returned to Blessing. One year older, one inch taller. But still, the tangy spray of the pink salt and pepper ocean, the heat of three suns, the velvet touch of green vines still welcomed her. As if to say, Welcome back. As if to ask, Don’t leave again. The sweet tang of magic under her tongue, blood glowing gold as it pulsed beneath her finger tips. Veins thinning into silver lines like branches of a divine tree. As Tai gave a salute to the shadow steering the boat, and her body was pulled up along the cliffside, soaring and weightless towards an isle on an endless sea, she would be hard pressed to say she never missed Blessing.
As soon as she was hauled up, Tai was met with an onslaught of children, the vines quickly unwinding from her as though scalded. Toothy grins and smooth skin. Fanged or winged or incandescent. Tai laughed as the children surrounded her, patting her limbs and skin with reckless abandon.
A curious pat on her cheek. “You’ve lost some shine!”
Tugging on the lobe of her ear. “Where’ve your points gone?”
A finger up her nostril. “Woah.”
The Blessed Kind, they called them. “They” being the mothers of these half-breeds, or sometimes the fathers. But more often than not, it was the priests that called them this, cooing at these beautiful babes the same time they sharpened knives on the altar. At least when they’re angels, its “The Blessed.” Tai could count on one hand the amount of times daemon children were well received.
“I’ve missed you all,” she said. Her long fingers carded through their hair. It was something she missed, this agelessness. “Where’s Eden?”
A kiss on the crown of her head. “Here.” White wings folded around them all, encasing them all in darkness for just a moment as Tai twisted and snuck a kiss. She could feel his smile even in the quickest flash.
“You’re late,” he said as he pulled back. His dark hair curled at his temples, framing the straight scar across his eyelids. He cocked his head, the light haloing him from behind. “Trouble in Paradise?”
Tai shook her head. “Same as ever.” She leaned into Eden’s hand, still curled at her side. “Why?” She asked, teasing, pressing a quick kiss to his open palm. “You miss me?”
“Not more than usual.” Tai was sure Eden would have rolled his eyes if he could. There was a troubled quality to his voice. Tai twisted to look at him, at the set fear in the corner of his mouth.
“Kids,” Tai said, not looking away. “Give us a moment.”
When they were gone, Eden finally had a enough room to enter, wings folding as he leapt in. He paced for a few moments.
Tai sighed. “Stop that, you’re going to wear a groove into the house. What’s wrong?”
Eden stopped. His close eyelids twitched for a moment before he said, softly, “There’s a human in Fairy Floss Forest.”
Tai arched an eyebrow. “Okay,” she said slowly. Weirder things have emerged from Fairy Floss Forest. If one were to follow the cliff of the sleeping giant’s shoulder, down the neck, into the pink sea, the forest existed in a pocket of air, with leaves so thin they looked like threads cotton candy. Humans were already less bizarre. “Must’ve dropped down the wrong well. We’ll just send him back.”
“Not exactly a human, “ Eden said, clearning his throat. “There’s a body.”
“So, a corpse. Big deal, the daemon kids have to eat.”
“A ghost,” he finally spit out. “There’s a ghost in Fairy Floss Forest. .”
A chill went down Tai’s spine. Spirits rarely made their way out of Paradise. Even rarer would they have been able to find the specific pocket of sea Blessing occupied. Even, even rarer would be for them to end up in a grove like the Fairy Floss. After all, ghosts only meant one thing: regret. Such a feeling had no place amongst the Blessed.
“And?” Tai asked, pulling Eden close to her. He shook his head. His shoulder hunched and the light that usually glowed from within him died a little. Her fingers lightly skimmed the scarred skin of his eyelids.
“And,” he said, pausing. Eden reached up to move Tai’s hands between his, the warmth of his palms seeping through.
He opened his eyes, the blank stare of silver-white irises seeing nothing and everything. “And she looks like you.”
